Difference between revisions of "Grand Slam Passive Seismometer"

Latest revision as of 16:37, 18 December 2024

Available only with the Breaking Ground Expansion installed.

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Grand Slam Passive Seismometer
Environmental sensor by Probodobodyne Inc
Cost	(total)	4 000.00
Mass	(total)	0.035 t
Drag		0.1
Max. Temp.		1200 K
Impact Tolerance		5 m/s
Research		Electronics
Unlock cost		12 000
Since version		1.7.1
Part configuration		seismicSensor.cfg
Experiment		Surface Deployed Seismic Sensor
Packed volume		25 l
Power required		1 unit

Product description

Usage

This is the only deployable science module which doesn't send science points through time. Instead, it works by impacting objects near the seismometer.

Science value calculation

The fraction of the Seismic Sensor's amount of science that is achieved by an impact is computed as Sensor Readings · Distance Attenuation · Setup.

(The seismometer's context menu entry "Science Completed" shows the sum of this value for all impacts it recorded.)

The amount of science points generated by an impact is the above fraction times the experiment's total value (80 Points) times the celestial body surface science multiplier.

For example, an impact with a sensor reading of 40%, an attenuation value of 65% and a setup value of 80% achieves a fraction of 0.4 · 0.65 · 0.8 = 0.208 i.e. 20.8% of the Seismic Sensor's total experiment value. (It would take 5 such impacts to generate the full amount of science that the Seismic Sensor can generate.) If this impact were to happen on Moho (whose surface science multiplicator is 10), the amount of science generated by the impact would be 0.208 · 80 · 10 = 166.4 science points.

Sensor Readings

The "Sensors Readings" value is the kinetic energy of the impactor divided by an energy value specific to the celestial body. The kinetic energy is calculated as follows: ${\displaystyle {\text{Energy}}=0.5\times {\text{Mass}}\times {\text{Speed}}^{2}}$ where the mass is in kg, the speed in m/s, and the energy in Joule.

The table for the celestial body values is as follows:

For example a 4.5t impactor hitting at 1000m/s has an energy of 0.5 · 4500kg · 1000m/s ^ 2 = 2.25e9J . On Moho this gives a sensor reading of 2.25e9J / 2.02e9J = 1.11 i.e. 111%.

Distance Attenuation

The attenuation value depends on the distance of the impact point from the seismometer. It starts at 0% for a distance of zero meters, rises sharply to a maximum of 100% at a distance of 0.02 times the radius of the celestial body and then declines (slowlier) with further increasing distance. Erring towards a greater distance will result in a smaller decrease of the attenuation value than erring the same amount towards a smaller distance. For example on Moho with a radius of 250km the optimal distance is 0.02 · 250km = 5km, but a distance of 7km will also still result in an attenuation value of 100%.

Setup (Scientist bonus/malus)

The Setup value (which is shown as "Science Rate" in the seismometer's context menu) depends on the scientist level of the kerbal that deployed the seismometer, as given by this table:

This multiplier influences how much science is generated by each impact but not the total amount of science that the experiment can generate.

The total amount of science is as follows: base value of the module (80) · body surface science multiplier

Trivia

The Grand Slam Passive Seismometer is based on the Passive Seismic Experiment deployed by Apollo 12 to record lunar quakes and impacts such as meteorites or the discarded Lunar Module.

Changes

1.7.1

• Initial Release