Difference between revisions of "Kerbol"

Revision as of 19:05, 9 August 2013

Kerbol/Data

Kerbol (officially called the Sun, and also known as the Star) is the star at the center of the Kerbol System. It is known to be orbited by five planets: Moho, Eve, Kerbin, Duna and Jool and two dwarf planets Eeloo and Dres.

Compared to our own Sun, Kerbol is 113 times less massive and has a radius 3 times smaller. Kerbol is likely a K Class main sequence star based on its temperature, but it may also be an M class star based on its radius, or a G class star based on its luminosity. However, based on its mass, it would be a sub-brown dwarf.

Orbiting just above the surface gives an orbital period of 409.214 Minutes and a speed of 66.945 km/s.

Reference Frames

All Kerbol orbits are in an inertial reference frame. In the old demo, getting close enough to experience the lower maximum time warps results Deep Space Kraken attacks.

Trivia

• Between versions 0.7 and 0.10.1, Kerbol was a mere point of light in the skybox.
• Kerbol gained gravity in 0.12.
• It is still safe to drop below the 'surface' in 0.13.3, but a ship can break up from the extreme gravity gradients and/or shot outwards at large fractions of c.
• Since 0.14, the “surface” of Kerbol is an invisible, and nearly featureless plateau approximately 4500-4700 km above the nominal radius. There is no known way to land on it, as the Kraken makes all maneuvering difficult, and the gravity reduces the TWR of all engines below 1. One can attempt to place edited parts on the surface, but they bounce erratically at a few hundred to a few thousand m/s if they do not explode.
• While Kerbol can be reached from Kerbin's orbit by using a Hohmann transfer orbit, a spacecraft doing so will require a Δv of about 8 km/s to do so. The most efficient way to reach Kerbol from Kerbin orbit is to use a bi-elliptic transfer. With a sufficiently-distant apoapsis, the required ΔV to sundive can be reduced to under 4 km/s, at the expense of drastically-increased flight time.
• The name “Kerbol” was created by forum members and never appears in the game. Officially, the star is simply referred to as “the Sun”, though the lead developer did mention that the name could change once the need to differentiate it from other stars arises.
• Kerbol's Sphere of Influence is infinite, which makes it impossible to escape its orbit and achieve gravitation-free flight.
• Once the Kerbol apoapsis reaches a certain point, it will always say it takes 68 years to reach. This is because times in Kerbal Space Program are limited to 2³²-1 seconds as a consequence of how numbers are handled.
• Kerbol has just under twice the surface gravity of Kerbin, but only slightly more than Eve .
• Kerbol's heat will always destroy a craft, even with the "No crash damage" cheat enabled. This makes landing on Kerbol impossible.
• There are long-term plans for solar flares and prominences, making a low Kerbol orbit even more dangerous.^{[citation needed]}
• Kerbol's equatorial radius is almost four times that that of Jupiter.

Gallery

• 

  A picture taken of a probe on a close encounter with Kerbol shortly before overheating.

• 

  Up close it becomes evident that the glow is ennagonal.

• 

  ISA MapSat output for Kerbol Star (this is a pre-made "map" that comes with the plugin and is not based on any measured terrain data)

• 

  Elevation shown on Kerbol

Changes

0.18.2

• Art pass.

0.17

• Actual model added, new sprite/flare effect, size changed.

0.14

• Added solid surface (featureless invisible plateau ~4500-4700 km above nominal radius).

0.12

• Added Gravity, nominal radius of 65,400 km.

0.11

• Made it possible to reach Kerbol.

0.7.3

• Initial Release.

v t e Kerbol System Kerbol Moho Eve Kerbin Duna Dres Jool Eeloo (The Sun)   Gilly Mun Minmus Ike   Laythe Vall Tylo Bop Pol