Difference between revisions of "Kerbol"

Revision as of 19:06, 21 September 2013

Kerbol/Data

Kerbol (officially called the Sun, and also known as the Star) is the central star of the Kerbol System. Five planets are known to orbit it: Moho, Eve, Kerbin, Duna and Jool and two dwarf planets Eeloo and Dres.

Compared to our own Sun, Kerbol has a 113 times lesser mass and 3 time smaller radius. Kerbol's other attributes can be used to make the following comparisons: It has the temperature of a K Class main sequence star, the radius of a M class star, the luminosity of a G class star, and the mass of a sub-brown dwarf. In reality, such a star cannot exist as the minimum mass of a star is approximately 75 times the mass of Jupiter, a full power of ten higher than that of Kerbol.

Orbits just above the surface have 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.
• Dropping below the 'surface' is still safe in 0.13.3, but a ship can break up from the extreme gravity gradients and/or be shot outwards at large fractions of c.
• Since 0.14, the “surface” of Kerbol is an invisible and nearly featureless plateau that stands approximately 4500-4700 km above the nominal radius. No known way of landing on it exist because the Kraken impedes maneuvering, and the gravity reduces the TWR of all engines to 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, doing so requires a Δv of about 8 km/s. 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 mentioned that its name could change once the need to differentiate it from other stars arises.
• Kerbol's Sphere of Influence is infinite: its orbit is inescapable, and achieving gravitation-free flight is impossible.
• Once the Kerbol apoapsis reaches a certain point, the game will say that it 68 years to reach; this oddity occurs 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, and makes landing on Kerbol impossible.
• Squad has long-term plans for solar flares and prominences that would make a low Kerbol orbit even more dangerous.^{[citation needed]}
• Kerbol's equatorial radius is almost four times that that of Jupiter.

Gallery

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

• 

  Up close the glow becomes evidently ennagonal.

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  ISA MapSat output for Kerbol Star (this map is comes with the plugin and is not based on any measured terrain data)

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  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