Electric charge
Electricity is a resource that is used by unmanned spacecraft, lights, and instrumentation. It is stored using Batteries and is produced through an operating Rocket Engine, Solar Panels, or an RTG.
Electricity Consumption
Unmanned Satellite Cores use 1.7 e/m (electricity per minute), and Lights and Instrumentation use electricity. Also, Ion Engines require large amounts of electricity to operate.
Producing Electricity
Solar Panels are used to refill rechargeable Batteries and Command Modules, which are always full on launch. RTGs also create a stable supply of electricity at 1 e/s.
Solar Panels generate more electricity the closer to the Sun they are located. However, they do not currently use the inverse-square law. Rather, they follow a spline curve of 3 piecewise cubics defined from 4 points:
| Distance (m) | Power | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 10x | |
| 13,599,840,256 | 1x | Kerbin's orbit |
| 68,773,560,320 | 0.5x | Jool's semi-major axis |
| 206,000,000,000 | 0x | Almost 3x Jool's orbit |
