SENTINEL Infrared Telescope
| SENTINEL Infrared Telescope | ||
 | ||
| Telescope by Experimental Engineering Group | ||
| Radial size | Small | |
| Cost | (total) | 4 500.00 
|
| Mass | (total) | 0.100 t |
| Drag | 0.2 | |
| Max. Temp. | 2000 K | |
| Impact Tolerance | 7 m/s | |
| Research |  Scanning Tech
| |
| Unlock cost | 9 000
| |
| Since version | 1.3 | |
| Part configuration | CamSat.cfg | |
| Experiment | Infrared Telescope | |
| Collectable | Yes | |
| Rerunnable | Yes | |
| Resettable | No | |
| Electricity required | None | |
| Packed volume | None | |
The SENTINEL Infrared Telescope is a telescope used to find asteroids and gather science.
Contents
Product description
| “ | The Sentinel Space Telescope uses infrared light to detect celestial bodies, such as asteroids, that may pose a risk to Kerbin. — Experimental Engineering Group |
” |
Usage
Asteroid tracking
The SENTINEL Infrared Telescope is able to locate asteroids near a planet's orbit. In order to do so, it must be in a solar orbit (orbiting around the Sun), outside of the sphere of influence of any other body. When activated, it will begin to scan for and display asteroids that are in the next-widest planetary orbit. The telescope will continue to run in the background, and will find asteroids over time. Once asteroids are found, they can be selected in the Tracking Station to be tracked.
The orbital Inclination and Longitude of the telescope must approximately match the planet it is monitoring.
The Tracking Station must be upgraded to Level 3 to show asteroids.
For example, to scan for asteroids around the orbit of Kerbin, the SENTINEL must be placed in a solar orbit outside of the sphere of influence of Kerbin and at a lower semi-major axis (closer to the Sun) than Kerbin. The inclination, eccentricity, and longitude of ascending node also need to be close to matching the target planet.
There are contracts that ask the player to find asteroids with the SENTINEL telescope.
Science experiment
- → Main article: Science#Modules
| Experiment | Log Observation Data |
|---|---|
| Requires | SENTINEL Infrared Telescope |
| Data size | 30 Mits |
| Base value | 15 |
| Maximum value | 22 |
| Data scale | 2 |
| Transmission efficiency | 40% |
| Processing energy | 300 ⚡ |
The SENTINEL Infrared Telescope can only gather observational data from high space around the the celestial body (for example, to use it around Kerbin, its altitude must be 250K or higher). It cannot gather observational data from Kerbol. Scientific data can be gathered through the "Log Observation Data" option.
Like other scientific instruments, the SENTINEL Infrared Telescope can only carry one experiment at a time; if the logged data is removed by a Kerbal on EVA or through an Experiment Storage Unit, the telescope can be used again. The experiment must be returned to Kerbin to collect science. If transmitted, only 40% of the possible science points will be gained.
The SENTINEL's observation data has the lowest copy percentage of any scientific instrument's experiment. As a result, logging data multiple times (or bringing multiple instances of the same data back at once) will earn a significant amount of extra science points.
Trivia
- The SENTINEL Infrared Telescope is one of four parts originally from the official SQUAD mod Asteroid Day.
- The text "B-612" can be seen on the side of the telescope. This is a reference to the B612 Foundation, a non profit foundation dedicated to discovering Near Earth Asteroids and defending Earth from them.
- The name SENTINEL is also a reference to the real life Sentinel Space Telescope, which the B612 Foundation proposed to put in Solar orbit near Venus to find asteroids that might threaten the Earth.
Changes
- Initial Release
