"eternal atmosphere" for gas giants

[Pilot7893]

does anyone know of an addon that gives all the gas giants never ending atmospheres like in real life?

 

[Lunar Pilot]

''eternal atmosphere''

I myself have wondered how in the world they allowed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune to have solid surfaces. Granted, they are very far from the top of the atmosphere. (I've actually managed to get into orbit from Jupiter's ''surface'' with a DG, took forever though. Yes, that would be a very good addon.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

I think it's more a limitation of the Orbiter engine. For the planet to not only render right and for the gravity to work right, a solid planet must be defined and it can't be too extreme, or the gravity may not work quite right.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[cjp]

I think it's more a limitation of the Orbiter engine. For the planet to not only render right and for the gravity to work right, a solid planet must be defined and it can't be too extreme, or the gravity may not work quite right.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think gravity is the problem. Rendering could be a problem, but I think the most important problem is that the way how planets are modeled in Orbiter is based on solid planets. For instance, AFAIK you can only have one cloud layer, and the surface below that layer is always supposed to be solid (not even liquid: you can land on water!).

Imagine what would be needed to make a planet like Jupiter realistic. Everything you see from the outside would have to be cloud layers. As soon as you dive under these layers, clouds are the only thing you see, so even for a little bit of graphic realism you'd need a lot better cloud rendering than is currently available in Orbiter.

I think there would be no problem in moving the surface down to the center of the planet, although I'm not completely sure whether Orbiter does some assumptions about the atmosphere being less than a certain percentage of the planet.

I can imagine a future version of Orbiter being improved on these points. It would also allow for improvements on other planets, e.g. you'd have nicer clouds on earth as well. However, I can imagine there are more important priorities in Orbiter development.

 

[jedidia]

that gives all the gas giants never ending atmospheres like in real life?

Actually, Gas Giants do have a solid "surface", since the further in you get the higher the pressure, until the gas is eventually dense enough to get solid. It's not a clearly defined surface however, it would be more like walking into a ruber wall that gives more and more resistance the further you penetrate.

However, with the current Orbiter frame, this is impossible to simulate, and it will be a challenge to any graphics engine.

 

[Lunar Pilot]

liquid

Too bad Orbiter doesn't support liquids like water and such. Then people could create submarine addons. I bet no one's done that before.

 

[TSPenguin]

Too bad Orbiter doesn't support liquids like water and such. Then people could create submarine addons. I bet no one's done that before.

Wasn't there a submarine waaaaayy back? (not diveable of course)

 

[ryan]

All that gravity aside and that pressure stuff, if would you actually through a tennis ball at let's say Jupiter will it eventually come out the other side?

 

[TSPenguin]

All that gravity aside and that pressure stuff, if would you actually through a tennis ball at let's say Jupiter will it eventually come out the other side?

AFAIK We don't even know for sure what is deep inside the planet. I might be mistaken, but all I know, is that we have rather vague assumptions of the makings of the core.

 

[Lunar Pilot]

Tennis balls

Isn't it theorized that the pressure at the center of Jupiter is enough to make even Hydrogen, the lightest element, solid at high temperatures. I've read somewhere that scientists guess that Jupiter has a solid core of Hydrogen about the size of Earth. If that's simulated in Orbiter, I dare someone to try and land on it.

 

[jedidia]

You know those presses where you can shove in a car on one side, and on the other a cute little cube of compressed scrap comes out? That's only the beginning of what will hapen to any ship attempting to pull of that stunt :lol:

 

[ryan]

Chuck Norris will do it and soon Jupiter will have more Moons as Saturn

 

[thomasantony]

Isn't it theorized that the pressure at the center of Jupiter is enough to make even Hydrogen, the lightest element, solid at high temperatures. I've read somewhere that scientists guess that Jupiter has a solid core of Hydrogen about the size of Earth. If that's simulated in Orbiter, I dare someone to try and land on it.

Yea .. this is called "Metallic hydrogen"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen

If a stable form of this can be produced. It can be a really efficient rocket fuel.

~
Thomas

 

[Hartmann]

I think that orbiter is correct with the solid surface of jupiter.

The atmosphere under such enormous pressures could make the gas very thick and dense and then create liquid methalic hidrogen.
Also the very dense atmosphere could make very difficult or impossible for a spacecraft maneuver and land.

one good example is venus, but imagine venus increased by 1000 or more:lol:

 

[computerex]

There are hacks around everything, and if orbiter only allowed you to render bigger then normal sized vessels (as in the size of a star XD) most of these limitations could be circumvented.

If that were possible:

Idea: This would of course need tweaking, and I am not sure weather this would work or not, but you could define Jupiter with a very small mesh, a dummy mesh, that may be invisible. Then a vessel could paint the visuals, etc. The vessel would update it's position as well. This is so you don't have to write your own sub-physics engine in order to calculate the position..Given the flexibility of Orbiter's API when it comes to these things, I am sure it would be quite possible to at least create a minimally realistic simulation of Jupiter. For example, Artlav's orulex.

 

[streb2001]

Would it be possible to create two or more separate planets in the same position each with identical ephemerides but with different atmospheres defined. This might give the impression of multiple cloud layers.

On second thoughts this is probably a daft idea. Orbiter would probably throw a wobbler trying to cope.

 

[tgep]

You could mesh the planet like a canopy I suppose but you're still going to have a solid surface on the outer layer of the mesh .........

 

[joiz]

how bout an earth sized planet with jupiter sized gravity and then u could use nebo or something to make the atmosphere 3d and visibility really bad, like described in 2001 Oddesey...