OHM Pluto and Moons

[OrbitHangar]

Author: piper

134340 Pluto was the first Trans-Neptunian Object known, and was considered a planet from its discovery in 1930 till it was downgraded to dwarf-planet status in 2006.  It is the only known TNO with three moons, and the second largest dwarf-planet.  This add-on seeks to create the most realistic possible simulation of Pluto and its moons possible, with the information that is currently available.



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[Foofoo14]

This one looks good.

 

[garyw]

Another piper addon that rocks! Thanks piper!

 

[donatelo200]

Very very good. Best pluto addon i've seen.

 

[Piper]

Another piper addon that rocks!

Well, that's because a lot of my add-ons ARE rocks

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm glad everyone likes it! I've been working on this addon for a few months now, trying to get everything just right. BTW, if anybody is curious, the beige colour of Hydra wasn't chosen at random, apparently Nix has a similar colour to Charon (a dark grey), while Hydra's colour is closer to Pluto's. I forgot to mention this in the read-me. It makes me wonder if they both started out with a colour similar to Pluto, and if Nix got "greyer" because of some type of activity on Charon. I guess we will have to wait till 2015 and the New Horizon's fly-by to find out.

 

[Xyon]

Very nicely done. A beautiful addon to my default solar system. I don't care if you're not a planet, I still love you, Pluto!

 

[N_Molson]

Nice one ! I will try to send a on Pluto !

 

[2552]

Thanks Piper, I was waiting for this one . Just one thing though:

KNOWN ISSUES
------------------------------

Due to the limitations of putting elements into Orbiter, there is an issue with the orbital period for Nix and Hydra. In real-life, the two moons orbit the combined mass of Pluto+Charon, however in Orbiter they can only orbit around the mass of Pluto, and their orbital period is calculated as such. Because of this, the orbit slower then they would in real-life, so while the shape of their orbits are correct, their positions are not.

I fixed this locally by converting the config files to use the Spice module for Pluto. Here's a zip file with them:

 

[Izack]

Nice one ! I will try to send a on Pluto !

I already have.

We can't have some other non-believer discovering things before our mighty Probe, now can we?

 

[T.Neo]

Perhaps I should start to consider a flight to Pluto. But I better get my torchship ready...

 

[Piper]

I already have.

We can't have some other non-believer discovering things before our mighty Probe, now can we?

So beautiful..... should have sent.... a poet

 

[T.Neo]

Is there any particular secret to the textures? They seem quite good to me.

 

[Piper]

The textures for Charon, Nix, and Hydra are created from random sections of the moon surface as taken from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. I started with the raw data of the images, created jpegs, and used Gimp to stitch them together as seamlessly as possible. For the poles, I used the Polar Coordinates filter. As for Pluto, I used the best images of Triton I could find, and did the same thing with those.

 

[Izack]

I've noticed that Pluto looks like it has an atmosphere, but when landing on it it does not give any atmosphere effects (SurfaceMFD has no airspeed reading, etc.). Is there a reason for this?

I had to take a jumpdrive ship to get there in a reasonable amount of time for a screenshot (and the scenario editor seemed just too boring):

It's not a problem or anything, I'm just wondering.

 

[T.Neo]

I had to take a jumpdrive ship to get there in a reasonable amount of time for a screenshot (and the scenario editor seemed just too boring):

Orbiter has a viewing function.

It is accessable via F1, AFAIK.

 

[Izack]

Ctrl+F1, actually.
I know about that; I wanted a closeup of Pluto's limb from a low altitude, which isn't possible if the focus is on the planet's (or minor planet's :dry center. At any rate, it's fun to hyperjump across the Solar System every once in a while, as long as it's done in moderation.

 

[Piper]

I've noticed that Pluto looks like it has an atmosphere, but when landing on it it does not give any atmosphere effects (SurfaceMFD has no airspeed reading, etc.). Is there a reason for this?

That's because it does have an atmosphere, it's just a very thin atmosphere. If you go into an extremely low orbit, you will notice the slow drag on the spacecraft if you watch the Orbit MFDs numbers.

The atmosphere is only 0.3Pa, compared to Earth which has an atmosphere of 101400Pa. As for the atmospheric effect, it was really difficult to figure out how much to give it. Assuming a clear atmosphere, you wouldn't really see much of anything, however it is safe to assume there would be a fair amount of dust suspended in the atmosphere due to cryo-volcanism, which would create an atmospheric effect. The effect is similar to what happens on Mars. If it wasn't for the dust, Mars atmosphere would appear from the ground as virtually black above, and only bright near the horizon (although it would be blue due to Rayleigh scattering). However, because of the dust in Mars' atmosphere, it appears red all over (and changes throughout the year depending on the amount of dust suspended in the atmosphere).

 

[orb]

Ctrl+F1, actually.
I know about that; I wanted a closeup of Pluto's limb from a low altitude, which isn't possible if the focus is on the planet's (or minor planet's :dry center.

And how about "Ground" view with unticked "Target lock" checkbox?

 

[jjake101]

For some reason i didn't get the Charon and Pluto meshes when i downloaded it, could you check this?

 

[garyw]

No meshes for Pluto or Charon are needed as both worlds are circular. The addon only has meshes for Nyx and Hydra because they have an asteroid like shape.