Interplanetary Travel and Orbital Mechanics

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by Bastilean, December 28, 2013.

  1. Bastilean

    Bastilean Active Member

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    Orbits:

    I am trying to make a system in which an orbiting asteroid is circling a moon circling a planet. Would it be possible to add the 'Hill Sphere' to the planetary system editor?

    Why this might be awesome 1: Although this scenario is highly improbable, it might be a lot of fun. It would be strategically beneficial to first capture the moon if there was an asteroid within it's orbit, because Earth wouldn't be in orbit with the Asteroid, but the moon would be in orbit of both and best positioned to attack each one.

    Why this might be awesome 2: There are a number of invisible pitfalls within the system editor, and this would eliminate one of these.


    Interplanetary Travel:

    Many times transit between planets seems extraneously long and akward. Sometimes orbits are unending. I believe this can be addressed in multiple ways: by building systems with good orbital mechanics, orbital transit and tweaking the orbital movement rates.

    good orbital mechanics: The planets have to be close enough together that the travel time is not too long. The planets have to be far enough away from the sun that the suns gravity doesn't make land fall impossible. The moons have to be far enough away from the planet. Does anyone know where these 'sweet spots' currently lie? Would there be some way to provide visual ques in the system editor? If we play a game in a system we liked (that is shared) can we add it to our library?

    orbital transit: When I am playing PA I am using my 10 year old mind. I am not making newtonian calculations to determine when is the best time to launch the same way NASA would. It would be nice if I could get an estimated ETA of land-fall before I actually fire off my orbital craft into space and if there were some way to help determine when to launch.

    orbital movement rates: Please take into consideration an increase to the maximum velocity of orbital travel. Acceleration past average speed could be slow, but in general I would like to avoid any orbital travel that lasts longer than 5 minutes. It's not fun to wait a half hour for your orbital to arrive.

    Thought this was good fodder for discussion, otherwise would have posted in the BETA forum. Thanks for reading.
    Last edited: December 28, 2013
    zaphodx likes this.

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