Kerbal Space Program has received a brand new official mod that focuses on helping detect asteroids that could collide with the planet Kerbin. Based on an actual real word mission, the mod adds a new experiment and a new contract to the game, along with four new components.
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The mod has been created in partnership with the B612 Foundation, who are planning the real-word Sentinel mission to map 90% of the large asteroids that threaten Earth’s orbit between 2018 and 2024. Sun glare makes it difficult for earth-bound telescopes to see some asteroids on the day-side of the planet, so the mission will see a telescope deployed in orbit near Venus to help cover the blind spot.
The Kerbal mission will require you to deploy a space telescope around Eve’s orbit, with an antenna and a power source between Eve and Kerbin. The telescope will need to be faced away from the sun, and when activated will start to map the orbit of the outer planet in a 200 degree vision cone for passing asteroids.
The mod comes with the telescope itself, as well as:
- The HECS-2 Probe Core comes with integrated batteries and SAS, to make building a compact Sentinel probe much easier.
- The OX-STAT-XL Photovoltaic Panels are a much larger version of the stock solar panels, for larger probes.
- The HG-55 High Gain Antenna can transmit larger amounts of data than any of the existing antennae in the game.
The mod comes with a long-term contract to monitor and map asteroids around Kerbin, as well as other planets. It encourages the use of your existing infrastructure, and doesn’t require new vessels to be built for each contract. The more telescopes you can deploy, the faster each scan will become.