Plutonian System!

[fullarmor2]

I recently added the Pluto ad-on. Before adding it I didn't think too much about Pluto because its so small and far away and was downgraded to dwarf planet status. But, I must say that I'm VERY impressed with it! I just arrived at Pluto in the Arrow Freighter and now I'm thinking that its one of the most interesting systems to visit in the Solar System! Because we're talking about a binary dwarf planet system with two other smaller moons, Hydra and Nix to boot! Too cool. So I put bases on Pluto and Charon. Then I made copies of Hall base from Phobos, renamed em, and put one on Nix and one on Hydra. I had to move em around quite a bit to get them to appear right on the mesh for Hydra and Nix, and I did it. They look just as good as Hall base looks on Phobos! Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience and to say that if you haven't added Pluto yet then do it. Its worth getting it to say the least. :tiphat:

 

[Cras]

Do you have a link to the Pluto add-on you used?

 

[fullarmor2]

yes here it is. http://orbithangar.com/search_quick.php?text=pluto&submit.x=19&submit.y=18

 

[Urwumpe]

No longer accurate... Styx and Cerberos are missing. :rofl:

 

[garyw]

*cough* Kerberos *cough*

Although as an IT person I hate that name. I just think of the Active Directory authentication system...:thumbsdown:

 

[SolarLiner]

We all know from where Kerberos is ... the K says it all ... :lol:

 

[orb]

We all know from where Kerberos is ... the K says it all ... :lol:

K Desktop Environment?

I just think of the Active Directory authentication system...:thumbsdown:

Since its previous name was P4, you can think of it as Kerberos 4. :lol:

 

[fullarmor2]

Just in case anyone else who has this ad-on, is interested in putting Hall Bases on Nix and Hydra so you can land on these very cool moons, I'm providing the latitude/longitude coordinates that I came up with which makes Hall Base fit right on the surfaces of Hydra and Nix. For Hydra its +215 +29.31. And for Nix its +108 +14.35. Simply edit the Hall Base copies using Windows Note pad and replace the numbers with these. Also, under where it says BEGIN_NAVBEACON you need to replace those numbers with these as well.(also rename the new bases to something other than Hall) And there ya go! Landing at Hydra and Nix will be similar to landing at Phobos since they are asteroid type objects like Phobos. However, Hydra and Nix are MUCH BIGGER than Phobos. Phobos is only 7 km or so across. Whereas Hydra and Nix are thought to be some where between 40 and 160 km across! Plus they look pretty darn good from a distance in this ad-on. I haven't flown to Hydra and Nix yet, but I'm expecting the flights to be even more impressive than going to Phobos because of how good I know that these will look while closing in on them, and because they are so much larger than Phobos which will look cool. Ok, thats all later.

---------- Post added 07-04-13 at 11:33 AM ---------- Previous post was 07-03-13 at 07:51 PM ----------

I'm doing my first flight at the Pluto/Charon system and there is something that really suprised me. I launched from my surface base(Cassini Beach) on Pluto to go to Nix. And Trans X is showing my arrival time at Nix to be FOUR DAYS from now! Wow. The amount of time it takes to go to the Moon at Earth, and the Moon is multiple times further from Earth than Nix is from Pluto. I just thought this is interesting and so I'm sharing this info. I also learned that Pluto's gravity is less than half what the Moon's is! So thats pretty weak.

 

[fullarmor2]

I learned something else that is very useful when doing flights to these smaller asteroid type bodies, Phobos, Hydra, and Nix. Rendezvousing with these bodies can be difficult because you will not be able to use the Docking MFD and HUD which allows you to know when and how to do the rendezvous burn. At Phobos for example. What you can do is, simply install an Arrow Freighter landing beacon on the center of the Hall Base platform! Use scenario editer to add a crewmember at Hall Base, then do a space walk and position him/her at the platform center then use editer to addd a UCGO landing beacon cargo piece at your crewmembers location! Unpack and there you have it! Now the next time your flying to Phobos you can use the XPDR frequency from the beacon in NAV/COM which will allow the use of Docking MFD and HUD when you get to within 500 km of Phobos! I think its 500? It could be a 1000. Anyway, I thought this was useful so I'm sharing it here.

 

[fullarmor2]

Correction. Now that I'm done with this my first time doing flights at Pluto I noticed something. All the bodies in the system are very easy to get to because of the extremely slow orbital velocities of the bodies. You got to put bases on each body though to make it funner. Like Hall bases on the asteroids, and surface bases on Pluto and Charon. Actually I even used a technique that I haven't used since I was a beginner at Orbiter who knew nothing about how to navigate. Its called the point and burn method! lol It works at Pluto! Its kinda cool. Because of the slowness in the system, it has been a very unique experience flying there. Each planet system has its own special feel to it, and I like that.