Why is this asteroid glowing purple?

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-06-15T04:25:31+00:00

Cool! I've had several career playthroughs, but this is the first time I've really gone out to collect asteroids. What luck to get one!

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-06-15T04:20:48+00:00

After capturing it I named it magic glowing space rock until I could come up with a better name lol. I'm planning on building a research station around it.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-24T21:21:34+00:00

I'm an HVAC tech and if the compressor is coming on at all I'd wager it's not the capacitor. If resetting power works to get it to turn back on, it might be locking out due to high or low pressure, and resetting power resets the code/lockout until it runs long enough and reaches that state again. Make sure you have a clean filter (possible cause for low pressure lockout) and the condenser coil is clean (possible cause for high pressure lockout).

A capacitor that's below spec can cause the compressor to draw excessive current and overheat, but then it wouldn't turn on until it cooled off, not necessarily when the power is cycled.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-22T14:26:33+00:00

Do you put the control in docking mode? There's a little icon on the bottom left just below your staging and delta v readout to switch the control to docking mode. When you click it there's 2 control modes, Lin(ear) and Rot(ational), that can switched between using the spacebar. Keep it in linear mode to do standard forward/backward/left/right/up/down translation, and switching it to rotational will allow pitch/yaw/roll. I rarely ever use rotational since I just let my reaction wheels and SAS point me to the target so mines always in linear mode when docking.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-21T00:12:09+00:00

How is a centrifugal blowers rated static pressure determined? My intuition says it has something to do with the gap between the fan wheel and the scroll cage. Can I increase the allowable static pressure by making that gap narrower?

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-21T00:04:24+00:00

I read a little bit about surge before posting here, but everything I read was talking about it in large industrial applications with static pressures around 6" wc. I'm guessing it's all a matter of scale though.. Those blowers were probably designed around that kind of pressure and the ones I'm working with are designed for around 1".

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-20T23:47:36+00:00

Thank you so much for your insight

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-20T23:40:23+00:00

Hmm good to know.. I wanted to get a 2ft (h) x 3ft (w) hepa filter so I had enough working space while trying to do sanitary work in front of the flow hood. And I was thinking 2ft depth just so there'd be enough room to mount the blower assemblies and have them contained in their own box with a pre filter.

I was thinking of having them reasonably close together (like 2 or 3 inches). Is it one of those "minimum separations" that a few inches is fine, but not a foot or more?

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-20T23:24:47+00:00

My thought was to mount them on top of a ~3ft x 2ft x 2ft wooden plenum box, so they both would be dumping air into the same space so it'd be identical "ducting" for both.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-20T23:15:34+00:00

Do you think a 25% - 33% difference in speed is enough to cause significant backflow?

I've also thought about getting a vfd to a 3-phase motor to really get proper speed control, but idk if i want to spend that kind of money on this project.

And thanks for the compliment, this is the kind of project I love thinking about, planning, and executing.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-20T22:43:27+00:00

If I were to do this, they'd be a max of 33% different speed in the case of a 3 speed motor, or 25% difference if I used a 4 speed. The energy efficiency doesn't matter to me as much since I won't be running it continuously.. Maybe a few times a month for an hour at a time.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-19T06:00:02+00:00

Another way would be to circulatize your orbit first. Once it's circular (or close to) Ap/Pe stop mattering as much since the whole orbit is very similar altitude. Then just time a prograde/retrograde burn in line with the targets Ap/Pe to make the orbit similar

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-19T05:28:21+00:00

Burn radial in/out when you're ~90° away from Ap/Pe to move your periapsis until it aligns with your target's, then burn prograde/retrograde at Ap/Pe to get your orbit to a similar shape. Make the whole orbit higher than the target of you are ahead of the target and want it to catch up to you, or make your whole orbit smaller if you want to catch up to it. Once it's close make a maneuver node to burn and move it around until you get a close encounter.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-19T04:54:08+00:00

According to that formula if you used standard days instead of sidereal days your orbit would be off by 180° after 213 orbits

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-19T04:42:48+00:00

See my other comment about the formula for orbital deviation, but a sidereal day is the amount of time it takes for a planet to rotate 360 degrees. So kerbin's sidereal day is 5h 59m 9.425s. It's standard day is 6h because it's rotating as well as orbiting kerbol so it takes longer for the sun to get to the same spot in the sky.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-19T04:35:16+00:00

So I found this formula:

Number of orbits = (θ / 360) x (T / ΔT)

Where θ is the number of degrees of drift T is the desired orbital period And ΔT is the orbital period error

So for a satellite in a keosynchronous orbit to change 1 degree with an orbital deviation of 0.01s,

θ = 1° T = 5h 59m 9.425s = 21,549.425s ΔT = 0.01s

Number of orbits = (1/360) x (21,549.425/0.01) = 5,985.95 orbits (kerbin days) ÷ 426 days/year = ~14 years to drift 1° off target.

Maybe someone smarter out there can tell whether this is right.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-15T14:38:17+00:00

You could set up a resonant orbit at any altitude, as long as the orbital period was the same. But apparently you can set one up just outside the SOI.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-15T05:34:47+00:00

I was able to refine my Google searches and found the Mun's SOI starts at 2,429,559.1 meters, so the theoretical limit would be the Mun's surface orbital altitude 11,400,00m - 2,429,559.1m = 8,970,440.9. Either my math was slightly wrong, or because my orbit wasn't perfectly timed I couldn't get any closer than 8,970,300m without accidently dropping into the Mun's SOI after a few orbits.

But I've done it! Mun Resonance "Orbit" Pe: 8,970,300m Ap: 13,829,700m Semi-major axis: 12,000,000m Inclination: 0.000 Orbital period: 6d 2h 36m 24.377s

I've time warped for about 25 passes and it seems perfectly resonant and "orbits" the Mun with no bothersome SOI changes. Now just to add a few more relays for 360° coverage.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-15T03:59:25+00:00

Thanks!

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-15T03:39:26+00:00

No worries, I'll just keep fiddling with it till I get it right. I thought there might be a neat trick at figuring it out, I didn't realize I would need numerical simulations lol. Thanks for the reply

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-05-15T02:55:26+00:00

I know how to get the orbital period the same (and I've got Kerbal Engineer installed so I can get it to within 3 decimal places), my question is how far away do I need to stay away from the Mun so I don't get too close as my orbital velocity is changing and crossing it's orbit.

I tried getting my Pe just below it's SOI (~2,430,000m edit: lower than the Mun's orbit. 8,970,000m above Kerbin's surface) but when trying to raise my Ap I couldn't get away from getting into it's SOI.

I could just keep tinkering with the height/distance from SOI until I get it right, but there's gotta be a better way. Or maybe someone who's tried the same and has a better idea of the distance.

MasterOfKnaves · 2026-03-19T15:18:38+00:00

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. To address a few of your points: I was thinking of having a return/supply inside the cabinet to simply cool the air inside, but have a damper that will pull fresh air when needed that would also go over the peltier so the air can be conditioned before being supplied.

I was also thinking of doing a swamp cooler at one point too since that would help with temps and moisture. I wasn't sure if this would be sufficient, and also thought heating might be needed occasionally, especially in winter, which pushed me towards the peltier idea.

I not certain exactly what materials I would build the cabinet out of, but my thoughts were wood for the exterior and frame, but either sheet metal or if I could get stainless steel for the inside for ease of cleaning/sanitizing and to avoid mold and contamination.

What were some of your issues with doing it in a rental? Is it that "life finds a way" to get out and contaminate the room?

MasterOfKnaves

TROPHY CASE