Moving the Moon

[jangofett287]

I am/was bored, so I increased the earth's mass with an extra 0. I watched the ISS get sucked helplessly out of orbit, then waited. Somehow, the moon was still orbiting in exactly the same place, despite orbitMFD saying it should be crashing into the earth. this had made me very annoyed, so I'm out to lower the moon manually. I've backed up my moon.cfg, just as I backed up my earth.cfg before editing that. So , umm, which bit of moon.cfg do I meed to change to cause the moon to drop into the earth?

 

[Rtyh-12]

Well, tough luck. The Moon's orbit is determined by its .dll. So you can't change it. What you can do, however, is to add the parameters of the orbit you want into the .cfg file. Look at examples of other solar system add-ons, as most of them don't use .dlls.

 

[jangofett287]

I guess that explains why it stayed in its original orbit, and wasn't effected by gravity...

 

[garyw]

Correct. All the planets are govenered by the magical powers of the DLL. You could remove the moon from the sol.cfg file and replace it with a vessel.

 

[jangofett287]

Correct. All the planets are govenered by the magical powers of the DLL. You could remove the moon from the sol.cfg file and replace it with a vessel.

That's no moon...

:lol:
Hmm, a moon size vessel, now that would be effected by gravity, but would it generate its own?

 

[garyw]

It would not generate it's own gravity.

 

[jangofett287]

Dam, that mean It wouldn't cause strange happenings on the earth and in orbit as it dropped. I WANT MASS DESTRUCTION!!!

 

[T.Neo]

Correct. All the planets are govenered by the magical powers of the DLL. You could remove the moon from the sol.cfg file and replace it with a vessel.

All you need to do is have a planet/moon with the parameters defined by the .cfg, rather than a .dll... my entire Mu Arae system is made up of objects that are defined only by config files, for example.

I might be able to understand why the ISS was 'sucked out of orbit' (to orbit at the same altitude, it would have to have a higher speed, thus at the lower speed, it is suborbital), but I don't see why Orbit MFD would say that the Moon is on a funny eccentric orbit, as parameters in both the .cfg and (presumably) the .dll deal with semimajor axis and eccentricity, which should not change... maybe it's something to do with how Orbit MFD interacts with the .dll data.

 

[orb]

So , umm, which bit of moon.cfg do I meed to change to cause the moon to drop into the earth?

Remove or comment out "Module = Moon" line.

 

[jangofett287]

I would guess the moon .DLL doesn't actually orbit, but rather moves the moon around the earth at a set speed and altitude, and is calibrated for a normal earth. so with my slightly bigger earth the orbitMFD is saying that it isn't moving fast enough, so should fall, but the .DLL keeps it in position.

 

[garyw]

Remove or comment out "Module = Moon" line.

Oh yes... That means it'll point to the config but even then you won't get anything more exciting than the moon acting like a giant neutrino and passing through the Earth without any problems.

 

[jangofett287]

right, now all I need is some orbital elements, which I shall obtain by placing a vessel into the orbit I want the moon to follow

--Addendum--
I've done it!!! the moon is now going to crash into the earth, causing great gravitational problems (hello Oort cloud) for anything on the earth or in LEO. TTL:16.74kSec

 

[Izack]

Watch out for the real Moon when you try! :lol:

 

[jangofett287]

I have a craft in orbit somewhere around the original height of the moon (I think), so I can sit here in safety and watch the carnage unfold

---------- Post added at 01:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:32 PM ----------

That was fun . I 'accidently' left an XR5 near the moons impact point, and watched it get suddenly dragged across the earths surface when I tried to take off!!

 

[Artlav]

:lol:
Hmm, a moon size vessel, now that would be effected by gravity, but would it generate its own?

No, but you can try attaching this to it:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3190"]Gravity Tool[/ame]

 

[jangofett287]

hmm... you could make a black hole with that, if the sol system didn't all use .dlls.
*runs off to get another solar system*

 

[tgep]

As an alternitave .....

Build a lunar base.
Put a nuclear waste disposal site on it.
Transfer enough waste so that the many storage piles in close proximity reach crital mass and ignite.

............. wait, it's been done already.:lol:

 

[Bonanza123d]

This is an epic win in my book. How about you decrease the mass of earth. Then try to loowe the orbit to 4x the alt of the IIS.