Project The Janus Expedition

[Buck Rogers]

It's a very old addon, I found a link for it.
outer_planets-060929-base.zip
https://library.avsim.net/search.php?CatID=root&SearchTerm=saturn&Sort=Size&ScanMode=0
AFAIK the .dll hasn't been superceded?

 

[francisdrake]

... (and the ion exhaust a little thinner)?

Played around with the hall thrusters' ion exhausts. The greenish-bluish hue varies whether more Krypton or Xenon is used.
The very thin and bright exhaust shown in a rendering is probably unrealistic. Photos of a real ion exhaust show a more ghostly appearance.

• The left-hand cyan colour is taken from a published rendering. Agree the exhaust looks quite beefy.
• The middle one has a more bluish hue, and a toned-down transparency map, making it more lightweight.
• The right one is the same as the middle one, just a bit shorter exhausts.

What's your opinion on these?

 

[Buck Rogers]

I like the middle one, but, most important, your choice. Secondly I personally try to aspire to as "realistic" as possible. On that note:

The very thin and bright exhaust shown in a rendering is probably unrealistic

AFAIK/have seen so far ion drive exhausts have an outer ring and central core (as in your link), the outer ring does seem to have been ignored on many artists impressions (hence being so thin). I haven't found any "real" pictures showing length, do seem to be generally depicted as relatively long?