Space Weather And Atmospheric Orbital Decay

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📖 Introduction

Space Weather And Atmospheric Orbital Decay (SWAOD) is a mod for Kerbal Space Program (KSP) that introduces realistic orbital decay mechanics.

In the stock game, vessels in a vacuum never experience drag. This mod changes that by simulating continuous atmospheric drag on vessels in the upper atmosphere and integrating with Kerbalism to simulate severe orbital decay caused by atmospheric expansion during solar storms.

✨ Features

• 🪐 Natural Orbital Decay

  • Simulates atmospheric drag for unloaded and loaded vessels in the upper atmosphere/exosphere.
  • Effectively cleans up orbital debris, preventing low-orbit junk accumulation.
  • Realistic Physics: Calculates drag based on the vessel's estimated Area-to-Mass Ratio and real-time atmospheric density.

• ☀️ Solar Storm Effects (Requires Kerbalism)

  • Drastically increases orbital decay rates during solar storms, simulating atmospheric expansion caused by solar activity.
  • Configurable: Toggle whether bodies without atmospheres (e.g., Mun) are affected by storm decay in Settings.cfg (Disabled by default).

• 📊 Real-time Monitoring UI

  • Provides a control panel to monitor the status of all tracked vessels.
  • View orbital altitude, decay status, and estimated re-entry time in real-time.
  • Filter vessel lists by status.

• ⚠️ Smart Warning System

  • Sends notifications when vessels enter the decay zone, reach critically low orbits, or are about to re-enter.

🛠️ Dependencies

• Kerbalism (Optional)
  • Recommended: To experience the full solar storm decay features.
  • Without Kerbalism: The mod functions as a standalone "Natural Atmospheric Decay" mod.

🧩 Compatibility

• ✅ Planet Packs: Theoretically compatible with all planet packs.
• ❌ Principia: Not supported.

📥 Installation

1. Download the Latest Release.
2. Extract the GameData folder into your KSP installation directory:
   • Kerbal Space Program/GameData/SpaceWeatherAndAtmosphericOrbitalDecay/
3. ⚠️ Important:
   • Using Kerbalism: Default installation works out of the box.
   • Not using Kerbalism: Replace the .dll file in GameData/SpaceWeatherAndAtmosphericOrbitalDecay/Plugin/ with the one found in Extra/Non-Kerbalism/.

🎮 Usage Guide

Shortcuts

• Toggle UI: Alt + Q

UI Functions

• Monitor List: Lists all orbiting vessels and their current status.
• Filters:
  • Stable
  • Natural (Natural Decay)
  • Storm (Storm Decay)
• Config Panel: Click "Show Config" to adjust UI scale, font size, view debug info, etc. in-game.

Important Notes

• The re-entry time displayed in the UI may differ from the actual re-entry time due to computational errors and total stride length. But the estimated value will be less than the actual re-entry time.

⚙️ Configuration

Besides the in-game UI, advanced configuration can be done by editing: GameData/SpaceWeatherAndAtmosphericOrbitalDecay/Config/Settings.cfg

🤝 Credits

• Special thanks to Gemini 3 Pro for assisting in the development of this mod.