Squad, developer of slapstick (actually, I suppose that depends on how you play it) space programme simulator Kerbal Space Program, has announced the second ‘Official Mod’ for the game, called Asteroid Day. It’s available right now, and you can get hold of it here.
The result of a partnership with the B612 Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to planetary defense against asteroids and various other bits of space debris that could theoretically crash into the Earth and snuff us out, Asteroid Day tasks you with setting up a space telescope in orbit near Venus to look out for errant space-boulders.
”The Kerbal mission will require you to deploy a space telescope around Eve’s orbit, with an antenna and a power source between Eve and Kerbin. The telescope will need to be faced away from the sun, and when activated will start to map the orbit of the outer planet in a 200 degree vision cone for passing asteroids,” Squad explains.
Asteroid Day includes a long-term contract for monitoring asteroids around Kerbin and other planets. Unlike other missions, this one’s designed for use with existing infrastructure, so you won’t need to build anything new in order to have a go at it. The mod will also add three new bits of tech for you to build. These are they:
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The HECS-2 Probe Core comes with integrated batteries and SAS, to make building a compact Sentinel probe much easier.
The OX-STAT-XL Photovoltaic Panels are a much larger version of the stock solar panels, for larger probes.
The HG-55 High Gain Antenna can transmit larger amounts of data than any of the existing antennae in the game.
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