Feature Request: Solar Panels That Always Face the Sun (No Rotation Dead Zones)

[bilimili10]

I'm coming from KSP, where I've always been frustrated by one thing: the solar panels can never fully align with the sun. Even the tracking panels have rotation limits and dead zones, so they never stay perfectly perpendicular to the sunlight.

My idea was to mount the solar panels on movable/robotic structures and have them "link" to the panel's tracking logic, so the whole assembly rotates to keep the panel exactly perpendicular to the sun — eliminating the dead zones entirely. In KSP, this isn't really possible without mods like kOS, because the stock robotic parts have no automatic sun-tracking logic, and the panel's built-in tracking only rotates around its own axis within fixed limits.

So for KSA, I'd really like to see this addressed in the design:

• Solar panels with full 2-axis tracking and no angle limits, so they can always stay perpendicular to the sun.
• Robotic/movable parts that can automatically orient toward the sun, ideally with a way to link a panel's tracking to a rotor or hinge.
• A scripting/automation system (I've seen mentions of an in-game terminal for automating flight sequences) that could let players control panel orientation programmatically for precise sun-tracking.

I understand KSA is still in very early development, and solar power itself seems to have only just been added. I just wanted to put this out there as a suggestion for the roadmap — I think a lot of players coming from KSP would appreciate solar panels that don't have rotation dead zones.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Luigi Trabacchin]

I think that was part of the fun and realism. made you think about how the capsule should maintain that angle (pack more propellant) or how to build a bigger capsule with more panels/parts so at least some will always face the sun. Also I can't really imagine a solar panel that is somehow able to always be perpendicular to the sun it would be mounted in some kind of gyroscope, need a lot of space the structure won't be easily foldable...