☁ Sky Cities! ☁

[Air]

I think it would improve the game if we could build Cities that float in the upper atmosphere's of planets probably using balloons.

In KSP, Jool was just something to look at; There wasn't a real reason to visit it. With Sky Cities you could turn Gas Giants into homes!

 

[Amsel XII]

NASA HAVOC project is a good inspiration for a realistic approach.

The High Altitude Venus Operation Concept studies the possibilities of airships floating at 50 km altitude in Venus’s atmosphere where temperature and pressure are similar of earth surface conditions.

HAVOC – SACD

sacd.larc.nasa.gov

 

[Kiwi Shark]

It would be interesting to see how they’d handle stationary vs floating along in the atmosphere. Imagine trying to navigate to that!

 

[Amsel XII]

Getting to your station would be quite a challenge. Do not burn your capsule at the atmosphere's entrance first (hi Eve !), next you have to rejoin it as a plane to a flying aircraft carrier. The orbital docking method is of course not possible !

Edit : or you simply aim your trajectory at the station's platform and open a parachute. Due to the thick atmosphere, the Venera probes had a quick deceleration.

Not sure sky cities would work on realistic gas giants due to their violents storms occuring ~

 

[moeggz]

Yes hoping we can get lighter than air aircraft parts is the obvious next step assuming KSA includes water buoyancy physics and we still get boats and subs. I would love for gas giants to have a reason to dive into. Maybe in addition xenon or other rare gasses could be harvested from inside the atmosphere as well.

 

[Sumessefui]

lighter than air aircraft

Of course, if you look at buoyancy in gases, it might become quite challenging to get to the deepest depths of gas giants...

 

[moeggz]

Of course, if you look at buoyancy in gases, it might become quite challenging to get to the deepest depths of gas giants...

Sounds like new and engaging engineering problems for the player

 

[Sumessefui]

Sounds like new and engaging engineering problems for the player

Indeed. Of course the question is really how much will be "stock" and how much the devs will leave to modders to implement.

 

[LongLiveKSA!]

Sounds like new and engaging engineering problems for the player

Exactly. Imagine designing a crewed mission to explore the depths of a gas giant. That would be challenging, fun and rewarding in progression, ideally.

 

[Air]

Of course, if you look at buoyancy in gases, it might become quite challenging to get to the deepest depths of gas giants...

I agree. It would make for a fun challenge and may even help us better understand the future of gas giants IRL.