Kuiper belts

[Jerosh_Skitari]

For those of you who don't know, the Kuiper belt is a region of our solar system, outside Neptune that has an estimated 70,000 sizable lumps of rock/ice in it (think asteroid belt on steroids). The exploration (by telescopes) of the Kuiper belt led to the reclassification of Pluto to a dwarf planet by finding in the Kuiper belt many objects with similar characteristics to Pluto.

Astronomers have also seen debris rings around other stars which are thought to be similar to our Kuiper belt.

So my question is: do you think the Kuiper belt (and similar debris rings orbiting other stars) should be in STO? and if you do, how do you think they should work? and while you're at it, include your thought on asteroid belts and asteroids in general.

I would like to see them included, and perhaps used as places where you can find resources. I would also like them to be collidable (i don't think that's a real word, but whatever), but only if you're really trying to collide with them. For example, you're cruising along and you enter an asteroid field/belt or a kuiper belt. You're moving at 1/4 impulse. You near an asteroid and a collision warning comes on. Your ship automatically changes course and/or slows to avoid it. However, you can override this auto-collision-avoidance by using the controls as you normally would and thus, if you care to, run into an asteroid. It would also be neat to have an option to turn the auto-avoidance off completely, especially if you're trying to use the asteroids to run away from bad guys.

[Sumoben]

Asteroid fields will be in STO, for one thing, they talk about how you can duck behind an asteroid with a small ship. Not to mention, they are, a part of space, after all.

[Lord_Pleximus]

I think features like this should be in the game. Unless of course sometime in the STO futire that belt was destroyed by some force.

I would like to see the game mirro earths solar system and the systems we know the most about so we have some realism in the game.

Im sure the belt has been mined out so there wont be anything super valuable but it could be used for training purposes. Like how to navigate a belt with a larger ship.

[DarthWarth]

It has been said that collision will be as real as they can get it, I'm not sure what that means in respect to causing damage though.

[Lord_Pleximus]

It has been said that collision will be as real as they can get it, I'm not sure what that means in respect to causing damage though.

"Sir we are about to hit an asteroid! Stay on target!" Booom you have died on your maiden voyage. Please remake a character and this time avoid large rocks. :D

[USS_Parallax]

It's still very spread out. It's not like in Star Wars where you're constantly dodging the crap. You might see one then the rest will be out of your range of vision. But that would be boring. :P

I suspect in real life the only time you'll find belts as populated as in the movies is when they're very young and still basically just globbed together a bit (well, it matters how it's created).


Anyone know how cluttered rings on planets are in our solar system?

[Lord_Pleximus]

Anyone know how cluttered rings on planets are in our solar system?



The following questions were answered by astronomer Dr. Cathy Imhoff of the Space Telescope Science Institute.


How many rings are there in Saturn?
When we look at Saturn's rings from Earth, they appear to have various bands. They have been given names: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G (there are seven bands). But the rings are actually made up of zillions of bits of rock, some as big as boulders but most tiny like sand. They are all in orbit around Saturn, like a horde of tiny moons.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4858

[Thibor]

Anyone know how cluttered rings on planets are in our solar system?

There's some decent information at this site: http://pds-rings.seti.org/saturn/cassini/

The image depicted in this link from that site has some explanation about particle size and relative density as measured by the Cassini spacecraft.
http://pds-rings.seti.org/saturn/cassini/PIA07875.html

[Moryan_Sorg]

It's still very spread out. It's not like in Star Wars where you're constantly dodging the crap. You might see one then the rest will be out of your range of vision. But that would be boring. :P

I suspect in real life the only time you'll find belts as populated as in the movies is when they're very young and still basically just globbed together a bit (well, it matters how it's created).


Anyone know how cluttered rings on planets are in our solar system?

Yeah, apparently if an earth sized object traveled through our asteroid belt it would have something like a 1/3billion chance of hitting something larger than 3m in diameter. And, the total asteroid belt is 5 x 10^(-4) x Earth mass.

Whatever, that's no fun for a game. There should be some dense asteroid belts, but we shouldn't have to worry about them every time we leave a solar system.

Here's a link if anyone is interested:
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/classes/ge133/reading/asteroids.pdf

[ronaldheld]

Realistic belts are not that dense. Are you expecting to have the density of planetary rings?

[Azurian]

Well, it would be sure interesting if there are Kuiber Belts in systems. Would be pretty cool in PvP if people could hide behind these objects and wait for prey to show up.

[cavilier210]

maybe a few systems should have the belts, but i think for gameplay reasons the Sol system wouldn't have one

[CinC-UFPForces-Cardassia]

I absolutely guarantee you that there will be no lack of astrophysical phenomenon in ST:O.

[JamesDBurke]

Well.

I'll see your Kuiper Belt...

...and Raise You...

...an Oort Cloud.

:D

[Lord_Pleximus]

Well.

I'll see your Kuiper Belt...

...and Raise You...

...an Oort Cloud.

:D

Oort Cloud?!?! What in the world is that?

But Ill raise that with a black hole ^_^