Orbital Keeper - Station Keeping

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📖 Introduction

Orbital Keeper is a Kerbal Space Program (KSP) mod that keeps orbits stable by automatically performing orbit corrections to counter decay-driven orbital lowering.

Automatic station-keeping runs for unloaded vessels in the background. Loaded vessels can be corrected manually from the UI.

✨ Features

• 🛰️ Background station-keeping
  • Checks orbit drift at a configurable interval and applies corrections for unloaded vessels.
• 🧭 Manual correction for loaded vessels
  • Trigger a correction with the UI’s Manual Correct action for direct control in-flight.
• ⚙️ Per-vessel configuration
  • Set target Ap/Pe/Inclination.
  • Adjust tolerance, check interval, and engine selection mode.
• 🔋 Resource-aware corrections
  • Consumes propellant and Electric Charge based on required delta-v.
  • Warns when no eligible engine or insufficient resources are available.
  • Unloaded vessels do not model resource connectivity; blockages are ignored.
• 📋 Vessel overview
  • View on-orbit/sub-orbit vehicle status, target orbit and accumulated Δv consumption.
• 🛡️ Safety limits
  • Caps maximum correction delta-v and warns if target periapsis is too low.

🧩 Compatibility

• ❌ Principia : Not supported.
• ✅ Space Weather & Atmospheric Orbital Decay : Recommended SWAOD

📥 Installation

1. Copy the GameData/OrbitalKeeper folder into your KSP installation’s GameData directory.

🎮 Usage Guide

Open the UI

• Use the GUI hotkey (default Alt + O) in Flight or Tracking Station.
• If the toolbar button is enabled, click the Orbital Keeper icon in the stock AppLauncher.

Configure a vessel

• Select a vessel, then set target orbit parameters:
  • Apoapsis (Ap), Periapsis (Pe), Inclination.
• Set station-keeping options:
  • Auto-keep toggle, tolerance, check interval, engine mode, UI font size.
• Click Apply Settings to save.

GUI settings

• Adjust UI font size, hotkey key and modifiers, and toolbar button toggle.
• Per-user GUI settings are saved to GameData/OrbitalKeeper/PluginData/config.xml.

Actions

• Manual Correct applies a correction immediately for the selected vessel.
• Vessel Overview lists tracked vessels and their statuses.
• Remove Keeping clears station-keeping data for the vessel.

⚙️ Configuration

Global defaults are stored in: GameData/OrbitalKeeper/OrbitalKeeper.cfg

Tolerance Notes

• Ap/Pe use relative ratios, and a correction is needed only when outside 1 ± (tolerance% / 100).
• When target Ap/Pe is very small (< 1 m), use absolute checks instead: |current - target| > 1000m * (tolerance% / 100).
• Inc/Ecc use absolute values with minimum thresholds (Ecc is derived from target Ap/Pe):
  • Inc minimum threshold is 0.5°.
  • Ecc minimum threshold is 0.001.
• Corrections are executed only when the total computed delta-v is greater than 0.01 m/s.

Engine Mode Notes

• IgnitedOnly: selects only engines currently ignited (EngineIgnited = True).
• ActiveNotShutdown: selects engines activated and not manually shut down; unignited but staged and not shut down engines are also eligible.

Performance Note

• When enableToolbarButton is enabled, stutters may occur once per second for up to 10 seconds when using JanitorsCloset. Behavior varies by device; if you need JanitorsCloset, you can disable this option.