Body

This is any sort of planet or moon. To get a variable referring to a Body, you can do this:

// "name" is the name of the body,
// like "Mun" for example.
SET MY_VAR TO BODY("name").

Also, all bodies have hard-coded variable names as well. You can use the variable Mun to mean the same thing as BODY("Mun").

Note

Changed in version 0.13: A Celestial Body is now also an Orbitable, and can use all the terms described for these objects too.

Predefined Celestial Bodies

All of the main celestial bodies in the game are reserved variable names. The following two lines do the exactly the same thing:

SET the_mun TO Mun.
SET the_mun TO Body("Mun").

• Sun

• Moho

• Eve

  • Gilly

• Kerbin

  • Mun
  • Minmus

• Duna

  • Ike

• Jool

  • Laythe
  • Vall
  • Tylo
  • Bop
  • Pol

• Eeloo

structure Body

Suffix	Type (units)
Every Suffix of Orbitable
NAME	string
DESCRIPTION	string
MASS	scalar (kg)
ALTITUDE	scalar (m)
ROTATIONPERIOD	scalar (s)
RADIUS	scalar (m)
MU	scalar (\(m^3 s^{−2}\))
ATM	Atmosphere
ANGULARVEL	Direction in SHIP-RAW
GEOPOSITIONOF	GeoCoordinates in SHIP-RAW
ALTITUDEOF	scalar (m)
SOIRADIUS	scalar (m)
ROTATIONANGLE	scalar (deg)

Body:NAME

The name of the body. Example: “Mun”.

Body:DESCRIPTION

Longer description of the body, often just a duplicate of the name.

Body:MASS

The mass of the body in kilograms.

Body:ALTITUDE

The altitude of this body above the sea level surface of its parent body. I.e. the altitude of Mun above Kerbin.

Body:ROTATIONPERIOD

The length of the body’s day in seconds. I.e. how long it takes for it to make one rotation.

Body:RADIUS

The radius from the body’s center to its sea level.

Body:MU

The Gravitational Parameter of the body.

Body:ATM

A variable that describes the atmosphere of this body.

Body:ANGULARVEL

Despite the name, this is technically not a velocity. It only tells you the axis of rotation, not the speed of rotation around that axis.

Body:GEOPOSITIONOF

The geoposition underneath the given vector position. SHIP:BODY:GEOPOSITIONOF(SHIP:POSITION) should, in principle, give the same thing as SHIP:GEOPOSITION, while SHIP:BODY:GEOPOSITIONOF(SHIP:POSITION + 1000*SHIP:NORTH) would give you the lat/lng of the position 1 kilometer north of you. Be careful not to confuse this with :GEOPOSITION (no “OF” in the name), which is also a suffix of Body by virtue of the fact that Body is an Orbitable, but it doesn’t mean the same thing.

Body:ALTITUDEOF

The altitude of the given vector position, above this body’s ‘sea level’. SHIP:BODY:ALTITUDEOF(SHIP:POSITION) should, in principle, give the same thing as SHIP:ALTITUDE. Example: Eve:ALTITUDEOF(GILLY:POSITION) gives the altitude of gilly’s current position above Eve, even if you’re not actually anywhere near the SOI of Eve at the time. Be careful not to confuse this with :ALTITUDE (no “OF” in the name), which is also a suffix of Body by virtue of the fact that Body is an Orbitable, but it doesn’t mean the same thing.

Body:SOIRADIUS

The radius of the body’s sphere of influence. Measured from the body’s center.

Body:ROTATIONANGLE

The rotation angle is the number of degrees between the Solar Prime Vector and the current positon of the body’s prime meridian (body longitude of zero).

The value is in constant motion, and once per body’s day, its :rotationangle will wrap around through a full 360 degrees.