Do the planets we can land on feel small to you too?

[MadDogMurdock]

Now you need to define 'bigger' in this context...

It's a range of factors, but the primary one is mass.
Escape velocity applies to gases as well - e.g. Helium escapes from the Earth's atmosphere.
The lower the mass, the more gases escape.

Solar wind is a factor - the high energy particles strip molecules from the atmosphere, so proximity to the star, its type and current lifecycle stage all combine in how that affects a planet.

Then you've got the magnetic field which can deflect those particles and protect the atmosphere - that's one reason the Earth is habitable and Mars is not.
Mars is smaller, so its core cooled faster and it isn't generating a magnetic field anymore.

Nice summary of the various factors here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape

 

[Riverside]

I said much the same thing in another thread just this morning.

Hah! I hadn't seen that, great minds...

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I drove today about 75 mins to the countryside. The distance covered is visible on Google Earth, zoomed out... Earth itself isn't that big either!

 

[Lightspeed]

If you fly as close as presently possible to earth-likes or water worlds, you start to "feel" the size of the planet, similar to our Earth, even though we must be several dozen miles up.

 

[Martyn W]

Land on Persephone (Sol) on a large flat plain and look at the horizon.

 

[Patrick_68000]

The smaller a planet is, the less likely it is to retain an atmosphere.
We can only land on planets without atmospheres.

Therefore, most planets we can land on are 'small'.

For the big planets, to wait for the "New Era".

 

[vagabond07]

Apollo astronauts recalled feeling like the horizon was too close when they walked on the moon. This is because the moon is a fraction of the size of the earth. Same would be for any planet in elite. So if it's a 10th of the earth it the horizon will feel 9 times closer.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

After spending 2 months circumnavigating Kumay, i would say not.

I could probably drive around Earth quicker (with obvious boat rides where driving is not possible).

 

[Ziljan]

This has been bothering me for a while.
Does anybody know of planets that feel like full, earth sized (or larger) planets?

Judged by eye to me all current landable planets feel rather smallish. Smaller than Earth for sure.
Even at a low height the horizon is very curved.

Or am I making a wrong judgement here?

There are plenty of Earth sized planets and larger. Just do a search on EDDB for higher g planets. If anything the game is missing more smaller potato planetoids and asteroid-like moons such as Phoebos and Deimos and dozens of smaller moons of Jupiter and Shepard moons of Saturn.

One thing I love about elite is how they got the divide between the Potato and smooth surface moons correct, roughly 400km radius (depending on rigidity of the materials). And they also have planets with high g having much flatter surfaces, since steepness of slopes of piles of rocks and dirt are dependent upon gravity.

 

[WR3ND]

Part of the issue may be the scaled speeds of our ships from supercruise, approach, and then normal thrusters. It's a bit of a balancing act between having a sense of scale and game-play convenience.

 

[Brrokk]

Part of the issue may be the scaled speeds of our ships from supercruise, approach, and then normal thrusters. It's a bit of a balancing act between having a sense of scale and game-play convenience.

Yes, I guess that in a real future with space travel, approaching a planet at ten times the speed of light would be considered an act of war (because of what would happen if you didn't show down). Yet we're allowed to do it routinely.

 

[WR3ND]

Yes, I guess that in a real future with space travel, approaching a planet at ten times the speed of light would be considered an act of war (because of what would happen if you didn't show down). Yet we're allowed to do it routinely.

I was tempted to in my previous post, but don't let me get into the physics of the thing... In game-terms and for the sake of convenience, let's just say we use some kind of trickery to move at relative speeds greater than the speeds we're actually moving at, A.K.A., sci-fi magic, so in these terms it's entirely subjective and arbitrary what would actually happen.

Cheers.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Not really.

 

[Ambroza]

There are plenty of very large planets in the game, some many times larger than earth. Even the "small ones" are, well, planet sized. I think you might find that they feel smaller than they are because the surfaces tend to be pretty barren. There isn't much in the way of landmarks of differing terrain. I think you'd find that if you covered even the smallest planet/moon in Elite with forests, grassy plains, deserts, tundras, rivers, lakes, towns, and other such things it would seem a hell of a lot larger.