Space Dust is a framework for expanding the atmospheric and exospheric resource prospecting and harvesting experience in KSP. Currently the framework exists in stock but is a little lacking and buggy, as well as not well supported by Squad. Space Dust provides a number of resource distributions for stock planets, plus parts to discover and harvest them.
Resource Bands
Resources are distributed in Bands, which are areas of usable resource concentrations. Bands can be shells, rings, all those fun kind of things. Bands can be in atmospheres, parts of atmospheres (eg, upper or lower atmospheres), exospheres or both. Broadly, you prospect to find resource bands, and harvest things from them.
Prospecting
Bands typically start out undiscovered, with the exception of homeworld common resources. You'll have to Discover and then Identify bands around other planets to find out where the best resources are.
- Discovery is all about locating the resources. Use a scanner part or a telescope part to find a band around a celestial body.
* Scanners: Scanners are parts you place on a vessel like a probe, then fly to you destination. Different scanners operate differently, some may need you to fly into the resource band, others can detect things from a distance. Make sure to consult the Part Info window to see how a scanner works .
*Telescopes: Telescopes function at a distance. Target Celestial bodies you are interested in and start surveys - eventually, depending on distance and the target, you will start discovering things - as long as they aren't too far away or too difficult to find. There is no substitute for actually sending a probe in! Identification is about refining knowledge. Use your scanner parts to further look at Discovered resource bands to Identify them and reveal information on their concentrations and precise extents. Most scanner parts can also Identify resources but generally need the part to be closer to the band.
Harvesting
Use dedicated Space Dust harvester parts to collect resources. Two harvesters are provided for long-term processing operations. Other mods can easily build atmosphere scoops and more interesting processing options.
Framework
Although this mod is useable by itself , it does provide a framework for modders to use to :
Add more resource distributions for other planets Add more resource distributions for resources Add harvester and scanner parts