My Station Crashed into the Moon

[Malakai3000]

Hey everyone, I need help understanding the physics of the celestial bodies. I play on a survival server and built an orbital pad that was hovering just outside the gravity well of the moon. I logged off for about two hours. When I came back on, I walked outside the base that is actually on the moon and, lo and behold, the orbital pad is a mere moon surface pad. I was under the impression that the planets and moons don't move or rotate, only the sun. If this is the case can someone help explain to me how this might have occured?

Here are my thoughts:

Pirates are off
I don't think meteors fly around in empty space
I don't think asteroids move
It's possible that another object struck the station with enough force to move it into the gravity well.

Are there natural elements in the game that might make stations in space move?

[n00bdragon]

How far outside the gravity well were you? Is it possible a part of your station was in the gravity well? Next time try putting some thrusters on your stations. Even a small set of thrusters can keep a big station from wandering off via tiny nudges.

[Malakai3000]

It was about 1km from the gravity well :/

But that is a good suggestion, thanks for the advice.

[MaximumTrekkie]

Originally posted by MaLaKai3000:

It was about 1km from the gravity well :/

But that is a good suggestion, thanks for the advice.

Maybe someone pushed it... :D

[VanGoghComplex]

1.) Meteors always come from the direction of the son, and target player creations exclusively. Impact may have moved your station.

2.) If it's a public server, some troll may have given your station a "playful nudge" toward the planet in your absence.

3.) You may have inadvertently set your station in motion yourself. Presuming it has no thrusters, the softest push (IE: you walking on it under force of a gravity generator) can give it an imperceptible but nonzero velocity.

For these reasons and more, putting minimal thrust and gyros on your station is encouraged for the sole purpose of station-keeping.

[Malakai3000]

Originally posted by Maximumtrekkie:

Originally posted by MaLaKai3000:

It was about 1km from the gravity well :/

But that is a good suggestion, thanks for the advice.

Maybe someone pushed it... :D

It's possible, but, with the amount of time it took me to make the damn thing I didn't notice it moving from me moving around on it. Unless, it was just too miniscule to notice.

[Malakai3000]

Originally posted by VanGoghComplex:

1.) Meteors always come from the direction of the son, and target player creations exclusively. Impact may have moved your station.

2.) If it's a public server, some troll may have given your station a "playful nudge" toward the planet in your absence.

3.) You may have inadvertently set your station in motion yourself. Presuming it has no thrusters, the softest push (IE: you walking on it under force of a gravity generator) can give it an imperceptible but nonzero velocity.

For these reasons and more, putting minimal thrust and gyros on your station is encouraged for the sole purpose of station-keeping.

You sir, just made me realize something very important. You had me at gravity generator. I had two and I had them both working to create the sum of 1G. LOL

Not to mention, I was jumping around on the thing like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot. Space Engineers might be the most unforgiving game I have ever played. Even more unforgiving than Rust. One moment your a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ genius. The next, your still sitting in the flight seat faced down in the dirt while the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ship is wrapped around a boulder.

Haha thanks everyone, I think its been solved haha.

[casualsailor]

Originally posted by MaLaKai3000:

Originally posted by VanGoghComplex:

1.) Meteors always come from the direction of the son, and target player creations exclusively. Impact may have moved your station.

2.) If it's a public server, some troll may have given your station a "playful nudge" toward the planet in your absence.

3.) You may have inadvertently set your station in motion yourself. Presuming it has no thrusters, the softest push (IE: you walking on it under force of a gravity generator) can give it an imperceptible but nonzero velocity.

For these reasons and more, putting minimal thrust and gyros on your station is encouraged for the sole purpose of station-keeping.

You sir, just made me realize something very important. You had me at gravity generator. I had two and I had them both working to create the sum of 1G. LOL

Not to mention, I was jumping around on the thing like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiot. Space Engineers might be the most unforgiving game I have ever played. Even more unforgiving than Rust. One moment your a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ genius. The next, your still sitting in the flight seat faced down in the dirt while the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ship is wrapped around a boulder.

Haha thanks everyone, I think its been solved haha.

Don't feel bad. Before they introduced Station Voxel Support stations in space were anchored to the grid and unmovable. But people wanted to be able to shoot off part of the station and not have the bits hanging unmoving where they were. So the devs added Station Voxel Support so that when some part of your station was blown off it would blow away too. But in the process they made it necessary to either anchor your platforms to asteroids (or planets) or to put thrusters and gyros on them since they are in effect just like large ships.

Take a look at the update video and see why I think it was an unintended consequence of their change.

https://youtu.be/32ZEX391ll8?t=72