[WIP] KerbX - A SpaceX analogue for KSP

[Borklund]

Kerbin Exploration Technologies Corporation, or KerbX, is a Kerbal space transport company headquartered near the Kerbin Space Center. It was founded just recently by former KerbPal entrepeneur Elon Kerman. It is developing the Falcon series launch vehicles and Dragon series spacecraft, among others. During an interview with KNN, Elon Kerman said that he "would like to die on Duna, just not at the point of impact".

What is this mod?
It's going to be a parts only mod comprised of SpaceX rocket and spacecraft design analogues for KSP. The mod will not necessarily be for people who enjoy building elaborate rockets, it's intended for people who want a sleek, simple, good-looking rocket design that just works. Basically, this mod will get your payloads - custom-built rovers, satellites, spaceplanes and interplanetary probes - to and beyond keostationary orbit with ease. The first release will feature the Merlin 1D engine for the 1st stage, Merlin 1D Vacuum engine for the 2nd stage, a long first stage fuel tank, a shorter second stage fuel tank, an interstage fairing (will work as a decoupler in-game), a second-stage-to-payload interstage fairing (also a decoupler), Draco (RCS) thruster, RCS fuel tank, different length payload fairings and (temporarily) an ASAS module. The Falcon 9 design will be 2m in diameter and around 30m tall (without a payload on top of the second stage).

I hope to develop the mod further and include the Dragon and its many variants (Red Dragon, DragonRider, DragonLab) as well as hypothetical future Falcon rocket designs in 3m and 5m diameters. As I type this I have Blender open and am hard at work to bring you renders that I can show off. The 3d models will have a relatively high polygon count, with a lot of attention to detail - the same goes for the textures.

Any and all comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated

[spoiler=Work in progress stuff]<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/agPEW/embed"></iframe>[/spoiler]

[MaverickSawyer]

There's the old CardBoardBoxProcessor Failcan pack.

[Borklund]

There's the old CardBoardBoxProcessor Failcan pack.

Sure, and while it is still available for download it has been abandoned. I'm not just going to pick up where he left off, I am trying to create own thing and flesh it out more than CardBoardBoxProcessor did with his Failcan pack (not intended as a knock on him or his work).

[SargeRho]

I'd just make the whole Falcon-series. Falcon 1, 9, Heavy, X, X Heavy, and XX. Also the Dragon capsule, both with and without the Super-draco engines. That's about the only suggestion I could think of

Also looking forward to it.

[Borklund]

I'd just make the whole Falcon-series. Falcon 1, 9, Heavy, X, X Heavy, and XX. Also the Dragon capsule, both with and without the Super-draco engines. That's about the only suggestion I could think of

Also looking forward to it.

Yes - Originally my thinking was to skip Falcon 1 and the current Falcon 9 block 1 design but I decided against it because it'd be much simpler to start with the Falcon 1 and work my way up, and also because there aren't a whole lot of great references for the Falcon 9 v1.1 and Falcon Heavy designs, the new Merlin 1D and 2 engines or potential Falcon X, X Heavy and XX designs.

The first thing I've taken to modelling is the Merlin 1C booster engine. I wanted to freshen up my modelling skills and so the first thing I'm something a little more complicated than a fuel tank. Here's a very early snapshot of my progress on the Merlin 1C, which should hopefully give some indication of the level of detail (and polycount) that I'm ultimately aiming for:

[spoiler=Merlin 1C (WIP)][/spoiler]

[Nolam]

Will you be creating Falcon-like rocket dubs as well?

[Borklund]

Will you be creating Falcon-like rocket dubs as well?

Dubs? You've lost me.

[NannerManCan]

Also maybe make the Merlin engines small? and make a 9 part coupler so you could make a falocn 9. Without sticking the 8 engines on the side of the rocket.

[CAPFlyer]

Also maybe make the Merlin engines small? and make a 9 part coupler so you could make a falocn 9. Without sticking the 8 engines on the side of the rocket.

Actually, I would suggest making the 9-pack a single part, not 10. Makes things much simpler and is how FailCan was done with excellent results for both poly count and for performance both in game and lifting capacity.

[Borklund]

Also maybe make the Merlin engines small? and make a 9 part coupler so you could make a falocn 9. Without sticking the 8 engines on the side of the rocket.

Absolutely! The Merlin 1C will be 1m in-game at the attachment point at the top (the engine nozzle at the bottom is smaller in diameter). The Falcon 9 configuration will be 2m in-game, and so the engine will be scaled to fit both. I will either make the engine configuration for the Falcon 9 one piece, or a shroud with 9 attachment nodes - I don't know which is better yet.

Here's another update on the Merlin 1C:
[spoiler=Merlin 1C (WIP)][/spoiler]