mcdouble

Really nice detail and diagrams, look forward to seeing more

They are just nodes with a space for attaching the docking port, they could also fit a stock docking port junior or others of that size.

Everything should be working in stock without needing to delete RO patches in the latest version on github (or at least it works on my stock install I've tested on). Not sure if there are still any conflicts with other people's installs, let me know if you find any problems.

Slowly making some kind of progress with this orbital tug system, basically the idea is that a variety of modules can be attached to the tug which delivers to a station, and then remains there providing electrical power, orbital boosts etc. Then theoretically another module could be launched alone and the tug undocks, goes and gets it and delivers it back to the station. Or of course the tug and module can simply be launched together and stay as one piece, similar to Russian DOS modules. So far have just made a node module but others should be pretty quick to make.

It's named "canopy" in Unity with "canopyName = canopy" in the config, should it be capitalized? I basically just opened a stock parachute .mu in blender and then copied what they'd done. I did at one point have some problem where the RO config was creating a second copy of the part on top of itself or something, so you might want to try deleting the RO_config folder if you aren't using RO. There is also a RealChute config in there so that might be causing a conflict?

Yeah I haven't seen that problem either, although I would not be surprised at all if there was something wrong with the parachutes as they were one of the first parts I made and I had even less idea what I was doing then than I do now. Is this using the latest version of stock? I'll try and test it out.

Oh yeah it doesn't have to be a cargo module if you don't want to use it that way. Another possibility is that the earlier module required windows because dockings had to be done manually, while this is an upgraded module with autonomous docking capability which allows more space. Of course it is also missing the airlock but by that time you would probably be visiting space stations with their own airlock modules anyway. Also feel free to do whatever you like with configs etc, I don't mind at all.

Added a cargo module with 0.9375m docking attachment, not sure yet on how to config it to reflect its role (in stock at least) Oh yeah I remember reading that, like how are we going to ignite the fuel on this first human trip to the moon? "oh just dump some fluorine in the fuel mix and make hypergolic hydrolox, trust me it'll be a great idea".

That's based on the engine the D-2 vehicle was proposed to use, which was a hydrolox version of the AJ10 called the AJ10-133. it was never actually built but there are specs available in various technical documents (who knows how realistic they are though).

Those are indeed things I probably just forgot about, I will update soon. Thanks for testing.

Ah thanks, I'm still pretty bad on the config side of things. I'll try to incorporate your fix, looks like it's the same issue that someone else was having earlier.

Skylab/Mir crossover huh? That looks really nice.

No that sounds interesting and I would love to hear any ideas because I often don't know what to do next. Altering the module to a different docking port shouldn't be too hard either. edit: just had a look in blender and scaling the top of the block II module probably makes the forward facing windows no longer feasible. However that gives me an idea, which is there could be a "cargo variant" where the engineers just decided to pull off the top with its heavy and expensive windows and replace it with a more shallowly angled conical section, allowing for more storage space and a larger docking port attachment. Then it's kinda like Progress is to Soyuz.

Nice, really interested to see where this leads.

Well I'm back and doing some more stuff on this mod, next up I hope to make a series of station parts that will sort of be an alternate history American version of Salyut/Mir, using an aesthetic you might see in 1960s-1970s concept art like this: There is now an "ApolloLab" station module which is essentially a self-contained equivalent to early Salyut stations, not sure what will be next but it will involve ways to expand it into a modular station, with docking port hubs and some kind of tug system for docking new modules. Also maybe a nuclear reactor Also redid the D-2 block II solar panels to go in 4-way symmetry at the rear, which looks a lot more reasonable I think.

Ah ok, maybe there's an issue with the latest KSP version, I haven't been able to update as the HDD my Steam folder was on died. I'll try to reinstall and check that. edit: Just did a clean install from Steam and everything is working ok for me, not sure what's happening there.

Yeah I guess I am going strictly non-canon now and trying to imagine what the D-2 might have evolved into as a basic orbital vehicle like Soyuz, there's also a fuel cell in the propulsion module so it isn't necessary to use the solar panels. Thanks for the stock sizing advice btw, that helped a lot. Hmm that's an odd one, I've been testing using a stock 1.4.2 install and a 1.3.1 RSS/RO install and haven't seen that. Did you have a different KSP version or any mods that might conflict with it somehow? Sorry, I don't have much experience fixing bugs etc

Added some more stuff to finish off the block II version, there's now deployable solar panels and a dish antenna as well as an alternate skirt section which has a single engine mount, more suitable for low orbit missions. Also the part scaling should hopefully be more consistent now, the propulsion module and base of the descent module are now at 1.875m diameter in stock and 3m in RO, with the block I skirt flaring out to 2.5m (or 4m in RO). Not really all that happy with the solar panels, they are probably too small but it's pretty hard to get them to realistically fit inside some kind of aerodynamic fairing without it becoming too bulky. Might try to think of a different solution there...

Yeah that's just how it was in the actual design. I've just finished the block II mission module though, which has space on top to attach a 0.625m docking port, so that should hopefully make it a more useful craft. Just have to do a nosecone/launch escape system for this configuration now.

That's not the pivot point of the colliders, it's another part that I'd dragged out of the way. Sorry if that confused things, everything is aligned there so I don't think that's the cause. Thanks for sharing that info, I did try moving the origin around and it didn't seem to have any effect on where the mirroring occured. Glad to see you are not having the same problem, in the end I just gave up and made the skirt section a separate part.

Thanks for that, yeah there does seem to be a lot of variation in the depictions (that second image looks very Soyuz-y), but I would guess the technical diagrams would be most accurate. I'm still not sure in that diagram where the actual bottom of the vehicle is, I think it must be at sta. 376.57 because the engines stick out the back in the artwork, and I guess the rest of it is an adapter since the diameter at the very far right is about 5.5m which would match the S-IV it was supposed to attach to on the Saturn C-2. I will have a look at the parts and see if I can make them fit with stock. Yep, that also probably needs to be fixed, I'll try to bring it into line with other similar parts.

Should be working with stock a lot better now, I rescaled everything to fit 2.5m tanks, which seems to be a more appropriate scale and fits nicely with BDB S-IV stage. Also fixed those collider bugs. Not sure, I think the diagram is just from one of the GE documents.

Yep, I will work on it

Just did a quick update to add some stuff to stock configs and rescaled everything to be 3.75m. Also to answer your earlier question I definitely plan to do at least basic IVAs, my first attempts at it ended in failure though so I will come back to it. thanks again for the help

Hey, thanks so much for the feedback, as you can probably tell I'm still figuring out this stuff I have to admit since I only really play RSS/RO I had only set stuff up with that in mind, but it would probably be a good idea to give it a basic setup for stock so I'll definitely go over that soon. Some of the stuff like batteries in the mission module and ablator I put in the RO configs but I guess I neglected in the stock configs. I also noticed that spawning 1000m up thing but it only seemed to happen in stock 1.4, couldn't seem to find anything unusual in the mesh so I'll have to look into it more. As for the weird surface attach thing, I don't know what to do about that one, it seems to just be a problem with any colliders of that shape, as I created another simple mesh with the same basic setup to test it and it appeared again. Attaching the RCS below that point and the using the move tool to slide them up seems to work ok though.