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As the title suggests, I'm building a space station that I can use as an interplanetary travel spacecraft - named the U.S.S. Enterprise after the famous ship from Star Trek. There's no way I can launch it all in one stage, which is why I'm assembling it in Kerbin's orbit before sending it to Eve (and who-knows-where-else). So far, my plans for it involve: MAIN COMPONENT: 5 crew capacity (1 cupola and 2 mobile processing labs), 4 RA-100 Relay antennae, 8,835 power units, well over 15,000 units worth of fuel, 4 docking ports between the two labs for other parts, MechJeb and a probe core, 1 Rhino engine and 16 Swivel engines (the swivels were mainly to help with ascent into orbit), 20 docking ports to hold escape pods/landers/other craft, 8 gigantor solar panels, 8835-V of power ULTIMATE SCIENCE: 6 crew capacity (1 Hitchhiker and 1 mobile processing lab), 2 Communotron-88 antennae, 1,085 units worth of monopropellant (to help with attachment, 4,000-V battery, 1 survey scanner, 1 narrow-band scanner, and a 2.5-m service bay with: 1 science Jr, 1 barometer, 1 thermometer, 1 gravioli detector, 1 mystery goo container, 1 atmospheric scanner, 1 seismic accelerometer, 2 experimental storage units. ORE STORAGE: 3,000 units worth of ore storage space (tanks will start empty), 72 fuel units (to save weight, can refill tank later), convert-o-tron 250, 4 medium extendable radiators, 20 monopropellant (to start - can be refilled later), 4000-V battery, extra 6-sides docking module at the other end. EMPTY CARGO BAY: 1700 monopropellant for the assembly stage, 1 empty Mk3 Cargo Bay CRG-100, 4 Gigantor solar panels, 4000-V battery, 1 Infrared telescope. SSTO DOCK: 4 crew capacity (1 Hitchhiker), 4,000-V battery, 750 monopropellant for assembly, 1 docking port for an SSTO I found on the Internet, (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c1vkqUQ3RVFw2Pgqdo-vFpC2jDwMEsYN/view), SSTO ITSELF: (Check the link above). It's purpose is to dock on and off the Enterprise and get crews on and off planets as well as bring ore back. I plan to modfiy it so that it can easily dock with the Enterprise MOON LANDER: 3 crew capacity (Mk1-3 command pod), 914 Fuel Units, 750 monopropellant, 4 Mk2-R Radial-mount Parachutes, 4,000-V battery, 4 1x6 Solar Panels, 4 LT-2 landing struts, MechJeb and probe core. Also came with a decoupler. Should I remove it or not, since I obviously plan to send the moon crew back up. Pros of keeping decoupler: can also be used as a one-way escape pod Cons of keeping decoupler: it goes off, the crew is going to be stuck there. 3 ESCAPE PODS: EACH HAS (from top to bottom): 7 crew capacity (that's 21 in total), 2 docking ports (1 on top, 1 on side), 9 Mk2-R Radial-mount Parachutes, 4 1x6 Solar Panels, MechJeb and probe core, 10-m inflatable heat shield, 1 25-m decoupler, 2188 units of fuel, 750 monopropellant, Skipper Engine Basically, if you're going to a planet/moon, this is a one-way trip. If you're transferring crews to/from Kerbin or other stations, use only one pod at a time. Keep the pods locked at all times. Do not use all of them (or any of them, for that matter) unless it's a life-threatening emergency that warrants immediate evacuation. I haven't sent any of this up yet, since I wanted to hear your input on what the Enterprise could use. Any ideas, I'm open.

I've tried searching all over google, different mod websites, and so on, trying to find if a mod that adds a cargo bay with slots for things like escape pods exists. It would be like a normal fuselage/ fuel tank, but when deployed, a thin wall slides down and reveals the slots with the pods in them, in which the pods are then fired out of, thus escaping from the ship they launched from. An example of what I'm talking about (and where I also got the idea from), is in the beginning of Mass Effect 2, when the escape pods are launched from the burning Normandy Sr-1: If this has been asked before, I'm sorry about that, and all you have to do is tell me and I'll take this down. I've just been looking all over and can't find anything, not even posts, resembling what I'm asking. And if a mod like this doesn't exist, could someone be nice enough to take a crack at it, if it's at all possible? I would love feed back on this, as I think it would be a nice edition, because it could even be used for things other than escape pods, and it would also be nice if variable depths were available, and if the ejection force could be set. If you need further information on what I'm asking, I found a video that shows what I'm talking about, and the link here will start you at the part (which only lasts 8 seconds) that shows what I'm talking about.

JSC SHUTTLE IIC I've been spending quite a lot of time with shuttles recently, and having really tested my Buran thoroughly with every single mission profile in the STS challenge, plus using it to collect and land an asteroid, I thought it was time to look at a new design. STS seemed a little obvious, but while browsing shuttle concepts I found the JSC Shuttle IIc and was instantly hooked on the retro-futurist look of the shuttle. Pictures vary but basically I had to make this when I saw it. I'm sure you'll agree it's a mean looking shuttle. And here's my version. It is a work in progress (largely cosmetic), but is already pretty refined and capable of full mission profiles (and full mission failures): The shuttle is 192 parts and 268t on the pad without a payload. I think the side view is really elegant, and I'm pretty pleased with the over all look compared to the original mock ups, especially considering this is total stock. It's got pretty much a full length payload bay apart from the reaction wheel and senior docking port, which mean that while it can take the inigma fuel pod to orbit it's a bit of a squeeze, and I could do with moving the reaction wheel to make space. Hey it's a work in progress, so there's a snagging list. What I am particularly proud of is the escape system. The JSC Shuttle IIc was in design study when Challenger was lost, and crew safety was top of the consideration list. Consequently the crew cabin was designed to separate in emergency and return from orbit on it's own: Thinking about how to design this was pretty difficult, especially to make it look like a seamless join in the shuttle, so this is what I settled on: As you can see I've used two Mk3 engine mounts reversed to each other with the gaps made up by radiators positioned to look like the skin of the shuttle. It's pretty seamless and provides just enough space for the emergency separation mechanism. It's not quiiiite powerful enough to save you from an on pad failure, but it can abort to orbit above a certain height, and is extremely versatile during re-entry calamities. Any angle, rotation, you name it, the separation mechanism does and wonderful job and allows the crew a safe landing on land or water as we can see here: The front end of the shuttle is explosively separated from the body of the shuttle and set up so it will always immediately find prograde even if the abort is completed at a funny angle. The front end is capable of water based as well as land based touchdowns, and can abort to orbit, abort de-orbit with its RCS engines, or just handle those harsh re-entry meltdowns. Now under normal flying conditions the Shuttle behaves very well indeed and while re-entry could do with some refinement it's perfectly happy returning from a 500km orbit. It's rated really for a 10-15t payload as normal maximum to that altitude, but with jigging about it would probably cater for a lot more. Here's some photo's of a typical mission without the need for the crew cabin ejection: This is a work in progress, so I'd expect much like my Buran major deign reviews will take place, but I'd invite you to download the craft file and have a go yourself. I'm certainly open to any advice or feedback on this one, it's been a very challenging build and for sure there is improvements to be made. SM