[WIP][1.8.x] SSTULabs - Low Part Count Solutions (Orbiters, Landers, Lifters) - Dev Thread [11-18-18]

[Jimbodiah]

Dude, chill out. I posted like 3 messages asking if the old engines could come back and when you said no, if the old ones would still work; which they don;'t for me as they have the collider issue (1.0.5 > 1.1.3) along with all the Unity crap that KSP introduced by their half-arsed update to Unity 5 making this game one of the buggiest pieces of code on the planet. I did a boatload of testing on your mods in the past and at the end was met with stuck-up remarks. Consider this my last message here, as I am only wasting your time anyway it seems.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Jimbodiah

[RedParadize]

@Jimbodiah Shadomage pointed out that he should not have single you out. Just like you, I did allot of testing and reported some bug too. But I personality believe I must have been quite annoying at one point or another. You are just the one that did the final blow. Don't forget that we might have contributed a little bit on the testing side, but Shadowmage was the one that to do 99% of the hard work, he owe us nothing.

Shadowmage have provided dedicated support for the last 163 pages and lost patience once, don't judge him on a single comment.

Edited August 12, 2016 by RedParadize

[StickyScissors]

Wow, this thread imploded overnight, huh. Anyways, good luck and godspeed @Shadowmage you definitely deserve a few weeks of not having to go insane over U5/a mod community/modding in general, i admire your patience. On the bright side, if you wanna call it that, this means the mod will be stable for few weeks and won't break every weekend or so

[Guest]

4 hours ago, RedParadize said:

I think we should all post picture of craft we made using SSTU. That would bring a positive note to this. I have few unusual setup I will like to share anyway.

 

In this vein, I present my prototype Apollo Block V CSM. (Yeah, it's more of a cinematic shot, but what the hell, eh?)

Edited August 12, 2016 by Jack Wolfe

[Tex]

Everyone, the arguing is getting this thread off-track. Let's just get back to discussing the mod and sharing what you've all done with it, which is some pretty cool stuff judging by the pictures I've seen so far!

[RedParadize]

 

@Jack Wolfe Nice stuff! I wish I had your graphic card, My screen grab won't look as good.

 

My current project: The Aurora. Its mostly done with SSTU. but incorporate stuff from other mods as well.

This is essentially 4 vessel docked together. Its designed to travel to duna, land 3 times and get back to Kerbin.

 

The front vessel serve as a command/habitat/supply module. Just 3 part but capable of acting independently.

Around the central docking node, is the lander and its 3 discardable tanks, one for each landing and takeoff.

In the middle, inside the frame, there is another independent ship. Its just two upper stage front to front plus a docking port. It hold the fuel for the lander assent stage 2nd and 3rd trip.

From the central docking node to the engine in the rear is the interplanetary tug. The Heinlen is quite powerful. Thanks Nertea!

 

And here is the lander with its discardable tanks once assembled. (in fact its a slightly longer variant of the one on the Aurora.)

Is basically a two stage but up side down. The top tanks, once empty, is ejected upward using the side rocket you see in the middle. It allow me to keep the same ascend stage on multiple landings. Capsule is from Alexustas ALCOR legs from Bonus Eventus Kerbodine plus.

 

Edited August 13, 2016 by RedParadize

[_Augustus_]

18 hours ago, tater said:

It's good to take a break. Heck, play the game a little. You can be "testing" all the time, and never really play. Try a rescale mod, even 3.2X... it's like playing KSP for the first time all over again since you have no idea what works  .

I play with 3.2x bodies and 6.4x orbits, but another 2x Mun distance. Getting to the Mun with fully loaded life support even with an SLS is difficult.

I highly recommend it!

[tater]

I've never taken the missions to "retrieve unit whatever"... until now. I used the petal adaptor to cover a stock grabber unit (after decoupling the nosecone). Grabbed the unit, reentered the way Heinlein and SpaceX intended, Merlin D (vacuum in this case) down, on a column of fire---though I used chutes that were near the grabber unit for the final descent (landing would be tricky with such an unbalanced payload). Oddly enough, the unit to be retrieved was an SSTU nerva (small).

 

Edited August 14, 2016 by tater

[StickyScissors]

I guess since we're sharing things, here's an infographic i made in 1.0.5. Some of you may have seen this before on the KSP subreddit. ^{I find that making these is fun, sue me}

 

Edited August 14, 2016 by StickyScissors

[Guest]

17 hours ago, RedParadize said:

 

@Jack Wolfe Nice stuff! I wish I had your graphic card, My screen grab won't look as good.

 

Thanks! It's just an old Nvidia GTX 650 Ti, tweaked to within an inch of its life.

Love what you're doing with your Aurora. Are those landing legs on the ALCOR cabin?

[Domfluff]

Current career Duna architecture. Made possible with SSTU parts and based on the Deep Space Habitat concept, which should gain a lot when the new SSTU station parts are finished.

Assembled in two launches with the help of welding docking ports and the capabilities of the Orion capsule. Main concept here was to minimise launch mass, Duna ascent and descent mass, as well as cost and required technologies at this stage in the tech tree. We're on a budget, people.

The plan in total also involves an unmanned surface hab, landed with the assistance of airbags. This is packed with surface experiments and ISRU gear.

The transit vehicle will perform deep space/solar experiments in it's 300 day transit, then aerocapture to Duna orbit using a ballute. The pressurised rover/VTOL will land with the assistance of parachutes, and will trundle over to the habitat (widening the margin for landing error), where the crew will finish outfitting the surface base, perform experiments and fine something to do with themselves for 600 days.

The rover has an inflatable fuel tank, so the ISRU-fuelled ascent delta-v is significantly greater than the descent delta-v, but is just about sufficient to get into orbit.

The unmanned Orion capsule will then rendezvous with the rover, and pootle over to the transit vehicle, where they will dock and transfer experiments to process on the return trip.

Vehicle returns to Kerbin, aerocaptures at Kerbin using the re-packed ballute, and the crew return in the Orion capsule. The transit vehicle remains in orbit, and can be manned as a space station (to continue processing the Duna science), or refueled for travel elsewhere. This same architecture should work fine for manned missions to Eve orbit, Gilly and Ike, but may struggle with Dres.

Some efficiency is lost here - processing experiments would be more efficient on the surface of Duna, but that would require landing a lab, which increases the size of the payload. The concept here is for a reusable exploration-class ship that can work as a baseline for more advanced missions later - this kind of architecture is not required for Duna, but a scaled up version is probably pretty much mandatory for missions to the outer planets.

[tater]

How many crew for the actual mission, @Domfluff? Also, do you balance the rover with something on the other docking port?

It's funny, my current career is stock size... I see the rover there and wonder how it's also the transfer vehicle  . I forget how small Duna is in stock, lol. I think my current Duna test craft is grossly overbuilt, as it's a copy of what I did for 3.2X Duna.

Edited August 14, 2016 by tater

[Domfluff]

This is a four kerbal crew, which is pretty much my default for this kind of thing (two scientists for the lab, one engineer for the KAS/KIS base building and setting up surface experiments and one pilot for ascent and descent) The rover is really light (whilst docked at least - the inflatable fuel bag is only used for the ascent, and it adds a few tons to it), so the torque generated is minimal, and the reaction wheels are more than capable of compensating. There was a fair amount of testing for that. It helps a lot that it's more or less on the centre of mass.

Hab time is something over 300 days, but the greenhouse (other side of the craft) will generate supplies for more than twice that (since they need to get home). Plan here was to avoid as much upmass as possible, so you're not harvesting supplies on the Duna surface and lifting them into orbit, for example.

[_Augustus_]

11 hours ago, StickyScissors said:

I guess since we're sharing things, here's an infographic i made in 1.0.5. Some of you may have seen this before on the KSP subreddit. ^{I find that making these is fun, sue me}

 

That LV is so absurd - you could do a Mars mission in 3 launches...

[MacLuky]

Really a pity dev has halted. This is my all time favorite mod, it actually pulled me back into KSP. 

Just updated and whoha, got station parts! I understand texturing is not done, but is there a workaround to put something on these wonderfull parts?

[JoseEduardo]

11 hours ago, StickyScissors said:

I guess since we're sharing things, here's an infographic i made in 1.0.5. Some of you may have seen this before on the KSP subreddit. ^{I find that making these is fun, sue me}

 

what did you use to get this shot? it looks very cool

the rocket also looks very nice, I wish I was that creative to not need RW replicas or replicas with some minor changes

[Pappystein]

3 minutes ago, JoseEduardo said:

what did you use to get this shot? it looks very cool

 

I was wondering the same thing.    Best part, it appears to only have STOCK and SSTU parts.  Unlike a lot of other (mine) launchers needed to get to Duna and Beyond.

 

So unrelated to above posts but totally in SSTU.   I usually make a 3 Hub based super "Tinker Toy" ship to explore past Kerbin.   Still running @Kommitz's Nukes on the outbound flight and back.   I know the ISRU (or whatever that acronym is supposed to be) was put in place so we could get to and fro without massive tanks but I have never liked the grind it introduced.   With the SSTU DOS docking ports, has anyone else thought to make such a ship?  My last career game (pre) SSTU had me use the same ship for three "there and back" missions to the outer planets.   I finally got stuck in the gravity well of Jool with no chance of a refuel (Tankers from Kerbin were filling it up at Kerbin return point.)  

I guess what I am asking is what are your other suggestions using SSTU's modular part structure?   

[RedParadize]

15 hours ago, Jack Wolfe said:

Thanks! It's just an old Nvidia GTX 650 Ti, tweaked to within an inch of its life.

Love what you're doing with your Aurora. Are those landing legs on the ALCOR cabin?

No, they are form Kerbodyne plus. Its creator Bonus Eventus is currently restarting the mod under the name "mother". If you plan on using it you will need to add tweak scale to it, the original are huge. But they spread very whide and are realy stable. I had to remove the drag on them, because they were creating more drag than the full ship.

[thomash]

First off, I apologize if this has already been discussed, or if their is a tutorial somewhere that I have missed.  I swear I have looked for both.

I am having a problem constructing landers and suspect I am doing something incorrectly.  So, from the bottom up here's what I m doing. (I'm using Hydrolox for both descent and ascent engines RL110A-3; RL110A-4; RL10A-5).  I am using SSRSS and am attempting a Moon landing.

1. For the descent engine I'm using the one with the extending bell. 
2. I'm using a lander tank main and nose combination, both have cavities down the middle for engine recessing.
3. I mount the tank on top of the engine and set the vertical height of the engine so that it is recessed to the point where you can just see the bell peeking out of the bottom.
4. I place the decoupler on top of the lander tank attaching it to the next node down into the tank cavity.  
5. I mount the CM (2- or 3-man)on top of the engine and set the vertical height so that the CM sits just above the top of the lander tank assembly.

In use, the descent engine fires up and does a nice job.  So that works fine.  For launch I set the engine power to max, hit the decoupler and engine-start simultaneously.  The decoupler decouples and the engine fires up, but the CM just sits there engine roaring.  I know it's decoupled because I can't activate anything on the lander tank assembly.  And when I have tried using RCS to give it a boost, the CM just slides along the top of the lander assembly and when it gets to the edge, topples off.  I've right-clicked the engine and determined that there is thrust and specific impulse, and that its status is "Nominal."

It's odd to me that you can use the vertical height adjustment with the lander tanks but not the lander CM.

Now, if I go back to the Editor, and change the Vertical height back to "0" the engine functions normally.  But it looks pretty strange with the CM perched atop the engine all of it sitting on top of the lander tank assembly.

So, I need some basic instruction on engine configurations that will work or not work when construction a lander.  Or, maybe this is a bug.

Thanks guys.

[RedParadize]

@thomash Make sure you set the decoupler to hollow collider. BTW, its much easier and better to do the lander with a single engine.

 

On that subject:

 

@tater Does the Petal adapter provide protection if retracted? enven if there is a hole on top?

 

Edited August 14, 2016 by RedParadize

[Domfluff]

My Mun/Minmus lander. This is pretty much exactly built for the Mun - landing almost empties the bottom tank.

On the surface, before science happens.

[tater]

@thomash, I build my ascent stage first. I toggle the interstage on the engine. I then stick the SSTU decouple on there (and I make it as thin as possible, just in case, and make sure its the right diameter. Then I add the tank with the gap in the middle, then I put fuel lines to the ascent stage. 

@RedParadize, I put a nosecone on it, and it was the top of the rocket, so it seemed protected.

@Domfluff, what legs are those?

[Domfluff]

Legs are from UKS - they're "landing stabilisers", and intended to balance the base parts, but they work really well here.

[MacLuky]

On 15 May 2016 at 0:40 PM, RedParadize said:

 

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[SSTUVolumeContainer]]:NEEDS[USILifeSupport]
{	
	@MODULE[SSTUVolumeContainer]
	{
		@CONTAINER,0[*]
		{
			resource = Supplies
			resource = Mulch
		}
	}
}

// You can fix the volume here:
SSTU_RESOURCEVOLUME
{
	name = Supplies
	volume = 1
}

SSTU_RESOURCEVOLUME
{
	name = Mulch
	volume = 1
}

So to understand this:

 

 

@Domfluff that thing is amazing!

I've run into a little snitch after updating SSTU. My Orion 1B is 4 hours out of a manouvernode and I can't seem to save the ship anymore:

Quote

EXC 23:39:48.976] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
    SSTUTools.SSTUVolumeContainer.updatePersistentData ()
    SSTUTools.SSTUVolumeContainer.OnSave (.ConfigNode node)
    PartModule.Save (.ConfigNode node)
    ProtoPartModuleSnapshot..ctor (.PartModule module)
    ProtoPartSnapshot..ctor (.Part PartRef, .ProtoVessel protoVessel)
    ProtoVessel..ctor (.Vessel VesselRef)
    Vessel.BackupVessel ()
    FlightState..ctor ()
    Game.Updated ()
    FlightDriver+<PostInit>c__Iterator2D.MoveNext ()
[LOG 23:39:50.041] Unpacking Orion 1B

 

Not sure what went wrong there, but it's bad enough to make ksp not save. Since the crew is on a collision course with Eve, dumping the drive unit will probably not be a good idea.

[RedParadize]

@MacLuky Do you have a question regarding what I posted?