[1.1.3] USS Enterprise D

[JadeOfMaar]

 

Waiting on Procedural Parts and Wings to catch up to KSP 1.2.

An incredibly faithful and highly functional replica for you to download and drive. Room for 49, excellent bridge view and it has room for a small 2.5m craft!

If anyone asks, I'll post additional editions without the warp drive, without the lights, or just the hull.

It just came to me and I recreated this awesome ship. Due to the nature of the GN Drive that makes it all work, only two of the pure drive can fully function in a given ship. It is self-powering and near-perpetual. There's the lesser GN Drive Tau part which has high demand for electric charge and has its realistic ups and downs, and any number can be safely installed but those are not important for this post. This also enables you to easily and comfortably land and take off at your favorite impossible planet.

Spoiler

Dorsal view for the bridge.

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IVA at bridge

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Cargo space. 2.5m and 0.625m parts for demonstration.

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Saucer separation and Mun landing. The D-NF's lithium setup has about 40% TWR and twice the dV of the D-T1's LFO setup. Easier landing with the aerospikes and it can RCS cruise on surface but D-T1 might not get back to orbit.

Full Gallery:

http://imgur.com/a/9KicG

Specs and tips:

• Carries 49 kerbals but there's plenty room to add more crew cabins. (The part count is nearly 190 so there already aren't more of them.)
• Saucer section is Procedural Parts with 18m diameter and Kerbal Hacks: Procedural Parts Textures.
• Neck is a stock Structural Pylon. Abort action group will activate its decoupler function and the saucer's engines. Unfortunately, since the root part is in the secondary hull, the neck remains with the saucer. Trying to change the root part and fix that has caused my game to crash every time.
• On separation the saucer's root part becomes the pylon or another awkward part.
• Most other body parts include Mk2 Stockalike Extension.
• The visible Mk2 engines are Ion drives from the aforementioned mod, purely for aesthetics.
• The warp drive is GN Drive from Mobile Suit Gundam 00. It provides its own RCS translation power but not rotation power. It might not show up in Staging.
• Tweakscale.
• Cosmetic D-NF edition requires Near Future: Electrical, Propulsion and conditionally, the Infinite Electricity cheat.
• D-T1 edition sacrifices all Near Future parts for less mod dependency. Contains eight stock RTGs in each major section for 12 EC/s total power generation. It's named T1 for the T1 Toroidal Aerospike engines.
• Nacelle lights are Surface Mounted Stockalike Lights.
• Right-click a GN Drive and turn on Trans-AM to use kraken speed. This drains the engines and ends itself then. If you only have one drive (lose one by damage?), you may lose this option and a portion of your agility.
• The fuel is locked inside the Mk2 tails on the saucer to not get wasted by the RCS. In D-T1, also check the flat white disk between the convex surfaces as to not waste the LFO in that. In D-NF, this disk is a structural element, not a tank.
• Considering Kerbals now pass out from excessive Gee in KSP 1.2, and this ship uses acceleration, its crew in this situation will be in for many great times.

Action groups:

1. Toggle Ion and GN Drives.
2. Toggle Impulse drives. I advise you only use those (especially the LFO in the D-T1 edition) on saucer separation or you might waste the fuel.
3. Toggle Antigravity.

• [Abort] Activate impulse drive and separate the ship.

Launch sequence:

• Press X, 1, 3, Spacebar.

Downloads:

Moddier, cheatier "D-NF" edition (Now on KerbalX)

Less moddy, less cheaty "D-T1" edition (Now on KerbalX)

Edited October 28, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[Alshain]

It looks amazing. Imgur galleries are broken for the moment.  You won't be able to, but you can post spoilers with single images inside.

[eddiew]

Lovely build   How do you handle thrust balancing with something so asymmetric? 

[pTrevTrevs]

<------ See profile pic for thoughts

Enterprise-D is best Enterprise.

[JadeOfMaar]

5 hours ago, eddiew said:

Lovely build   How do you handle thrust balancing with something so asymmetric? 

I first assumed that the center of mass for the real Enterprise D could be in the neck and the nacelles were aligned with that. And it even works out that way in this KSP version! Seeing it gave me the window, the encouragement to even start, whereas every other Enterprise has the nacelles way above (or below) the neck which makes them absolutely impossible to adapt to KSP. It does help that the big ion engines are aligned as well. I did get wobbling during one test which I assumed was an issue with the CoM.

GN Drive has no party with the center of thrust. Only the heading of the controlling part is relevant so with this I (or anyone) can create any practical asymmetric ship, and therefore, other Enterprise versions. I might do the NX-01 or Abrams/2009 version next, and experiment with the GN Drive Tau which has high demand for electric charge and can be comfortably used in a serious playthrough. I want to avoid spamming the real GN Drive.

1 hour ago, pTrevTrevs said:

<------ See profile pic for thoughts

Enterprise-D is best Enterprise.

I...have to agree with you, actually. I just love the profile shots in the TV series, its modularity, capacities for things, and in battle, when the phaser charges gallop across the strips/array and unite.

Edited September 13, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[eddiew]

34 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

...

Interesting   I had never really wondered why D had the nacelles at such a low spot, but yeah, I can imagine now that they're about in alignment with the CoM. IIRC, Voyager had some crazy articulation that raised them for warp, while the NX-01 was basically flat? Maybe the designers cottoned on after the original series and started working on that basis...

I may have to try out this wonderfully cheaty GN drive   With 1.2 not far away it might be time to indulge in some silliness.

[JadeOfMaar]

The flatness is why I may attempt the NX-01 next and I believe Voyager's articulation is an impact protection mechanism (and a visual feature just to hook the TV audience).

Indulge, indulge! Lol.

[Alshain]

The NX-01 was not flat, it's nacelles were higher than the saucer.  Outside of speculation of lore, the designers for Star Trek: Enterprise took inspiration from the original Enterprise and combined that with the 24th century Akira Class starship, only they inverted the nacelle position.  I was very happy when I first saw that, because the Akira is my favorite design in all of the Star Trek franchise.

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by Alshain

[JadeOfMaar]

Oops! Thanks for the heads up (and for the spoiler suggestion), @Alshain