[WIP] KewtSAT Development Thread

[Nivee~]

Hello everyone! I read in the news about the MARSCO cubesats that will be on a flyby mission to Mars. This encouraged me to make a CubeSat mod.. Now, a Cubesat mod has already been developed, although a little outdated..

This mod will provide me with a yardstick to measure my mod's growth. 

I am yet to come up with a complete list of all the parts that I will be making and including in the mod, but some parts like probe cores and LFO engines are a must..I plan to add more parts in the future as the mod progresses.

(I don't know Blender and Unity, but I am going to nosedive into the world of modding anyways~)

First of all, here's a LFOtank + Engine that I made~ (Its only a rough model in solidworks right now)

The enclosure in which the tank is stored is 20x20x20 cm in dimensions, although if it seems impractical, I will increase the size. I am yet to understand how practical this setup will be, but hey! Atleast I am doing something! Right? Umm..Right?

 

EDIT: I have decided the preliminary part list for the mod. This is not exhaustive, and I will add more parts according to your suggestions! 

Probe core: (20cmX20cmX5cm)
Fuel tanks: Monoprop, solid fuel, xenon, LFO (One tank, with configurable resources)(20cmx20cmx10cm)
Control: Flywheel box.
Payload: 1U dispensor, 2U dispensor, 3U dispensor
Structural: 1U (20x20x20cm) chassis, 2U(20x20x40cm) and 3U(20x20x60cm) chassis, Circular plate to hold cubesat dispensor.
Engines: Hall effect Thruster, monoprop engines, LFO thruster, Plasma thruster
Electricity: 1U,2U,3U static solar panel, 2U/3U deployable solar panels, RTG, Battery(20x20x7.5cm)
Comms: Needle Antenna, Umbrella antenna
Science: Camera, resource scanner(?)

If you have suggestion regarding parts, then free feel to tell me!

Edited June 11, 2018 by Nivee~
Wrote Part list

[antonioltg]

I love cubesat mods, I'll wait for more updates

[kerbinorbiter]

2 hours ago, Nivee~ said:

Hello everyone! I read in the news about the MARSCO cubesats that will be on a flyby mission to Mars. This encouraged me to make a CubeSat mod.. Now, a Cubesat mod has already been developed, although a little outdated..

This mod will provide me with a yardstick to measure my mod's growth. 

I am yet to come up with a complete list of all the parts that I will be making and including in the mod, but some parts like probe cores and LFO engines are a must..I plan to add more parts in the future as the mod progresses.

(I don't know Blender and Unity, but I am going to nosedive into the world of modding anyways~)

First of all, here's a LFOtank + Engine that I made~ (Its only a rough model in solidworks right now)

The enclosure in which the tank is stored is 20x20x20 cm in dimensions, although if it seems impractical, I will increase the size. I am yet to understand how practical this setup will be, but hey! Atleast I am doing something! Right? Umm..Right?

Tips:

the thrust transform is created in UNITY not BLENDER

you can name it whatever as long as you mention it as the point the thrust comes out of in the thrust transform section

e.g if i name it "fire_here" i'd put thrusttransform = fire_here

blender is complex (its a bit like trying to write with a pen where your hand is at the top)

start with simple shapes i started with a cube (which also is default shape)

parts are game objects in unity

thrust transforms are children of game objects (if i can recall correctly)

[Nivee~]

2 hours ago, kerbinorbiter said:

blender is complex

Yup! But there are not many guides for Wings3D....

[Tyko]

seems really cool! Just a question though, do any cubesats use LFO? I'd imaging most use cold gas or monoprop for weight savings and simplicity   

[DeltaDizzy]

5 hours ago, Nivee~ said:

Yup! But there are not many guides for Wings3D....

Its a little outdated, but it still works

[Nivee~]

4 hours ago, Tyko said:

seems really cool! Just a question though, do any cubesats use LFO? I'd imaging most use cold gas or monoprop for weight savings and simplicity   

They dont , not directly... I read about a cube sat engine which first electrolyzed water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then used the evolved gases to run its engine... 

But yeah, most cubesats use monoprops. There are Hall effect thruster, micro pulsed plasma thrusters and  electrospray thrusters as well!

http://www.busek.com/cubesatprop__main.htm

@DeltaDizzy Thanks! I have been reading that guide! I made this KewtSAT RTG~ 

 

 I face a dilemma, however. I imported the Solidworks sketch shown in the OP to Wings, and this happened:

Just look at the number of Polygons!! It is a freaking nightmare trying to UV map them!(Yes I was stupid enough to try.) If only I could find a way to deal with this issue without giving up on Solidworks...

[DeltaDizzy]

4 hours ago, Nivee~ said:

 I face a dilemma, however. I imported the Solidworks sketch shown in the OP to Wings, and this happened:

Just look at the number of Polygons!! It is a freaking nightmare trying to UV map them!(Yes I was stupid enough to try.) If only I could find a way to deal with this issue without giving up on Solidworks...

http://www.wings3d.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=785

this may help

[Nivee~]

8 hours ago, DeltaDizzy said:

this may help

Thanks! It helped, decreased the polygon count by half

EDIT: I think I will redo that part from scratch in Wings3D...1768 polygons are still too much!

Edited June 10, 2018 by Nivee~

[Nivee~]

I made another part today! This will be the battery (20cmX20cmX7.5cm)

Of course, I have not textured it yet. I will, after I have made all the parts!

[Lisias]

21 hours ago, Nivee~ said:

Yup! But there are not many guides for Wings3D....

Not only that. Blender is also getting a far more support from everybody than anything else.

I agree that Blender is complex - and for a dude that used 3D Studio 3.0 for DOS, and on the Windows era got used to Caligari Truespace, it's something.

But sooner or later, you will stomp on some limitation or anti-feature and then inevitably you will have to choose between hacking into yet another tool into your stack, or just give up and going to Blender for once. I tried to fight, but ended up using Blender anyway.  

The Good News^TM is that Blender seems to becoming the de facto standard for Open Source 3D Modeling, so chances are that no matter what you are using now, you will be able to import your job to Blender when you fell the need.

So... Keep doing whatever you think is the easier way to you. You already have your mouth full, no need to open yet another front on this war.

[Nivee~]

2 hours ago, Lisias said:

But sooner or later, you will stomp on some limitation

I already have! 3 parts (2U,3U deploying solar panels and umbrella antenna) required to be animated, and that cannot be done in Wings.....

Another issue that has cropped up is that since the parts are so small, I am doubtful how much details I should put into the parts(in terms of modelling).

Edited June 10, 2018 by Nivee~

[Nivee~]

Oooh I am on a roll! Here's the raw model of the Pulsed Plasma Thruster which will use Solid fuel as propellant, and can be throttled.

However, the 2 wires that I have drawn on the side, will they be of any importance, considering that the part itself is only 20x20x10cm?

[Lisias]

1 hour ago, Nivee~ said:

However, the 2 wires that I have drawn on the side, will they be of any importance, considering that the part itself is only 20x20x10cm?

Saving some polygons are always a good thing. If it doesn't bother you, get rid of the wires - or make them a single one, and use texturing/bumping to simulate two wires.

[Daishi]

Hiya, welcome to the wild world of modding! Always need more talent around here!

Just a heads up that somebody has kind of followed the same train of thought you have, and rebooted Cubesats too. I'd hate to see you pour so much work into this only to realize you have a direct competitor right around the corner. Maybe you guys could work together?

[Nivee~]

13 hours ago, Daishi said:

Just a heads up that somebody has kind of followed the same train of thought you have, and rebooted Cubesats too. I'd hate to see you pour so much work into this only to realize you have a direct competitor right around the corner. Maybe you guys could work together?

I feel stupid... That's why the old coots have said, research is very important before starting on something.

13 hours ago, Daishi said:

direct competitor

This person is on a different level... Direct Competitor? Nope, he/she's way, way better than me...He/She clearly is way too superior in both modelling and texturing and knows Unity and cfg stuff too.

13 hours ago, Daishi said:

work together

Hmmph.. at best I will be holding him/her back... at worst I will only be delaying his/her development.

The SAS core is almost exactly what I had envisioned. And those cubesat dispensers are beautiful, much better than what I could make. 

And look at that! Its much, much better than what I had in mind!!

This is disheartening ... But good luck to the modder's endeavors though! I will stick to writing mission reports, it seems... 

Edited June 11, 2018 by Nivee~
Seriously! The entire weekend , gone! Poof!

[Daishi]

Nah, don't just stop, look at other projects to model and work on  The game really lacks small detailed parts (EVA stuff especially), or you could spin the satellite idea off into something similar, but unique in it's own certain way. 

[DeltaDizzy]

10 minutes ago, Nivee~ said:

I feel stupid... That's why the old coots have said, research is very important before starting on something.

This person is on a different level... Direct Competitor? Nope, he/she's way, way better than me...He/She clearly is way too superior in both modelling and texturing and knows Unity and cfg stuff too.

Hmmph.. at best I will be holding him/her back... at worst I will only be delaying his/her development.

The SAS core is almost exactly what I had envisioned. And those cubesat dispensers are beautiful, much better than what I could make. 

And look at that! Its much, much better than what I had in mind!!

This is disheartening ... But good luck to the modder's endeavors though! I will stick to writing mission reports, it seems... 

If I had stopped making mods every time someone told me I was doing the same thing as someone else, I wouldn't be as close to a release as I am now. Keep going, ask Andrew for advice if you want, but don't stop. Your stuff is good, so don't let it go to waste.

Edited June 10, 2018 by DeltaDizzy

[Daishi]

8 minutes ago, DeltaDizzy said:

If I had stopped making mods every time someone told me I was doing the same thing as someone else, I wouldn't be as close to a release as I am now. Keep going, ask Andrew for advice if you want, but don't stop. Your stuff is good, so don't let it go to waste.

Exactly this. I'm sorry if i burst your bubble, it definitely wasn't my intention. You just need to put a different spin on it somehow! I mean, having a mentor with interests so closely aligned to yours isn't really a bad thing

[hieywiey]

Is that Futura?

[Nivee~]

7 minutes ago, hieywiey said:

Is that Futura?

What are you talking about?

[cineboxandrew]

This looks like a really good idea, just be aware that 20cm cubes is probably a bit impractical in the VAB. even with my .625m cubes it can be a bit difficult to attach things and see what you're doing.

By the way I've tried using Solidworks/Onshape for KSP part modeling... its way too much of a headache trying to get the model at a reasonable poly count and without unnecessary detail.

[hieywiey]

47 minutes ago, Nivee~ said:

What are you talking about?

The font on the models. Futura is a font.

[Nivee~]

31 minutes ago, cineboxandrew said:

reasonable poly count

What should be a reasonable poly count? Mine reached upto 1700 for this part

This is the 20x20x20 chassis...and if I don't find it suitable, can it be rescaled later on?

Edited June 10, 2018 by Nivee~

[cineboxandrew]

1 minute ago, Nivee~ said:

What should be a reasonable poly count? Mine reached upto 1700 for this part

This is the 20x20x20 chassis...and if I don't find it suitable, can it be rescaled later on?

1700 is usually fine, but its pretty high for a part that simple. its probably adding way more polys than you really need on those fillets