Build a fully stock hanging base!

[SudAntares]

Yes, you read it right.
The challenge is, to build a fully stock hanging base under one of the Münar Arches.
If you think it's hard, yes it it. If you think it's impossible, no it's not.

Hanging base (mostly short description):
A special kind of artificial structure, which only can be built on the surface of the Mün. The basic idea of a hanging base is, that it attaches itself somehow to one of the three Münar Arches, and hangs down from there. It doesn't really fit in the categories of the surface base or the space station, so it „hangs” between them.
However in the Tracking Station from the gathered data, the tracking computer says it's „Landed”, but in fact – as the name suggests – it hangs over the surface, from the top of
the Arch. This kind of base doesn't have more benefits than the „normal” bases or space stations, but it's a great challenge to build one. In the next coming parts I'll show
you how I built my own, very first stock Hang-O-Base. But I also admit that I'm not the only one who ever built a base like this. If you look up TheSpacePirate on YouTube,
you'll find that he also built a hanging base, a year earlier (14.04.2018 ) than me (10.02.2019), but both of us used the KIS/KAS mods. We also used different ways to build our
bases. He used SSTO's and docked all the parts together in LKO, meanwhile I used one single rocket to launch the whole in one.

Now, when the 2 DLC's are ready to support any kind of mad things you want to build, I decided to do it once again, without mods, fully stock...

The rules:
You may use ONLY STOCK parts (Making History and Breaking Ground dlc's are allowed)
You may NOT USE any mods which adds parts, moving crafts (like Hyperedit, Warp drives, Vessel Mover, etc), or add "connectors", like KIS/KAS (visual mods - like Scatterer, EVE, etc - are allowed)
You may NOT USE any of the cheats from the Alt-F12 cheat menu.
You can launch the whole base in one launch or in parts. The ideal solution is up to you.

Photos and/or videos about the named challenge from participants are necessary.

To give you an idea, I share you a video and a photo about my base to prove it can be done.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by SudAntares
Paste the link of the video properly.

[EveMaster]

Expert level: hanging base in the Tylo cave. 

[Klapaucius]

That's phenomenal.  I am so impressed you got that to attach like  a bracelet.  Please keep this one open, I may need to come back at some point, but I am due for a KSP Break after a lot of hours recently.

 

Really, really cool.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Klapaucius

[HebaruSan]

Great challenge! It's giving me some robotics-related ideas that I might have to try out...

11 hours ago, SudAntares said:

But I also admit that I'm not the only one who ever built a base like this. If you look up TheSpacePirate on YouTube,
you'll find that he also built a hanging base, a year earlier (14.04.2018 ) than me (10.02.2019), but both of us used the KIS/KAS mods. We also used different ways to build our bases. He used SSTO's and docked all the parts together in LKO, meanwhile I used one single rocket to launch the whole in one.

This is apparently that, to save folks the trouble of searching (not my video at all):

 

[HebaruSan]

Someone else (still not me) posted this to a Reddit weekly challenge, originally from 2016, probably too mod-heavy:

• https://imgur.com/a/upxg5
• https://imgur.com/a/wlyAC

[SudAntares]

8 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

Someone else (still not me) posted this to a Reddit weekly challenge, originally from 2016, probably too mod-heavy:

• https://imgur.com/a/upxg5
• https://imgur.com/a/wlyAC

Very impressive design, and I like it, but it was made with KIS/KAS.

[SudAntares]

2 hours ago, EveMaster said:

Expert level: hanging base in the Tylo cave. 

Belive me, it was hard enough. I mean the hanging base.

Edited May 10, 2020 by SudAntares

[dnbattley]

Interesting: early Kraken-powered station support mechanisms have been (mostly) successful...

[AHHans]

On 5/10/2020 at 10:44 AM, SudAntares said:

You may NOT USE any of the cheats from the Alt-F12 cheat menu.

IMHO this adds little extra challenge to the task. If I can build it in the VAB and cost or speed is not an issue, then I can also get it from the launchpad to any place on the Mun. Just add an oversized booster, climb slowly out of Kerbin's atmosphere, accelerate into orbit, transfer to the Mun, and land. If you run out of fuel or whatever then add a bigger booster.

So I would suggest that you change that to allow people to start close to the Mun-Arch with the cheat menu.
(But in the end it's up to you.)

Edited May 11, 2020 by AHHans

[AHHans]

Well, anyhow, no matter if you want a place for your scientists to study the underside of a Mun Arch or if you want a special place for your tourists where they have something to look up to every morning, when you want to have a base suspended from a Mun Arch then look no further, AHTech Industries has the solution for you:

The Hanging Optimized Observation Karavansary
also known as
The Hook

This fantastic piece of engineering does not need hinges or pistons or other newfangled, unstable, and Kraken-baity parts. Just good old fashioned rocketry, structural engineering, and precision piloting.

And maybe now Jeb has a place that is grand enough to hang his ego.

So, yes, this craft was designed to not need any DLC. The full voyage of this from the launchpad to the Mun can be found on imgur: https://imgur.com/a/chJSXxG
As you can imagine getting this onto the Mun Arch is a bit tricky and it took me a few tries to get it done. But with the rocket engine set to compensate gravity you can use RCS to maneuver it into position.

[Edit:] The craft is now also available on Kerbalx: The Hook

Edited May 13, 2020 by AHHans

[Klapaucius]

20 minutes ago, AHHans said:

Well, anyhow, no matter if you want a place for your scientists to study the underside of a Mun Arch or if you want a special place for your tourists where they have something to look up to every morning, when you want to have a base suspended from a Mun Arch then look no further, AHTech Industries has the solution for you:

The Hanging Optimized Observation Karavansary
also known as
The Hook

This fantastic piece of engineering does not need hinges or pistons or other newfangled, unstable, and Kraken-baity parts. Just good old fashioned rocketry, structural engineering, and precision piloting.

And maybe now Jeb has a place that is grand enough to hang his ego.

So, yes, this craft was designed to not need any DLC. The full voyage of this from the launchpad to the Mun can be found on imgur: https://imgur.com/a/chJSXxG
As you can imagine getting this onto the Mun Arch is a bit tricky and it took me a few tries to get it done. But with the rocket engine set to compensate gravity you can use RCS to maneuver it into position.

Announcement heard recently on a Mun base:  "Val and Jeb, please get your flight gear and report to the main hanger."

 

I'd like to see you build a dress shirt to go on that.

[SudAntares]

10 hours ago, dnbattley said:

Interesting: early Kraken-powered station support mechanisms have been (mostly) successful...

Can you explain that?

36 minutes ago, AHHans said:

Well, anyhow, no matter if you want a place for your scientists to study the underside of a Mun Arch or if you want a special place for your tourists where they have something to look up to every morning, when you want to have a base suspended from a Mun Arch then look no further, AHTech Industries has the solution for you:

The Hanging Optimized Observation Karavansary
also known as
The Hook

This fantastic piece of engineering does not need hinges or pistons or other newfangled, unstable, and Kraken-baity parts. Just good old fashioned rocketry, structural engineering, and precision piloting.

And maybe now Jeb has a place that is grand enough to hang his ego.

So, yes, this craft was designed to not need any DLC. The full voyage of this from the launchpad to the Mun can be found on imgur: https://imgur.com/a/chJSXxG
As you can imagine getting this onto the Mun Arch is a bit tricky and it took me a few tries to get it done. But with the rocket engine set to compensate gravity you can use RCS to maneuver it into position.

Yes, you done it right. I like your "simplistic" design (compared to mine) too. How does it handles the timewarp?

[dnbattley]

2 hours ago, SudAntares said:

Can you explain that?

Certainly: Kraken drives can generate a constant force that can be used to make objects "stick" to walls/ceilings etc.*, which survives changing vessels as well as physics range transitions and, up to a point, time warp (physical time warp has the effect of making the force less powerful, but with a powerful enough drive/light enough load that should still be fine). With this test I flew and stuck three individual "pegs" of different designs to the Mun arch, two of which worked and one I crashed trying to get it into position. My assumption is that I can then stick attachments to these parts to make a hanging base.

* E.g. my "donuts on the VAB" video:

Spoiler

 

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by dnbattley

[AHHans]

12 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

"Val and Jeb, please get your flight gear and report to the main hanger."

The Hook! Not the hanger!

12 hours ago, SudAntares said:

How does it handles the timewarp?

Fine. At its first position (on imgur the image where it hang at 98m elevation) it started to slide, but I moved it to the right (thus the change to 103m elevation) to a more flat section of the Arch, and there it hangs and just swings gently in the breeze. (Yes, good thing that there are no storms on the Mun.)

12 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

I'd like to see you build a dress shirt to go on that.

But that would cover up all the windows! (And do you have a good way to make fabric in KSP?)

Edited May 12, 2020 by AHHans

[EveMaster]

On 5/10/2020 at 11:17 PM, SudAntares said:

Belive me, it was hard enough. I mean the hanging base.

I believe you. Your docking maneuver to close the ring seemed very difficult. However, I was not trolling but thinking about if it might be possible to create a Tylo hanging base in stock KSP as absurd as it might seem.

I was able to install an anchor for a hanging base at the Tylo cave using the cheat menu for infinite fuel, infinite electricity and reduced gravity. The anchor held in place when I turned the gravity back to normal levels and it survives 5 reloads. Not sure if I can manage it without cheats. I have ideas about constructing a foldable anchor but it is difficult to get it sturdy enough. Maybe I can manage it using docking ports that dock to the craft itself.

Here is a picture of my hanging base anchor at the Tylo cave:

Spoiler

[EveMaster]

I managed to build a stock Tylo hanging science base and bring it to Tylo without cheats. The crane just fits into the largest fairing. I had to offset the fairing from the center of mass because otherwise it would not fit. Once the fairing is off the craft is perfectly balanced so that the  center of mass does not shift when fuel is used.

Orbit is reached with 19 Vector engines in the center and 24 aspargus stages mammoth engines. The transfer stage has 7 Wolfhound engines in the center and 8 Wolfhound engines aspargus staged. The lander stage has 4 Vector engines. The delta-V is more than sufficient for a direct transfer. About 1000 m/s are  surplus and allow for a less than optimal descent. The craft has also full mining equipment so that it can fly to the correct position after landing first on the ground.

The science base is stored horizontally. Telescopic pistons support the science base during deployment. The rope is made up of small cube elements connected by small joints. Small docking ports secure the folded up cube elements during deployment, because the small joints are not strong enough to support the weigth alone.

 When fully deployed the height difference between the top platform and the hanging science base is 184m.

  

The deployment process:

  

Link to craft file: https://kerbalx.com/EveMaster/Tylo-Cave-Hanging-Base

Edited June 6, 2020 by EveMaster
Added link to KerbalX