[0.90.0] NanoKube - Ultra-tiny probes!

[Toom1275]

Good things come in small packages. Launch swarms of tiny, low-cost satellites when you're on a money or weight budget.

If you're interested in the currently-growing area of Nanosatellite missions such as CubeSats, this is the mod for you. While these Kubes may not provide the most science compared to some other options, they're simple and inexpensive to make, costing between 160-500 Funds each depending on how you want to build it. Fly a swarm of 20 of them for less than 5000 Funds. They are very small and lightweight, having minimal weight impact on a rocket. You could even slap one on the side of another mission to get a little more from your launch. The experiments are designed to be repeated many times, so unless you want to spend a long time making one Kube do all the work, launching multiples is recommended.

Currently includes two experiments: A particle detector on the smaller-sized probe, and a combination magnetic field detector/particle detector on the larger one. The small one is a mere 10cm/side.

These Kubes are meant to reflect the simpler design of nanosatellites compared to larger and more complex satellites, so you can start flying them at tech level 4. Super-tiny reaction wheels take some extra tech to design however, so expect to be flying the probes without them at first until you get your research a couple levels higher.

Mod includes: 4 probes(2 each of each size, one with reaction wheels, one without

2 types of solar panels, sized for each probe type

A decoupler sized and tuned for very small probes

An antenna to match the probes

Also adds two custom science experiments for the kubes to perform.

Download from Curse:

http://www.curse.com/ksp-mods/kerbal/227600-nanokube

How-to-assemble-a-Kube guide:

http://imgur.com/a/IvFBo

Pix:

Future Plans:

Compatibility with Realism Overhaul

Compatibility with RemoteTech

Consolidating parts into single model

Licence:

Full license in download .zip

CC-BY-SA 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Edited February 9, 2015 by Toom1275
Added future plans

[Lord_Chappington]

Looks pretty cool might try and launch on into orbit on a sounding rocket

[CalculusWarrior]

Oh fantastic! I'm actually building a CubeSat IRL, and was hoping for a model in KSP!

[Joshwoo70]

The size of the kube are like 0.625m parts.. so just get some tiny engines and tiny tanks to make a ascent stage... you yield you in orbit

[Toom1275]

Oh fantastic! I'm actually building a CubeSat IRL, and was hoping for a model in KSP!

Nice! We have some CubeSat project groups at my college, which is were I got the idea for my addon. I tried to keep the masses, electric charges, and Funds costs for my Kubes as close as I could figure to IRL CubeSat values while not making them glitchy in KSP.

The size of the kube are like 0.625m parts.. so just get some tiny engines and tiny tanks to make a ascent stage... you yield you in orbit

Well, less 0.625m parts and more like 0.1m parts, though now you make want to try taking the 0.625 parts and try your idea.

[Kerbal01]

Maybe a PPOD equiv next? Would be neat if possible.

[MoeKitsune]

How do I uninstall this? I'm afraid to break something.

[gooddog15]

just delete it from your gamedata folder.

from what I can see, there is no dependencies, so it shouldn't be a problem.

[Astrofox]

Love the mod, the only thing it needs now is the conversion to kilowatts for Realism overhaul, considering that the mod is already at appropriate size (for parts of course).

(post script: This mod actually answered a mod suggestion of mine, so huge thanks, but the thing it really needs is N-prize material , anyway thanks.)

[MoeKitsune]

just delete it from your gamedata folder.

from what I can see, there is no dependencies, so it shouldn't be a problem.

The readme said to copy the parts and resources folders into the KSP main folder, so I did that. How do I uninstall it without breaking stuff? also, the textures don't show up.

[Toom1275]

Maybe a PPOD equiv next? Would be neat if possible.

The NanoKube Flinger was the best I could make for the PPOD for now. To make a realistic PPOD, it'd have to launch about 4 kubes at once and separate them from each other at the same time. Not sure how to do that. Do you think that a good middleground for a PPOD-like decoupler would be for it to to launch the whole pile locked together, which is then separated by the flingers after deployment? Just visualizing that a formal launcher box would look really nice on the end of an Infernal Robotics arm like you see in pictures of the real PPOD in use off of the ISS.

Love the mod, the only thing it needs now is the conversion to kilowatts for Realism overhaul, considering that the mod is already at appropriate size (for parts of course).

(post script: This mod actually answered a mod suggestion of mine, so huge thanks, but the thing it really needs is N-prize material , anyway thanks.)

Sounds like I got another thing to add for my future to-do list. Kilowatts was my starting point for setting power rates, but if I made the power values too small, all I saw in-game was power rates of 0.0, rather than 0.02. These things were intended to be as realistic as I could get in KSP while avoiding those things like an apparent 0 power consumption. If Realism Overhaul allows for more precise units, I do want to give that a try, and make a separate version tuned for RO.

As you can see from my join date, I mainly started on the forums here to make this thread, so I didn't see any requests for such. This started more as a senior project. I'm glad you like it. I hadn't heard of the N-prize until you mentioned it. It looks like the primary way in which these Kubes don't qualify yet is in part costs.

While I think I want to keep my part costs where they are, the rules for N-prize seem to allow you to change the costs yourself to be at least 20.

For your benefit, I've gone through my parts and these are the ones I've found to have costs under 20:

NanoKube Antenna 5

NanoKube Flinger 10*

NanoKube Solar Cells 1x1 (NanoKube_Solar_Static_1) 10

*The N-prize rules post says that structural parts like decouplers can cost less than 20, as long as their force is <5 kN. My Flinger's force, as long as KSP's force units are in kN like I think, is 0.02kN, so it should still qualify as it is.

On second thought, I think I also had to make these things 'physics-less' parts, in that they don't have mass or aerodynamics until they've been deployed. Without this setting, a stack of cubes would act as though they were made out of rubber while on the ground and especially during launch, and look really silly. As in, the cube on the outer end of the stack would sag halfway down the height of the rocket. I'm not sure if these quasi-massless parts would still qualify. I see the rules have limits on price and force, but I don't see anything about mass in the OP.

How do I uninstall this? I'm afraid to break something.

Should I make the installation instructions clearer?

By KSP main folder, I mean KSP_win(on Windows machines), where Parts copies into Parts, and Resources copies into Resources.

The parts folders and other files my mod adds should be:

Parts/NanoKube_111

Parts/NanoKube_113

Parts/NanoKube_Antenna

Parts/NanoKube_Flinger

Parts/NanoKube_Solar_Static_1

Parts/NanoKube_Solar_Static_3

Resources/ScienceDefs.cfg

The readme said to copy the parts and resources folders into the KSP main folder, so I did that. How do I uninstall it without breaking stuff? also, the textures don't show up.

As long as it was copied into KSP_win or whatever KSP's root folder is, I don't expect any problems in removing them. Just remove the parts folders mentioned above, and the ScienceDefs from the resources folder.

The only way I can forsee any problems uninstalling it would be if it were put somewhere like GameData/Squad. In that case, My ScienceDefs would overwrite the vanilla ScienceDefs.

I have no idea why the textures aren't showing up for you. I tested on two separate computers with versions 0.90.0 and 0.25.0, and double-checked by testing the mod installed straight from the download rather than my own files, and didn't notice any missing or broken textures. The only time I noticed missing textures for my parts was very early on when I was still learning how to model and import things into Unity. I had considered re-exporting my models with .mbm textures instead of .png textures, but Unity was being silly and breaking/retexturing/resizing my models with just a simple change of export settings, so I stopped trying.

This is my first addon, and I"m still new to how to cleanly package it. The last thing I want is to break someone's game with my addon, so if there's anything I can do better as far as the installation instructions are concerned, I'd be happy for suggestions.

[ACCount]

Are these CubeSats KASable? Storing CubeSats in KAS container and launching them from EVA would be nice.

Edited February 9, 2015 by ACCount

[Axelord FTW]

Are these CubeSats KASable? Storing CubeSats in KAS container and launching them from EVA would be nice.

Now, that would be nice.

By KSP main folder, I mean KSP_win(on Windows machines), where Parts copies into Parts, and Resources copies into Resources.

[...]

The only way I can forsee any problems uninstalling it would be if it were put somewhere like GameData/Squad.

[...]

This is my first addon, and I"m still new to how to cleanly package it.

Having the whole thing be installed in gamedata/ would be a good start. I haven't seen a mod be installed elsewhere in two-ish years. No wonder some people (At least one) are having installation problems. At this point, the main ksp folder for mods is universally understood to be under gamedata/.

[Tommygun]

Are these CubeSats KASable? Storing CubeSats in KAS container and launching them from EVA would be nice.

There is a limitation with KAS containers. You can't store anything assembled in them.

It would be tricky trying to assemble one on EVA.

[SmarterThanMe]

There is a limitation with KAS containers. You can't store anything assembled in them.

It would be tricky trying to assemble one on EVA.

Just integrate the solar panels and antennae into the actual cube itself. Why do they need to be separate parts anyway?

[Axelord FTW]

There is a limitation with KAS containers. You can't store anything assembled in them.

It would be tricky trying to assemble one on EVA.

Cubic struts are great for building stuff in EVA.

Build anything on it then grab off the cube or store it directly.

If it had RemoteTech compatibility I would download in a heartbeat. Even if It didn't even need any torque (or very, very low) it would be worth it. Better than launching anything off a bigger craft. Just this, a 3x1 solar panel and an omni antenna. Great for manned comsat setup crew and operations.

[Toom1275]

Now, that would be nice.

Having the whole thing be installed in gamedata/ would be a good start. I haven't seen a mod be installed elsewhere in two-ish years. No wonder some people (At least one) are having installation problems. At this point, the main ksp folder for mods is universally understood to be under gamedata/.

Sounds good. I haven't really done much using of mods since version 0.18, so my knowledge is out of date. Putting it into main/Parts and main/Resources worked for development, so that's what I thought would work for the distributed version. I took a look at some other [Part] style mods just now, and I think I have the basic structure down. I'll have a better-packaged version of the .zip, one that should work in GameData, up shortly after this post.

Cubic struts are great for building stuff in EVA.

Build anything on it then grab off the cube or store it directly.

If it had RemoteTech compatibility I would download in a heartbeat. Even if It didn't even need any torque (or very, very low) it would be worth it. Better than launching anything off a bigger craft. Just this, a 3x1 solar panel and an omni antenna. Great for manned comsat setup crew and operations.

Most of my development was without consideration of other major mods; just making this a standalone thing, at least to start. I remember using RemoteTech some time ago, and I do agree compatibility would be fun to add. Already got tuning things for RO-compatibility on my to-do list. Are there any tricks I can use to have one set of files to be cross-compatible depending on what the dowloader has installed in their KSP, or is it better to split my project into different versions for each mod?

I'm not sure about KAS integration for the moment. Before I started making this 2-3 months ago, I hadn't even used Blender before. Making the cubes as one solid piece with every feature, though, while it would remove some configuration freedom, I guess, it would really help with trying to assemble them. No more fiddling with pieces smaller than the attachment nodes in the VAB where the camera doesn't zoom in far enough. Thinking ahead, the only part of making my Kubes self-contained that I don't know how to do is to allow for more than one solar panel per part. Can anyone help me with that? It may also fix the issue I had with making custom deployable panels as well. I had wanted to include a set for the 3U chassis, but the best I could get them, they only would produce power when edge-on to the Sun, rather than face-on.

Since the Kubes could be built with or without panels on the top and bottom, and there's currently no restrictions on where the kube's antennas can be placed, I think these choices would be lost going to a 1-part system. Would anyone mind if the antennas were integrated? And do I need to make another set of models that have both 4 and 6 panels, or just pick one type and discard the other?

[Wabbit]

Oh, now this is cool! I am going to launch an armada of them to attack my enemies! *wierd robbaz growl voice* The cubelings will destroy you, hahaha!

Okay, have some rep!

[Toom1275]

Okay, new file's been submitted to Curse for approval. I've restructured things so there's just one NanoKube folder to copy into GameData now, to bring this in line with the standard. I did just a quick test copying it over to my other PC, but it worked well enough there. I'll test again once it's been approved and I can download it from there.

Tested on a clean KSP 0.90 with my newest version straight from the download page. It seems to still work alright, so I guess I did it right.

Edited February 9, 2015 by Toom1275
additional info

[rabidninjawombat]

Just integrate the solar panels and antennae into the actual cube itself. Why do they need to be separate parts anyway?

I would this would be awesome as well. Single part and KASable would be really neat (maybe as an extra part for those that still want to assemble them)

[Toom1275]

I'm gonna try to close off this thread if at all possible. (If a moderator needs to do it, can one please help with this?) I've republished this mod under my 'work' name and I want to re-make this forum thread under that account.

[sal_vager]

Closed

Good addon Toom.