CobaltWolf

For a second I thought it was:

Yeah but what sort of science would you be able to do for it? How would it be balanced compared to the stock lab. @TheRedTom we usually say that BDB is balanced for a 2x or 3x (I can never remember) solar system - that is, STOCK is balanced for a 2x or 3x solar system. By balancing against stock, we don't become underpowered compared to other part mods, and the user can use a rescale or SMURFF to adjust the balance.

I don't understand the LMAL fascination, since I still don't understand what the heck it is, how it goes together, and what it would look like. The two graphics on the Astronautix page raise more questions than they answer. I actually have the Mercury Lab modeled, but there's no way to do either of the mechanisms. It would simply be EVA from the Hermes > climb into the little lab. That would also mean that you'd have to fly without a pilot... As you said, the idea was pretty much a non-starter because the Mercury was very inflexible and over complicated in terms of construction. Gemini had far more potential for being used outside the historical flights, but those were simply proposals - everyone knew that it was pointless to try and convince NASA or Congress to divert funding from Apollo at that point. And once you have Apollo, Gemini (which couldn't carry as many astronauts) fell by the wayside as well. The real question is - what purpose would such a part serve in game? Would it be sent up with a mystery goo or something, to try and extra some more science out of it? I'm not sure. At that point in the tech tree, there isn't much purpose for such a part. That's not to say that I don't want one, I just am not sure what a player would do with it. What sort of activities would have been planned for such a 'station' (it's more like the size of one of those Japanese tube hotels) while it was in orbit? Likely some earth observation, I don't know what else.

Oh jesus that is unbearable. (Sorry RedTom, just trying to tease Meeb)

Tantares is mostly payloads/spacecraft, while Tantares LV is all the launchers.

Pretty sure it can be configured as a lab. Moreover, it is set up to run internal experiments using his science system, no? That's what Skylab did. EDIT: Also, on the topic of the coloration - I decided on blue about 20 minutes after I told Venom to ask y'all. Sorry for not updating everyone.

I wasn't even planning on working on Skylab right away. @Angel-125 just released a really awesome one, and BDB has a bunch of half finished stuff that got thrown aside when I decided to make a mad dash to finish Saturn/Apollo/LEM before the 1 year anniversary of the mod (September 30th! Someone should start a countdown!) Oh wow. Please do. I know that if I make the Eyes Turned Skywards Apollo and Saturn variants, I'll have tons of people asking for the landers - which I have not interested in doing. If I do non-LEM based lander architectures, I'll likely be looking elsewhere. I don't care for the Altair design - it just doesn't appeal to me visually. Perhaps you can more definitively answer a question myself and @cxg2827 had the other night - what is the reason for the massive descent stage and the miniature ascent stage? The descent stage is huge, while there's next to no room for the crew to live in the ascent stage. Meanwhile, the shelter variants I've seen still don't have much room.

uhh. Not particularly iirc.

it actually IS the Sanger. At one point in the story, the ESA decides to try and actually develop it. The timeline is realistic and is mostly 'what-if' scenarios of things that were proposed actually getting built.

In Eyes Turned Skywards, MIR is built different than in real life. The Soviets have a Saturn class lifter named Vulkan, which they use to launch a much larger MIR than the real one. It is made of 4 DOS modules, with 2 large MOK modules. The MOK modules are bigger than two DOS modules put together end-to-end. Here is a picture: Additionally, several small spaceplanes are looked at. Here is the ESA Horus: To be clear, I'm not requesting things so much as suggesting things that I think you may find interesting. Here is the page with more art for the alternate history project. http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php?id=timelines:eyes_turned_skyward_media

Awesome! Hraban, if you run out of things to do, the MOK modules for the Eyes Turned Skywards MIR station could use some dedicated parts.

I think that's a little outside the scope of BDB. There's no good way to explain that to players in-game. If it only affected BDB engines, that would be strange. And if it effected every engine, we'd probably wind up with some very surprised and upset players. out of curiosity, Jso, how hard would it be to implement that?

I usually PM one of the CKAN team and ask nicely.

HOPE? Japanese?

well can we see some screenshots?

It's always a balancing act. I have an easier time out the door since I work with both kerbalized color palettes and am working at polycounts/model detail levels closer to the stock game. The issue was that the J2 model was, in the words of another modder (I think), not properly capturing the 'feel' of the J2's fairly unique appearance. The engines should be slightly cartoony and simplified, but thing like the overall silhouette of the J2 were not right. It still have a way to go. You're absolutely correct on that behavior. Considering it's an unstable engine on which the majority of the BDB rocket technology is developed, it's no surprise that it would be dangerous. The thing is basically meant to test the shear limits of early kerolox rocket technology, developing immensely powerful engines while not necessarily knowing how to keep them reliable or give them a long enough lifetime to complete a stage burn. Right now we don't have this feature implemented on any other engines - I felt that it nerfed the BDB engines compared to their counterparts from other mods, while the Dina doesn't have a comparable engine except perhaps the LVT-10 Dachshund from Ven's Stock Revamp. BDB v1.0 (why don't y'all think up some clever names for it while we wait?) will include MM configs that make @Beale's N1 explode ten meters above the launchpad. #SpaceRace2016 Also, if you didn't know - the next release of BDB will be v1.0. Once that is out, I can get started on the interesting stuff...

I guess. I'll think about it, I really hadn't intended on trying to make multiple F1 variants. Anyways, after getting some... less than positive (but appreciated! ) feedback on my J2, I've been trying to rectify the situation. Also, because it has been brought up - the J2 does not have a light colored engine bell. That light coloration is not present on flight examples of the J2 as far as I can tell.

That image is making the rounds again? Always a good laugh. To answer your question, >>shuttle >>SLS no

neither of the LEM engines were AJ10s. One was made by Bell, the ascent stage. The other was made by TRW, the descent stage. For an OMS engine, the ascent stage is more than enough power, and is far simpler. The descent engine was fairly complex. I know they studied using the Ascent engine IRL - the Descent was actually used as the Delta P upper stage for two decades. They weren't looking for big power - another proposal simply added 4 more inline RCS thrusters to the bottom and only using RCS fuel, which gave a TWR closer to Gemini.

can you provide a source for that? I thought it was supposed to be an LMAE.

Only person I can think of that's near there is @Tristonwilson12. I've been to Wallops a couple times but never during a launch. Just passing through on vacation. I think our (read: my) plan was to just give the F1 stats closer to the F1-A. There really isn't much of an external difference and they would fill exactly the same role in terms gameplay niche. I'd also like to make it so the F1 can only throttle down to 70% but I've received pushback there.

Yeah! The question is, does @Beale have those files somewhere. Additionally, @Beale have you seen @curtquarquesso recently? I've missed him.

I think we will have to revert the mass increases on the Apollo / LEM in order to give them enough dV (mostly the CSM - the LEM is pretty ok). One mission phase at a time - I think once we nail down the payloads we can worry about the rest? Of course @Jso is the guy with the numbers there. Remember we are assuming a 2x-3x rescale being 'real world balanced' for KSP parts. Additional worries - the F1 can't be 'conservatively balanced' too much or the Saturn 1C (1 F1 instead of 8 H1s) won't have the ~10% increase in payload that justifies it. EDIT: Remembered my other comment. Remember, IRL the Saturn 1 couldn't lift the final Apollo CSM at all. And the 1B had to launch with the SM only partially fueled. A Blok III style SM would probably have been fine, but the mission module wouldn't be possible.

its well worth it

Not even close. I'll announce once it is.