CobaltWolf

I'm not even close to finishing modeling it let alone texturing it I just wanted to give people a little bit of an update on it / let everyone know I'm messing with it more.

Yeah, I think it needs to be nerfed more. And... idk. I just kept thinking about missiles/rockets like the Kosmos 3 and R-16. I imagine it's just, a bunch of Redstone thrust chambers driven off a common set of machinery. I liked the idea of just having this kinda crappy engine created by pushing primitive technology to its limit.

I didn't see anything poking around, is it possible to define a transform as the camera position?

If anyone hasn't checked out the amazing Chrayol Design Bureau by @DylanSemrau, you should.

Another little treat... tracking versions of the Ranger solar panels! I figured solar panels are things people will never say no to... and now you can use these cool panels in many more designs! I am planning on trying to do the same with the Lunar Orbiter panels.

Shouldn't it be the stepped adapter setup and not the Delta type? And we need to do something about that fairing... Bonus Thor-Ablestar fun...

uhhh I mean I don't see why not. If people want to yeet 1.25m rockets all day let em

My thought was that it would be possible to use the Mercury-Redstone Decoupler and then any other structural adapter with staging disabled. The short variant of the 1.25m interstage, for instance. Or the interstage I just added for the mini-lab (though honestly I should probably delete that part and just... make a version of the 1.25m interstage that's the same length. In general we've been adding the staging toggling so that users can easily convert interstages to structural adapters and vice versa. Which kind of takes care of the second question. I believe that was Editor Extensions, but I think @Zorg uses something that does it automatically and it's nice. There were a variety of additions to the basic "rolled 10ft sheets of stainless steel welded together"... remember, Charlie Bossart was a structural engineer first and foremost. They just had to adjust the numbers in the calculations to figure out how much strengthening they needed for the various configurations, including, yes, varying the thickness of steel slightly.

Saved. I actually usually don't have stuff unless I'm immediately working on the parts in question, so it's always good to share... moreover, better to have me say "yeah I already have that" than miss out on something I might otherwise not have.

If I remember, at that point they essentially were custom... I think chemical milling? the thickness of the Atlas tanks tailoring them for each mission's structural loads. The Atlas tank structure was essentially unchanged all the way through the Atlas IIAS, after all. Just want to thank everyone for posting pictures of your builds and missions, it always is such a joy for me to see what people do with this stuff <3

Someone got on me about an LDC texture option that I said I'd do...

No real ETA yet. At the rate I'm making progress there's a lag while the fine tuning of the parts happens, and I feel like its kind of best to rip the bandaid with this stuff since there's so many interdependent parts. I know at this point I want to do Gemini, Centaur and Vega this update. And theres a bunch of misc stuff struggling behind like the Agena subsats. Regarding the probes... You should make a side install and try the dev builds. Theres probably at least a hundred new probe parts.

Now on Github - Mercury paint scheme variants!

I can make the horizon scanner cover (that's what that is) toggleable no problem

- Yeah, I think it needs to have a surface attach option just... y'know if anyone ever wanted to use it for something else. I'll let someone else test it. I don't care if it works so much as "I put effort into adding this detail and I'll be damned if I have to remove it" - For the retros, alright... crap. It's a bit outside of my wheelhouse (I don't know a lot about actually getting stuff to work?) so that'll have to get fixed by someone. And yeah, I always have the SAS and RCS on for the burns... let me start up with RCS build aid and figure out what kind of torque we're getting. it should fire through the CoM.

Air brake has been added back as a separate part. Actually, here's the notes from my last commit. This is on top of all the work @Jso has been doing refining the parts and adding features for things like sequential firing for the posigrade and retro motors (must be placed in symmetry, disabled by default) - added a proper parachute bag to the mercury main chute - Separated the air brake to a new part - adjusted the RCS and reaction wheel power - increased the capsule EC - adjusted the attach node of the retro motors - adjusted the alignments of the LES motors - added cameraTransform to periscope - added 80% length Atlas 1.25m adapter tank - Tried fixing the jettison caps on the retros Indeed, we are adding a lot of new and duplicate experiments (someone try counting the number of magnetometers...), so we felt a good balance would be to let users get incremental amounts of the science with progressively better experiments.

They're like... half working? we're still adding features to the parts and I have some modeling left to do on stuff like the stored parachutes.

Yeah I don't know... It kinda feels like ripping a bandaid. Might as well try and replace everything at once. And yeah, that'll be the big limiting factor for Gemini recovery options and such. I don't really have any desire to integrate more dependencies. Thanks for the info! That's more than enough for me to go on Morning of the Maple Leaf, E of Pi and Polish Eagle's (authors of Right Side Up) April Fools 2018 timeline.

First priority is to basically get back up to the current state of functionality. The point is, once I've done that, Gemini will no longer be "something that I don't want to add too much to because I want to redo it in the future". Once I've redone it, that block is removed and I can basically count on additional variants I make being forward compatible. The Apollo/Saturn parts have the same problem. I'm just less eager to redo them without knowing how the KSP2 PBR shaders will be set up. I have a very unfinished wishlist for Gemini, with a focus on the current revamp and low-hanging-fruit parts that I would need to make, or need to come with it to replicate current functionality. So for instance I plan on making an SM variant from the "Lunar Recon Gemini" study, where the retro and equipment sections of the adapter are basically welded into a single unit with extra monoprop. That would basically add back the current SM. So here's the wishlist, feel free to suggest things (preferably with links to more information on what you mean) with the understanding I'm willing to hold on to a lot of ideas but might not do more than the essentials for this update... er, that also means that this list doesn't mean I plan on doing this all right now. - Accurate split of service/retro modules - All three parachutes (Drogue, Pilot, Main) - Accurate nose for docking and non docking missions - Dual Point and Single Point parachute options w/ accompanying B9 switch for the capsule to have the bridle... I guess the RCS needs the variants as well? - Early and Late model Retro/Equipment sections - also have B9 switches to take on the other's external appearance if possible. Late model would have fuel cells in addition to batteries - Accurate RCS layout - Toggleable mylar covering over bottom of equipment section. - Accurate hatches (ie two of them. Won't be able to do the IRL "door open during IVA" thing. - Gemini-I hatch B9 switch (adds upwards looking window, was also studied for MORL Ferry) - Gemini 4 Magnetometer (mounts in aft section) - Gemini 7 (6?)... gold thingies that are mounted on the SM - Radar Evaluation Pod (basically a little probe you deploy that lets you practice rendezvous... leave me alone its cute) - Gemini Rogallo paintjob (Paint variants in general...) - Morning of the Maple Leaf Arrow SM - Lunar Recon Gemini parts (LES has already been made) - Gemini Ferry for MORL parts (mostly modified SM) - Gemini B (MOL Gemini) parts - alternate SM, alternate heatshield would be cool if pointless. But probably worth doing. - Revamped Augustus autonomous pod, Big G crew cabin and the 1.875m "Rumble Seat" with respective - Legs/skids? Would require a modified RCS section and then depth-mask based legs that go in the empty panels on the Gemini. IE I'll have to UV it so that looks right from the get-go. Easy, since the panel layout remained unchanged on the real thing.

Lol oops forgot to post these

Forum user @PickledTripod weathering out the quarantine with me. Thought we'd stream some speed modeling of something special...

I haven't been at my Unity PC much lately (and will continue to be busy - I'm taking a hiatus for a couple days due to IRL plans) but here's a progress update on the Mercury lab stuff... General plan is to include these parts when I finally get a chance to sit down and finish my task list for Mercury. (there's a lot of rough spots and things to fix still)

You can see it dangling limp from the capsule in photos of the recovery. The heatshields were recovered, after all.