CobaltWolf

If I remember (I don't do much of the balancing for the mod) it's about 5.5K dV that you need for orbit in 2.5x. Early rockets I think are maybe a little underpowered because their payloads were very small and hard to recreate in KSP. The Saturn V in the stock system has way too much dV. I think I understand - the actuator can be mounted towards the bottom since that won't change the angle the linear pressure is being applied to the nozzle from. There will be at least two, yes - I had experimented with 4 so there was more symmetry but I don't know if I'll keep it. The weird thing about the extension actuators on the pictures from the Nuclear Museum is it doesn't seem like the hinge on the 3rd section can slide up and down the rod - maybe I'm misunderstanding it and there is a smaller-diameter rod inside that it pushes on? That would be neat looking in game to watch extend... Perhaps this drawing will help? The Engine Nozzle Extension.... uh, C-something (ENEC) Actuator is clearly called out above the 3rd stage, and it appears the Nozzle Thrust Vector Actuator is called out below it.

nee-nerr nee-nerr

I've definitely come across visual depictions of this but I don't care to share them here.

@Pappystein @schoff123 alright then, I suppose I have one more question - for my purposes, they would essentially be mounted angling away from the nozzle to allow gimballing clearance, and apart from that they would be essentially a fixed, stationary part of the end cap from our perspective? ie the actuation would be buried and not visible?

Thank you, that is very helpful! However, I am still puzzled by the Castor 30 which uses a different method of actuation than the STAR 48 and 37 that @Pappystein posted. While those work pretty much as you expect - they are perpendicular to the nozzle, with one end fixed to a stirrup and the other fixed to the engine bell. However on the Castor 30, you can see the actuator below the nozzle in this image, it almost appears to be jammed in the space where 'Flexible Joint' is written on your diagram. Also note that it appears that one end of the linear actuator appears to be more or less floating and not connected to anything other than a cable. Strangely enough, I was able to find who makes the actuators for this specific model of engine. Didn't tell me a whole lot though.

go away, bother @Daishi

I for one like the traditional Tantares gray soyuz quite a bit

IIRC was that not a station, but a spare Almaz converted to be a giant satellite? In any case - if a purpose can be found, I think it should be made! More variety the better.

Well, it sounds like the Realchute.cfg in the compatibility folder was it. Thanks for helping me figure it out! EDIT: Well, I don't know WHY the config would screw up... it shouldn't activate unless there is a "RealChute" folder in your gamedata, @KnedlikMCPE do you have one somehow?

Alright, can one of you do me a favor, and go into Gamedata\Bluedog_DB\Compatibility and delete the RealChute folder, and tell me if that fixes things? The config hasn't been updated in over 2 years so I don't know why it would be screwing up now. @Skyrunner84 if you do this make sure you uninstall RealChute as well!

But, everything is working now? I am not sure what the issue would be other than perhaps the RealChute configs were running when they shouldn't. Me neither! Had to take the last couple of nights off to take care of Real Life TM but hopefully I'm going to be able to kick some more stuff out the next couple of days.

(I don't know why you cut part of your post, forums aren't instant messaging, you can reply to older stuff ) I had to go dig up our old conversation about the dimensions for the MX stages. Good news is, I threw them together in Maya and they seemed to be scaled properly. Bad news is, I can't find anything on how the nozzle extensions worked You mentioned 3 actuators, and I was able to identify them in photos from the Nuclear Museum but they don't appear to interface with the non-extending part of the nozzle. (Twitter link has an image in the third tweet or so from that series) Related, but I am struggling to understand how the actuators for these solid engines work. Near as I can tell it's just some linear actuators jammed up inside the mate between the embedded nozzle and the casing, but that doesn't make much sense to me - it's not like they're pushing against the nozzle with any sort of leverage. I'm sort of in a holding pattern for detailing the nozzles on the 1.5m solids as a result, in addition to what I asked about above. One issue I'm noticing with these revamps is I am spending a lot of time doing research, collecting photo references, etc because I really, really, really don't want to have to remodel all this stuff again. I want it to be right the first time So, if I don't have an answer or solution to something, I will err on the side of collecting more information before I commit. EDIT: I have been informed that all the MX-Peacekeeper stages use Liquid Injection TVC, but that doesn't answer the question for the Castor 30/30XL and the STAR-37FV and STAR-48BV, which use some sort of hydraulic actuators. I suppose the Burner 2 equipment could be a 'strap on' part, but it wouldn't look as nice (I couldn't bake the AO shadows in if I did that) and would be fairly single use I'd think, or at least, difficult to make useable in other configurations. I suppose thrust vectoring would be possible, but in that case I think I would combine them. Either have the existing STAR motors with minimum hardware (ie just the actuators, not the boxes and cabling and such on the real 'V' models) but with wiggleable nozzles... or, I don't know what else. Will have to make a pt 2 post this afternoon since I had some more things to share, but for now see how the Athena-II is taking shape. I think I've settled on the Castor 30 version being the one represented in BDB, since the Orbus 21 will have to be for IUS and I don't feel the part would be able to fill both roles. This image also illustrates a bit how overscaled Scout is in BDB to fit within stock sizes... EDIT: If the Athena looks a bit too short, it might be. I need to check the lengths of the Castors, and I have been leaving a little extra room for decouplers.

Hercules BE-3 0.3125m Solid kick motor STAR-48B / "PAM-D" 0.9375m Perigee Kick Solid

@Stone Blue

Yeah, the X-242 is the one I chose to base my models on since it looked cooler than the other versions I found (cylindrical body, conical nozzle, so boring ). Come to think, the micro RCS booms are also due for a remake, so they are actually capable of 3 axis stabilization...

I think I see the issue; X-248 and X-258 are both referred to as 'Altair' so I assumed they were the same. In any case, that feeds into my hold up with adding more of these small solids - the 0.3125m size probably has enough flexibility between the Staara-10 and Staara-20, and I don't want to add another diameter.

This is the motor that the Staara-10-LYC motor is supposed to represent, but yeah I'll keep that in mind. Though, it's interesting that you bring up those other solids since the X-248, X-258, and FW-4D are represented by the Staara-20 (New model for which is shown about halfway up this page) and not the Staara-10.

Sketched out a model for the Athena 2 Orbital Adjustment Module. 1.5m monoprop course correction / kick stage, for fixing your orbit after your solids have finished firing. Not this isn't textured, I just set some basic materials and rendered it with AO to make the details stand out a bit. It has 4 MR-107 thrusters (the current HAPS has 4 I think, new HAPS will have have the more accurate 3) as well as 6 RCS thrusters for attitude control. If this isn't big enough for you, there will also be the Peacemaker Post Boost Vehicle (PBV), which is also 1.5m but will have a small LFO engine and tanks.

Speaking of things people have never heard of, here's another series of missions that used some of the motors mentioned here (Including @Tiankay's STAR-13) Full article on Drew Ex Machina

Yup, when you need just a little boost... still need the BE-3, which is another 0.3125m SRB but half as long! Before serving as an occasional kick stage for launchers like Scout E-1 and Redstone-Sparta, this stage was originally used for the first American attempts to soft land something on the Moon, the Ranger Block 2 series. What do my users think they would use it for? Note, this would replace that tiny 0.3125m gray sphere-ish SRB that is in the mod. I didn't have any good reference when I originally made it.

first (this sounds insane in a good way)

Because the IVAs aren't done?

Was it this one?

I thought it was a sick bag...