endl

its a refuel car the legs raise up the height of the dock so that it can merge with my lander/base ships. when the legs are folded it lines up with my other ground vehicles. basically its for compatability with my other designs.

that mod looks useful but thats not the type of symmetry problems im having. its more of a inaccessible side type of deal. i was thinking about the legs as being a balance issue but i think i know what im going to do now so ty.

the problem with those methods is twofold for me. 1. im trying to deliver multiple variant rover types simultaneously because the payloads are small and i dont want to over complicate them with space assembly or multiple launches 2. they are none symmetrical in design so mounting them from certain positions is impossible. thus i have created this 60t 450 part monster with 6 rovers for balance. ive completed my structural tests and made necessary changes i just need to add a lifter and its ready for its mission. i would have preferred some better tools to deal with the design restrictions but it seems the best i can do right now is either a under developed mod where i have to launch large rockets multiple times for payloads under 10t. or create a complicated monster like the one i posted. heres the pre-lifter finalized version craft file i use girders for legs and rails with magnetic winch for deployment, youll have to blow some radial couplers to severe the stability struts after you clamp the magnets but before you extend the rails. dont drop the winch too much after magnet locking, i made control groups feel free to go through them.

thats my point though, where is the trade off, what do i gain by using the mod over making my own lander? im shipping more fuel, less payload vs more payload less fuel. fuel i dont need and shouldnt be the primary reason for using a hangar. what i need is clean packaging that cuts down my part count and allows me to balance my fuel through the rest of the staging. by forcing fuel into the payload itself it actually limits my options for smaller rockets. its also a problem of geometry, (more instances of vessel does not fit) because the way its taking space through simulation makes no sense. if i combine the vtol and rover it wont fit, but if i make two separate vehicles it does when geometrically the combined vehicles take less space.

just wanted to share my latest lander, mine comes in at under 60t holds 6 rovers, yours comes in at 70 holds at most 2. its 500 parts though and you need KAS/robotics. guess im stuck with this until a better compromise is available craft file

welp heres what i cam up with, ive created a monster. i think it might work though if can fix up the legs craft file

yea, i am lol. here is the finished blackbird, the finish crew ship, an alternate version of the crew ship with improved wing profile for better glide and an attempt at none sp+ version crewship still needs more thrust i think as well as some odds and ends. craft files

thats not really true, the total glide power of your craft results in an extended landing range and allows for a more controlled approach speed

so you can fold in the wheels is what you meant. btw the html link imgur provides wont work on this BB based board. you have to use [ imgur ]nUqYP[ /imgur ] in this case

yea i just wanted to get a more accurate measure of how much wing i need so that i can land without engines.

so is there a preferred ratio for lift/drag or do you just want to be in the positive? in which case is there a mod that tells you total drag?

stock aero i know about the lift rating, im after the calculation or a best guess estimate of the mass to lift ratio

ive read the thread by keptin in regards to basic aerodynamics but it doesnt really mention much about what makes a good glider, is there a general rule about how much wing spread you need, or does KSP have some king of magic ratio that will determine how much lift you get just from the wings?

can you elaborate on what a folding design means?

here is the black bird i recreated it, the intakes still need to be balanced with 6 engines i need to figure out how many i need. also as you can see the COM and COL are really close with this set up so its easier to flip her(i could fix that by moving the wings up but its actually really fun with this balance). the benefit though is that it has the the same fuel but a bigger/empty cargo bay while only weighing 2 tons more then the fighter version craft file

does anyone else feel this area needs more parts from the dev/mod community. im having alot of problems getting my craft mission worthy. i tried using the hangars mod but its still under developed, my rovers have symmetry that dont work well with the mods designs and the ones that do this mod has some strangely heavy set ups for what for me should be very tiny payloads. if i were to design a system without mods it makes for some very problematic rocket design. download rover any advice/help/mod suggestions to help further my rovers to their destination would be appreciated. ideally these things are so tiny i would like to deliver them together using one system.

yea i thought so, i guess we can always ask the dev to update the api

i have a system where anything i design gets a project code name, if the design works it gets a official name. for example my organization is called ESSM (endl spacial standards manufacturing), then i have a general purpose designation, OS,MS,VS which is just a classification for orbital series, mission series, vehicles series. this really helps when im jumping through designs so i remember what something was built for instead of giving it a random name i cant recall later. afterwhich then the part gets a name for its application. so for my space station its called "ESSM-OS-station core" since its not meant to be a lander/base or rover it wont get a VS or MS in the name. but since i have other parts in the OS line such as station dock and dock expansion it doesnt make sense to call the station itself ESSM blah blah so once i got the stuff up there and assembled i gave it an official name of ESSM-OS-ODIN since its a science station with a bunch of other parts for expanded operations flying high overhead watching you while your in the shower and all that jazz. concequentally i named my SSTO crew ship ESSM-VS-Valkyrie the actual save file is called ESSM-VS-spaceplane

yea the side tanks are a must if you want to keep a short profile, from all of the aero science i read this is the only way i could figure out how to keep the high maneuverability profile of a fighter jet. since you went long i would go for more of a delta wing profile to give it a high glide aspect. i had a earlier design before this thread that was more of a "blackbird" jet type profile. i basically had 3 parallel fuselage with wings linking them and was able to hit a 110k orbit using rocket trajectory, but i deleted it a while ago since it was all out of gas by that point. im thinking about recreating it to see how well it can space if flown correctly.

is there anyway this mod can be adapted to show the direction of decouples and seperatron's so that you can see how your boosters are being dropped off?

welp i did it, thanks so much for all the help. ill be sure to +rep. im pretty sure i could have done it with even more fuel left over but my flying skills still suck. if anyone is interested in a 25t, 6 kerbal crew ship here is the craft file im not sure if it has enough fuel left over for a return flight but you can refuel it since it has a docking port. (it was mostly full at 130k orbit but after some translations to get it to my station at 150k i somehow managed to burn most of it) all thats left is to give it an official name instead of mission designation, i think im going to go with Valkyrie. i named my science station odin ;p

yea its a bay, i store extra mono propellent in there and a bit of extra fuel, its basically a service bay.

ty, im trying to keep it simple, its supposed to be a crew transport so im trying to keep it small, i also wanted to try to retain a jet fighter profile, the original was modeled after the f-22 this configuration forced me to change the wing shape. which reminds me i forgot to add wing brakes ><

i made some changes based on the feed back im getting. i got to 1700ms maybe its my piloting craft file

fair enough thank you for the consideration, some alternate lander designs would probably do the trick, at the very least maybe you can add an aspect scale like you did for the cylindrical bay? most of the mass of your lander is fuel it would be nice if you can customize the fuel level with some presets since not everyone wants to use it as part of the lifting stage