Hotel26

KSP is many things to many people. It is rich with possibilities. The only "right" way to play it is to have fun -- and if along the way you amuse/entertain/enlighten others, that's a decided bonus from KSP to everyone. I recently built a plane with wing root tanks. I like this technique because you can slide them fore/aft to balance the full/empty CoM. I shift-gizmo'ed them nearly flush with the fuselage so that you could conveniently click them to refuel as long as you knew they were there. My quip at the time was, "that explains why national surveys show Kerbals prefer the aisle seats". I was modeling an actual airplane which has bulges at the wing roots indicating fuel storage there. This is "clipping for aesthetics". I've built another plane where I felt the best shape for the wings was the FAT-55, but it didn't provide me enough wing area. Imagine placing two sets of wings on that aircraft. Problem solved. Works under KSP aerodynamics. Looks awful. So I slid them together to create the same shape wing but actually even more resembling that of a real-life wide-body. Beautiful and it works. The objections based on the dogma surrounding clipping would be that a) I am overlapping fuel (moah fuel) and b) getting twice the lift from "the wing". No. It's the same plane as the ugly one; I simply moved the pieces together for aesthetics. There is a "clipping for performance". (We've all done this. Publicly or secretly.) An example would be jamming 3 Junos into a service bay on a VTOL to get sufficient TWR to hover, when a) the service bay doesn't have room, but b) there's no decent way to solve it by separating the engines out and spraying them all over the assembly. By "decent", I mean that avoiding this clipping would make the delicate VTOL balancing act ferociously harder. (I did this in my Tern-R retractable-gear variant on Brikoleur's original Tern.) I am very wary of this latter type of clipping because it's a slippery slope since performance gets to be very competitive. This is why challenges generally exercise tight control over clipping, fairly enough. I don't disdain the practice but it's crucial to clearly discern the different objectives for clipping. Then there is the Replicant crowd. The objective is correspondence to actual aircraft/rockets. Clipping is an imperative to reach the objective. This makes sense. This is a different arena within KSP. I admire the replica. I've gone as far as allowing myself to be inspired by actual machinery and imitate it in an impressionistic way. I've learned to not give real names to mere impressions. (Because the Replicants are armed and dangerous, thanks to BD Armory. ) But it makes sense and no one complains about clipping there; though lower overall part count is valued. Finally, it's worth mentioning that there are some very creative, non-obvious and elegant ways to clip. E.g. doing it without added excess drag. And for mechanisms that are otherwise impossible or irksome; e.g. releasing a payload from a fairing for an air-drop. Even more crucially, it is good to clearly discern the different reasons and objectives we "engineers" have for exercising our craft [skill, trade, art] in KSP, isn't it?

I've been meaning to do this for a while: I've finally launched a 4-sat pod to deploy a tetrahedral relay formation. Three RA-2s and the polar relay is an RA-100 to link to the interplanetary comms system. For Kerbin, system uptime is 41d with a brief "maintenance" mode lasting less than an hour. Drift over time is of the order of a second or so per 41d.

It's been a long, long time since High Command gave any love to my Deep Ocean Research Lab, SSW of the KSC, so I put together this mission, comprised of @Brikoleur's, Long Umpire (with a shot of "reverse" engineering to invert the long cargo-bay): which has proved itself a very capable sea-plane: transporting for me, in this case, an ocean surface fuel dump, replete with 1-krew shelter for operations; and a Cousteau submersible ocean explorer. A night operation to deliver 4 new personnel to the DOR Lab [click and arrows for slides]: A late-night celebration on board with plenty of schnapps...

[from instalment 3] My final report in this little saga, Kerbals Go Star Crazy On Ike. Happily, the improvised Duna Space Command, has successfully landed the never-before tested Ladybug and Hummingbird scout ships on the surface of Duna, with zero injuries and zero damage. The much larger Goblin surface miner now bravely makes its attempt... Above, we see Goblin commencing its deorbit, approaching landing under chutes and, lastly, the fuel statistics after mining a full load of fuel and re-orbiting. Below, we see Goblin fell short of its mark within the target crater and also did not enjoy 13% ore, but was, otherwise, happily productive. Mark it another success for the DSC (Duna Space Command)! Conclusions: Goblin is effective as a miner on the surface of Duna; may be maneuvered to other locations on the surface of Duna; may be returned to space, perhaps for return to Gilly; is productive on the surface for the refueling of 'rovers' such as Ladybug and Hummingbird (which top-dock to refuel); but does not take enough fuel to Duna orbit to serve efficiently as a Duna orbit fuel resupply (unless used from Gilly) All good knowledge!

Tetrahedron: Instructions For Use Using Kerbin as an example: mount Tetrahedron on your own lifter and launch and deliver the package to e.g. 400km above Kerbin zero the inclination stage RA-2 separation rename relay components: e.g KR0 RA-100, KR1 RA-2, KR-2 RA-2, KR3 RA-2, and set KAC timers on each (allowing them to expire without deletion) so that you can easily switch between relays Note the orbital period, P, which will be roughly 56m. Divide this by 3, giving P3, 18m40s. Switch time display (top left) from MET to UT and set a schedule for each RA-2 relay: +0, +P3, +2P3. In my case, I select 5:50:0 (hms), 0:08:40 and 0:27:20 for inclination change maneuvers for KR1, KR2 and KR3. execute an ascending node (northward) inclination change on schedule, each RA-2 in turn, aiming for an inclination of 19.5 degrees [90 (east) + 19.5 = 109.5 degrees from the North pole]. Don't forget to switch to UT time, commencing each relay's maneuver. Also note that you may use Alt-period to warp time with physics, to speed up the duration of the ion burn. For final tuning to a precise, 19.5000d, set the Dawn ion engine thrust limiter to 0.5% (lowest +ve setting) for each RA-2 satellite, I now found it useful to wait until each reaches 19.5S and perform a very minor retro burn to establish the periapsis on the opposite side of the orbit, at 19.5N. This is a good way to precisely mark the highest latitude of the orbit in preparation for the Orbit Extension Maneuver. It's important not to de-circularize the orbit too much and it's also important to ensure that all RA-2s (and, later, the RA-100) have the same periapsis. now proceed to separation of the RA-100 (still attached to the Terrapin ion driver). Operating solo, it has a dV in excess of 9 km/s. Begin a 90-degree ascending inclination change. This maneuver may still take more than one pass to complete, so be prepared to limit each brun within the range, say, of a 10S..10N range of latitudes. when the RA-100 reaches 90N, execute a short retro burn to lower the periapsis (to match those of the RA-2s). This is to mark the location of the South Pole in the orbit, as this is where the future Orbit Extension Maneuver needs to be performed. (This may actually be difficult to do unless one of the RA-2s is north enough for contact and has ground-station connection to KSC, but it can skipped or awaited on a subsequent orbit, as desired). as the first RA-2 approaches 19.5N (its periapsis, for convenience for creating a maneuver node), fire prograde and extend apoapsis to 80Mm (just inside Kerbin SOI). Note the orbital period, Ps. as each subsequent RA-2 approaches 19.5N, execute a similar prograde burn to around 80Mm, but this time, target the same orbital period, Ps. finally, as the RA-100 approaches its southern (90S) periapsis, execute the similar prograde burn, extending its orbit to match the same period, Ps. Congratulations! Your first tetrahedral relay system is now in operation. Notes: For Kerbin, I place a second RA-100 [DSRN-V] into a southern orbit, but entering circular polar orbit (same periapsis as before), waiting until the northern RA-100 reaches apoapsis; then waiting until the southern RA-100 reaches the South Pole and there extending its apoapsis toward the 80Mm mark until its orbital period is also, Ps. Since the Kerbin "Polar Link" is crucial in connecting other planets and moons with the KSC, having a second polar RA-100 in operation and 180-degree out of phase with the first, provides continuous operation for the rest of the system. Using the instructions above for all other planets/moons, I extend the orbit of the RA-100 before the RA-2s in order to "connect home", to enable comms for the equatorial RA-2s before they perform their own maneuvers.

All went well and the video below was made of the results of the test on Kerbin. I'll be appending detailed instructions in a subsequent note in this topic. Deployment on Kerbin requires the RA-2s to go into extended, elliptical first, followed by the RA-100 last. This is in order to maintain contact with ground-stations and to provide communication at the South Pole, which is where the RA-100 makes its final orbit change. At other locations in the Kerbol system, the polar RA-100 will go elliptical early in order to connect home to Kerbin and broadcast down to the equator, where the RA-2s will perform their orbit extension maneuvers at 19.5N. In the case that ground stations are not in use on Kerbin, the RA-2s will have to first go into a standard 120-degree separation equatorial orbit to provide comm to the RA-100 as it makes its 14-minute 90-degree inclination change. Detailed instructions to follow. The description given in the Original Post is pretty close to accurate, however.

An idea in the back of my mind for a long time has been spurred by a post by Zaznaczony in KerbalX... I didn't quite dare to implement this, but now I am ready. You can see the idea very graphically in this video, I made a year ago for PROJECT BOOTSTRAP. Four relays in tetrahedral flight, angled 109.5 degrees apart like the bonding the carbon atom adopts. So here's the craft I have just built, based on components from my DSRN-V, Beep, Scout and Terrapin craft -- it's called Tetrahedron: It's all ion-drive, naturally (vide Hotel26 avatar), and comes packaged in a fairing with my standard 2.5m dock for attachment to a lifter and transit power unit. (NB, shot above shows craft after one RA-2 has already been discharged.) So the plan is that: Tetrahedron is delivered into a high, circular, equatorial orbit around the target planet or moon; the Terrapin drives Tetrahedron into a low, circular orbit with altitude being equal to the intended periapsis, L, of all satellites, in highly-elliptical orbits (where a circular orbit at L has a period less than 1hour); this orbital period is divided by 3, giving P3. At time intervals, 0, P3 and 2P3, each RA-2 separates and uses ion power to perform a modest 19.5-degree ascending inclination burn. These 3 orbits are now phase-shifted by 120 degrees; those 3 orbits are then circularized at altitude L; the Terrapin then drives the DSRN-V (RA-100) into a polar orbit (90-degree inclination change) and it, too, circularizes at altitude, L; next: each RA-2 in turn, reaching it's highest latitude (19.5 N), performs a burn to extend its apoapsis, H, nearly out to the SOI of the target body, producing the most elliptical orbit possible; finally, the RA-100, reaching the south pole, is also boosted to its desired apoapsis, an equal altitude as the RA-2s, i.e. H. The result is 4 satellites orbiting in sync like this (except in the video, I did not bother precisely with the sync of the polar relay). The polar relay is the RA-100 (poking up out of the ecliptic plane (over moons etc) and it connects the target body to the Deep Space Relay Network (DSRN), and it also covers the northern hemisphere. The 3 RA-2s comprise the three, lower lobes, covering the equator and south pole, connecting to each other and to the RA-100, forming the local network. The typical period of coverage is many days (~41d for Kerbin) as all satellites spend most time at high-to-very-high altitudes. All satellites then go effectively out of service for a couple of hours while they dip through their zenith nadir and then "reboot". The system outage is predictable, short and easy to plan for. If steps 6 and 7 above are all completed within an hour, the system synchronization will be such that downtime is only around that long. In addition, if the orbital periods of each of the four satellites are tuned within a fraction of a second of each other (use 0.5% thrust on the ion engines) then the system will hardly drift at all, thereby remaining in sync for years. I'll be reporting back here with results after a test. IF this succeeds, the pay-off will be a lighter, more compact version of my Scout to send to each of the 16 satellites of Kerbol (including the 3 in the Kerbin system),

Sea trials: Nautilus [This is a photo without its 4 engines, lost in an incautious 'porpoise' maneuver.] It's planned to have a set of 'dive' chutes (for the bottom) and a set of 'surface' chutes -- for the surface. In addition, 2 or 4 ballast tanks, 2 trim tanks and a bladder tank. Still working on the numbers. The periscope extends and swivels and has a built-in search-light. (Wait a minute! It is a search-light. ) It operates upon a key top-secret invention known as the Tardis Effect... that's all I can tell you about that.

[from Instalment 2] More happy news in this, the third instalment of my little story, Kerbals Go Star Crazy On Ike, in which the guys, marooned on Ike for what seemed like years, but was in actuality only a couple of revolutions around good old Kerbol, decided to improvise and toodle off to Duna for grins, even though their equipment wasn't suited, not tested, and nothing planned. This time, the spotlight was on Ribdard Kerman to bring DH1 Hummingbird down to the surface of Duna and land nearby in the small crater. [click & arrow for slideshow] Seanlas: "Now how does this Bluetooth pairing thing work again...?" Ribdard: "Ah, there you are, 5x5... Good to see you, old bean! Say, I'm a wee low on EVA propellant having jetted over from the Hummingbird. Be a good chap and go pick it up for me, would you?" instalment 4

SMOKING STRICTLY PROHIBITED. (Thank you for your kind words!)

[from Instalment 1] So, in instalment 2 of my little story, Kerbals Go Star Crazy On Ike: I am happy to report that Seanlas Kerman landed on the surface of Duna (first this 'world' ('career')) without mishap. He landed on the rim of a small crater, finding 13% ore, and subsequently "flew" the Ladybug toward the center of the crater, scouting for a flat spot. About half fuel was consumed reaching the surface. (Ladybug has about 3.8 km/s dV.) The Ladybug proved itself quite capable on Duna as a survey rover (I don't do wheels any more), although the extra drain on fuel caused by atmospheric drag was noticeable. A very convenient conveyance... Stay tuned for instalment 3, as Hummingbird next makes an attempt to land! [click and arrow for slideshow] [Instalment 3]

But how do you water and mow the grass?

Now for something NASA completely WOULDN'T DO!! Take a foolhardy risk... (and you just know the Kerbals are betting on how it turns out) Long, long ago, the Duna mission reached Ike and began refining fuel. There was no equipment and no plan to set foot on Duna, or even go into orbit around it. Not enough relays, so the settlement went into mothballs for some long while, waiting for backup. High Command decided to re-activate it recently, but the Mission Controllers got bored. CHANGE OF PLANS. With two Nova space stations in orbit around Ike, one was repositioned into Duna orbit. You can see a Hummingbird on the left [image 1], a Goblin miner on the right; and a Ladybug/Hummingbird combination in the foreground. Image 2 shows the Ladybug/Hummingbird combination, ready for descent, separately, from 200km, thence to 50km, and finally to 30km. None of this equipment is meant for the atmosphere, although Goblin does have 4 chutes for Kerbin retrieval. If Goblin cannot get back off the planet, it can at least mine fuel for the other landers. NEW PLAN: "we will go to Duna, not because it is easy. Not because it is HARD. But because it is THERE." And because we are ever so bored with Ike. Good luck, (fool-)hardy Kerbals! Instalment 2

Sometime back, I downloaded and fiddled with myrddin's Konkorde Mk3. It's a beautiful airplane with very skilful work on the wings: Concorde is such a temptation. The closest I have come to giving into that temptation is with my Esprit, which is not Concorde, but merely an impression: Inspired by myrddin (and many, many others too), I am tuning this: We'll see if it turns into anything. (And, yes: I gratefully borrowed Konkorde Mk3's nose.) UPDATE: tracing how I came across Konkorde Mk3, I recall now that 'myrddin' is the KerbalX parallel of one @JorgeCS, and my grateful acknowledgement to him.

This was actually the original plan and implementation. No matter what, when docking, it always shook itself to pieces. (The big let-down of robotics!) I originally copied this design: KerbalX.com/Brikoleur/LIFTMECH. (So good to see you back!)

@OHara, I just noticed your kind reply and advice as I came back here to post. Thank you very much! I had been hoping to avoid an answer that said, "use docks", but I bit the bullet: It appears to work although I cannot be sure the rear docks actually docked. But it works. The major draw-back is just the space it takes causing the lowest elevation of the claw to be higher than I want, in order to dock with my smallest craft. It's a bit of tinkering, isn't it? I will give it some trials and see how it does. I'd certainly be willing to collaborate with anyone on this project. https://KerbalX.com/Hotel26/Paxmover

A productive morning for me. I discovered the cause of Insufficient power -- shutting down, occurring during physics easing, followed by that long pause that means the Kraken is calculating the exact trajectories of flying parts and the precise size of the fireballs in the imminent explosion, which occurs when switching to or ending warp on a massive super-refinery. I had the drills placed too low such that they were acting as stilts, holding the vehicle off the surface. KSP thought it was "in flight", causing problems with physics easing and also sometimes preventing warp while refining. I'm so relieved not to have to scrap this craft, Atlas. Preparing to land on the velvety, lunar quilt: what a beautiful sight... Maiden flight of my new Firefly passenger shuttle. It'll be servicing LKO <--> geosynchronous orbit, but it ought also to be able to go to the Mun.

30m limit. Or do something else. Averaging about 250 flights in operation. KSP time was pegging real-time for the first year, though it's picked up a little, lately. By the time I get to a mid-course correction, it's a research project to figure out what the original intention was. (I keep notes, of course.) By the time I arrive, the equipment is strangely foreign, so very obsolete. I think that if you work at NASA, and you are experienced enough in your career to propose a mission and be responsible for it, you might well have a 50-50 chance of being retired (or worse) before the time it comes to fruition. Missions (I gather) really do go into a kind of mothball phase with just a skeleton crew monitoring progress and staying cognizant with the day-to-day. What other choice is there? Playing the way I am playing (and, yes, I have regrets about it), really does give you the Time dimension about the vastness of space. On the plus side, I thrive on the system management challenges because, like all things NASA, it has devolving benefits for the daily walk of life. "We choose [to]...do the ... things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win..." I think the way I am approaching this "epoch" is like the Japanese think of Fuji-san: "you are crazy if you don't climb it once; you are crazy if you climb it more than once". This will be one time only.

This is Torch making a vertical ascent to a (hypothetical) geo-stationary station, parked above the KSC. You can see the position of the KSC immediately below. Torch is just now climbing through 1,200 km. Through a Miracle of Navigation (by constantly tending the longitude), it's possible to keep station on the ride up. A final surface-relative retrograde will finalize the position at 2,863km -- or, of course, target retrograde if you do happen to have a real geostationary space station in position. It is very definitely NOT the most efficient way to get from A to B in space! (I got out of the shower this morning with this idea, posted it to Shower Thoughts and... you know... kind of executed on it. Like a mad fool.) That nasty carbuncle on the nose is a SuperSize HeatShield. When Torch makes the vertical return descent, speed reaches 3.7 km/s (courtesy Isaac Newton) before hitting the atmosphere... Still a work-in-progress... Not so hypothetically, in my Orbit "production" world, I do have most of the pieces of my Geosynchronous University for Advanced Research and Development (GUARD) parked precisely above the KSC.

My question relates to the craft shown in the image below. It shows a mobile base with an elevated payload connected via twin hydraulic pistons that allow the elevation to be controlled.. In particular the passenger carriage above is lowered onto the base while in transit. The rear piston is connected above and below. In the case of the forward piston, I've attempted to connect the lower end of the piston to an octa-strut located on the base, using a strut. It appears that, in operation, this strut somehow breaks or extends such that the two pistons no longer move in harmony. (I understand about the tree-like structure of connections from the root node.) Is there a way to make this connection without using docking ports, or is that the only one? What is the 'official' way (endorsed by BG Robotics experts) to accomplish this? I would be most grateful for a workable answer to this!!

"How much dV is required to boost straight up from the Kerbin launch-pad, fly to an overhead, geosynchronous space station and then rendez-vous?" A 16-pax shuttle... SSTGSO. Hmm...

"enough" is over-rated... In the alphabet, "enough" is followed by "flair". Moah flair, @Mars-Bound Hokie; like yer style!

I reported earlier I was sending a Batwing on an accelerated schedule to Duna. Have just performed the transfer insertion of the space train: From right to left: Batwing, Mule, Escort. After the burn, KER reporting 7.4 km/s dV remaining. (The Escort, itself, had 58% fuel remaining.) I had intended to permit the Escort to continue to Duna with the mission, but made a last-minute decision to separate and burn back for insertion into a lunar orbit, for refueling and recycling back to LKO.

I'm a big "booster" for ion engines (see avatar). I only discovered quite recently that Alt-period will engage physics warp in space, which permits engines to keep operating. You can only get a 4-fold speed-up but that helps. I've had 2-hour burns and longer. I set a timer on my phone and go do something else for a while. It's worth it.

...outside of the box. I like it. Blue Angels.