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AlphaMensae

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  1. AlphaMensae
    Ah, that! Yeah, that's how the original Thor IRBM was launched (or would have been), via an erector that lifted the missile out of a horizontal storage box. And looks like the hold-down posts-only method wasn't just used at Vandy:
  2. AlphaMensae
    Props for using the compact variant of the Thor-Delta Launch Stand, which was based on images I saw of Thors launched from Vandenberg (I think). The big ring was only used at the Capes' LC-17 for the original Thor-Ables and Deltas. Once the Castors were being added, the ring was removed and only the hold-down posts were left, which were made taller to accomodate the Castors' exhaust. LC-17 evolved over the years to where in Delta II times, the hold-down arms were embedded in the concrete pad itself. It's why I couldn't find pictures of the Delta II launch mount at the Cape--it wasn't visible!. That's why I used the Vandenberg Delta II launch mount for the Delta II variant of the Thor-Delta Launch Stand, at least what I saw in one image.
  3. AlphaMensae
    Yes, for the deploy limit slider to function the way it's supposed to, the animation has to start at the end. Think of the stock cargo bay doors or the cargo ramp. It's also why the crew elevator cars in Modular Launch Pads start at the highest point, and the adjustable length swing arms and umbilicals and such start at the maximum length (or deploy). I did get a deploy limit slider to work for some of the crew access arms without remaking the animations by reversing the three "true/false" values in the animation module for the deploy limit. Not sure if that will work for the solar panels in question.
  4. AlphaMensae
    I decided very early on that I wasn't going to make the LC-34 tower. It's an unsymetrical tapered nightmare that simply doesn't fit with the rest of the MLP parts, which are made out of symetrical modular sections and 90-degree angles. The milkstool leg trusses were bad enough, and the Thor-Able Fallback tower was a weeklong exercise in extreme tedium to make; more than once I stepped aside and wanted to quit. After that I declared "No more tapered towers ever!" And frankly, I just don't about the Saturn I or LC-34 beyond the launch stand I made. I only ever cared about the Apollo Saturn IB on the Milkstool.
  5. AlphaMensae
    Probably due to the switch to NathanKell's Staged Animation, which uses some of the core code of Animated Decouplers but doesn't use or need the decoupler module, so there is nothing to disable.
  6. AlphaMensae
    And another update uploaded, this one is v2.3.3 Changelog: Added black extension to the base of the Thor-Able Fallback Tower. The tower still attaches at the original node on the base; the extension has no collider and is meant to fill in any gap if KSP puts the tower slightly above the launch pad surface. Added black extension to the base of the Saturn Tail Service Mast. The TSM still attaches at the bottom of the main white structure; the extension has no collider and allows the mast to be raised up a bit to align with the umbilical plates on the new BDB Saturn V engine mount. Updated BDB New Saturn V MLP v2.3 craft file with properly aligned Tail Service Masts. Sometimes KSP puts the Thor Launch Stand higher than it's supposed to be, leaving the Thor-Able Fallback Tower slightly above the pad surface. The base extension fills in the gap, and should be mostly below the floor of the VAB Wit the BDB Saturn revamp, Cobalt added the umbilical connector plates for the Saturn V tail service masts, and it turned out I underestimated the height of the TSMs by a little bit (or maybe it was the too undersized old BDB Saturn V). The base extension for the TSMs allows the mast to be raised up to align with those plates on the S-IC engine mount, and I've updated the BDB New Saturn V MLP craft file with properly aligned TSMs.
  7. AlphaMensae
    The S-II Aft arm, the one without any umbilicals, was actually just an auxiliary access platform to the S-II interstage and the J-2s inside. It was retracted some time before launch whenever it was no longer needed. For my Saturn V launches, I retract it along with the crew arm via an action group. Both the S-IC arms were also retracted before launch; the S-IC Intertank arm (LOX fill and drain) at T-30 seconds, and the S-IC Forward arm (pneumatics, air conditioning, various electrical connections) at T-16 seconds. The only arms that retracted at liftoff were the two main S-II arms, the two S-IVB arms and the SM arm.
  8. AlphaMensae
    @GoldForestI see people using the standard Saturn tower and swing arms with these 2- and 4-booster variants of the Saturn V, but if those had been a reality, the mobile launcher would have undergone extensive changes. Most likely the liquid boosters would have been fully fueled up from tail service masts, much like how the Shuttle's ET and the SLS core was fueled through the orbiter from two TSMs. Swing arms would only have been used for upper stages.
  9. AlphaMensae
    I just updated MLP v2.3 (it's v2.3.2) by adding new craft files for the BDB v1.10 revamped Saturn IB and Saturn V; they're titled "BDB New Saturn xxx". The old craft files were kept and renamed "BDB Old Saturn xxx".
  10. AlphaMensae
    The version has to exactly match what you're using, so you have to specify "1.11.1".
  11. AlphaMensae
    The crane wasn't used for any stacking operations, but used to haul stuff up to the deck of the launch base (and maybe the tower levels). One time though a cracked fin on Saturn IB Skylab crew launch was replaced with the crane. The red portion of the crane boom had a 5 ton load limit, the yellow portion had the full 20 (oe 25?) ton limit.
  12. AlphaMensae
    Considering Nertea would have loved to rip the stock system out and dump it into a black hole, and that he's on the KSP 2 team, I'm thinking it's the former
  13. AlphaMensae
    Even before watching that video, I just knew this was Nertea's dream idea for KSP.
  14. AlphaMensae
    I've completed everything I had set out to do for version 2 and the updates: Saturn revamp, Shuttle addition, General Bases and Towers addition, the historical lauch stands series for the revamped BDB historical rockets (which culminated with the Delta IV stand since Zorg had to go and make a BDB Delta IV ) and the launch rails. That's all cared about, and now that it's done, I'm burned out on modding and even KSP; I haven't even booted up KSP since making the launch rail demo video. I'm even losing interest in KSP 2. So anything that wasn't put into version 2 was simply never going to happen in the end. As for extra nodes, you're free to add them yourself. I have very low interest in non-historical rockets, all the paper concepts and other never-weres, besides the rectangular holes I put into the Saturn V Launch Base. If it didn't actually fly (and more than once) and thus leave a photographic/video record, I wasn't interested. I had also started linking MLP to the BDB historical rockets, so anything outside that I didn't carte about either, aside from the Soyuz since it has had such a long life and an iconic launch pad, something close enough to a launch platform as to be doable in MLP,
  15. AlphaMensae
    It's not, and most likely it and everything else isn't going to happen, as I'm done with MLP. I thought the Delta IV stand would respark the desire, but instead it made me realize that I didn't want to do this anymore.
  16. AlphaMensae
    The lack of an atmosphere and the low sun angle makes the shadows sharply defined, and it's why the lunar mountains and peaks look jagged through a telescope or from orbit. For a long time that's how the lunar mountains were depicted in artwork, but the reality as you've seen is that everything is smooth and rounded due to eons of bombardment from micrometeroids.
  17. AlphaMensae
    Unlike typical launch clamps, the EC generators in the MLP launch bases are manually operated--you have to turn them on from the PAW. This was done so they could then be turned back off to simulate switching to the vehicle's internal power. This has tripped up others
  18. AlphaMensae
    Yeah, those things have weird issues with them, that's one of them.
  19. AlphaMensae
    The launch base fuel generators strictly follow crossfeed rules, so they won't fuel anything past a decoupler, unless you temporarily enable crossfeed on decouplers before launch. You'd have to ask the Mechjeb PVG users or the RO people about that. Figure out dV before attaching the launch base, and then make sure it is not the root part.
  20. AlphaMensae
    You must have some mod screwing around with the MLP parts and tech tree nodes then. You only have the Mount Platform since that is the one part that doesn't have the "AM_MLP_" prefix in the part name, so something is affecting the ones that do (which is everything else). Try just a basic KSP install with just MLP and its dependencies, plus Module Manager.
  21. AlphaMensae
    You probably have Modular Launch Pads incorrectly installed, as the nodes should be present to the left of the start. Or, you probably do have a mod conflict. Only the stock tree, Community Tech Tree (just addons to the stock one) and UnKerballed Start tree are supported. You might have some other mod that alters where mod parts go in unknown ways. Also, dependuing on what changes have been done in newer KSP versions, new tech tree nodes may not show up if they were added after starting a new career.
  22. AlphaMensae
    I'd rather use actual launch footage, so I'll wait. There should be plenty of cameras covering all parts of Artemis I, much like that of the Saturn V and Shuttle launches.
  23. AlphaMensae
    I've been waiting for SLS-Artemis I to roll out, or better yet actually launch, before making anything specific for it. I was also going to hold off on SLS for version 3, since the Saturn parts really need a remake, but maybe I can kludge together something.
  24. AlphaMensae
    I've finally put together a litle assembly guide/tutorial for the Launch Rails. This uses the v2.3 rails, with the attach nodes for rockets, but due to a very simple rocket being used as the demo, the rocket was built on the rail. This will be put in the OP.
  25. AlphaMensae
    I realized that too about the N1 tower, it was for preflight only, which was one reason I haven't made it, and now I won't. I have the N1 Launch Plate, a large ring that the N1 sat upon, without any hold-downs. Anything else is better suited to a Kerbal Konstructs pack. Most of the Russian launch infrastructure is indeed very different than the American methods that Modular Launch Pads is based on.
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