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AlphaMensae

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  1. AlphaMensae
    Well, what was to be a quick update is taking a bit longer, as I keep adding stuff to v1.3 beyond the original simple partial revamp I had intended I'm going to add a bottom-mount hold down arm assembly for the Saturn pad. It's inspired by the one used by the Delta II, though mine as retracting attach struts and arm since it's much cooler visually. Will have switchable versions for 2.5m, 1.875m and 1.5m (BDB Delta II) tanks/engines, as well as a special one for the current BDB Atlas V, as the RD-180 engine for that isn't 2.5m at bottom of the housing. A pic of the 1.875m version with the BDB Titan II core: The 1.5m Delta II one will have only three arms, to fit with the typical 9x SRM configuration. A variation of this will also be included with the upcoming American Launch Stand.
  2. AlphaMensae
    A little demo of the revised Soyuz pad, with the alternate 45-degree hinge configuration and the fuel arm and crew tower from the Russian Launch Stand (which need a bit of position tweaking with the offset gizmo). The base is also bigger, to accomodate the 45-degree hinge positions.
  3. AlphaMensae
    @Rory Yammomoto I've thought about it, but as you noticed, it wouldn't be able to actually raise an attached rocket without having it decoupled first (which leads to something way more complicated), so it's not a priority. OTOH, it would make for an alternate crew access tower, since that's how the Gemini crews boarded the spacecraft...and I've already made a retracting crew elevator tower for the Russian launch stand. In dev news, I made the fuel arm and crew tower from the Russian stand's service assembly separate parts (this fuel arm doesn't use mesh-switching byut two deploy limit sliders, and will be in 3 different resource outputs: LF/O, LH2 and Monoprop), and I'm making them usuable on the bigger Soyuz pad as an interim step until I can make the dedicated main service access arms for it. Also made the hinge pads switchable between 90-degree and 45-degree orientations, with 8 attach nodes in 4-way stack symmetry, so 4 can be used for the clamp arm hinges and the others for the fuel arms and crew tower.
  4. AlphaMensae
    A launch demo with something I threw together from BDB parts
  5. AlphaMensae
    That's great news! I think the one time my Saturn pad exploded was because I had decoupled the crane first...not a good idea to have decoupled parts when physics loads in.
  6. AlphaMensae
    I plan at some point to add the Atlas V "tower" as an option (will use existing crew tower and arm for boarding) for both the Saturn pad and new American launch stand. Probably won't do anything special for Delta IV, it can use the Saturn pad (Heavy and Medium) or American Lanch stand (Medium) with the tower parts in gray. Atlas V's tower is sufficiently different to warrant its own variant, same as SpaceX's strongback; Delta IV's tower is not that much different from the Saturn tower and swing arms. Ok, with the service arm assembly for the revised Russian Launch Stand, I did some reorganizing of the Unity hierarchy (and even rebuilt the crew elevator and fuel arm trusses in Wings3D as single meshes), and reverted the fuel arm umbilical adjustment back to the deploy-limited animation type. The retraction stutter is now very slight, almost not noticable: It's like a compromise solution, though I might be able to bring back the switchable umbilicals in the future pending some additions to B9PS. @Sokol_323I forgot to mention this, are you using Kerbal Joint Reinforcement? I am and only once had the Saturn pad explode in 1.3.1 (though didn't try the driving up to the Soyuz pad); after reverting it worked fine. Also try approaching the pad(s) slowly.
  7. AlphaMensae
    @Abpilot Yep, that's what the tall tower for the American Launch Stand will be partly based on. Not going to do the angled profile (I've had enough of those ), but will do the Saturn cross-brace style for it (those two struts joining at a plate on the bottom of a beam). It will also have different kinds of arms, in both angled-swing and straight-drop types.
  8. AlphaMensae
    Well, ran into a problem with that multi-switchable arm assembly: the fuel arm and crew elevator retraction animations stutter quite badly when they're run. Figuring it might be due to all the mesh switching objects in the .mu file, with every arm object--24 in all--having to be in the retraction animation, I stripped out two of the fuel arms; it worked much better, and the crew arm was fine. I'll do more tests and see what I can do to eliminate the stuttering, but in the end I may have to make the fuel arm and crew elevator separate parts, and not part of a combo, and go back to using a deploy-limit animation for at least one of the adjustments (arm height and umbilical length). Maybe revert back to just one non-switchable arm and crew elevator in the assembly, with a separate arm available as an extra option. Oh yeah, fueling by the arm assembly works, but in order to fuel stages above a decoupler, a fuel line would have to be run to them ...crossfeed rules are in play.
  9. AlphaMensae
    Yeah, that can happen, and especially so in KSP 1.3.1 and I'd guess 1.4.x as well. They're free-standing, and without any kind of command authority, are prone to the Kraken destroying them. Try adding a probe core (use a cubic strut or such to attach it) to the pad and see if that negates the problem. You can also anchor the pad down with some stock launch clamps, that will make it grounded to the game. I might actually consider converrting the pads to be launch clamps themselves to eliminate the problem.
  10. AlphaMensae
    A spacecraft like the Soyuz (and Vostok) would need a customized 2-piece clamshell payload-type fairing, and not one designed for conical capsule like the Mk1-2/3 and Apollo. You could also simply not build the fairing, leaving the spacecraft exposed, but that may not be a good idea.
  11. AlphaMensae
    Yep, that's the ironic thing about the Soyuz pad and Russian launch stand--you can't actually board a crew onto the spacecraft they were named/styled after. It's the main reason I didn't make the main service arms (one of which has the crew elevator) for the Soyuz pad; since it was first made for my Soyuz, why bother spending the time on something that couldn't actually be used for its intended purpose? I included one for the Russian Launch Stand mainly for looks, but it can be used with non-fairing manned pods. In v1.3 of MLP, the crew elevator can be either turned off or not attached. Boarding a manned spacecraft that are inside a fairing would require a special fairing, most likely a rigid 2-piece clamshell type, not a procedural one, that had a "hole" in one spot or side that would go over where the crew hatch was located. I don't think there are any like that available; I'll ask Beale to see if he could make one for Tantares, otherwise I might try to make my own. You can also do a "boarding" by attaching a small comnand pod, crew cabin or habitation module to something like a panel that is attached somewhere on the the deck of the Soyuz launch pad or the side of the Russian launch stand. Have the Kerbals board that, then do a crew transfer to the spacecraft.
  12. AlphaMensae
    Now with switchable umbilicals! No need for the animation deploy limit sliders (except for the crew elevator), which would have been way too much with three fuel arms in one part.
  13. AlphaMensae
    Unfortunately there isn't way to do that with the current version, it's due to how to a launch clamp has to be set up in order to work. Not an issue for the stock surface-attached clamp, but became one with a fancy node-attached "clamp" like this. You'll have to rotate the rocket and/or command pod instead. I've revised the Russian Launch Stand for v1.3 (coming soon ), the clamp arms are now part of the base and are at the 45 degree positions now.
  14. AlphaMensae
    And the multi-switchable fuel arms for the Russian Launch Stand are done, aside from reassembling the animations: This turned out to be real easy to do with B9 Part Switch, except at first I couldn't figure out how to do it. Turned out I was overcomplicating it, and then the answer hit me: Just put the 9 arm objects (3 sizes for 3 arms) in the same group in Unity, each with a unique name, and then have 3 B9PS modules cycle through the sizes for each arm. Success!
  15. AlphaMensae
    The Russian Launch stand, now with a second color option so it can look like its big brother: And working on a switchable-height fuel arm: What is now called the arm assembly will become the full-service assembly add-on, with an on/offcrew elevator and from 1-3 fuel arms, each with switchable heights (I've decided against doing dual-umbilical arms), and will provide LF/O, Liquid Hydrogen and Monoprop. The fuel arms and crew elevator will also be available separately, with each fuel arm providing a different resource, and able to be switched on and off.
  16. AlphaMensae
    Also, the revised Russian Launch Stand can now handle 3.75m stacks...as well as 0.9375m, 1.5m and 3.125m...all the BDB sizes! Both launch stands can handle 0.625m stacks, but they look a little odd in such a stand...so now I have the idea to make a mini-stand designed for small rockets, maybe from 1.25m all the way down to 0.3125m.
  17. AlphaMensae
    All the Saturn tower arms have had their basic mesh-switch revamp done. There's now just four general types in 4 lengths, 8 BDB Saturn V/IB-specific arms switchable between normal and rescale sizes (the SM arm is actually just one of the 2.5m arms renamed for the Apollo SM) and the three crew arms; 15 total now. That can be reduced even furthur, but will see how this goes. The Russian Launch Stand has the clamp arms in the base, and now it's no longer the base, but the "Russian Launch Stand". The crew elevator and service arms will be separate, in both single and combo parts. I have ideas that I can implement right now that involve mesh-switching the service arm among three heights and single/dual umbilical...as well as 1 to 3 arms. May be able to put all options into a single part.
  18. AlphaMensae
    Demo of the new basic mesh-switching tower arms, the four main sizes (1.875m, 2.5m, 3.75m, 5.0m) are done: Not just the umbilical connector is changed, but the pipe/tube details as well. Just need to do the BDB Saturn V and IB-specific arms in the 3.75m, 4.25m, 5.625m and 6.4m sizes.
  19. AlphaMensae
    v1.1 is still on Spacedock (click on the Changelog tab, then download v.1.), it doesn't use texture switching (B9 Part Switch didn't do texture switching until its version for KSP 1.3), so it works in 1.2.2; all the Saturn tower parts are in separate red and gray versions. The Saturn tower arms are currently hidden, i.e, removed from the stock Structural tab; this was a temp fix to prevent the part window from lagging with so many tower arm parts in it. There is a custom category in v1.2 for Modular Launch Pads, and the arms can still be found by a search for "saturn tower arms). I'm currently working on the counterpart to the Russian Launch Stand, called the American Launch Stand. This will be the launch clamp alternative to the big free-standing Saturn pad, intended for use in early-mid career mode, and works like a node-attched launch clamp, with optional add-on parts. It's patterned after and is a generic blend of many of the pre-Saturn V mobile launcher pads/stands like Mercury-Redstone, Mercury-Atlas, Gemini-Titan II, and LC 34/37 for the Saturn I/IB. The main base component itself is styled the pad used for LC 34/37 and the Saturn I/IB, and there will be optional switchable towers and arms in various configurations for both manned and unmanned rockets. @smotheredrun Yep, I knew about that SpaceX launch tower pack, one reason (probably sub-conciously ) that I didn't include any Falcon 9 stuff in the virst versions of MLP. I can include a F9/FH strongback option for both the Saturn pad and the American Launch Stand, and maybe at some point include a switchable base for it as well. @HooHungLow Nice! I actually sort of forgot about all the little SRBs on the Delta II and didn't provide an appropriate hold-down arm configuration. I can do some research on it and provide a switchable configuration. Everyone: I'm going to put out soon v.1.3 of Modular Launch Pads, this will be a partial revamp of the Saturn tower arms from the current state of a separate arm for each length and type to a basic mesh-switchable arm for each length, in order to greatly reduce the parts that are loaded and have them back in the Structural tab. This won't be the full revamp of the Saturn stuff that will come in v2.0 of MLP, but just a simple change with the arms that can be done rather easily by changes in the Unity hierarchy of the arms and setting up B9PS in the .cfg files. I'll also make the clamp arms for the Russian Launch Stand part of the base, so just the base can be used as a one-part launch clamp and still have the retracting clamp arms; the crew elevator and service arm will be separate add-on options.
  20. AlphaMensae
    @flart Thanks for the heads-up! OK, with the new method of putting the animated retracting hold down arms in the base component of the American Launch Stand, additional new options present themselves. Since the hold down arms (or clamps ) retract as part of ModuleLaunchClamp and not AnimatedDecouplers, this means the base can be used by itself as a bare-bones one-part "launch clamp". So I'm going to add an option for a "no tower support" switchable option, which would turn off the suuport structure for the tower. The tower configuration is still evolving, now I'm going to have all the variants as switchable options, withdifferent heights, styles, with and without the crew arm, and angled or straight arms all in the mix. The separate arm assembly will be switchable as well, varying in the number and type of arms. I may just add the Atlas V "tower" as an option, and the SpaceX strongback as another (that idea still needs much thought).
  21. AlphaMensae
    Well, after more thought, I redid the hold-down arms, now they are in the base as part of various switchable pre-set ring configurations rather than the deploy-limit slider adjustment. This was to prepare for the splitting of the tower and arm assembly into separate parts, in order to reduce the complexity and right-click menu clutter of the tower...realized trying to cram everything into one part was just too much.
  22. AlphaMensae
    Added the hold down arms for the American Launch Stand base, which are actually in the tower part because of how something set up as a launch clamp handles the animation...doesn't like any extra ones. The arms were designed to fit the BDB Saturn I/IB, and actually fit under the base of the fins, much like the real ones did (of course, there are only 4 of them here). In order to reduce some complexity, I made them the only arms . As the arms are brought in to fit smaller diameter rockets, they automatically reduce in width to make a better fit.
  23. AlphaMensae
    That's on the to-do list, after the American Launch Stand and the Saturn tower arm and section revamp. The FSS is pretty straightforward, but the RSS looks to be small nightmare
  24. AlphaMensae
    Thank you No, it's meant to be a stand-alone thing, just parts that can be used with the stock launchpad. The original goal behind them after all was to launch realistic-style Soyuzes and Saturn Vs from realistic-stye functional launch pads. Of course, they certainly can be used with custom Kerbal Konstructs pads, and while I only have token knowledge of Extraplanetary Launchpads, if it allows parts or launch clamps to spawn elsewhere, then these pads should work with it too.
  25. AlphaMensae
    And here is the complete Expando-Platform walkway extension for pod access...did this for the Russian Launch Stand, now it is in red
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