septemberWaves

What's the source of these images? If this is a historical mission proposal I'd like to read about it.

The question of dividing up BDB into smaller sub-mods has come up before. The mod developers have no intention of doing that because it would be a huge amount of work and because no one can agree on how the mod should be split up. There are many potential ways to divide the mod, all of which have drawbacks. If you want to decrease the install size, you have to do that yourself. I can, however, recommend the mod Janitor's Closet, which can allow you to selectively remove parts from visibility.

@hgordillo I had forgotten about the craft files that are distributed with the mod because I generally prefer to make my own builds. I do think it's worth saying that, while it's nice to just be able to pick up pre-built craft and play with them right away, one thing I find helpful about building them myself is that I become quite familiar with how things connect and thus how things can be put together in non-standard ways. If you want to build something that doesn't have a craft file for it, it's very useful to have already put together a lot of very similar things so that you have the intuition about what will work well. It's of course up to you whether you actually find that helpful, but I figured it's worth mentioning just in case.

@hgordillo As was commented previously, the craft files you're finding are probably all just outdated. However, there is a convenient wiki which provides details of how to assemble most of the standard vehicles in the mod.

I've never heard of this "Renovated Command Module" design. It looks interesting. Very reminiscent of all of the Apollo Applications proposals to reuse the LM pressure vessel for increasingly absurd ideas, only with the command module instead.

Try it out, see if it works. You'll probably find better answers by asking either the developer of the volumetric clouds mod, or other people who actually have access to the pre-release; is there a forum thread for it? All I can tell you is that Scatterer versions past 0.0.772 are known to be very broken, so if the mod which adds volumetric clouds requires one of the newer Scatterer versions, you may just have to wait patiently for the Scatterer developer to release a version that doesn't break so many things.

What is this engine, and why is it wearing a jacket?

Is that Buran-style shuttle and Mir-style ISS? Very nice.

The Soyuz spacecraft docks to the lander, but that is more or less what is done here. This design predates docking ports which could be passed through, and it also predates an N-1 powerful enough to do the lunar landing mission in a single launch. Presumably part of the design consideration was minimizing alterations to the crewed pressure vessel (similar to the wide variety of utterly ridiculous variants of the Apollo lunar module proposed for the Apollo Applications Program). This is a strong contender for the most ridiculous lunar lander concept ever seriously proposed.

There is an... alternative approach using the N1. https://russianspaceweb.com/19k.html https://russianspaceweb.com/21k.html This system is, as far as I'm aware, one of the first Soviet designs for a crewed lunar lander. It involves several launches of an earlier, less powerful N1 design to assemble a lunar spacecraft with an Earth-orbit-rendezvous approach. It's challenging to get the correct look when kitbashing it, but it's an interesting alternative.

Why does it have to attach to the docking port? Wouldn't a hidden node at the correct height inside of the orbital module work just fine? Then you can put whatever you like on the end without requiring any offset tool use.

Do you have other mods installed? What game version are you using? Are you using Real Solar System, which (as stated in the first post of this thread) is the only solar system that the mod is actually tested with?

An actual UR-700 would be cool to see.

You probably need to ask the Kerbalism team. They know how to write compatibility better than the BDB team are likely to. I might consider writing a proper Kerbalism patch at some point, but there's no guarantee and I currently have other projects. It's a complicated mod to provide correct compatibility for. For right now, if you want to use BDB parts and have proper support for Kerbalism and you don't want to write your own patch, I can only recommend RP-1 - though that lacks most of BDB besides the crew capsules and a few other parts (and I believe some engine models in ROEngines).

If you are using Realism Overhaul, you should install Realism Overhaul using CKAN. CKAN is an application which manages mods for this game. Here is the link to the CKAN Github page: https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/releases In CKAN, search for something called "Realistic Progression One (RP-1) Express Install". You should install that. It will automatically install everything mandatory for use with Realism Overhaul. Certain parts from Bluedog Design Bureau are included in Realism Overhaul by default. Spacecraft for crew from this mod are included in Realism Overhaul. Not everything from this mod is in Realism Overhaul though. If you want to use the entirety of Bluedog Design Bureau, you cannot use Realism Overhaul because they will not work together. If you try to use Bluedog Design Bureau with Real Solar System, it will not work because the rockets in this mod are designed for a solar system that is smaller than the real one. I hope all of this translates properly for you with whatever translation method you use. If there is any confusion, I am happy to clarify if you ask.

The link has already been placed in this thread.

I'm very glad to see an Atlas expansion.

Thank you for the explanation. This diagram makes me think that the position of the igniters near the engine bell is important for the ignition sequence; perhaps putting it at the top causes problems with the gas expansion immediately after ignition? EDIT: looking at this a little more closely, you can sort of see that the void space in the middle of the propellant curves to a close before it reaches the top. That probably explains why the igniters are close to the bottom. The igniters are shorter near the engine bell than they would have to be if they were at the top.

I understand that in-game it's just for replicating the historical look. I'm asking about the purpose of the design feature on the real craft.

What are the two spikes next to the rocket motor nozzle? I've noticed something like that on several of the solids in BDB and I'm wondering what it's for.

Use the following flight profile (all distances referenced are height above sea level): Start by ascending directly up. Starting at 1200m, turn 1 degree towards the east every 200m (5 degrees every 1000m) until you reach 45 degrees above horizontal, which should happen at 10000m (this is easiest accomplished using MechJeb's Smart ASS). Starting at 16km, turn 1 degree towards the east every 1km until you reach 15 degrees above horizontal, which should happen at 45km. At about 60km, point prograde until the second stage burns out. Once the second stage burns out, keep it attached to use its built-in RCS thrusters for control. Make sure you are facing east and are fully horizontal at about 30 seconds before you reach apoapsis; at this point, separate the second stage and allow the decoupler's built-in spin stabilization motors to spin up the payload. After the spin-stabilizing decoupler detaches itself, ignite the solid rocket motor before you reach apoapsis (the lead time should be about 1/3 of the total burn time of the solid rocket motor). This flight profile should let you orbit any of the Vanguard payloads. Some variation of this flight profile (with the first 4 steps more or less the same) will work in a 2.7x scale system for almost any launch vehicle in BDB (the only exceptions that I've tested are Juno I and II, which require you to attain an apoapsis above the atmosphere with just the first stage and thus require a different turn rate).

The orange one is probably my favourite.

It sounds like the decision has already been made in favour of it.

Principia is genuinely easier for multiple gravity assists than stock orbital dynamics. The only downside is the learning curve and the fact that you have to start a new save.

The v2 prefix sounds good. Node positions being different means that directly replacing the existing parts would cause things to look strange and possibly behave incorrectly. It'd be better to add the new parts in as new parts, and deprecate the old parts later. The new Soyuz looks excellent, by the way.