Ultimate Steve

Shuttle Launched Community Space Station The Station, along with Starlight Shuttle Sunrise, during STS-16 Background: This challenge is inspired by the way that NASA is building it's new Deep Space Gateway - submitting requirement lists and accepting a commercial proposal that fits those requirements. I am attempting to replicate that here - albeit a bit differently, applied to an ISS style station launched by a space shuttle. This also takes inspiration from a previous challenge that aimed to build a nearly completely participant designed space station, but didn't fit into the budget and never materialized. As such, this challenge is designed to be less user demanding. Premise: In this challenge, I have designed the launch vehicle (Yet another shuttle clone!) and will be launching all of the station modules. However, the participants of this challenge will be the ones who design those modules. I will have a list of modules with various design criteria, and users can submit proposals for that module. I will choose one and launch it as that element of the station. Multiple proposals can be submitted for each module, but I would suggest that only one would be to speed things along and avoid arguments. The station will be constructed in three phases. Proposals should be submitted in phase order, but you can submit proposals for later phases early if you want to. This is done to ensure that we at least end with a station, at least phase one. Phase 1 is about getting a basic station up, and phases 2 and 3 are aimed at giving the station various extended capabilities, or enhancing existing ones. If the first three phases are completed, and people want more, I have ideas for at least phases 4 and 5, which will be niche station expansions and munar transportation infrastructure, respectively, but we will most likely not get that far, sadly. General module constraints: Keep part count low. Some greebling is okay, but nothing excessive. Do not go over 50 parts unless you have a really good reason to, preferably much lower. My computer, well above average, is not amazing. Make modules unique. While you can just slap two docking ports on three hitchhikers and call it good, the station should look unique and somewhat detailed (although not too much, see part count rule). No cost constraints. Must not be dangerous to the station, pretty much a given. Must be made with stock or stock+DLC parts. In fact, at least one module specifically requires Breaking Ground Robotics. Download links must be provided so I can launch the modules. Must fit in the payload bay of the Starlight Transportation System, which is a length of 1.25 large mk3 cargo bays. Craft files are available below for fit testing. No real mass constraints, although the shuttle may have to be augmented if a large mass of fuel is to be launched. I had to drain some tanks on the shuttle to not make it overpowered, so it can handle anything you can realistically throw in the bay (No, this is NOT a challenge!) DO NOT put RCS thrusters or unnecessary control elements on your modules, the module will be launched on a shuttle, maneuvered with a tug, and docked to the station. Four RCS modules on the end of really long or heavy modules are fine, but for the shorter ones keep it simple. Your module doesn't need to be able to control itself in free flight unless specifically required. Enable joint rigidity on many of your module parts, this will keep the station from being spaghetti in the later stages. Everyone can make an unlimited number of designs but I would prefer if the station was not all built by one person. The Launch Vehicle: Here is the Starlight Transportation System (STS), the newfangled partially reusable rocket that will be our launch vehicle for this station: It was originally going to assemble everything with a robotic arm, but those are very buggy right now so we won't be doing that. View of payload bay. Basically no obstructions, the wings don't extend far enough into the cargo bay to be a problem. The cargo bay can be modified with additional docking ports for payloads that require it. The bay is highly customizable, but I will do that on my end. The first Starlight vehicle is called Possibility, and can carry a crew of 8. It also features jet engines in order to gain some cross-range capability, and to avoid needing a carrier plane for transport. Craft files, mainly for fit testing: (Note, a bit outdated as there has been updates, fixes, and tweaks, but the cargo bay is the same size) https://kerbalx.com/UltimateSteve/Starlight-Transportation-System - The whole shuttle stack, if you want to play around with it, or fit test your module. Uses parts from both expansions. https://kerbalx.com/UltimateSteve/Starlight-Transportation-System-Orbiter - Just the orbiter, completely stock, no expansions. Perfectly fine for fit testing. The Modules The station is planned as the first three of several phases. If the first three phases are completed, more will be written, involving munar exploration and perhaps even farther. The first phase should be focused on first, but you can submit proposals for any of the three phases at any time; just be warned that I may not get to the later ones if there is not sufficient interest. Some quick notes: The standard clamp-o-tron is the docking standard for most modules. The jr. size is used for some things, but I don't think that the Sr. size will be needed, especially using joint rigidity. For every module you design, you get to name a Kerbal in the save, who will be rotated in and out of flight. You should choose a name for each of the modules you build. The available/planned modules list is organized in approximate launch order. STSs 1-3 were test flights. PHASE ZERO - General Stuff The Name of the Station - Fairly simple. The station needs a cool sounding name! Mission Patch/Flag - The program should have a flag that the shuttle and modules can be adorned with. OP Banner - The OP needs something cool at the top, like many other challenges have. Badge - Something for participants to optionally put in their signatures. Starlight Shuttle Orbiter names - Possibility is the name of the first orbiter. Phase zero doesn't need to be completed before phase one. PHASE ONE - Minimum Functional Station (COMPLETE) PHASE TWO - Expanding Breadth of Station Capabilities (COMPLETE) PHASE THREE - Filling Out Station Capabilities (IN PROGRESS) PHASE FOUR - Niche Station Expansions, Early Munar Gateway and Exploration Approximated layout of station phases 1 through 3: Note that it is not necessarily to scale, and the form factors are placeholders. Feel free to make your modules any reasonable shape. Also, this is a top down view with the front at the bottom, sorry for the weird angle. So, yeah. Start choosing and designing, and then I will launch them once Phase 1 is either full or mostly full! I probably forgot about something, so if you have questions, ask! Have fun!

In the US school is divided into three main sections. Elementary school is Kindergarten through 4th or 5th grade, Middle school is 5th or 6th through 8th grade, and High school is 9th through 12th grade.

Interesting tidbit to pass the time until the next chapter. Galactus the Cow is based on a comic book series I tried to make in middle school. There were supposed to be 13 books in the series, but I only finished the first three and a half. It's definitely not a 1:1 canon conversion, for reasons that are obvious if you were to read them (Galactus goes to Earth, the number of violent species, numerous copyright violations, that sort of thing) but many elements of the story are the same. Galactus escapes planet Pock on a TNT powered spaceship right as a meteor hits. He is on a quest for the Magic Boulder, a legendary space rock that has the power to restore planets. Interestingly enough, Galactus' name wasn't even my idea, it was from a Voltz Wars Minecraft let's play where one of the players kept a cow named Galactus as a pet. Also, I want to be done with this story by the time 2019 ends. I can't guarantee that I will meet that goal, but I finally have a complete or mostly so outline of the rest of the story. And it's summer, so I will have more time to write.

I might test that, I might not, but you're right, that would defeat the purpose of using an arm. If the thing I'm moving isn't directly connected to the same vessel initially, it's very difficult to grab. Thank you for your input.

I do realize that bug reports should be specific, but I've had many problems and the details of each are pretty different. I'm playing on KSP 1.7.1 with both expansions installed, nothing else, on Windows 10. I built a space shuttle with a robotic arm. The arm uses the Klaw as an attachment mechanism (because the bugs involving using docking ports became insurmountable, more on that later). In this most recent episode, I put the robotic arm into position. I had a fuel pod docked in the space shuttle. I undocked it and then quickly grabbed it with the robotic klaw arm (so I wouldn't have to klaw my own ship). The klaw engaged. The fuel pod has two docking ports, one on each end. The first one was connected to the shuttle and the second one was free. Using the robotic arm, I spun the pod around and connected it back to the shuttle, but with the other docking port. I released the Klaw in an attempt to alleviate docking weirdness, so the pod floated free before docking. The two modules docked, but now neither port shows the "undock" option. I recall a long time ago that there were many bugs related to undocking, and they all seem to be back when I try to use robotic arms. Pictures of the setup: The robot arm in question. Neither port displays the undock button, even after quickloading. Another frustrating thing when using robotic arms is the fact that docking ports will sometimes lose magnetism if they get close to the target but then back off - something that happens naturally with very flexible robotic arms. So when you finally get ready to dock, it won't unless you edit the persistence file. Another bug I ran across is that sometimes, docking ports, when part of the same craft, can be "docked" but not snapped to the proper angle, sometimes with both ports inside each other. I hope that these issues get acknowledged - I would love to be able to use robotic arms in a non frustrating way.

If they sell it to Virgin Galactic, they could make a far bigger spaceship to hang underneath.

I have been doing some robotic arm experiments with the idea to assemble a space station using it. However, I'm having trouble getting it precise enough, and the docking ports like to derp out and not work. Is there a mod, or a quick patch that can be done to give the right click menu option to set the docking port state from "Disengage" to "Ready?"

Update, got to 22,222m plus a bit but that number sounds cooler. However, I used a glitch. Highest alt without glitch was like 21.3-ish km. If you go into physics warp, if your blades are made of more than one segment then they will stretch out, which will reduce rotor speed for a bit, but when you jump back to normal time they contract back in and move faster for a few seconds, giving you a speed boost. Repeat for profit. This craft wasn't optimized very well, I suspect that 30km is doable.

I would like to present my helicopter research. It's hard to balance the rotor torque. I tried stacking three rotors on top of each other, the top two reversed, the outer ones with blades, but they wouldn't sync. So, I just had two separate rotors. I present my first working (e.g. flyable, landable, won't explode under normal use) helicopter, the Helios III. Can easily carry more weight, probably fuel for the fuel cells. Will do an altitude test in a minute once I add more fuel.

Question. Can one link the rotor speed to throttle? I can't find out how to do that.

What if you stacked the rotors, giving twice (or even more!) the spin speed?

Oh my goodness, you are back! I really enjoyed your most recent travelling circus, the one with BARIS! Glad to see you back! Yeah, mod support seems to be dropping off slightly and lagging behind a bit considering we have much more frequent updates. I myself have not played around with Breaking Ground yet, but I'm going to do that just now. Welcome back to the forums!

Just to make sure, this isn't necessarily indicative of Asperger's, right? Because I am really good at space but not the best socially.

I only saw four of them, probably due to local light pollution, but it was still cool to see!

https://www.n2yo.com/?s=74001 Probably won't be visible from Iowa, but there should be a second pass tonight if a different site is correct. Less cloudy today, so should be able to see them - fingers crossed. It's forecast as mostly cloudy for the next pass.

They could coat most of it with a non-reflective coating.

Posted 18 mins ago... Also partly cloudy.

Any idea what time you are expecting a pass?

No dice, clouds were only thin enough to see a few of the brightest stars. And the lightning, of course.

Not yet. Had a tornado watch today, with warnings close by, so clouds prob won't clear up.

Back of the envelope equations suggest that if the sats were directly overhead, they would be visible up to a bit past an hour after sunset. However, they aren't going to be directly overhead, but that math gets complicated. Two hours is probably a bit much to see them tonight, but if the clouds clear up I will try!

Two line elements shown here: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2019/0207.html Google "TLE converter," click first result, plug in lat/long, the two numbers, click load TLE, scroll down and click the 24 hour button.

Would they be visible at 10:30 given a sunset time of 8:26? There's a good pass at ~45 degrees elevation for me.

Now that's impressive! I need to see that! Unfortunately it is probably going to be cloudy for a while and we are currently under a tornado watch. Also, both of the satellite tracking websites I visited don't list Starlink yet.

I guess Smart Dragon 1 got delayed then. It was supposed to be May 30 but is now NET June. Wait, a sea launched LM-11?