sgtblazing

For an effective docking mechanism, I kinda wanna see a male and female part. The female part is nothing but a ring that goes around the vessel that has a lip on it to catch the male arm. The male part is like the clamps seen above, but instead of simply clamping on, they use the multijoint framework to: 1) Move the arms from the resting position of closed (point straight upward, much like non engaged lander legs. The clamps protrude past the craft at rest by a bit) to 30-45 degrees. 2) Arms telescope out while still at the designated angle 3) Arms close, aligning the vessel containing the female docking part. The spacing of the ends of the arms are not touching the other vessel, at most one leg touching due to, well, physics. 4) Arms retract from their telescoped length, and on their way in will catch the lip of the female docking part. 5) Arms stop retracting when they are at a designated length, finishing the process. They undock by doing the same process but inversely. This is a tad more complex than the current methods, but it should be much safer. Might need to add a nose attachment to the two vessels to ensure no damage is attained IF they impact, but you could devise a method to better hold the lip, that is just a dumbed down version. Thanks to the telescoping, you can be in less suitable positions to dock and not have a problem.

Yeah I have had sore luck in my landings. I actually prefer to overshoot the space center now and land on the water, at least I am in one piece then. As for the plate thing, the cargo decoupler works for a specific part or set of parts (aka things that are designed to fit on it, or happy accidents that somehow fit.) IF you want a bit more adaptability, you might be able to place a plate, which would allow versatility. E.G. things could be mounted side by side, and things that aren\'t meant to be put in would not turn awkwardly when placed. The part it self would be structural, like a tricoupler, it doesn\'t do anything but it allows things to attach to it. Since the collision box would be separate from the hull, you could simply make it flat. It would snap where the current mount is for the decoupler, but be very thin to not reduce the cargo space. Things could use the native mounting method where they simply place where they can, and if it is flat, they wont rotate awkwardly. You might even be able to place a tank internally, and have the extended fuel loadout that way instead of a whole separate bay. If you do not understand what I am trying to convey, I will be reinstalling Maya later today and I can try to make something, but I haven\'t worked with it much. As a side note, you can actually stack cargobay/fuelbays together on one shuttle, at the moment I have one fuel bay behind one cargo bay so I can get pretty far AND launch a sat. I cannot wait to try and create a space station with a few launches of this thing, maybe with 2-3 cargo bays for large parts.

Yeah, it is very well done. I wonder what would happen if you actually had a plane/plate to place things on in the cargo bay, would it make it easier to place parts? Basically make a custom plate that is the size of the bottom of the cargo bay and have it snap in. (would be a separate part) You might be able to more easily place parts in it. If you need to justify it realistically just call it a welding plate for decouplers to attach to without harming the shuttle structure itself. Just a thought as I am not exactly educated in this engine.

I wish mechjeb had something like that for orbiter landings, pain in the ass to get a hope shuttle from orbit to the runway safely.

But do any orbiters have a cargo bay besides Hope yet?

The cargo bay is great I wish I could attach the powersat part to the cargo bay though. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=9879.0 Well, attach it properly.

There was a forum post with all of em, lemme see if I can find it! EDIT: I can\'t as I don\'t have a ton of time to burn, but I know there is a list of a ton of good ones!

Great job so far, I wish I had a clue how to model parts as I would love to make a bit different satellite. In pop culture, a lot of them have a more square shaped body with large rectangular solar panels. Still is wonderful! I am sure some of the new people around here might like a structured release they can just paste in the root directory tho. (dll is in a plugin folder, parts are in, parts )

I like the idea, but if there is a gas needed to sustain life, the main system and aux tank should be either in the command module, or part of a service module with the flight computer combined. The size of the ASAS in my opinion should house the system AND the computer. Good idea none the less. Edit: Also, make the solar panels folding?

I would rather a buggy mod then nothing! (ill gladly write up any bugs I find.) If you do release the cargo bay before it is flushed out, you might want to make it interchangeable with the old one, at least for now. Also, MechJeb!? . I ended up modding the mod and put MechJeb in place of the ASAS with the same model and it works fine.

After you RTB from the mun... 1) Try getting an escape trajectory, and then after you are free of Kerbin\'s SOE, return to Kerbin. 2) Fly into Kerbol on a 'Scientific Data Gathering Mission' to see how long it takes to blow up. 3) Try to get into some fancy orbits. I don\'t know anything beyond basic orbital mechanics, But I want to know if you can establish an orbit that goes from LKO or close to it, then goes to the Mun, 'Slingshots' a bit to correct the course to return to LKO and do it all again. In my head I think it could work, but like I said, I don\'t know enough to try it in a scientific manner. Theoretically, it would be very hard to do but could work. A use for that path would be a space station orbiting the two as a go between from the Mun to Kerbin.

Any idea on the projected release date for the cargo carrying version?

I\'m sorry, I couldn\'t type as my eardrums just blew out from the sound of how awesome that is. Also, for mission control and vab, sexy, but i want a cockpit for flight operations

Kerbal can bend time to experience it 1000 times faster than normal, clearly that\'s how it was done!

Cant wait!

Close at all to landing gears or a cargo bay? Also, what about swaping the SAS to mechjeb now that the parts are merged into one heap of awesomeness?

I never thought to check the stats for tolerance and just had a rule of thumb under 5 m/s is a must. I\'ll remember that next time!

... Maybe they will release a scavenger hunt for easter eggs on, idk, easter weekend? (a man can dream)

Before modifying the current orbits and speculating on the difficulty, I would really like to see another planet added to try even getting into orbit around first. Has anyone been able to 'clone' kerbin and have it orbit with different parameters? While I think that code could be hard it might be possible to do if someone is bright and knowledgeable enough. (not anything close to a code monkey or I would attempt to look into it)

Forgot? How dare you disgrace the top of the line Day and Night simulator that we installed into the capsule. That invention is state of the art!

Three, One to admire the technology implemented, One to hold the ladder as he is afraid of heights, and one to nut up and do it.

Maybe they will allow you to wage war other nations, after all, spaceflight was built on ICBMs!

I found out about this game by a tweet from Totalbiscuit getting angry at how his rocket is wobbling and exploding (in a good light of course.) Now I am in love, and cant wait for more features!

I liked it If you are trying to come up with ideas in the future, I kinda wanna see em on the moon.

It\'s the latest mech jeb.