DaveyJ576

This really needs to be part of the mod...

Oh yeah… an adoption or an update of the Alternate Apollo mod! I hope it includes the 1962 “Bug” LEM. All of it really fits in the BDB multi-verse.

Good info. Thanks!

SURVEYOR 6 Here are some screenies from my latest mission, Surveyor 6. This was my first flight with the SLV-3C Atlas Centaur with the new PBR shaders. It looks great! The views from the moon are with KSRSS and Parallax and required a lot of manipulation to reduce the amount of rocks to a semi realistic state. All in all it looks pretty good. Landing went well, and I am impressed with how the verniers on the lander sip the fuel. I conducted two mid-course correction burns to refine my landing spot, and still had some gas left over after landing. I goofed and did not get any shots of the solid retro firing. Once I was firmly down I deployed the science and got a nice Hullcam VDS shot for good measure. I mounted the camera on top of a rotator joint so I could get a good panorama of the landing area. In the photos below it can be seen just to the left of the NASA logo. BTW, @CobaltWolf or @Zorg, is it possible to get this type of functionality in the actual Surveyor camera? If not no biggie.

Very nice screenshots! I noticed you had a single engine out on the center core while going uphill. Was that intentional? @Pappystein was that even possible in real life with the LR-87? At any rate this is a cool concept. Might try it myself!

There are some mods that provide you with these rockets. Wacapella and CNAR being two. I use them both alongside BDB and they are fun to fly. They are well done, but not quite as polished and refined as BDB. I have also kitbashed my own sounding rockets of the Viking Program (not related to the Mars lander). I used several parts mods for them and they look and fly okay, but this would be another nice BDB addition. As an aside, it would be wonderful if the BDB dev team could adopt the Alternate Apollo mod. This is an excellent mod that fits inside the BDB world quite nicely. I especially like the 1962 “Bug” LM. The original creator has been silent for some time, and it could use some BDB style tender loving care. At the end of the day, I am grateful that the BDB team has completed what they have. It is all amazing.

I see you swiped a bottle of rocket fuel and some solid propellant. Nice!

Better yet... Pioneer 3/4 with the Jupiter booster. I believe that this mission is impossible with KSP/BDB, but I would love to be proved wrong!

I finally completed a successful Ranger 5 Rough Lander mission! Your suggestions were a big help. I backed off the thrust on the BE-3 solid to 24. That gave me a much smoother burn and for a longer period. My landing velocity was just under 140 m/s with the motor burning out at about 300 m altitude. I was probably at the limits of the lander to survive, but it did. Success! Ranger 5 took seismometer readings and transmitted them back to JPL. I may have just got lucky here, but it seems like a good result. This will remain a very tough mission to accomplish.

@slyfox023, I went back and did a quick Hyperedit of a RCML with a CSM in orbit to grab some screenshots. This is just one of literally hundreds of configurations that you could do. Just add some science components. There is a node on the bottom of the RCML so you can even use it as the first component of a larger station while building in the VAB.

Right, that is the CM (Command Module) Lab that I referred to earlier. It really has the same function as the LM lab. You can do just about anything with it that you want. Attach some science parts, solar panels, sensors, the Goo Lab, etc. The possibilities are endless. Put it in the SLA adapter atop a Saturn and launch it. Do a transposition and docking maneuver with the CSM and take it out for a few trips around the planet while gathering some useful science. Note: A standard Saturn IB will probably not lift the RCML along with a CSM. You will need to use a Saturn V (huge overkill), upgrade the Saturn IB, use the Saturn INT-20, or any other of the upgraded Saturn concepts. You could also do a dual launch, with one Saturn IB launching the RCML and one launching the CSM. I have only flown the RCML once and I did not take any screenshots. For uploading pictures, you have to first upload them to a picture sharing service like Imgur. Then you use the "Insert image from URL" function in the lower right of the box when you are typing here. Go to Imgur, right click the photo and "copy image link". Paste the image link into the box that pops up on this page.

Here is another variation. This is the original design of the Apollo Telescope Mount for the early Apollo Applications Program wet workshop concept (never flown). The ATM that actually flew on Skylab was a purpose built unit that did not use any legacy LM components.

The CM and LM labs were never flown in real life as they were part of proposals submitted to NASA for early Apollo flights that didn't fly, or for later extensions for the program that were never funded. Therefore, there isn't a lot of guidance on how they would be used. Accordingly, that carries over to BDB and that is not really a bad thing. The dev team put them into the mod with the idea that the user could kitbash them into whatever configuration that pleased them. That gives you a lot of leeway. Here is something I cooked up a while back: The CM lab could be used in a similar fashion. Put some science greebles on it, some power, and voila! Whether or not the Wiki will be updated to reflect this I do not know. I can tell that you are new to KSP or at least new to the forums. With a mod as large as BDB it is really helpful if you get VERY specific when you have a question. It helps the experienced players by enabling them to provide you with better and more precise answers. Have fun! Show us some of your creations when you can, if you can get around the damnable 502 Gateway errors that seem to be the bane of our existence on the forums of late.

Ok, so it is possible then. Question... how much fuel do you have in your BE-3 solid motor? Mine shows 1.8 in the VAB and it seems to burn out faster than yours did.

LEO first, but from there directly to landing without lunar orbit. I use MechJeb. I flew two missions, Ranger 3 and 4, with a different lunar approach vector for each. Both trajectories were quite steep, probably 65 to 70 degrees. I did a game save at about 100k altitude and did multiple resets trying different altitudes for retro fire. BTW, my booster was a three stage Atlas Vega! A bit overpowered for this mission, but I wanted to try something different. Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks for the effort!