DaveyJ576

Thanks! I tried your other suggestion but no go. I didn't want to clutter up the B9PS thread. Right now when I hover over the Enhanced button I can see the Resources listed, but they both say zero for quantity. Also, I do not yet have the green sliders for quantity when I right click the part. I will try your new suggestion. Update: Nope, that didn't work.

@Rodger, May I ask you for some assistance? I am trying to write a patch that will add MonoPropellant and ElectricCharge to the Enhanced version of the Mercury retropack, to enable an MA-10 style 3 day mission. I have written some very small patches before, but I am gooning this one up somehow. I suspect that it is due to too much, not enough, or misplaced white space or brackets. https://www.dropbox.com/s/6okuwdv52b7v5hy/bluedog_Mercury_Retropack.cfg?dl=0 Thank you. BTW, I have seen the actual Mercury 15B spacecraft (the one earmarked for MA-10) at the Smithsonian. The model in game for the retropack is very good visually.

I need some help modifying a B9 Subtype entry. I am trying to add MonoPropellant and ElectricCharge to a subtype part that currently doesn't have it. The subtypes are "Basic" and "Enhanced". Enhanced should have the monoprop and EC where the Basic does not. I am not doing something right as it does not show up in game. I am a newbie at these patches so I am not sure if it is even possible. If not no prob. See link below for a partial version of the .cfg file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xktnjvi62r6ue4t/Subtype test.cfg.txt?dl=0 Thank you!

I have the same issue visually. I can see the cable (cord, stick?) rising through the top of the chute as well. I always thought it was a bit weird. My chutes have full functionality though. Everything works fine, I just have the artifact above the drogue. Using RealChute. @CobaltWolf, @Invaderchaos, @Zorg, any thoughts on this? Thanks.

You're welcome! Someone other than me might call that cheating though. I default to a little-known quote I once heard onboard ship during a Navy inspection: "If you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'!" I think the dev team used to much explodium when they built the hard lander. I once (after many, many tries) got it to touch down at 22 m/s and all I got to show for it was a large puff of lunar regolith and scattered parts.

Great shots! Is this 2.5x or stock? What is your formula for getting the hard lander down successfully? It is not easy.

Yeah, I have found SRMs very difficult to work with. I have actually gotten to orbit with Scout, but it ain’t pretty. I usually get a highly elliptical orbit, even when I am watching the orbital parameters like a hawk and using Safe Shutdown. They are imprecise and hard to control. Since I am a crappy pilot I use MechJeb and MJ doesn’t like solids at all. The Sergeant upper stages for Juno I and II (even though they are cool to watch) are a royal pain too. In general I avoid solid upper stages when I can. As strap on boosters they are fine, but as uppers not so much. IRL, I think using SRMs for manned spaceflight is a terrible idea. Too many black zones going uphill (Challenger). I did not mourn Ares I when it died in infancy, and my fingers are crossed with Artemis.

Nice use of the Pegasus parts!

Is that a Monolith in the clouds near the Spot?

Thanks! Its a relief to know I wasn’t being a dolt!

Okay, I need your help. I am having a really bizarre problem I built out the Keyhole dual capsule return setup and flew it on the KH-4B using the SG-4B Camera System. Both capsules ejected and operated properly. I then took the same dual capsule setup and installed it on the KH-8 Gambit. The top capsule ejected properly, but after ejecting the SG-RCA adaptor and the SPD-05 decoupler I have tried to eject the 2nd capsule from the SG-DPA Dual Return Capsule Adaptor and it wants to eject downward, into the camera system. This results in a full Kraken quality RUD. I tried it multiple times, and I even rebuilt it from scratch using Friznit's guide. Same result. I then removed everything except the SG-DPA adaptor and the four part capsule assembly. I Hyperedited it into orbit and found that the SG-DPA adaptor wants to eject the capsule downward, pushing the adaptor upward. I tried this multiple times using different parts as the root part. Same result. I even tried attaching this adaptor/capsule assembly to many different parts, including Centaur and Saturn parts and I got the same exploding result. My conclusion is that for some reason the SG-DPA dual adaptor works only with the SG-4B camera system. Use any other part with it, or only by itself and you get ejection in the wrong direction. My questions: 1. Has anyone else experienced this? 2. What is unique about the SG-4B camera part that make the SG-DPA work properly when it doesn't with any other part? I will fully admit that this may be a classic case of me being an idiot, or it may be a case of mod conflicts. I can provide a mod list and logs if necessary. Thank you! @CobaltWolf, @Invaderchaos

@CobaltWolf, the new parts are awesome! We now have three lunar shelters to choose from. One observation on the new shelter with the LTV ramp: is it possible to get ramp extensions similar to what is on the LM Truck platform? Getting the LTV off the ramp can be a bit sporty, and frequently results in a flip onto its back. Extendable ramps would allow a shallower angle to be used when deploying the ramp. If that is more than you want to do don't sweat it. It is still useable the way it is. Thank you!

@CAPFlyer, Completely Non-Agressive Rocketry (CNAR) bas a very good V-2/Bumper/WAC Corporal that I use a lot. Be advised that you have to do a wee bit of fiddling with the .cfg files as the WAC Corporal is WAY overweight, and I added a small amount of fuel to both the Bumper and the WAC. Read through the thread and it is all spelled out. Overall, it is a nice complement to BDB.

There has been some discussion here about the dev team working on Viking. I already have a fully working version! See below. Surprise!

@Friznit, @Pappystein, @GoldForest, and others: Thank you for the information concerning the KH-11. All of this is a very interesting discussion, but it will have to remain speculative for the foreseeable future. Perhaps in 10 years or so the NRO will declassify the KH-11 in a fashion similar to what they did with the KH-9 Hexagon, and all of these questions will be answered. After realizing that mounting the solar panels on the Satellite Support Bus was just not going to work, I played around with the design and came to the conclusion that since the Kennen would spend a considerable amount of time pointing down at the Earth it would make sense to mount the solar panels on the bottom of the SSB, similar to how they are mounted on the Hexagon. I used the Apollo Block IV solar panels and they worked quite well. More research last night showed that well regarded artists C.P. Vick and Giuseppe De Chiara both believe that the panels would be mounted on the sides of the narrow part of the fuselage, similar to what GoldForest showed above. De Chiara works closely with Dwayne Day (who writes extensively on these matters), so I think his representation is as accurate as we can get for now. Friznit, please don't interpret any of this as a criticism of your work on the Wiki page. All of your illustrations are fantastic and they prompted several enjoyable hours yesterday of kitbashing in the VAB. Thanks!

@Friznit, I would like to build out several of the satellites that you have pictured on your Wiki page. I have Coatl, ScanSat, NFE, NFS, and Space Dust. I would like to build the round sats (Galaxy 1 and TacSat 1) but I can not find the round solar panel set that you used for these. I did find the curved ones from NFS, but they are way too big and can not be Tweakscaled. Which mod did those round ones come from? Thank you! BTW, I was able to recreate the KH-11 Kennen, but had a question. Historically, these were initially launched on Titan IIID vehicles, but if I build it like you pictured it the solar panels and the antennas would be outside of the fairing and would be damaged going uphill. Using the flared 2.6m SAF Titan IIIE fairing hides all of that nicely, but according to Ed Kyle of Nasaspaceflight.com, it doesn't appear that the Titan IIID ever launched with a flared fairing. If you build the KH-11 with Hexagon style panels on the base of the vehicle and move the antennas forward it will work, but that is not how the Kennen is generally pictured. I know that there is a great deal of speculation about how the Kennen was configured, but I was wondering if you knew. @Pappystein, any thoughts on this? Thank you.

Dang if that don’t look like Surveyor + or Super Surveyor, and that’s a good thing! Man, that Flat Jeb sure gets around. Just two days ago I spotted him on the EOSS!

Fantastic work. Utterly brilliant!

2.5x scale. I held it to 100 km due to the limitations of the retro pack. But I am confident that I could get it higher.

@GoldForest, Mercury Titan I to orbit from LC-15: Not perfectly circular at 100 km, but pretty close. I even short fueled the first stage a little. For fans of fictional astronauts, you may recognize the Kerbal's name...

I would say to hold off. Get it to the point where you are comfortable with it. The only thing that takes longer than work is rework.

I have actually launched Mercury to orbit on Titan I several times on KSRSS. I have also done Mercury Jupiter for high altitude sub-orbital. I have a whole new appreciation for Al Shepard and Gus Grissom and the G’s they endured during reentry on their sub-orbital flights. On my Mercury Redstone and Mercury Jupiter flights my Kerbals pull 10 G’s (for a few seconds) on the downhill portion. Ugh.

I have been able to put a Block 1 manned CSM into a 100 km orbit on KSRSS using the Saturn I. The S-IV was on fumes by the time I got there, but I got a nice circular orbit. I really short fueled the SM, leaving just enough to deorbit. It was my attempt to recreate the missions that were canceled when the CSM weight increased. I agree with you, despite the chunky look the Apollo/Saturn I was a good looking rocket. Retro look but still cool.

Try a three F-1 variant of the INT-20 for the Big G. Kill the center engine when you hit 3.5 G and you can hit 200 km on KSRSS no sweat.

I would give this a half-million likes if I could! I am a die-hard, unrepentant, unashamed Apollo fan!