DaveyJ576

Part of the confusion may come from the fact that I am running 1.10. CKAN downloaded the compatible version which apparently has the original Packrat. I didn’t realize that until today. Anyway, I still love the mod. The Packrat is awesome!

There are pictures of it on the first and second pages of this thread, mounted to the back of the Packrat rover. They are mentioned in the OP.

LM VARIANTS PT. 3 The bottom vehicle is the LM Truck MK 2. I replaced the platform and robotics with a KIS container. This is still somewhat similar to a proposal I read in an official NASA document. You can carry A LOT of cargo to the Mun with the MK 2. I found a way to double stack the MK 2 with the Shelter. Believe it or not it flew well, boosted by a standard Saturn V with a very long shroud. The Transtage braked both vehicles into Mun orbit quite nicely. I decoupled and landed the Shelter first, then the Truck. That was a follow up launch after the MK 1B landing.

LM VARIANTS This is my "final" version of my LM Shelter. It is still a rough kitbash, and I hope that the dev team will consider formalizing something like this. This is a combination of Stock, BDB, & KIS (a wonderful mod if you don't have it). Shelter is launched separately and landed autonomously. KIS allowed the attachment of an extendable ladder to the bottom lip of the airlock. The ladder is carried uphill stowed on the back of the Shelter. I also attach two RTG's to the back of the Shelter once landed. LM VARIANTS PT. 2 LM Truck MK 1A. Added some Infernal Robotics and KAS equipment for the arm/crane, and KIS containers. MK 1B LRV variant. Rover is a modification of the Stock Skycrane/Rover. I have since dropped it in favor of the USI Exploration Pack rover. This one still works though.

Hello! I love your mod. Great work! I downloaded and installed a few days ago and have been tinkering with it. I am running 1.10 with BDB and have run into a semi-weird issue. Does anyone have an idea for the reason that the arms separated from the hinges? They were attached when I landed and for the initial work of unloading a rover. After a save, I came back and it was like this. It was still full functional. Did I goon something up? Thanks!

I apologize if I was not clear. I meant the experiment storage lockers. The tan colored ones. How are they used?

I wanted to pass on my compliments for a brilliant mod. The rover is fantastic and fun to drive. I disable the steering for the rear wheels and that prevents potentially problematic super-tight turns. It is still pretty nimble without the rear steering. I ran it around KSC and took it over to LC-34. There is an earthen ramp there meant to protect some fuel tanks. I used to to catch some air with the rover! There thing is practically indestructable. I have only one minor quibble: I am on 1.10 and using KAS to assemble the two frame pieces and it proved quite frustrating to get them to line up properly at the right node. It required a great deal of manipulation, but I eventually got it once I figured out how to shift the nodes around. The rest of the rover assembled like a dream. One more minor observation: do the science packs actually hold anything? If so I couldn’t figure out how to open their inventory. Thanks again for the great work!

Okay. Thank you. Since I don’t currently use the mod I wasn’t sure of the difference.

I kitbashed together this LM Shelter using BDB and stock parts. It is still in the refinement phase, but I am running into a problem. I need to attach a ladder to the lower lip of the airlock. I can do so, but when I inflate/deflate the airlock the ladder does not move with it. I don't have KAS yet and I was wondering would it solve the problem? Or, could my Kerbals attach one on an EVA? Thanks.

The LM Shelter was what I had in mind for my design a few pages back. If I could just get a ladder to attach to the airlock I would be in business.

Since the team has indicated that it may be a while until the revamp hits the streets, I decided to jump back into some Apollo kitbashing. Below is my version of a LM Hab, inspired by a design I saw once for the real-life Apollo Extension System (AES). Ascent engine has been removed and replaced by a Z-1K battery. All ascent prop has been offloaded with the exception of monoprop for the RCS. I attached the inflatable airlock from the MOL/MOS parts, and placed a RC-001S Remote Guidance Unit (tweakscaled down) in place of the docking drogue. Also added in some solar panels. The intention is for this Hab to be landed remotely without a crew, and a manned LM Taxi lands close by. Not finished with this yet and I have not flight tested it. Big question... is there a way of attaching a ladder to the lip of the extended airlock? I can attach one, but when the airlock is inflated/deflated it doesn't move with it.

@OdyBN try Conformal Decals. I use it and it is great! Adds a lot to the visuals.

One other lesson learned... be very careful how you connect the S-IVB interstage to the descent stage. Adding the skirt to the descent stage also added some hinkiness with the nodes that required using the move tool to properly connect the two. Move it just a tad too far and staging after TMI will get very wild!

THE MISSION OF BLUEDOG 2 I have always wanted to fly an Apollo "Direct Ascent" type mission. So I kitbashed together something that approaches that idea. This will be my last big Apollo mission until the revamp comes out. The Bluedog 2 spacecraft sits atop a Saturn V Heavy. This vehicle is a mix of BDB and stock parts. First, second and third stages are standard BDB, but with the 1st and 2nd having reduced fuel loads. The boosters are UA 1205 with full thrust and fuel. I had to remove the hammerhead crane from @AlphaMensae's Modular Launch Pads LUT, because it was jammed into the top of the VAB and it also wouldn't clear the LES. Liftoff and the ride uphill was smooth, but slower than usual due to the heavy load. The boosters helped a lot. The S-II pushing the stack into orbit. I did not fly an actual direct ascent profile, mostly because I use MechJeb and couldn't quite figure out how to do it! I will play with that later. The stack just after the S-IVB performed the Trans Munar Injection. Conformal Decals add a lot to the look. Bluedog 2 outbound to the Mun. There is no need for a docking probe, so that was replaced with the Block 1 nose cone. I added extendable ladders to the SM and the descent stage, and a fixed ladder to the interstage. I moved the High Gain antenna to the SIM bay along with some science equipment. Missions Bluedog 0 and Bluedog 1 were test flights, and I found out I was not using a powerful enough engine in the descent stage. I had to find something with enough power, but that wasn't so big that the bell was longer than the landing legs. I started off with the ETS SPS, then went to the LV-909 Terrier. Neither had enough power or control authority to land. Bluedog 2 was upgraded to the LV-T45 Swivel engine, but the length required me to add a skirt (Tweakscaled) to the bottom of the stack to allow the landing gear to clear the engine bell. Bluedog 2 on the Mun! The CG is a bit high so she was tippy on this sloped ground. I was holding my breath as she settled after touchdown. The EVA underway! It is a long climb down the ladders, but it worked well. Munar liftoff went well. I flew it manually to apoapsis, then used MJ to circularize. Once again I skipped the direct ascent profile, and will hold more training on that later. A lonely Bluedog Base after departure of the CSM. CM/SM separation before reentry. On the mains before a successful splashdown. I landed in Meteor Bay. It was a very successful mission and was fun to fly!

@USKnight, you may already know this, but the external MechJeb module is no longer needed. If you right click any pod or C&C part it will indicate that it is MJ enabled even without the external module. I no longer put it on any of my spacecraft and MJ works fine!

I run KSP from my laptop and do not have a joystick. So I use MechJeb to handle the detail work of flying. I have the X-20 mod and found it nearly impossible to fly from the keyboard. I encountered a lot of “dutch roll” style oscillations with MechJeb engaged. So I disengaged MJ and the oscillations went away, but it was still uncontrollable. I asked in the X-20 thread for some suggestions, but didn’t get any useful answers. It is a fantastic looking mod, but I have shelved it for now. BTW, your work here is fantastic! Very interesting historical variations. Keep it up!

I am sorry to report that I encountered a situation very similar to what Friznit reported above. The "bug" actually had two different components. I am currently running 1.10.1.2939. Prior to installing BDBNIC, my BDB Saturn 1 and 1B were so overpowered on a stock Kerbin that they were nearly SSTO's. I had to power them down for realism's sake. After I installed BDBNIC, I noticed that neither of them, at full power and fuel, would achieve orbit! A full 1st stage burned through all of its fuel at only at 15-17,000 meters and at less than 500 m/s. Because of air resistance staging was disasterous. I use MechJeb so I thought for a while that I had gooned up a setting. I also noticed that the Atlas Centaur and ETS Saturn 1C also struggled a bit, but I was able to achieve orbit at least. It really seemed as if someone had turned on a massive aerobrake. I spent three hours yesterday launching test after test with different MechJeb settings and nothing worked. The second issue involved the return to Earth. After deorbit and reentry, the Apollo CM would slow considerably, even without the parachutes deployed! At 6,000 meters I was down to 39 m/s and still dropping. I thought about letting her go all the way to see if it would safely land without parachutes, but I punched them out anyway. Immediately the speed increased to nearly 200 m/s, then started to slow down again! Final landing speed was 7 m/s, about 2-3 m/s higher than normal. After that I realized that it wasn't MechJeb at all so I backed out and uninstalled BDBNIC. After restarting and testing, the problem went away and BDB was back to normal. The BDBNIC install was via CKAN and it was bundled with Tantares. I uninstalled both. This is really a shame because I liked what was in this mod. It was one of those that greatly enhanced the visual aspect of the whole sim. I will fully admit that the problem may be linked to another mod that I have, but since the problem went away when I uninstalled BDBNIC, I will have to leave it behind for now.

Many mod developers ask for a log file in order to troubleshoot a problem. Which file are they looking for and how do you attach it to a forum post? Thank you!

I am having the same problem as Hachiro. I will attach a log, but how do I do that?

If you are working on an update, would you please consider making the LC-14 pad just a tad larger? I use AlphaMensae's Modular Launch Pads, and with the size of your pad for LC-14, his tower just barely fits. The crew access tower has to be angled to properly align with the spacecraft hatch. This would also (in real life) give the KSC personnel the room to move the booster up the ramp and erect it on the launch stand. I can not move the tower any further outboard without it hanging over the edge of the ramp, and as it sits currently it partially blocks the ramp. You wouldn't need to add much, probably less than 5%. This is a very small quibble in an otherwise fantastic mod! Thank you for all the hard work you put into it!

If you guys are still taking requests for the Saturn/Apollo update, in addition to my earlier stated request for all of the development models of the LEM, please reconsider adding this beauty that you worked on much earlier into the new mix: It would be pretty cool to establish an Apollo lunar base with this "LM Shelter"!

I played around with Big G a couple of months ago. I posted some pics a ways back on this thread. It works great until you come to the deorbit phase...

I must say, the Conformal Decals mod looks great on the Bluedog Mercury spacecraft. I have been recreating the entire Mercury program and this is Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 on a high altitude suborbital flight, boosted by a Jupiter: I have had some fun recreating the program, and it proved to be a bit of a challenge to recreate the failures. I had to manipulate the settings quite a bit by shutting off engines early, disabling staging, etc. Here is Mercury Redstone 1, the infamous "4 inch flight". I made my own Little Joe booster. I couldn't get AlphaMensae's angled launch rail to work so I tilted the whole pad. After twiddling with the settings a bit, I got the MR-BD flight to go exactly like it did in real life, essentially just like an arrow shot into the air. No staging. I inserted Carpenter's flight as a third suborbital mission boosted on a Jupiter (mostly because I wanted to try it out), and Deke Slayton will fly his three orbit mission on Delta 7 after Glenn.

Test post for some files

I was looking for the mission insignia that were on the side of the Mercury spacecraft. I couldn't find a repository of all the images in one place, so I made my own. I downloaded these from the Net, and cleaned them up a bit using an image editor. I saved them to the Flags folder and they work great! When placed on the Bluedog Mercury spacecraft they are a bit darker that the background colors of the capsule, but you can tone that down a bit by adjusting the transparency. For Freedom 7 and Liberty Bell 7 the logos are simple text that can be recreated using this mod's existing Text function. Unfortunately I was unable to recreate the Liberty Bell 7 white stripe "crack". The last two are from never flown missions for Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 II and Deke Slayton's Delta 7. Here is what they look like on the spacecraft: