Sauron

The good news is NFP ion engines are a touch beefier than stock (and eat much more power). Fully loaded the lowest TWR I got was around .09 (kerbin). Unloaded it's a very respectable .15. Which isn't terrible. Of course I'm only running that big reactor at ~65%--you could easily add more engines if you wanted a bit more juice. Up next will be the long-range logistics module and a mission to a comet (not sure which one yet. I'll decide based on which one is more conveniently located ). I haven't ever needed to test out how to deal with NFP reactors over the course of several years. Now's the chance to see how that works for me)

Updated with pictures of a Munar shakedown run testing the ship with ~35 tons payload including a logistics lander, a multipurpose lander, and a surface habitat. It's a tad wobbly carrying almost it's unloaded weight on 3 docking ports, but that was hardly unexpected. Obviously burns take a while (ion engines, yo!)

There was a stab at this in the mid 60s (http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/gnom.htm). Very exciting performance. The great thing about air-augmented rockets is that they're dead simple compared to (say) a SABRE (with that nightmare of a precooler) in that you're just using air as extra working mass for a regular rocket engine in addition what you get with your fuel and oxidizer. Note that with solid rockets you can double ISP from ~250 to ~500 in atmosphere. You're carrying more structure, mind, but at a certain point this could probably be offset.

The Intermediate Caravan interplanetary exploration craft was developed in response to widespread public outrage at the KSA's excessive use of blutonium powered nuclear-thermal engines. KSA's insatiable demand for efficient engines was driving the price of this beloved food additive through the roof. The Intermediate Caravan powers it's 20 ion engines using much less tasty uranium instead. With over 12 km/s of delta-V unladen, it is easily capable of reaching any planet in the Kerbol system and returning (make sure to bring enough snacks for the crew!). Additionally, at just over 40 tons, the Intermediate Caravan is far lighter than nuclear thermal alternatives--finally, a use for those light launchers! Download: (a modified version using only stock and NFP parts. The only major change is the absence of the SXT service module. If you want that back it's easy enough to put back in.): https://www.dropbox.com/s/oxt38msb8dzmvu3/Intermediate%20Caravan%20%28Release%20Version%29.craft (Note that these screenshots are all in Alternis) Mods in the version illustrated (as far as I can remember): -NFP -Aviation Lights -Self-Ilumination Lights -KSPX -LackLusterLabs/SXT -TAC Life Support -RLA Stockalike -KAS -Somnambulic Aerospace Life Support Parts -MechJeb Mods in the supporting crafts (as far as I can remember): -NFP -Porkworks inflatable habs -Self-Ilumination Lights -LackLusterLabs/SXT -TAC Life Support -RLA Stockalike -MechJeb -Deadly Reentry Mods in the LV: -KW -AEIS

Balloon tanks. Not balloons It wasn't one of the big name mods. Interstellar doesn't have Nervas. Also I already have it so that's kinda irrelevant.

I remember seeing a mod with vaguely NFP styling a few months ago that included baloon tanks and nuclear engines. Try as I might, I can't find this mod again, and now that I'm playing with NFP I really want it Can someone assist?

I come from the Henry Ford school of thought: you can have them in any color you want as long as it's stock-alike white (I jest)

I'm still here--just have a busy weekend at the moment. Also, I've got my copy of 3ds working so unwrapping stuff on my own has suddenly become an option again--worth the fuss .

Nothing? Anyone?

So, I'm keen on making some very small radially mounted electric fan type engines for use in (any) atmosphere (in particular with airships and probe-sized aircraft). I'd be resizing a radial RCS port for the model, but I want to make a stock-balanced part that takes electricity and intake air and produces thrust. I'd like some thoughts on the following: 1: How to make this balanced (since it's a small electric engine it should be fairly weak) 2: How to make the part take in air from any atmosphere and only produce thrust while there's intake air 3: How to (if possible) attach a sound to the part

.obj is ideal for me. Unless you're animating stuff it should work as well as anything else. I'll have to learn how to unwrap in Blender. I still can't get 3ds working and it's making me really mad. I may have set up an older machine with XP and work on that if I can't figure Blender out Right now I'm working on a library of (mostly) stockalike textures extracted from the game which I can tweak for a wide variety of applications. (and hopefully share with others )

Okay, a few things: -What do you need me to do texture-wise? I need either unwrapped models unless you have meshes that are simple enough to take a unitary texture (you really still need to unwrap them to take full advantage of this though ) -Might I suggest some very generic chassis that'll work well with anything--those very basic building blocks are somewhat lacking in stock and they won't confine people like a prebuilt chassis will. I can sketch some concepts tomorrow. They should be easy to model

Sorry. Can we take a step back there Do you have a good (as in written for a complete moron ) tutorial for doing this stuff through Unity--the stuff I've found has been a bit confusing, and I can't make part tools import stuff.

Aha! Sorry I forgot about this thread. Download ASAP--possibly not tomorrow though (and I'll add some more stuff--downloads and pictures) As far as I know, the only mods on that thing are: -StretchySRB (when I figured out you could use the tapered adapter to make curved tanks my head exploded ) -RLA Stockalike (for the RCS and the lower tank) -6S (Obviously. I'm a disciple. Just note that while you can use it without changing Nothke's configs, having your kerbal clip in and out of the command chair looks mildly stupid--I enabled opening it while controlling the vessel as well )

Ah. I was hoping to test textures without touching config files I realize it's a bit of a misuse, heh.

I'm personally a fan of keeping stuff like UVs open in the event someone more talented than me comes along Putting them up on Dropbox or something similar would be ideal. A few things: -I haven't figured out how to output .mbm files. It'd be awesome if someone could tell me how to do that (or--not to ask to much--make the models take .pngs until a more polished release) -I'd have to see the UVs to tell you whether they're workable or not

Can texture replacer replace an arbitrary texture in a mod?

Just a note: I would need UV maps. While I can model, my copy of 3ds doesn't work on Windows 7 (and Blender is so hard after using a better program )and I'm a bit rusty in any case. I'd need someone else to do the UV work, unfortunately.

DUDE!!! YOU MADE A DECENT 2-KERBAL CAPSULE!!! But seriously, thanks for that! I'll see what I can do texture-wise EDIT: I've gotten a very basic stockalike base plus the top plate (I think ) of the pod. It'd be fantastic if you configured this thing to accept .tga or .png files so that prospective texture artists can just plug in their work. I'm struggling mightily to actually make my texture stick to the model I've decided on doing 2 different models, a MK1 Black capsule and a 3-man white version. Also, while I think I have a handle on it at this point, seeing some wireframe copies of your meshes might help me (or someone else)

I really hope this works out! If you need it, I'm happy to provide some help with stock-alike textures.

Incorrect. Jeb's gigantic brass balls have their own SOI But seriously, a rendezvous in kerbol-orbit is exactly the same as any other rendezvous except in terms of timescales. But a note: you may wind up spending more DV than you expected if you don't pay attention to phase angles--it's perfectly possible to brute-force a rendezvous, but you'll need to plan acordingly.

Awesome! But a thought: sticking with stockalike black might be a good idea. Since we don't have any matching parts for the current color scheme.

It's got ~2200 m/s of delta V at under 1.5 tons which should be enough for almost everywhere brought by almost anything. Note that this is a command seat lander with the command seat inside of one of Nothke's brilliant service compartments. I'm fairly sure that voids the warranty It is also designed to fit snugly in a B9 cargo bay if you feel like bringing it as an SSTO's payload. Craft: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vgi0c55itdvyh3s/Lander%20LK2.craft See! I love service compartments! Landing on Alternis-Bop Ribgee Kerman steps out of the hatch. Liftoff!

Ya. Just delete the 'city lights' folder. No problems whatsoever--they're separate plugins.

Oh? I struggle like crazy with Blender but since it's free I can just add it into my workflow with 3ds for the input (and output?). Do you have a link?