Jump to content

Logan.Darklighter

Members
  • Posts

    616
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Logan.Darklighter

  1. I could try and help. But I'm not sure I'm clearly imagining what the problem is. Can you post a picture from the Spaceplane hanger of your craft with the COM, COL and COT tags showing?
  2. And I'm still having trouble figuring out how to embed Imgur album sets. But spoiler tags I could easily do. I'll go back and spoiler tag that long post on the previous page so people don't get slammed with all the images when it loads if someone will just tell me what the spoiler html tags are. (I've already tried so I know that's not it.)
  3. I found that when using a docking port located centrally under the Eagle's truss that it did not in fact stay stable in flight. They wobbled quite severely when the rear thrusters were applied. The pod would hang from the docking port and swing angled back or forward depending on the amount and direction of thrust applied. Even just flying the Eagle solely with the VTOL thrusters and angling it to move like a helicopter was problematic. I tried attaching the pods via a docking port that was clipped further up into the truss so that it fit more snugly against the rails (even if the docking ports looked strange). It didn't help. the pod part would simply clip through the truss structure and still wobble. In fact the effect was similar to when he attached a payload to only one docking port and forgot to use the KAS struts to secure it. The relevant bit starts at about 11:30 in the video. I can't tell you how many hours I spent trying to crack the problem and tearing my hair out! I REALLY wanted the pods to attach to the truss rails. But that's why I ultimately had to go with the "docked at both ends" route. It locked the pods more securely to the parent craft, making the Eagle pods truly part of the main craft while attached. Mind you - the single port attachment method was with the regular stock docking ports, so perhaps it's different than with the invisible docking node you are describing. Anyway - I'll be more than happy to help you test pilot anything you want to make and work out the bugs! Good point. I'd give it an inherent electrical charge like command pods have. But leave extra power generation to anyone building a craft. If they think the cargo pod they've dropped is going to stay where it is a long time, leave it to them to attach something to recharge the batteries in the SPH or attach it in the field with KAS.
  4. You know - I looked at that and it got me to thinking. What would you need to make a Thunderbird 2 style modular cargo pod? I realized I had some experience in creating something similar that would work. On the Space 1999 Eagle mod, Devo made the central truss body of the Eagle a one-piece affair. It was flat on the forward and rearward facing inner sides. I think he was eventually going to make docking ports to fit on those surfaces, but never got around to it. (Image: The basic Wayland Mk 3 Eagle with no central pod. If you look closely, you can see the LLL CFG docking port I attached along the rear inner facing surface of the truss body.) But I experimented and eventually hit upon a system that worked. The LLL Parts made perfect sized rectangular pods, and the thin CBM square docking ports could attach either via node or flat to any surface that would allow a general non-node attach area. Fortunately the Eagle truss had that type of colliding surface in those spots that I needed. So I was able to make pods that fit perfectly in-between the two docking nodes. The Eagle could even drop a pod, and then move off, come back and pick it back up again. As long as one of the docking ports "Locked" on, the other would as well. (I improved the ability to strengthen the links and align the pods with Quantum struts, but it was possible to do it without them) (Image: Eagle with LLL parts making a passenger pod fitted under the truss.) Here's a closer look at what I'm talking about - the CBM Docking port is fitted to the Eagle truss, then a matching CBM on the pod mates with it. So what's the point of the above example? Well think about it - instead of a single truss going over the top - what you want is to make a single fuselage part that has forward and aft sections that mate smoothly to the other fuselage mod parts, but has a "cut-out" in the middle between the outboard "bulges" and a cargo pod that will fit in that space smoothly. I can only do this crudely, but take the example below - imagine that the hollow "RCS" hull parts at the fore and aft end and the girders make up a single part. Also imagine that the sections of hull below do NOT have the bulges on them so that the central part fits into the cut-out. Now - what else would you need to make this work? I suspect that it's not possible to have docking ports integral to the "cut-out" piece. So you'd need to make docking pieces that fit on the ends of the cargo pod and on the matching surfaces on the inward facing parts of the cut-out section. And to make it fit smoothly into the cutout, both the cargo pod and the hull cut-out sections will have to be recessed far enough to fit the needed docking ports AND allow the sections outwardly to fit together with minimal seams. Further - how would you make a cargo section that has a door AND space for a docking port? Well - Thankfully - your parts are large enough to accommodate both. Plus - you've already got a good visual texture that might serve as the starting point for a docking port already. Check out the image below. Ignore the RCS fuel pods and imagine this plus the wall of the pod attached to it as one end of the proposed "cut-out" section. Note the door with the windows on either side near the top? Well imagine that as the node location for a docking port. (which could look quite similar to that door/window section) Now, turn your mental viewpoint around 180 degrees and imagine you're looking at the matching end of the cargo pod (sans the bulges). You've got that docking port area up top - plus enough room below that section for a fairly wide aperture - whether that winds up being a simple open "walk through" area, or an actual drop down ramp/door (like what you've done with the ramp/tail of the plane) is up to you. If you're going to make telescoping legs, then docking/redocking a cargo pod is possible. As I mentioned above with the example of the Eagle - if the fit is close enough, then if one docking port connects and locks on, so will the other. Trust me, it works! I've done it many times! And with a TB2 style arrangement, it might be even easier! IIRC, TB2's cargo pods had rollers or wheels on the bottom of them. I think they were mainly so that TB2 could taxi. But if you allowed for some small rover wheels to fit along the bottom of the cargo pods, then it would likely make lining them up for re-docking much easier. Which brings me to my last observation. On the Eagle pods, they needed to have their own internal power supply in the form of an RTG or solar panels, a battery, and a probe control body. That way they became their own "craft" when separated and not register as "debris". If something is debris, it can't be docked to again (unless you hook to it with KAS or something like it so that it becomes powered and part of the main ship again. The cargo pods could be written to have those qualities like a probe or command pod inherent to them in the part instead of it being necessary to attach other parts as I did with the Eagle pods. If they had rollers/wheels on the bottom (possibly created as extremely low profile landing gear?) then the cargo pod itself could act as a limited rover. Hope these ideas and observations help!
  5. I use imgur already. But I can't seem to figure out how to imbed an album structure into a post. Edit: NVM - I think I see the problem. I've just been dumping all my KSP pics in a single album. In order to make it work like you are suggesting, I have to separate out a sub-album and then embed THAT. I can't just select individual pics for the code to embed on the fly. Let me see what I can do with that.
  6. Awesome work, Cupcake! Love your ships! Having recently seen Interstellar, I'm wondering if with your skills you might try your hand at creating versions of the Ranger and Lander from that movie. Your style and aesthetic is already VERY close to the designs from that film!
  7. LOVE this set of parts! Can't wait for updates, and yeah - the only major complaint I have is also the floor colliders. I can drive a Rover up the ramp into the cargo area, but then trying to attach it with KAS parts drops the rover through the floor! Glad to know that's being worked on! A poster on Facebook (where I learned of this set of parts first) said: "I was wondering if I was going to make orbit. I need not have worried. The Scimitar Engines crushed orbit, saw orbit driven before them, and heard the lamentations of their women!" I literally LOLed and told him the first design I made with the Mk 4 parts would be called Conan the Cargoplane. And so it was. So yeah - the Conan 2 could get to orbit and her cargo bay was big enough to load an orange fuel tank. But could it LIFT it? Lifting an orange tank to orbit is after all, the "standard benchmark" for truly large SSTO cargo planes. Like the all-stock ones that Mr. Overfloater designs. Sadly... no. Conan 2 came up short in the power department. She could fit an orange tank. But she could BARELY struggle off the end of the runway and stagger into the air with it. Much less get it to orbit! So... back to the drawing board once again. Well Conan The Cargoplane 1 and 2 both failed to loft an orange tank into orbit. But what I learned from their failures begat the SSTO Spaceplane that CAN!!! I present to you - an SSTO that truly lives up to the potential of this parts set, and thus earns the name for the true inspiration behind it - THUNDERBIRD! The Thunderbird is a keeper. So's this entire parts system. Awesome work! Here's the Craft File for the Thunderbird at my Mediafire dropbox. BTW - I love Gerry Anderson's works. And I'm doing my best to keep Devo's Wayland Mk 3 Space 1999 Eagle mod alive. Which still works in .25 Sandbox! Link below to a download of the parts with mods I've created for it and craft files for pods for it. The reason I mention it is because you might want to take a look at the Eagle's VTOL engines for help in designing VTOLs for the Mk 4 in case of a full-on TB2 Style mod. Thanks for an awesome mod set!
  8. And now we have to hand the craft over to our tame astronaut. - Some say that his ears aren't exactly where you'd expect them to be... And that he thought Star Wars was a documentary. - Some say that he knows two facts about the Kraken, and that both of them are wrong... And that he spent a week taking apart a MechJeb unit and feeding the bits to a wood chipper. - Some say that he isn't machine washable, and that all of his potted plants are named "Kurt." All we know is - he's NOT the Stig. But he is the Stig's Kerbal Cousin!
  9. Diazo - between this and the landing RCS guidance, I do believe you've made it possible for me to do a true skycrane with KAS. More on this as soon as I test.
  10. I now have a new version of my Mods and Pods files. Since the Wayland Eagle Mk 3 is a little hard to find these days, I've included all of it's parts in the zip file in my signature. You want the Space 1999 Eagle? Click on the link in my signature and download it. Pods included (both as Sub-Assemblies and as fully kitted Eagles ready for launch - - Standard Passenger Pod Eagle. - Heavy Lift Passenger Pod with extra thrusters. Based on the "Lab Pod" from Space 1999 Season 2. - Kethane Prospector Pod - All the equipment you'll ever need to survey a world for Kethane Deposits and to set down and mine the sweet green. Pod can be left behind on it's own to serve as a refueling outpost. Includes Kethane sensors and Basic Scansat mapping sensors. - The Beagle Rover - Using LLL Parts, the Beagle will fit under the Eagle's truss for transport to the Mun or Minmus. Unlike the other pods, the Beagle can NOT be picked back up once dropped. One way trip only! And the initial take-off from Kerbin is a bit tricky. Fair warning! Mods needed that are not included in this file. -- Mechjeb -- Kerbal Attachment System (KAS) -- Kethane -- Lackluster Labs (LLL) (A note about LLL - I have included specific parts that I have modded. Specifically the landing legs/skids which have had their rescale factors tweaked. Load those modded parts AFTER you install the main LLL mod. And allow it to overwrite those part configs.) -- Quantum Struts Continued -- SCANSat -- Module Manager -- You'll also need the toolbar mod. I also highly recommend Diezo's RCS Landing Assist mod. Coming soon in an update, I'll have a basic cargo platform, a probe carrier, and other assorted odds and ends that an Eagle can lift and carry. Cheers!
  11. Well it sure has been a long time, eh? Went through a fair amount of upheavals that kept me away from KSP. (I pretty much missed all of the .24 release.) Well I'm back! And flying stuff, getting practice back in. LOVE the new stock spaceplane parts. But of course, what would a post from me on the Wayland thread be without talking about my favorite subject? Well good news! THE EAGLE LIVES!!! I admit - I was apprehensive about loading the Eagle parts into .25. I thought for sure there'd be some need to tweak the CFG. Some weird code issue that needed to be resolved. Some weirdness I'd have to ask Devo about. NOPE! All the basic parts for the Wayland Eagle work JUST FINE. And - the mods that I made for them ALSO work just fine. Even the modded cockpit interior with the FASA Gemini cockpit IVA works perfectly. Check it - (You can tell it's KSP .25 because I have the new volumetric clouds from the E.V.E. pack and you can see them in these screenshots) I didn't even download new copies of the Eagle components. I just pulled the parts files directly from my .23 folder straight into .25. Boom. No muss, no fuss. The only minor issue I noticed is that the Gear no longer automatically links to the "G" key. But that was easily fixable by just adding the Eagle's Gear pods to the Gear action group. After that - works perfectly. (Eagle on the testing rig retracting the gear) Of course the same issues that the Eagle had before still exist - mainly the landing gear bug (that's why I started out on that test rig above). She's just as stable (or not) as she ever was. Which basically means that as always, you really don't want to fly the Eagle completely manually. Always fly it with Mechjeb assist. (But don't trust Mechjeb to land!) Now there are some issues with some of the other mods that have made up my Eagle Mission Pods. I'm having some issues getting the game to work with the LLL Parts. Lackluster himself seems to have had enough issues he got frustrated and stopped updating his parts, which is a real shame. But others in that thread seem to have done some work figuring out what works and what doesn't and doing some updates for .25. So I'm hoping to get that resolved. What I'm going to do is concentrate on loading up ONLY the most necessary parts from LLL and making sure each one works without making the game crash. (At least not crashing any more than it already does, anyway.) Assuming I can get that resolved, then I'll make an updated parts, mods and pods package which I"ll update in my signature link. I'll include everything needed to insert the Eagles and pods into the game in Sandbox mode. I have no clue about how to tweak the code to make the Eagle parts appear in career mode with the tech tree - so don't bother asking. If YOU want to take a try at it, and you're successful, by all means let me know how to mod the code and I'll add that to the package as well. I also need to find the latest version of quantum struts and see if that will work. Also - Devo - I registered over at your site. I'll be downloading the Oblivion pod for testing (and also to see if there's any mods to the code you made that might be usable or portable over to the Eagle parts.) But hey - I'm just happy the basic parts for the Eagle work! They didn't get broken at all! Woot! So - here's some beauty shots of the test Eagle ascending up to orbit. Later!
  12. Did you post a craft file of this before now? If not - can you do so? Would love to test some of this myself.
  13. Awesome work on these! Love the descriptions and dialogue. Think you'll ever have cause to refuel and use the lander in orbit around Ike again? Maybe send up a small refueling package to fuel it in case it's needed for some rescue operation somewhere?
  14. Part 8: The Return Home - Or - Two Out of Three Ain't Bad And now for the final part - getting everyone home safe. So Eagle 1 is waiting on Gilly with a load of Kethane for refueling the other two Eagles. Eagle 2 is still being commanded remotely from Eagle 3. So Bill gets to work establishing comms with Eagle 2 to set up for a burn for Gilly and notices something amiss. Bill: "Huh... that's odd..." Jeb: "What's up?" Bill: "Eagle 2 isn't station-keeping properly. I'm having trouble establishing a comm-lock. It's like she's tumbling. Jorrick offers to help by boosting the comm signal and Bill gets some telemetry readings. Bill: "Damn... Eagle 2 was tumbling. I've got her stabilized, but the auto-pilot can't maintain a lock on a heading or manuever node without a manual assist. Getting some weird command signals from the RCS controller. It's like the RCS controller and the Auto-pilot aren't talking to each other properly. I can control it manually to a degree to assist in maintaining a heading, but I'm worried that the problem may persist even when it's fully manned from the command pod. Jeb mulls it over, then orders Bill to go ahead and set Eagle 2 up for a burn to Gilly and do what he can to steady it during the burn. They'll link up in Gilly orbit instead of risking a landing and Bill can go EVA aboard Eagle 2 to run a systems check from there. Bill sets up the burn, and struggles with Eagle 2 to keep it straight. A course correction at the plane-change is needed and Eagle 2 still proves hard to control via remote. Bill: "Ugh... Like fighting a big crosswind on landing! Steady... Steady!" Jeb: "Just do your best." Bill manages to get Eagle 2 on a trajectory to Gilly but fuel is not optimal as more monopropellent was wasted on manuevering manually than normal. After Eagle 2 is confirmed on course for Gilly, it's Eagle 3's turn: As Eagle 2 approaches Gilly, Bill prepares to fight with the auto-pilot and RCS again. Bill: "Still... fighting me. C'mon, steady!" Bill: "Damn. Overcooked the braking manuever. Gotta circulerize again." After Bill confirms a circular orbit, he releases all controls including the auto-pilot and lets Eagle 2 drift - Eagle 3 entering Gilly's SOI. Jeb: "Whoops..." Bill: "What do you mean, whoops?" Jeb: "We wound up retrograde to Eagle 2. Going to have to burn opposite to get on the right track." Jorrick: "Uhm... we're running kinda low on fuel for that." Jeb: "Don't worry. Done this plenty of times. Besides, if all else fails we can use the RCS for manuevering and landing both here at Gilly." After a significant burn, Jeb puts them on the right side of Gilly for rendezvous. But it's a close thing. Skimming less than 5000 meters from Gilly's surface. The pass on the opposite side of Gilly from the landing site (just shows how tiny Gilly is - that's not directly below them - the marker is on the other side of Gilly from Eagle 3! ) Jeb sets Eagle 3 up for a plane change and then an orbital rendezvous - all with RCS thrusters as promised, leaving a little reserve in the main fuel tanks just in case. On close approach, Eagle 2 appears out of the sun. Jeb parks Eagle 1 next to Eagle 2 "Okay Bill, I guess it's time for you to jet on over and see what you can make of things." "Roger that." Bill boards Eagle 2 and after about half an hour of tests and short bursts with the RCS and some muttered cursing at the Kraken, radioes back to Jeb: Bill: "Jeb? Something is seriously wrong with the gyros and the RCS controls. It's nothing physical. It seems to be a software glitch. And I can't track it down. The gyros keep re-setting to lowest power levels and the RCS just won't power up to full and connect properly to the auto-pilot or to the manual controls. This is not only a remote piloting issue. It's going to make even manual piloting dangerous." Jeb: "That's not good. Got any suggestions?" Bill: "Just one. We can try a computer re-set with a dump of the OS and a re-load of the software from Eagle 3. But we need to be physically linked up for that. I'll put Eagle 2 into position. Can you move Eagle 3 over and dock with the truss docking ports?" Jeb: "I'm on it. Just hold what you've got and I'll do all the work." Bill: "Roger that." After a deft series of manuvers, Jeb gently docks Eagle 3 to Eagle 2 spine to spine. After about another couple of hours or so attempting to re-set the systems and talking back and forth with the other mission specialists and a brief uplink to KSC Mission Control, Bill gives the bad news to everyone. Bill: "It's not working. It may be that a circuit somewhere got fried by cosmic rays or even hit by a micrometeor in just the wrong place. But I can't get Eagle 2's systems to stabilize. In theory you COULD try and pilot it manually. But it would be difficult. And I sure wouldn't try landing it anywhere." Jeb: "Damn. I hate to lose a bird after all the success we've had." Bill: "Well it's not like we all won't get home. Plenty of room aboard #3 for that. And even on #1 in a pinch. Mission Control says to leave Eagle 2 in orbit after siphoning off whatever fuel we can. Maybe someday someone can come out and fix it. But for now, we leave it and come home." Jeb: "Okay then. EVA back over and we'll release her." (You might be wondering what happened in my real play-through. Well it was pretty much as written, without the in-universe techno-babble. Something glitched on Eagle 2 and It wouldn't stay stable. I don't know what it was. And it didn't affect the other two Eagles. It's a complete mystery to me.) After Bill gets back aboard Eagle 3. Jeb releases Eagle 2 and there's one last surprise, it tumbles immediately on release and even scrapes slightly along Eagle 3's truss before tumbling away. Jeb: "What the..." He boosts slightly with RCS to avoid any other tumbling hits. Then he points Eagle 3 at Eagle 2 to watch it tumble away to make sure no debris is going to give them any more surprises. Bill gets up in the cockpit with him. Jeb: "Well so long Eagle 2." Bill: "Yeah, she sure did a good job. Maybe someday we can recover her. First Eagle on Eve after all. One for the history books." After burning with RCS to de-orbit, Jeb smoothly heads down to the Kethane node, where Alan, Wilhal and Eagle 1 await to refuel them. Alan: "Wilhal, stop messing around and refuel Eagle 3, please." Wilhel: "Okay okay." After fully refueling both Eagles, Wilhel gets all the equipment stowed. It's time to go home for real. Eagle 3 is first off: With Eagle 1 close behind: Alan cuts it a little close to the mountain as they move up to orbit. Less than 100 meters clearance. But he was moving slowly enough to correct if needed. Eagle 3 with Eagle 1 close on her heels: After circulerizing at around 200,000 meters, Alan and Jeb wait in orbit for a few days waiting for their window. Then they head out of Gilly's SOI and into orbit around Eve proper. Then from there out beyond Eve's SOI to solar orbit. Just outside Eve's SOI. Plane changes to get in line with Kerbin's orbit - Last look at Eve - From here, the Eagles do burns to get on course for the Kerbin system: After a few weeks travel time, they get first glimpse of home out the front ports: Eagle 1 is first in line and does some minor course corrections for periapsis aerobraking. Bill: "Good to see some familiar territory again!" Alan: "Can't argue with that view!" Time to tuck the gear up for aero-braking: Aerobraking in to bring down the apoapsis: As it turns out, Alan overcooked the aerobrake just a bit and had to use the boosters to keep the apoapsis from dropping down too far: No worries though - plenty of fuel for that! Circularizing the orbit (KSC is still on the night side and I wanted to wait to land the Eagles until it passed into daylight) Eagle 3 with Jeb piloting comes in on a similar course. Aiming for a little higher periapsis: (Beauty shot) And we undercooked the aerobrake enough on this one to have to retrofire to circularize. Ah well. Good to have fuel to burn for correct for screw-ups. Eagle 3 is first to land and Jeb opts for the minimum entry heating profile. Using VTOL engines to keep his speed down through the atmosphere so as not to even encounter visible heating effects. Using a powered descent as we came down a little short. Between KSC and the mountains. No worries, plenty of fuel. And down! Next it's Eagle 1's turn to de-orbit and come in. Alan decides to come in hot and drop straight down on the final approach. Down and parked properly! All six crew pose with the two remaining Eagles on top of the VAB Landing pads. Eagle 1 spent the longest "On Mission" with 291 days. Eagle 3 had 112 days on it's mission clock at the end. And that's that! Mission successful! Proving that the Eagles - with some forethought and support - can get down and back up Eve's gravity well. We lost Eagle 2 to a mysterious glitch along the way but all the Kerbals made it back, so I'll call that one an unqualified success! Thus wraps up the Flight of the Eagles to Eve and back!
  15. Nice! Used to have that as well! I think I still have a couple of the Dinky die-cast toys in storage somewhere.
  16. Ugh... having some issues with KSP. Are you using this in the new KSP 23.5? Cause I'm holding off on using 23.5 until several mods I use are fixed - chief among which for piloting the Eagle is Mechjeb. Tried to load it in KSP 23 and it won't load. Says it's incompatible. Don't suppose you have a .23 version of that? If not, I think I can attempt to recreate what you've got there. It's reasonably obvious what parts are what. - - - Updated - - - Ugh... having some issues with KSP. Are you using this in the new KSP 23.5? Cause I'm holding off on using 23.5 until several mods I use are fixed - chief among which for piloting the Eagle is Mechjeb. Tried to load it in KSP 23 and it won't load. Says it's incompatible. Don't suppose you have a .23 version of that? If not, I think I can attempt to recreate what you've got there. It's reasonably obvious what parts are what.
  17. WOW!! That is awesome! I'm going to download this right now and test it! *scampers off*
  18. I've tested the hover-wheels and a few things I've noticed. It's a very interesting concept, but it needs work to be practical. Particularly the hover aspect. Once your wheels get out of alignment with each other there doesn't seem to be any way to put them back in alignment. If one side of your RCS Lift is pointing down, and the other is pointing backwards, that vehicle is not getting off the ground. It would be nice to have a "reset" feature or a "Rotate and Lock for Flight" feature. The wheels can't be repaired. That seems to be a common problem. Once they're broken, they're broken for good. They're pretty bouncy as wheels go. Kinda reminds me of the Mako from Mass Effect. But they do have good speed, and the suspension is reasonably high off the ground. Visually they are VERY strange. The magnetic lines of force holding the hubs together just looks a bit at odds with the usual KSP aesthetic. Maybe what you could do would be to have the hubs actually held solidly in one piece while they are just wheels, and only split open for flight? More testing coming.
  19. Part 7: 6 Landed, 6 returned Eagle 3 aerobrakes on the same trajectory as Eagle 1. As it turns out, we overshot the landing site by over a kilometer. Not to worry, that's correctable with some main thruster boosting. On final approach, getting it lined up. I should mention - precision flying with VTOL thrusters in a heavy-g environment this close to the ground leaves a lot less room for error. One bad slip-up and that's it! No time to correct for it. You HAVE to get it right the first time, every time! Touchdown! Now that was a good bit of parallel parking if I do say so myself! Alan and Wilhel step out to meet their fellow Kerbalnauts. Naturally, Jeb is the first one out. (He's slightly miffed that he wasn't the first one to set foot on Eve, but that's the luck of the draw.) Salutes all around. Cheers! Everyone pose by the flag! All 3 Eagle crews. Eagle 1: Alan Carter Kerbal Wilhel Kerbal Eagle 2: Jebediah Kerbal Chadwick Kerbal Eagle 3: Bill Kerbal Jorrick Kerbal After the short ceremony and some science measurements and samples are taken and stored, everyone gets back in the Eagles except for Wilhel, who does the usual mission specialist chores of hooking up the fuel lines. The big Kethane bloom as Eagle 1 drills and then cracks the Kethane into fuel to top off both Eagles reserves. Fueling complete. After stowing all the equipment and fuel lines, Wilhel gets back in the cockpit with Alan and they do their final checks. Then lift-off! Eagle 1 is heavier than planned with about 2/3 a tank of Kethane from the refueling. But Wilhel has a plan to help with that. What Wilhel does is restart the Kethane cracking unit while they are still boosting on the way up! This puts extra fuel in the main tanks while removing the dead weight of the estra Kethane as they go. Without the ability to use the solar panels through the atmosphere, there is a noticable drain on the reactors and batteries, but Wilhel calculates they've got more than enough power to finish cracking all the kethane not only before they circularize the orbit, but well before the power reserves get too low. A great view of one of the two oceans that they landed between. It isn't until you get to about 20,000 meters that your Apoapsis even begins to propagate away from your current position. Eve's gravity well is a tough *****! Still refilling the fuel tanks as we go. Fuel levels looking very good. Power is still good. Almost done with the extra Kethane. About to turn off the conversion unit. The power levels in the batteries will again rise after this. Almost there... Orbit achieved with fuel and power to spare. Just a quick circulerization burn and we're done. And here's the only real glitch of the mission so far: When I switched back to Eagle 3, the dreaded "landing gear bug" occured. And it's MUCH more pronounced in heavy g. I reacted quickly enough to retract the gear. But I had to do each one of the outer gear bays one at a time. Because I was not about to hit the general gear switch. That would lower ALL the gear and crush the VTOL bells. In short - I was able to save Eagle 3 from the warping bug. But in the process, the two B9 Spotlights I attached to the lower truss just behind the cockpit pod popped off. You see one there lying on the ground. The other one wound up on TOP of the Eagle somehow! Oh well. If that's the worst that happens all through this mission, I'll call it a win and be thankful. Lift-off of Eagle 3. You've seen this before, so I'm going to not spam the pics so much this time. I should note - with 6 VTOL thruster units instead of the usual 4, Eagle 3 doesn't even have to use full throttle to get up. As soon as my apoapsis was far enough out front, I cut the VTOLs in preparation for igniting the main rear engines. The spotlight that had been sitting on top of the truss at this point floated away to become debris that would de-orbit back to Eve. Eagle 3 makes orbit as easily as the other two did. Back over to Eagle 1. The plan from here is to go back to Gilly with Eagle 1 and land back on the Kethane node there. Eagle 3 and Eagle 2 will go back as well. Eagle 2's crew will reboard at Gilly and all 3 Eagles will be fully refueled for the trip back to Kerbin. Okay. I admit it. I got bored and annoyed with Gilly's tiny gravity and insanely long landing times (you can't time-warp so close). So I had a Jeremy Clarkson moment. "To hell with all this orbital nonsense and planning a landing trajectory. POWEEEEEEEER!!" I didn't get a screenshot of it unfortunately, but at one point I was bombing the landing site at about 100+ Meters per second. Before sanity returned and I pulled up to apply the VTOL thrusters. And here we are, mining the sweet green again, as Eagles 2 and 3 come to join us for the final leg of the journey home. Is anyone interested in seeing that? Or can we take it as read that the mission is a success at this point?
  20. Check out the package of mods in my signature. It includes fixes for that stuff.
  21. Eagle 1 landed on Eve. Wilhel is checking out the large boulder close to their landing site. (In case you're wondering, no they're not stranded. An Eagle actually can lift off from Eve on it's own. It just takes MOST of the fuel in the tanks to do so! See the whole mission at this link - A Flight of Eagles - Mission to Eve.) Eagle 1 is fitted with a Kethane Pod (A kethane mining rig and cracking station in one unit). That's how it's going to get it's fuel to get back to orbit. It's also how the OTHER Eagles in the above mentioned mission are going to get their fuel as well. However, here's the weird bit: Most of the time when you mine Kethane, you get a little cloud of mist hanging around just above the drilling units. A "Kethane Bloom" if you will. Not on Eve. On Eve, apparently the Kethane is under a lot more pressure than it is anywhere else in the system. And it GEYSERS up several hundred feet while mining! How about that? I suppose it makes sense with Eve's higher gravity and thick atmospheric pressure.
  22. Part 6: Finding the Way Down So now it's time for the manned landing. Eagle 1 is going to land on one of the Kethane nodes that have been mapped. Since Alan and Wilhal will be able to extract Kethane and crack it to give them a full fuel load, I'm not as concerned with doing a "suicide burn" landing to conserve fuel as I was with Eagle 2. They can afford to loiter above the ground for a short time making sure they've got a good flat spot before committing to setting down. Plus - Eagle 1 has extra fuel in the Kethane cracking pod which I actually want to use up before I get down anyway. I want to be fairly light on touchdown. (I've noticed with Eagle 2 that if you're not perfectly level, that the landing gear pods get torqued a bit. I want to be on as level ground as I can possibly get for Eagle 1.) There's just one little problem. In planning this mission, I didn't equip any of the Eagles with their own native scansat map sensors. Oops. Correlating the Kethane node information from map mode with the terrain mapping that the V.I.N.CENT probes can't be done directly. Why is this an issue? Because remember - I have the City Lights and Clouds mod. I can't directly SEE the surface. Eve's cloud cover only lets you get glimpses of the surface at odd angles. Not very useful for planning a landing. So... what to do? Well, those probes are still in orbit. Eagle 1 can rendezvous and dock with one of them. That way I can directly access the scansat map while I'm still with the Eagle. So let's see. Looks like V.I.N.CENT 3 is closest to orbital plane I'm on with Eagle 1. So it looks like that's the target. Ah there you are. Getting close now. Alan and Wilhel seem pleased. Okay. Zeroed out the veliocity and parked next to the probe. Wilhel instructs V.I.N.CENT 3 to reel in all it's solar panels and sensors. Don't want to damage anything if the docking goes awry. And also to orient itself with the docking port facing the Eagle in the right direction. Just slide up underneath and... Bingo! Right on target and smooth as silk. Alan's steady and cool as ice. Now for some housekeeping. While the probe is attached, Wilhel re-deployed all the equipment and solar panels. Eagle 1 also unfurled it's own solar panels as well. Incidentally? This close to the sun, the power you get from solar panels is noticeably better. With all solar panels unfurled, Eagle 1 was able to crack all the remaining Kethane in the pod and fill up the fuel and oxidizer completely in the regular and pod tanks. Next was re-orienting Eagle 1 to a flat equatorial plane. By the way - I don't know how clear it is in this pic, but if you look at Eve near the horizon, you may notice that you CAN peek through the clouds at certain angles, as I mentioned above. You should be able to see a shoreline for one of the oceans. Now it's time to figure out where to land. Oh good. Conveniently enough, there's a Kethane node right on the equator. According to the map and kethane node data below, the far west hex, indicated in the picture, should be roughly dead center between two of Eve's large seas. And if the land there is between two seas, then I expect it to be pretty flat. Here - if you look carefully, you can actually see the outline of the round sea through the clouds. But I couldn't spot the other sea. I tried pointing the nose of the Eagle straight down and getting a zoomed in view from the cockpit pod. But nope, that didn't work. Still can't discern any land or sea through the clouds looking straight down. Well, I'll just have to trust that my hunch is correct about the node and the flat terrain. Time to let the probe go and get set up for landing. Alan starts the burn to put Eagle 1's periapsis at 110 Km. He'll circulerize the orbit before retro-burning. So long V.I.N.CENT 3! Thanks for the assist! The view out the front windows just above Eve's thick atmosphere. Landing site marked on the map. I did use Mechjeb to set up the deceleration burn and get lined up. But after that I switched to manual control. I don't trust Mechjeb to do landings for me. Particularly when piloting the Eagle. And here we go! On final approach. And it IS flat! Awesome! OKay now - gently, gently. Plenty of fuel to burn, even in this gravity. Okay - there's a LITTLE tilt to the land. But nothing serious. And down and thrusters off! It's almost dusk here, so we won't have time to drill for long with the solar panels out. But a test drill just to confirm Kethane is in order. And confirmed! Not sure if this is visible in the pic at all. But we have a kethane bloom at the drill puncture. It's behaving a bit oddly though. Most of the time, you'll get a little cloud of Kethane mist hovering around the point of drilling. But here it's shooting straight up. More on this below. Alan climbs down to set foot on Eve. Alan: "Oof! Gravity is a harsh mistress!" Definitely need a flag here. Need to be able to FIND this place again! After transmitting a long range update to mission control, Alan and Wilhel bunk down for the night. When the landing site comes into direct sunlight again, the solar panels are unfurled and the real mining can begin. Remember I said the kethane plume was acting oddly? Well I pulled the camera waay back and... WOW... It's almost as if the contents of the Kethane node are under higher pressure here than they have been anywhere else we've mined them. The plume doesn't just "waft" around the ship. It GEYSERS upward several hundred feet! Wilhel decides to take a stroll and check out that big boulder they landed near. Trudging back under the heavy gravity, Wilhel is tuckered out already by the time he gets back to the ship. It's tought to deal with this level of gravity after being in low or zero-g so much for the last few months. The view looking out the front viewports. It is strikingly PURPLE. Next: Eagle 3 lands and all the Kerbals on this mission get to experience heavy-g load! Oof!
×
×
  • Create New...