Galane

Well, there wasn't really anything I could do with UbioZur. Too many custom parts it doesn't grok. So the busy little green guys set to with their prybars to pop off anything they didn't think was absolutely required. The five engine clusters on the side boosters got replaced with single mainsails. With Kerbal Joint Reinforcement added, a lot of standard struts went in the spares bin. But the lightening project went a bit too far. The top end of the core got wibbling about to the point it looked like it might break off, and during the initial maneuvering to raise Kerbin apoapsis to 300KM (waiting for less than two days at 50X warp in a 71KM orbit is slooooooow) the clampotron Jr and quantum struts holding one of the side boosters on just let goduring a warp transition. Sooo, rather than reload and repeat the hours it took to dock all this stuff together, I reloaded and enabled unbreakable joints, but only during full thrust main engine burns. The ship *is* capable of getting to Duna with the fuel it has, it just needs a wee bit of help staying in one piece. The jr docking port and four quantum struts are capable of holding that much thrust, I did it with the original mission I scrubbed. The problems are the four quantum struts I should've left on the core (but the core launched with no wobble, despite being pounded into the air by four mainsails and *eight* skippers!) and lag VS warp issues causing parts to not occupy their correct relationships to one another. "Why is that decoupler in the middle of the side booster sliding sideways, KJR doesn't let that happ... oh krap! There goes a whole booster flying off." F9! Here's the final side booster coming in to dock. Lag is getting pretty thick now but not bad enough to prevent docking autopilot from being able to control it. (Unlike with the larger number of parts on the test ship assembly.) Note the solar panels on the kethane scanning satellite. They're the only power source keeping the battery charged on the side booster. The battery is on the satellite so when it's popped loose in Duna orbit the tank is dead debris. Those panels were folded up after docking and all power for the flight comes from the 12 RTGs. That was to reduce lag from the extra calculations of solar panel exposure. Fully assembled, fuel topped off and ready to go! Just before I was going to raise the orbit, I realized that I had no power source at all for the core after separating the manned lander. Oops! That would make docking to it for the return trip a bit of a problem since it would be uncontrollable. Look at the tops of the kethane landers. I'd already fitted them with the two way combo clampotrons so they could dock to the sides of the core, to the manned lander or to the front of both stages of the core. So I quickly stuck together a small RGU, a 100 unit RCS tank, four ReStock 5-Way RCS blocks and four RTGs, then launched two of those to dock to the landers. That nailed down what the separation sequence had to be at Duna. Kethane satellites cut loose first, then the side tanks they were on top of, undock the little birds with the RTGs and dock them to the clampotron jr's on the core. After some kethane is spotted in an equatorial area, the kethane landers can be dropped and their empty side tanks disposed of, leaving two jr ports free for the kethane landers. Current mission status is the ship is in a 45KM equatorial orbit, one kethane satellite is in a 15 degree orbit, the other in a 25 degree orbit, angled opposite to the first. Two side tanks dropped and one RTG bird moved. That was a hard thing to get docked. Apparently if there's not enough mass to bang in hard enough, the ports don't grab hold very well. I had to back off several times and try different approach speed settings until it finally caught. Here's the ship after completing the TDI burn. Lag is reduced a bit after shedding a few parts. I didn't get shots of the ship as I separated the satellites. KSP crashed shortly after I moved the first RTG bird to the core, but I have it quicksaved in that state, and also have a save with the assembled ship in LKO. Would be nice if there's a way to pull that assembly out of the save so it can be worked on all together in the VAB to do the fixes it needs. No aerobraking, no parachutes, just the pure, solid support of rocket thrust. That's how Alan Aerospace Recycling and Packaging does space flight.

I once had a launchpad fail that sent a winglet bouncing across the landscape perfectly upright. Just boing, boing, boing, hopping like a rabbit, not a bit of wobble, wibble or wiggle.

Setting the initial position of sliding, telescoping and rotating parts would be very useful, especially if those position set in the build would be the zero or home position it the parts go to when holding the middle button in the control window.

To get to Mun from Kerbin Orbit. Click on Mun in Map view to set it as target. Use maneuver planner to do a Hohmann transfer to target. Time warp until you cross the node that pops up Mun encounter. (You'll want to be ready to click on 1x warp when you get there.) Use Maneuver planner to Circularize. You can use the timed option to set when, or leave it at 0 to do it right now. Or you can use the altitude option. If your path is aimed to impact the Mun you cannot use the Periapsis option. The other option that works is the altitude one. If the path is missing Mun and has a Pe marker you can use that option, though be certain it's high enough. To get to Minmus, do all the same steps but as the second step after setting the target you must use match planes with target. If you don't you won't enter Minmus SOI, you'll fly above or below the moon's orbit unless the encounter happens at one of the two points where Minmus orbit crosses the Kerbin equatorial plane.

How the fracking frell did that not result in the whole thing coming apart and going kaboom?! That's some impressive rocket bending.

I got the RockoOKTOClampo part made and it works perfectly. Now it looks like I need to try out this welding tool so I can actually go places with this monster.

I figured this out by examining the stock cfg files for the three parts, and the custom cfgs for the 2 in 1 and 3 in 1 Clampotron parts to learn which sections were for the functions I wanted to add, and how to poke in the model for the docking port. The Clampotron Sr. is the same size as the Rockomax decoupler. If you just want to add remote control to the docking port, add this to the cfg vesselType = Probe MODULE { name = ModuleCommand minimumCrew = 0 RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge rate = 0.02777778 } } RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge amount = 10 maxAmount = 10 } If you want the reaction wheel and SAS parts, add this. MODULE { name = ModuleReactionWheel PitchTorque = 0.5 YawTorque = 0.5 RollTorque = 0.5 RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge rate = 0.015 } } MODULE { name = ModuleSAS } If you want to get real clever you can use Module Manager to add those to multiple parts with a single cfg file (which I don't know how to do, I've only used it to patch MechJeb into everything that's a command pod class part) but since I was also combining the Clampotron and was only doing this one part and making it new part instead of patching the original, I added it directly. The Module Manager patch for MechJeb also automatically applies to the RockoOKTOClampo. I expect to get quite a bit of use out of it, swapping it for the standard decoupler on stages that end up in orbit so they can be used to stash fuel or push things around the Kerbin system - or just to deorbit them if they have RCS thrusters and fuel left.

It's also always daylight in that dimension. Oh, and for some reason there's a force that rotates your rockets 90 degrees from their orientation in the VAB to the launchpad. I didn't notice that until I built my first rover, nicely aligned so it could roll out the door to the pad but it appeared on the pad sideways.

A function test of my Two-Step Lander to see if it could land on Kerbin using only its three LV909's. No, it can't. But it can land on just the central Poodle engine. Jeb looks on in wonder at how he survived this one. I was surprised at how the lander can is stuffed partway into the surface. A bit inconvenient since it's also upside down.

What do you see? It's the .21 launchpad with the round instead of hexagonal surround and without the additions to the sides of the ramp. Kreedence Klearwater Revival

I may try an older build to see if it overcontrols less. When launching the components for mu Duna mission it pitches over too far, then comes back too far and repeats the oscillation a few times before it gets onto the right path. It's a little better with corrective steering off. When I went to dock the third part to the core I was beginning to think it'd never makes it due to the massive overshoots docking autopilot was doing every which way. It finally settled down and docked but it had burned up a lot of mono getting there. Also of concern is maneuver planner failing to completely turn off the throttle after completing some circularization burns and Hohmann transfer insertion burns. With the Kethane lander for this mission it does that after ascent from Duna and when doing a Duna to Ike transfer. Doesn't do that around Mun with my much heavier 32K unit lander that uses the same four engines. Something I don't have on the Duna lander is a big reaction wheel. Nor do I have big reaction wheels on the orbital parts of this lash-up of parts. Perhaps I should boost the torque values on the RockoOKTOClampo to 20. 'Course then it wouldn't be the equipment from the OKTO2 mounted inside the decoupler. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/58167-Duna-mission-planning-and-R-D If someone want to try these on a faster system with more RAM I'm happy to share, once I finish up the little details that the "real" mission ships will require.

Today's development time went into a design for an 8,000 unit Kethane lander for Duna. The test program included descent tests, drilling capability, fully loaded ascent to 45KM orbit tests (had to stack another small tank on top to have enough fuel) and finished up with a transfer to Ike orbit. That was successful but the final test lander somehow impacted Ike (in a puff of smoke, no explosion) when the periapsis was set to 10KM and warped to for circularizing at that altitude. MechJeb is also having issues with screwing up orbits by idling the lander's engines after passing nodes. May have to add four of the little orange radial mount engines to give just a bit more thrust. Of course that will require another round of tests. I'm certain it's not too low of thrust since AARP's much heavier 32,000 unit Kethane lander has the same four white radial engines and no issues with idling past nodes. Self refueling tests were conducted on the KSC launchpad and the final function test was performed on Mun to ensure the small drills would penetrate deep enough on a Kethane deposit. Refueling the ship for return from Duna will be tedious with these two small landers, but at least it'll be possible. The final part of the test program was setting the Kethane lander atop a SideSaddle booster then launching to a 71KM orbit and docking to the Duna ship assembly. The simulation computer hit a wall when the two approached. Lag was significant and the slowdown seemed to cause much difficulty in aligning for docking with huge amounts of overshoot on every maneuver. It finally got straightened up with only a few meters left and docking was successful. Since repeating that wouldn't add anything to the test data, the manned Two-Step Lander was decoupled and the rest of the ship deorbited, then the lander brought down safely to KSC. Some final tweaks still need to be made, fixing a solar panel action group on the Kethane lander, adding strut guns to the top of Two-Step, making sure action groups on the five sections are properly assigned. The four Quantum Struts on each SideSaddle don't all make contact on dock, but do when toggled off then on with action group 1. AARP's Media Relations Department produced this handout photo of the final test assembly in Kerbin orbit. I don't know if I'll actually be able to complete this mission in the "real" game. Just launching the components gets pretty slow until the first stage drops, taking its strut spam with it. Using Quantum Struts and Kerbal Joint Reinforcement on the orbital sections helps with the part count. The boosters I'm using are "legacy" ones from before KJR, thus the strut spam to keep the first stage held together. When I opened the TAC Fuel Balancer window on the final test assembly... I may have to try the UbioZur welding plugin to stick some of the throwaway parts together.

The other day build 102 made one of my Kethane mining Mun rovers do a complete forward flip immediately after liftoff. Fortunately it was on a fairly steep slope so it didn't hit the ground. From then on it worked perfectly. Never did that before, hasn't happened since! Only once before with an earlier build did I get hit with the bug that'd make rockets pitch over and do a 360 degree flat turn (assuming the rocket wasn't so heavy it'd just crash) before getting its vector straight.

With the custom part in inventory, hand assembled one at a time by AARP's crew of stalwart, hard wor... Hey! You! The green guy! Lunch is in 30 minutes, get back to work! *ahem* hard working Kerbals, the Duna mission is well on its way to being on its way. Core part launching. It makes it to a 71KM orbit with just a whiff of fuel left in the second stage. Staging gets re-arranged to pop off the small engines on their short Stretchy Tanks to make room for the side boosters to dock. Second and third stages are both topped with the RockoOKTOClampo. The goal is to keep the second and third stages together then dock the landers nose to the top of the third stage for the return trip. Retaining the seperation capability and the four 3rd stage side tanks and engines is just for insurance in case the second stage fuel is expended on the way back to Kerbin. Never hurts to have enough thrust to make it into a good orbit before landing. Side booster launching. There's a small Kethane scanning satellite on top, which also provides the remote guidance for docking. The third stage on this has a RockoOKTOClampo just in case it happens to end up in some sort of orbit in the Duna/Ike system. In such a happy circumstance, the ROC will enable it to be repurposed as a fuel depot or for moving things around. First side booster docked to the core. Three more to go. A ship with a lighter payload and only two side boosters has already made it to Duna, but will be retconned out of existence by the quicksave. It's performance and amount of fuel left over was impressive enough I decided to try for a manned mission and return. Instead of four Kethane scanners I'm thinking of building a pair of Kethane mining landers specifically for Duna. Getting them into orbit atop two of the side boosters will be easy. All five of these are slight modifications of one of the boosters built for heavy Kethane mining Mun rovers. That will provide the security and redundancy to ensure a fully fueled ship for the return flight. The manned lander's weight will be reduced by dropping its three side tanks and LV-909 engines. Two-Step Lander makes it down to Duna surface with some fuel left in the side tanks. They'll be used for the liftoff then dropped when empty as the additional thrust isn't required after expending their remaining fuel. Retaining the four top orange tanks from the side boosters all the way to Duna may be a problem for fuel use. But since they'll be carrying the scanners and mining landers, they'll have to be kept instead of dropped when empty as was done in the unmanned flight. On the other hand, they'll also provide plenty of fuel storage to get going on the way back to Kerbin, then can be cut loose when empty. Have to assemble this the hard way in orbit. I tried making the Clampotron Jr on the side booster the root part then saving the upper stage of the side booster as a subassembly, but it wouldn't click onto the ports on the sides of the core. I could have rebuilt the side boosters out from the ports but that would be more effort than just launching five rockets to dock together. ;P Getting the four Quantum Struts on on the booster individually placed was bad enough. No space plan survives contact with hard vacuum.

That is a config file. Just make a new text file then copy and paste it into it. I've popped these into place on my Duna rocket and have been testing in another save to make sure things work. Then I'll load up my back up quicksave from my main game and see if I can get it all up and on its way by the time the transfer window comes along.

The combining of a Rockomax Brand Decoupler with the reaction wheels and electronics of an OKTO2 probe core and a Clampotron docking port began when Alan Aerospace Recycling and Packaging's chief engineer and head janitor was cleaning off a workbench in the R&D lab. He knocked an OKTO2 off and it landed smack in the middle of a slightly used Rockomax Brand Decoupler that was on the floor. His first thought was "Why hasn't anyone though of this combination before? There's so much empty space in there, I bet I could take the works out of the probe core case and attach them around the inside..." While he was working on that (instead of mopping the floor) one of our test pilots wandered in and asked what was up. Upon being informed at length of the benefits of having basic remote guidance built into a decoupler, the pilot snarkily replied "Well then, may as well shove a Clampotron in there too, and an ice cream parlor while you're at it!". We're still working on the ice cream parlor part. The stuff keeps sublimating into vanilla flavored vapor. Replace the standard Rockomax Brand Decoupler on your orbital insertion stages with the RockoOKTOClampo to transform them from space debris to useful propulsion devices or fuel tankers - or just to be able to de-orbit them by remote control without having to try and find somewhere to attach a regular OKTO2. AARP will be using has used these on our upcoming ongoing manned mission to Duna so the lander can dock and be brought back to Kerbin. (Which will happen when the transfer window comes around again.) Copy this code to a .cfg file and place it anywhere in your GameData folder. There is still one cosmetic glitch. If an engine is mounted directly above the decoupler, the fairing stays attached to the decoupler. Since there's no collision with those fairings it doesn't cause any problems, it just looks weird. Any ideas on making that eject or vanish when decoupling? PART { name = decoupler1-O module = Part author = NovaSilisko mesh = Squad/Parts/decoupler1-2/model.mu rescaleFactor = 1 node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -0.3654699, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 2 node_stack_top = 0.0, 0.4508572, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 2 fx_gasBurst_white = 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, decouple sound_decoupler_fire = decouple TechRequired = advConstruction entryCost = 2800 cost = 440 category = Structural subcategory = 0 title = RockoOKTOClampo manufacturer = Rockomax Conglomerate & Probodobodyne Inc. description = The RockoOKTOClampo combines a Rockomax Brand Decoupler, the reaction wheels and electronics from a Probodobodyne Inc. OKTO2 probe core and a Clampotron docking port. The ROC can split a rocket in two, maintain remote guidance of the part split off and enables docking with it to siphon off leftover fuel or to refuel and recycle a spent stage into a useful rocket component. attachRules = 1,0,1,1,0 mass = 0.4 dragModelType = default maximum_drag = 0.2 minimum_drag = 0.2 angularDrag = 2 crashTolerance = 9 breakingForce = 200 breakingTorque = 200 maxTemp = 3400 fuelCrossFeed = False stageOffset = 1 childStageOffset = 1 vesselType = Probe MODULE { name = ModuleDecouple ejectionForce = 250 explosiveNodeID = top } MODULE { name = ModuleCommand minimumCrew = 0 RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge rate = 0.02777778 } } RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge amount = 10 maxAmount = 10 } MODEL { model=Squad/Parts/Utility/dockingPort2/model position = 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 scale = 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 rotation = 0, 0, 0 } MODEL { model=Squad/Parts/Utility/decoupler1-2/model position = 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 scale = 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 rotation = 0, 0, 0 } MODULE { name = ModuleDockingNode referenceAttachNode = top nodeType = size1 } MODULE { name = ModuleReactionWheel PitchTorque = 0.5 YawTorque = 0.5 RollTorque = 0.5 RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge rate = 0.015 } } MODULE { name = ModuleSAS } }

"Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you launch!"

Versions prior to 1.3 are a bit buggy, they tend to cause the launchpad to like your rockets so much it just won't let them go.

I'm wanting to make a Rockomax Brand Decoupler with a Clampotron nestled down inside, with the functionality (but not the model) of the OKTO2 added. What such a mash up I'll be able to have a lander on top of a stack, decouple it then come back after landing and dock to the same place nose first. The OKTO2 "electronics" would make the rest of the ship controllable (and most important, targetable) without having to find somewhere to attach an OKTO2. The welded part needs to be able to attach the decoupler top to an engine, then when decoupled allow another Clampotron to connect to the embedded Clamptotron part. I've already tested an old lander design for its ability to land on Duna and return to orbit, and I already know it can land on Mun, return to orbit, refuel, return to LKO, refuel and land on Kerbin. Now I just need a way to have it nose dock (with the addition of some Strut Guns) for a return to Kerbin from Duna. Will this work to add the OKTO2 function to the decoupler?

What would be a nice addition to the Kethane mod is automatic drill deployment and retraction with an option to enable/disable the automatic function. If the ship is landed and there's a Kethane tank onboard that's not full, pop the drills out. When the tank is full, retract the drills. Got a Kethane converter onboard? Deploy the drills when any of its functions are activated. This could also automatically retract the drills when a ship with them deployed lifts off. Recreational vehicles with electric powered steps have a system to retract them when the engine is started so they don't hang out to get ripped off when the driver forgets to retract the step, no reason the Kethane mod can't do a similar thing. Another part of this could be automatically retracting the drills when there's no Kethane flowing into the tanks. Reasons could be there's no Kethane there, the cell is depleted or the ship construction isn't correct to allow the Kethane to flow to the storage tanks. Get unfocused mining to work, combined with automatic drill action and one could drop a lander, turn on the fuel conversion then go off and do other things. Come back later and find the lander has tanked up, refueled itself and shut down Kethane extraction, ready to lift off. Would still have to turn off the Kethane converter before liftoff, unless that could be optioned to shut down on liftoff. I've tried running the converter in flight but have had odd results like MechJeb cutting throttle and tanks filling unevenly so my SOP on running Kethane converters in flight is... don't do it.

Larger sizes of the parts would be nice, sized to fit the IR Rotatrons.

There's 2Pi radians in a circle, or 6 and a bit. The whole radians thing is a recipe for crazy math full of irrational numbers. If the rotations in KSP were calculated in degrees, of which there are always 360 in a circle, no more, no less (unless you live in a universe where spacecraft are made of wood and Pi = exactly 3) it would be far easier on we who aren't extreme math geniuses to edit these files.

If you want to fiddle with wheel alignment directly in a text editor, here's what I learned. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52288-Rover-wheel-alignment

Stuff I learned fixing a problem craft. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52288-Rover-wheel-alignment You do not want to edit the Rot = line in the persistent or save file. That tracks the orientation of the part. (Tracking every part to many digits after the decimal point is likely where some lag comes from on large ships.) What you want to edit is the attRot = line. Set those numbers to attRot = 0,0,0,1 for a port facing up. attRot appears to be a fixed value that carries over to persistent.cfg 0,0,0,1 is apparently the default "straight up" orientation for any part. Seems weird but it worked on my rover, for the wheels on both sides! If it's not facing straight up, make a quickie craft of just a probe body with a port stuck on in the orientation you want, then open the saved craft file in a text editor and copy the attRot numbers to that part in your persistent file. Be aware that each part in the craft and other files has a long identifier number tag added to its name, and the names used in those files are often not the same as in the parts inventory in the game. I did that to correct some crooked wheels on a rover that was on Minmus. In the pos = line, the middle number in the craft file is the part's height above the VAB floor. If you need to vertically align some parts after launch, you can edit that middle number. I did that with the rover wheels. Keep in mind that that number is not a constant! If you move the craft up or down in VAB it changes for every part. Don't try making large changes, if you're vertically aligning several parts placed one at a time, pick the number of one and copy it to the others. Making things more difficult is KSP apparently uses radians to track rotation instead of degrees. 1 radian is an arc of a circle with the same length as the radius, which makes the number of radians in 360 degrees = 6 and a bit or 2 times Pi. Since the craft, persistent and quicksave files are plain text, it should be possible to write an external program to do things like adjust part placement and orientation, swap one part for another (though for anything but parts in outer locations with nothing else attached that would be very difficult), aligning several parts to the same plane or even swapping complete crafts. Swapping a landed craft would require being able to copy and apply the rotation values and location/surface altitude correctly. Swapping a craft in space would be much safer, just pop it in there 'upright' then alter the rotation in-game. Swapping a docked craft is most likely right out. It would be much easier to fix a problem craft by correcting it in VAB or SPH then using an external program to swap the entire craft instead of editing in-situ for anything more complicated than a slight vertical position or attRot problem on a part. Renaming a craft or editing any other descriptive text, all you need for that is a text editor. I've looked for such external craft and savegame editors but haven't found any yet.

Alan Aerospace Recycling and Packaging has sent a crew of engineers into a bubble universe (AKA another game save) to develop a mission to Duna to deliver a Kethane scanning satellite as step one in the groundwork for further missions. Much time was saved by modifying the launcher design used for the 16,000 unit Kethane mining rover, simply named Large Rover. The initial plan was to dock four of the launchers upper two stages to a central upper stage but they got impatient after getting two of the "sidesaddle" boosters docked and took off early. Quantum struts proved to be highly useful, requiring only four per side booster to hold on with a single Clampotron Jr. The amount of fuel left after achieving a circular, equatorial Duna orbit had the engineers scrambling for drink coasters (much sturdier than napkins) to scribble on the backs of. Getting all four side boosters docked should provide enough go-power to get a manned lander plus four small satellites there and bring the lander back. The old Two-Step Lander was pulled out of storage, refurbished and tested successfully in a simulated landing from and return to a 45KM Duna orbit (can that be lower and still safe?). Two-Step is already known to be capable of landing on Mun then returning to LKO under its own power. The even older AARP Stock Lander 1 was tested first but proved to be incapable of returning to orbit around Duna. The simulated Kerbalnauts did not appear to be happy when the fuel ran out a few seconds short of reaching orbit. Design changes have been made to the sidesaddle components to reduce a bit of weight in their discarded stages and to improve maneuverability before and after docking. For the central section, the modifications are having to be redone from scratch since someone clicked launch before clicking save. No biggie since the mission requirements have changed so much. Easier to restart from the initial Large Rover Launcher design. What's holding things up now is figuring out a way to connect the base of the lander to the top of the launcher, then be able to dock to the same spot for the return trip and topping up the lander's fuel for landing back at KSC. One of our engineers suggested ripping the guts out of an OKTO2 and mounting them around the inside of a Rokomax Brand Decoupler, then welding a Clampotron down inside the middle. A RockoOKTOClampo should be a very desirable and useful component for many other Kerbal aerospace companies. Edit: Got it to work! http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/58406-AARP-introduces-the-RockoOKTOClampo Just need to figure out how to get rid of the fairing but it'll work fine as it is.