[1.3.0] Stork Delivery System [SDS] version 0.2.6 [30.05.2017]

[riocrokite]

Stork Delivery System

Deliver your big cargo to the planet surface without flipping!

Stork frame with legs:

Mod characteristics
- allows you to deliver tall 2.5m or 3.75m diameter parts to planet surface thanks to 6 long, extendable legs.
- lightweight - reusing same textures wherever possible
- integrated approach - one integrated part for frame and legs to increase stability and reduce part count

Requirements

No dependencies.

Example usages

Delivery of cargo trucks (with an assistance of JebPush TM at the end:))

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Warnings or 'cabin sticky notes'
- When placing engines above center of mass be sure to either lock gimbals or not use SAS because of KSP bug {you might try to solve it using Tweakable Everything mod and reversing thrust of engines that are above center of mass}
- Avoid rocket/jet blast directed at the legs when they are extended. Prolonged blast wil destroy the frame.
- Extending process take some time so you have to account for that when preparing to land.

Suggested mods

Mobile Frame System - Stork legs are designed primarily to ease delivering of vehicles to the planetary surface.

Installation

Before installation please delete Stork folder in KermangeddonIndustries catalog. Then copy .zip content into your GameData folder.

DOWNLOAD

License

CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA

Version 0.2.6

Spoiler

         -----0.2.6---

        - updated version to KSP 1.3.0

         -----0.2.5---

        - updated version to KSP 1.2

         -----0.2.4---

        - updated version to KSP 1.1.2

-----0.2.3---

- fixed attachment nodes vectors for KSP 1.0

-----0.2.2---

• updated required tech (CTT compatible)
• changed directory structure to be consistent with MFS mod

-----0.21----

• fixed slight mesh glitch in medium legs

-----0.2------

• moved up center of mass for legs to avoid situation when they reverted to horizontal position even from horizontal one
• slightly raised mass of every part to balance them against stock truss and landing legs mass (also joints are a little stornger now but you still need minimal amount of struts)
• fixed mesh problems
• added decoupler function to stork legs (in the middle point where you normally mount cargo) so you don't need to add additional separator/decoupler to them
• changed stork decoupler to two-side separator to enable clean separation (might be important if you reuse other parts of rocket)

------0.1------

Initial release:

• 3 parts (short, medium frame with legs and bottom decoupler)

 

Edited May 30, 2017 by riocrokite

[HoloYolo]

So it lands parts of ships in diffrent places?

[RainDreamer]

One thing that would make these perfect is to allow the main frame to rotate and move up and down on the deployed legs so we can have horizontal deployment of vehicles. Can't tell if they do that from the pics, but that would help delivering vehicles much easier than dropp.ing them off vertically.

[Motokid600]

Looks interesting, but you definitely need to provide more info. What exactly is this?

[RainDreamer]

So it lands parts of ships in diffrent places?

They are huge frames with landing legs to assist in landing of gigantic stuff, from what I can see.

[rabidninjawombat]

Woo! Good to see these released, gonna put them to some good use.

Any idea if your make a larger version for 3.5m stuff?

[Dazpoet]

I have been trying to find a good way to drop down MFS vehicles, I guess you just solved my problem

[riocrokite]

They are huge frames with landing legs to assist in landing of gigantic stuff, from what I can see.

Yes, you can fit 2.5m or 3.75m stuff inside, also oversized stuff like RoverDude's MKS mk3 fits inside.

You can also use this to deliver stuff to orbit using frame with interstage fairing for example.

Woo! Good to see these released, gonna put them to some good use.

Any idea if your make a larger version for 3.5m stuff?

Cheers. As above, I really don't plan anything larger or smaller at this point unless I've got a good reason;)

I have been trying to find a good way to drop down MFS vehicles, I guess you just solved my problem

yah, I would appreciate feedback from field testing;)

One thing that would make these perfect is to allow the main frame to rotate and move up and down on the deployed legs so we can have horizontal deployment of vehicles. Can't tell if they do that from the pics, but that would help delivering vehicles much easier than dropp.ing them off vertically.

Unfortunately IR seems to be too buggy atm.

That was my original goal. However infernal robotics is too buggy in my opinion at the moment to allow that. If you attach IR part to docking port or decoupler/separator it causes bad stuff upon separation (warped parts, no gravity, disappearing stuff etc.). It happen even if you put an intermediate part between separator and IR part :/

You would be able to test this upon next release of MFS with IR rotators and rails. Maybe if the stork legs part is treated as one-off delivery and disposable maybe there could be IR parts attached to it so bugs won't affect dropped vehicle but the legs themselves.

PS. I'll be happy for all suggestions and comments regarding mod.

Edited March 7, 2015 by riocrokite

[riocrokite]

stress test; launching and landing 2 vehicles in separate frames. I had to use 2 struts x 3 to strenghten frames.

Even without IR to do vertical-horizontal flip on the surface there are two reliable methods; 1st - RCS engines on the vehicle to flip it. Another method (used in this test) is Jeb-pushTM - hitting vehicle with a Kerbal that flies with a relative high velocity

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[Celine]

What containers are those? They look cool!

[riocrokite]

What containers are those? They look cool!

mobile frame system containers; for now experimenting with colors; they will be a part of mobile frame system

[riocrokite]

new version is up

[Guest]

[something]

Edited April 5, 2015 by Jack Wolfe

[riocrokite]

This looks great! Have you given any thought to making a single-leg version? Here's the sort of thing I'm driving at:

https://falsesteps.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/landing-gear.jpg

Initially I discarded concept of single leg landing frame since it's not too stable under heavy load; and I think there are already some big custom legs (SpaceY).

However the picture above shows interesting concept. That secondary cylinders are mounted inside a ring I think so they wouldn't be good for single leg. On the other side I already have model and texture assets:) All in all I'll give it a thought in the free time.

[Mangey Carl]

Thank you So much for making this mod! I always had difficulty getting cargo to the mun!

[Gaalidas]

Thank you So much for making this mod! I always had difficulty getting cargo to the mun!

Me too. As it turns out, over-feeding an intern with too many super-kerbal-snacks (work in progress merger between rocket fuel and kerbal snacks, unusual side effects can be... volatile...) and dropping the intended cargo on top of him with the angle set up just right for optimal trajectory with the Mun...

... well, lets just say he's retired now and leave it at that. The cargo isn't on the Mun either...

[aidanbossman]

where are those little trucks from?

[riocrokite]

kerbal foundries by lo-fi

[riocrokite]

Most likely tomorrow I'm releasing update for MFS. Since it changes folder structure inside GameData/KermangeddonIndustries I'll release Stork legs update with an appropriate folder strucutre too.

Edited March 25, 2015 by riocrokite

[riocrokite]

New version is up. If you use MFS mod you'll have to update it as well because of different folder structure.

[klgraham1013]

Must download. Nice work on this.

[riocrokite]

cheers, although nothing really changed in this mod this time, had to release update to keep it consistent with recently updated MFS.

[magnemoe]

Just tested this and it works very well, as in better than my inverse U or Y designs for this stuff. That is the lander with an medium sized rover at center worked well, but it was an 1.5 meter high, one ton rover, this looks able to deploy far heavier stuff. In fact I would like to drop the top decopler, will use an docking port here myself as this is most useful as an reusable dropship.

[riocrokite]

Just tested this and it works very well, as in better than my inverse U or Y designs for this stuff. That is the lander with an medium sized rover at center worked well, but it was an 1.5 meter high, one ton rover, this looks able to deploy far heavier stuff. In fact I would like to drop the top decopler, will use an docking port here myself as this is most useful as an reusable dropship.

yah, it's designed to delivery heavy and bulky stuff. Works good with RoverDude's MKS MK1 / MK2 and even MK3, up to 3.75m tanks/modules and Mobile Frame System stuff.

[DaniDE]

I suspect this could still be working in 1.0. Lets test!

- - - Updated - - -

Ok, its basically working, but the lower attachment nodes need to be corrected for 1.0. They need to be flipped over on the short and medium frames. I tried them that way and they work

Edited April 30, 2015 by DaniDE