Launching a drone from an interior bay?

[Seaberry]

Hi there

So Im looking to carry a drone made for a low orbit into said orbit inside a shuttle bay. How would I go about installing the drone into the shuttle in VAB?

Thanks:wink:

[Vanamonde]

You can either assemble it as part of the ship, through docking rings or decouplers, or build it as a separate craft file, make it a sub-assembly, and attach it to the ship later.

[AmpsterMan]

If it helps, pressing and holding the "alt" key forces parts that can attach radially to attach only to the big green attachment point.

[Seaberry]

You can either assemble it as part of the ship, through docking rings or decouplers, or build it as a separate craft file, make it a sub-assembly, and attach it to the ship later.

Right, but I cant save the drone as a sub assembly because it has no free attach points. I was planning on holding the drone in the closed shuttle bay with a hydraulic decoupler, would that work?

If it helps, pressing and holding the "alt" key forces parts that can attach radially to attach only to the big green attachment point.

This is massively helpful to other problems Ive been having in general.

[Postron]

Right, but I cant save the drone as a sub assembly because it has no free attach points. I was planning on holding the drone in the closed shuttle bay with a hydraulic decoupler, would that work?

Try using the re-root function to change a part that has a free attachment node to the root part (for example the engine). Then you should be able to save it as a subassembly.

[AmpsterMan]

No free attachment points is a problem. The way I've dealt with this before hand is by making a sub-assembly with a decoupler as the root part, save the actual payload as a sub-assembly. When you import the assembly, the bottom (or top) most part should be able to be attachable. Just make sure the part that you attach the root part to in the drone is radially attachable.

ex. in the following image, my the decoupler under my probe part is the root part of the drone sub-assembly in it's own save.

by doing that, I was able to couple the science lab to any other decoupler in my following crafts.

I was also able to attach it radially as I do in this pic

As you can see in this pic, the probe core is the same, but it is attached to radial decouplers.

Edited April 2, 2015 by AmpsterMan

[Seaberry]

No free attachment points is a problem. The way I've dealt with this before hand is by making a sub-assembly with a decoupler as the root part, save the actual payload as a sub-assembly. When you import the assembly, the bottom (or top) most part should be able to be attachable. Just make sure the part that you attach the root part to in the drone is radially attachable.

ex. in the following image, my the decoupler under my probe part is the root part of the drone sub-assembly in it's own save.

http://i.imgur.com/pcnOVcb.png

by doing that, I was able to couple the science lab to any other decoupler in my following crafts.

I was also able to attach it radially as I do in this pic

http://i.imgur.com/0boLZiU.png

As you can see in this pic, the probe core is the same, but it is attached to radial decouplers.

Okay but the idea of my drone having the ability to randomly decouple doesnt seat well with me, can I use any radial part?

Edited April 4, 2015 by AmpsterMan

[AmpsterMan]

Okay but the idea of my drone having the ability to randomly decouple doesnt seat well with me, can I use any radial part?

My apologies for not answering sooner. I've had a lot going on. Yes you can! just do as I explained and then put a radial attachement point on both your craft and your drone. Make sure to map a shortcut to it too!