Call for collaborators - Mechanical Engineering Reference Guide for Add-on Authors

[CaptainKipard]

Also, sadly, I have very little knowledge in engineering. Although, I figured I could help out more in the "administrative" realm, i.e. letting you know about new content in order for you or sumghai to update the OP/Github, checking for copyrighted content, making sure that all the content that you guys post is accessible, as well as checking the overall integrity of the thread.

I know I have little knowledge, and I wish I focused on it more during my schooling, but I really love this idea and want to help out in anyway possible.

Sounds good.

[SpaceExplorer]

Sounds good.

Great! In that case, do you want me to PM you when I see new content posted in the thread? Or how do you want to format this "chain of communication" so to speak?

[CaptainKipard]

Oh no no. I will be on top of these threads anyway. I thought you meant consolidating ideas. I don't know how much of the forum you read, but if you ever see a technical question posed by a modder in The Science Labs, General Add-on Affairs, or Add-on Development, you can link to it here (or wherever we decide) so that it can be addressed.

Don't put too much effort into it though, just whenever you see something worth mentioning.

[sumghai]

Link

Some ideas of what to include:

• Blueprints and schematics of rocket engines - People don't really know what an engine should look like beyond giving it an exhaust. Components should be made clear.
  
• Tankbutt problem - Many people don't know how to realistically attach engines to fuel tanks
  
• Cargo bay door joints and opening mechanism from the space shuttle
  
• Landing gear components - Most people don't understand what torque arms are for example or how gear bay doors are attached.
  
• RCS thruster placements for various craft - This is something I struggle with on my Skylon.
  
• Extendable solar panels components, joints and mechanisms.
  

Ah, excellent. I'd better get cracking

I'm looking at the following structure for the OP:

- A brief description of what the thread is for

- A table of contents (not sure if anchor tags are enabled on the forums)

- Individual subsections

- The first series of subsections would cover specific topics such as engines, solar panels, landing gears, bay doors etc.

- Later subsections could cover more generic or speciality reference material (e.g. stuff about Kerbal / human ergonomics, cool mechanisms with possible uses)

- Acknowledgements

- A statement encouraging people to use the thread to directly ask for help or to offer up resources for inclusion

Edited April 15, 2015 by sumghai

[CaptainKipard]

(not sure if anchor tags are enabled on the forums)

Something like that exists. There was a post about it in the Kerbal Network not that long ago, but I can't find it right now.

Structure looks good to me. I'm still wondering whether or not to embed images in the OP, or link to them.

Also whether to create individual posts for each item with images embedded in the posts.

[SpaceExplorer]

Oh no no. I will be on top of these threads anyway. I thought you meant consolidating ideas. I don't know how much of the forum you read, but if you ever see a technical question posed by a modder in The Science Labs, General Add-on Affairs, or Add-on Development, you can link to it here (or wherever we decide) so that it can be addressed.

Don't put too much effort into it though, just whenever you see something worth mentioning.

OK, as I was reading through my post again I could see how it was misleading, sorry! I would for sure let you know about new content that I may come across thorough the forums. Do you want me to PM you when I come across something, or do you just want me to post a link in the thread itself?

Edit: I was also looking for the "anchor tags" and found this...

Edited April 15, 2015 by SpaceExplorer

[sumghai]

Something like that exists. There was a post about it in the Kerbal Network not that long ago, but I can't find it right now.

I just successfully tested [goto] and [line]

Structure looks good to me. I'm still wondering whether or not to embed images in the OP, or link to them.

Also whether to create individual posts for each item with images embedded in the posts.

Each entry should ideally be structured as follows:

- The name of the device/concept, which acts as a link to the external resource (Wikipedia or KSP forum post/thread)

- A short description

- Any videos, GIFs or pictures in a

box

This keeps the OP compact enough for quickly browsing through entries, but at the same time allows people to view media without being forced to leave the page.

[CaptainKipard]

OK, as I was reading through my post again I could see how it was misleading, sorry! I would for sure let you know about new content that I may come across thorough the forums. Do you want me to PM you when I come across something, or do you just want me to post a link in the thread itself?.

It looks like for the foreseeable future the new compilation thread will be used to ask technical questions directly so you might as well let us know there too. Until the thread is organised though use this thread here. We'll move later.

[SpaceExplorer]

It looks like for the foreseeable future the new compilation thread will be used to ask technical questions directly so you might as well let us know there too. Until the thread is organised though use this thread here. We'll move later.

Ok, sounds good. I'll wait till you have an outline of what you need, then I can start prowling the forums and the web to see if I can find anything. Thank you for letting me be a part of the team, so to speak, I really appreciate it!

Edited April 15, 2015 by SpaceExplorer

[Fel]

How certain are you that what you have is "public domain" and not simply "available online." I mean, unless a content holder explicitly specifies something as public domain, the content holder retains the rights to said content; even if the content holder doesn't explicitly state a protective license.

I only mean that I've seen things like this get shut down fairly quickly because people tend to assume if they can find it online, or in archives, that it must be public domain; and then the upload servers get cease and desist letters and everything ends up getting deleted. :'(

[CaptainKipard]

We'll probably err on the side of caution and only re-host content from government agencies. ESA and NASA content I'm almost positive are public domain. Not sure about JAXA or CNSA.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Cpt. Kipard

[sumghai]

How certain are you that what you have is "public domain" and not simply "available online." I mean, unless a content holder explicitly specifies something as public domain, the content holder retains the rights to said content; even if the content holder doesn't explicitly state a protective license.

I only mean that I've seen things like this get shut down fairly quickly because people tend to assume if they can find it online, or in archives, that it must be public domain; and then the upload servers get cease and desist letters and everything ends up getting deleted. :'(

We'll probably err on the side of caution and only re-host content from government agencies. ESA and NASA content I'm almost positive are public domain. Not sure about JAXA or CNSA.

Correct - each source would need have its license carefully examined to make sure that it is actually in the Public Domain. And yeah, I think the main information of interest to us is from NASA and the ESA anyway.

[sumghai]

By the way - we shouldn't be limiting ourselves to mechanical engineering, as I suspect that things like electrical interconnects or user interface designs (MFDs to fictional control systems) could also be useful from an add-on authoring perspective.

[CaptainKipard]

By the way - we shouldn't be limiting ourselves to mechanical engineering, as I suspect that things like electrical interconnects or user interface designs (MFDs to fictional control systems) could also be useful from an add-on authoring perspective.

Ah! Ok, how about an idiot's guide to PID controllers? I don't code much but I always wanted to write one for kOS.

[SpaceExplorer]

We'll probably err on the side of caution and only re-host content from government agencies. ESA and NASA content I'm almost positive are public domain. Not sure about JAXA or CNSA.

I was just checking the copyright laws for NASA, the ESA, JAXA and CNSA and wanted to let you guys know that NASA is public domain, and both JAXA and CNSA are copyrighted. Although I found something interesting on the ESA website:

All material published on the ESA Web Portal is protected by copyright and owned or controlled by ESA or the party credited as the provider of the content, software or other material.Users may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display or in any way exploit any of the content, software, material or services, in whole or in part, without obtaining prior written authorisation.

I want to clarify that I am not a lawyer or affiliated with one in anyway, but this seems to me that we need to get approval from ESA before posting...

[sumghai]

Ah! Ok, how about an idiot's guide to PID controllers? I don't code much but I always wanted to write one for kOS.

I studied PIDs in undergrad but I never came to appreciate them fully.

That being said, any expert contributors on this subject are more than welcome to help out.

I was just checking the copyright laws for NASA, the ESA, JAXA and CNSA and wanted to let you guys know that NASA is public domain, and both JAXA and CNSA are copyrighted. Although I found something interesting on the ESA website:

-snip-

I want to clarify that I am not a lawyer or affiliated with one in anyway, but this seems to me that we need to get approval from ESA before posting...

I think NASA resources will do for now. I got the vast majority of my reference info from NASA anyway.

Edited April 15, 2015 by sumghai

[sumghai]

Okies, I bashed together a crude framework for the main thread:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/115615-Engineer-s-Handbook-for-Modders

We'll figure out how to populate it as we go along.

[SpaceExplorer]

Looks really good! It's nice and easy to navigate and also allows for viewers not to have many different windows pop up if they are browsing through the thread. Great work!

[Teamwork]

Although I haven't read the whole thing, I have an interesting chapter on docking mating devices that I think you guys might find interesting. I didn't know where to put it so I just uploaded it to my dropbox.

https://removed

Edit: Killed link

Edited April 24, 2015 by Teamwork

[sumghai]

Although I haven't read the whole thing, I have an interesting chapter on docking mating devices that I think you guys might find interesting. I didn't know where to put it so I just uploaded it to my dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5exlme7sw8mfuw0/Automated%20Rendezvous%20and%20Docking%20of%20Spacecraft%20Chpt%208.pdf?dl=0

I had a cursory look, and that's really cool!

My main concern is that it looks like a chapter out of a book, which could be copyrighted material, so I'm not sure how (if we legally can) add it to the Handbook.

[CaptainKipard]

I think when linking to material that's hosted by third parties it would be best to link to pages, rather than directly to the documents. Page names wont change as often as documents. The skylon manual name changes with the version for example.

I added the link followed by a bullet list of what's available.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Cpt. Kipard

[Teamwork]

I had a cursory look, and that's really cool!

My main concern is that it looks like a chapter out of a book, which could be copyrighted material, so I'm not sure how (if we legally can) add it to the Handbook.

Yeah, I was a little worried about this too, it was why I only posted a small portion of a chapter instead. I was thinking that I could perhaps paraphrase some of the documents while citing the material to the original author.

[sumghai]

I think when linking to material that's hosted by third parties it would be best to link to pages, rather than directly to the documents. Page names wont change as often as documents. The skylon manual name changes with the version for example.

Yeah, this will probably be the best approach.

To reiterate:

- I think we are legally permitted to link to copyrighted content

- Re-hosting is strictly for explicitly public domain content (pages, PDFs etc) with a high chance of being lost forever

I added the link followed by a bullet list of what's available.

Nice!

By the way, are you able to get public domain versions of those animated mechanisms you showed me the other day? If so, I can add them to the list along with a nice write-up.

[CaptainKipard]

- I think we are legally permitted to link to copyrighted content

Yep. That's how the internet works in a nutshell.

By the way, are you able to get public domain versions of those animated mechanisms you showed me the other day? If so, I can add them to the list along with a nice write-up.

The Imgur TOS prohibits copyrighted material to be posted, and at least one of those albums was reviewed by the staff at Imgur when it made its way to the front page gallery. I'm pretty sure even if it were copyrighted it would fall within fair use law because it's for the purpose of teaching.

Anyway I thought we wouldn't be using them. Can you think of a space-related way of using them? All I can think of is industrial machinery, like production lines.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Cpt. Kipard

[sumghai]

Yep. That's how the internet works in a nutshell.

The Imgur TOS prohibits copyrighted material to be posted, and at least one of those albums was reviewed by the staff at Imgur when it made its way to the front page gallery. I'm pretty sure even if it were copyrighted it would fall within fair use law because it's for the purpose of teaching.

Ah, I see.

Anyway I thought we wouldn't be using them. Can you think of a space-related way of using them? All I can think of is industrial machinery, like production lines.

We can put them under the miscellaneous mechanisms section, and I can definitely describe possible applications for them, including in spacecraft engineering.