How do you use the service bay?

[Threadsinger]

Yep, that's happened to me. I had the bright idea of putting a MK1 lander can inside a 2.5m which I flew all the way to Pol. The whole journey the lines in the map were wobbling and the markers on the navball were jumping, thought it was a bug until I opened the bay to do an EVA and saw it bouncing around inside. It was a total nightmare trying to dock the lander back onto the main ship for journey home as I couldn't work out if I was travelling towards my target, and in the end had to eyeball it.

I've had landers disintegrate on load... I can sometimes stop the spontaneous exponential wobble-of-doom by opening or closing the bay doors. Sometimes I need to hit reload a few times before a "stable" version of the craft loads up. I now take extra care to keep things as centered as possible within the bay.

Still an awesome little part, though, especially in light of the new aero physics. And for those of us who try to run a 100% re-useable space program.

Wouldn't mind a taller part, however, unless that's the niche of the shuttle payload bays.

[Snark]

Another handy thing to do (may seem like a little thing, but I find it surprisingly satisfying):

When I put lights in the bay, I go to "Action Groups" (only need basic, don't have to have a fully-upgraded science facility) and add "toggle bay" to the Lights group.

When I turn the lights on, the bay swings open. When I turn them off, it swings closed again.

[ShadowZone]

I have used the 2.5m bay for a 4 Kerbal lander including a materials bay, mystery goo and all of the other science experiments. Together with a reaction wheel and probe core it works like a charm and weighs a lot less than a Mk1-2 capsule.

[K3RBAL KOL4]

The thing just causes massive build failures at random times.. Very volitile and bugged. It tears apart ships and rockets, sometimes just buy being on the launchpad/runway.

[moogoob]

The thing just causes massive build failures at random times.. Very volitile and bugged. It tears apart ships and rockets, sometimes just buy being on the launchpad/runway.

I've had perfectly good ships using it, and I've had the exact opposite. Damn station core kept popping off the stack inside my fairing... in the game's defense I had a stage too many (still thinking 0.9 delta v ) and didn't use nearly enough struts so the thing was like a noodle anyways, but both A) removing the bay and putting its batteries, fuel cells and mechjeb unit elsewhere on the outside of the station and getting rid of my redundant size 2 upper stage and just bolting it to a Kerbodyne Advance second stage via a bigger size 3 fairing and LOTS of struts.

Made it to Minmus.

[KerbMav]

Did anyone have luck with resizing one of them to get a 3.75m version?

[cptdavep]

Thought I'd illustrate how I use mine - as a rover lander and garage. It's a 2.5m bay, with a reaction wheel above with landing legs attached, a couple of drogue 'chutes and a couple of normal 'chutes, plus some mono propellant and a couple of little mono propellant engines, just enough TWR and DV to be able to de-orbit from Duna and have a little last second burn to soften the landing. Then retract the legs and drive on out!

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[Godot]

The notion of being able to put things like sensors and batteries inside another part rather than having them stuck willy-nilly all over the outside of the craft is a good one... but how the hell does it work? I put a thermometer, pressure sensor, and battery pack inside the service bay in the VAB, but when I opened the bay in flight, it was empty.

You need to right click on it in VAB and open its doors in order to put stuff in it

As for the things I put into it:

Goo Containers, batteries, small inline reaction wheels.

Into the 2.5m one sometimes also Science jrs.

[Cebi]

Servise bays are one of my most favourite part. If ship is suposed to land or get inside atmosfere after launch i will stick servise bay on it. Everything that i would stick outside of ship in 0.90 i have now conviniently stashed inside (exept antenas...i dont put those inside). I used to have multiple experiments on landers before. Now i use 1 man pod landers with scientist piloted by probes (hidden in servise bay so nobody would notice ). My Biome hoppers are much more compact now and i dont need Science lab in orbit to clean experiments.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Cebi

[jdmgto]

The 1.25m ones are fantastic. The 2.5m ones are as well but it can be hard to snag the science out of a goo container tucked way into one. Also, give yourself a couple of work lights in the bays so you can see what you're doing. Trying to pull science out while on the dark side of Minmus isn't fun.

[Feradose]

Standard, one OKTO2, two smallest inline batteries, eight round monopropellant tanks (batteries are slightly inside eachother, MP is ultimately clipped to fit perfectly) and two OX-STAT panels (moved to the "doors" to cover the ugly thing up)

[zarakon]

With the 2.5 meter service compartment the Mat bay fits very nicely in the center leaving room along the sides for goo canisters, batteries, etc.

I had a materials experiment inside a 2.5m bay. It seems to fit just perfectly in there, though I can't tell whether it's attaching to the top node or the bottom one.

I had a heat shield right under the service bay, but for some reason the materials experiment still exploded to overheating during re-entry while nothing else other than the shield even got warm

[CorBlimey]

2.5m bay nicely fits a materials bay, with a goo and other radial experiments (thermometer, seismic etc) on the front of that, then on the back I stick some batteries, Mechjeb, sometimes an antenna and some other useful bits and bobs.

If you have a mobility extender (aka a ladder) then you can extend it down the service bay and your scientist can neatly exit a can and hang on it in space or landed and collect data and clean experiments all from the comfort of not having to jetback around.

Super useful. My landers now tend to be 2.5m stack with one pilot and one scientist (optionally with seperable fuel cans radially mounted on the side), instead of 1.25m stack with 4 seperable radial materials bay + fuel pods that I would jettison after collection. Reusable collectable goodness.

[Ridge363]

Along with science, I will through in an extra parachute, just incase the first one burns off unexpectedly.

[mrclucks]

I like em a lot

I use them primarily with my return/reentry vehicle. Basic early veichle is command pod with chute on top, small bay with a few battery's on the top, about three of each science module minus the science jr and atmospheric module on the bottom, 1x6 solar panels on the outside walls, SAS for good measure, science jr optional, and a heat shield.

I recently just sent identical vehicles to duna and eve that consisteded of command module, 2 small service bays( first has 4 sets of the smaller science modules on top and bottom, and second has either 12 or 16 goo canisters stuffed inside with minimal to no clipping), a sci Jr module surrounded by six other ones, with the large SAS module on the bottom followed by the large battery and a large heat shield. Chutes on top of the 6science Jr as well as a 1x6 solar panel on the sides with some atmospheric modules all around command pod with room to EVA.

Initial testing at 3km/s reentry went very well and stable except for solar panels ripping off(which I foresaw, but didn't care about) and landing at 20m/s which destroyed everything up to the service bays, but slight tweeking has made landing slow way down to 3m/s.

Hopefully I'll be able to land and take off from the planets respective moons, and maybe land and take off from duna since taking off from eve seems a bit too hopeful with the dv i have on this thing

[WinkAllKerb'']

Mostly to protect science device (for now i pack all science device in one large service bay including the material bay) and early game tech trees batteries from reentry actually.

[DaveSpar]

orientation is automatically correct if you turn off angle snap (works for many instances of surface-attachment weirdness)

this solved it, cheers!

[Goddess Bhavani]

It makes possible the construction of micro-shuttles with payload bays. Although far less efficient mass wise than the proven Mk.1 capsule, the 2 man micro-shuttle is much more comfortable and has a trunk for luggage, snacks and everything Kerbals need for a weekend getaway to Minmus!

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[Moonfrog]

You can destroy your ship, by placing landing legs overlapping with the bay doors as they open and close. I found this out after a mission to the Mun, it looked fine, then i went to radar building to get a contract for mun flag, reloaded my kerbal on the mun and watched my ship vibrate itself in several pieces.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

You probably can use the small Service bay a steering device if you open the doors.

I am not really sure about this, I may have to investigate further.

[timandy1]

I once had a strange bug: I filled my service bay up with things (Batterys, Goo etc.) and when i got to the mun my service bay was empty! so strange...

[Prepper-Jack]

You probably can use the small Service bay a steering device if you open the doors.

I am not really sure about this, I may have to investigate further.

The doors don't seem to induce any lift or drag (that I've seen)- so it's useless for that in atmosphere. They can, however, have enough force to stand a small rocket up (or give a window to fire rockets) when they've fallen down on low grav worlds. That's kind of the only course correcting measure I've found for them.

[Bluebird1]

I use them to summon the kraken.

Add a materials bay, some landing legs and a docking port.

[Plume & Akakak]

My Bob has his personal lab in there.

[Two]

I once had a strange bug: I filled my service bay up with things (Batterys, Goo etc.) and when i got to the mun my service bay was empty! so strange...

Those items are not physicless, so if they overlap with each other or the service bay, the physics goes havoc and tends to tear rockets apart or eventually explosively empty itself.

The doors don't seem to induce any lift or drag

They actually do. I once had a probe in Jool atmosphere and opening the bay significantly slowed it down.