New part - Telescopic Transfer Tube

[pandaman]

Okay , in essence not a new idea as many have been asking for stock 'refuelling hoses' for a while, but maybe this is one possible solution.

As I understand it a decent looking hose that can be used to link things on the ground can be a bit tricky to get right, so how about a telescopic 'beam' that is radially attached. It would work like a cross between the mining drill and a claw. When an engineer activates it it extends out perpendicular to its mounting, it could look a bit like a multi segmented landing leg. Then if it contacts another object it attaches in the same way as a claw to allow fuel and electricity etc to flow through it.

I realise part of the difficulty is to do with the modelling and dynamics. So, if it's a rigid pipe then no droopiness needs to be modelled and like the drill it could have a set length, say 3 Metres max. therefore avoiding the need to cater for odd lengths so a drill type model could work (retracted state and extended state with set animations between) Your target 'vessel' must also therefore be parked close to the source for it to reach.

It may look a bit odd having a pipe poking into one of your ships though, unless it is easy to model an end cap at the point it touches the target or stop the tubes extension on contact.

[spinomonkey]

Logically, it wouldn't make much sense (is the pipe drilling into the fuel tank? lol) but I'm all for it as a solution to hoses. But then again- the claw doesn't make sense that it can transfer fuel either. So yeah- I like it.

[Kozak]

This.

This needs to happen.

[pandaman]

Logically, it wouldn't make much sense (is the pipe drilling into the fuel tank? lol) but I'm all for it as a solution to hoses. But then again- the claw doesn't make sense that it can transfer fuel either. So yeah- I like it.

Yeah I thought that too, but 'needs must' and all that.

The ideal way would be to have 'filler caps' on your vessels that engineers could link up like the fuel pipes in the VAB, but that may be a tricky thing to pull off out of the editor environment.

[Caelib]

I don't think asking for connectors is all that hard considering the "Kerbal Attachment System" mod has some pretty good systems in-place.

[Wjolcz]

I agree it should be as easy to implement as possible, but I would also like a KAS-like pipe. Some more things to do when on EVA.