[1.0.2]Corvus -Size 1, two Kerbal command pod(Version 1.1.1)

[flintlockmusket]

Orionkermin - I want to thank you for all of your hard work with this mod. Please keep it up.

[pacbard]

http://s12.postimg.org/8hmrz3zml/screenshot1.png

You have served me well, Corvus. Last major mission: Link-up with an ultra-light Mun lander. Mission went well (the lander, not so much, but it made it). Everyone got home safe. New mission requirements need 3 crew as we advance further afield. Such a reliable craft shall not be discarded, however, and will serve our Space Program as a crew shuttle for years to come...

Godspeed, good ship.

Wait! Does the corvus nose cone dock with a regular Jr. docking port?

[JPmAn]

Look at the .cfg file for the nose cone, and the jr docking port

[Railgunner2160]

Orionkermin: is the tank included in the extras supposed to be 1.25m or 1.875m?? Just curious as what size it's supposed to be...

I'm about to do my first launch, I'll let you know how it goes!!

Edit: The Corvus flies great!! Right now I've got a poor white suit kerbal out on a rescue mission near minmus, launched it on a pretty good budget. At least for me, I usually over-engineer things......

Edited June 7, 2015 by Railgunner2160

[Orionkermin]

Godspeed, good ship.

I'm glad she served you well. Godspeed!

Orionkermin - I want to thank you for all of your hard work with this mod. Please keep it up.

You're welcome! Thanks for checking it out.

Wait! Does the corvus nose cone dock with a regular Jr. docking port?

Yup it sure does. I'll make a note to make the description more clear.

Orionkermin: is the tank included in the extras supposed to be 1.25m or 1.875m?? Just curious as what size it's supposed to be...

I'm about to do my first launch, I'll let you know how it goes!!

Edit: The Corvus flies great!! Right now I've got a poor white suit kerbal out on a rescue mission near minmus, launched it on a pretty good budget. At least for me, I usually over-engineer things......

The tank is meant to be used as 1.25m It does allow for tweakscale though. The adapter is more or less to allow you to use this with HGR or any other 1.875m parts.

[Railgunner2160]

Ok cool, I was worried there might have been a bug. Many thanks for this wonderful pod, made my rescue vehicles much more economical!!!

Edit: Manages to get a rescue mission to minmus quite easily in about 55k funds, of which I can easily recover 1/2-2/3 of that by missions end!!!

Edited June 7, 2015 by Railgunner2160

[CosmoBro]

For the ones having trouble with KeepFit just put this in the Corvus_Exterior.cfg

    MODULE
    {
        name = KeepFitPartModule
        strActivityLevel = COMFY
    }

Edited June 8, 2015 by CosmoBro

[autumnalequinox]

Possible conflict with the newest update to KIS. I think this is the culprit. My load is hanging on Corvus_exterior part.

//KAS

MODULE

{

name = KASModuleContainer

maxSize = 10

}

}

[Orionkermin]

Possible conflict with the newest update to KIS. I think this is the culprit. My load is hanging on Corvus_exterior part.

Yup, I think Ceverus also mentioned this. Deleting it will solve the issue. It will of course be removed for the next update.

[autumnalequinox]

*cleared my useless info*

- - - Updated - - -

Oh ok crap sorry I've been a bit behind lately on some stuff haha.

Ignore me. Ninjaed!!!!

Edited June 8, 2015 by autumnalequinox
cluttering thread :)

[nobodyhasthis]

For the ones having trouble with KeepFit just put this in the Corvus_Exterior.cfg

    MODULE
    {
        name = KeepFitPartModule
        strActivityLevel = COMFY
    }

No way it is it comfy. It is cramped. Or it is Neutral if you stretch the definition. Read the description. Also when put into a community tech tree it works perfectly. It sits one level above single and yet below the comfy pods above it. In the real world this like Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and then Orion.

[nobodyhasthis]

The fuel cell is one only in name. It still functions like the generator, burning monopropellant for electric charge. I guess you could head cannon it as hydrazine reacting with some kind of oxidizer that's inside the cell. Either way it's intended as an early game alternative to solar panels.

The idea is to remove it from the service module, although I am worried about people not being able to click on it and action groups are stupidly not available in the early career. (The new service module has no doors just a hollow back end) I may put it to a vote to see if I should make it a stand alone part or not. If not this asset can still be used, I'll just add it to the inside of the service module.

The foil not being stock-alike doesn't bother me too much. Mostly because it's such a common space craft element that it probably should be represented in some stock parts. It's on the engine mostly just to evoke a connection to the Gemini equipment module. Although, I'm aware that Gemini had no engine propper.

As far as I am aware this is the only way we can get a monopropellan fuel cell into the game as a stand alone part. As it stands Universal Storage provides Hydrogen/Oxygen fuel cell. The stock game provides Liquid Fuel/oxidizer fuel cell. It would be nice to see the monopropellan burner as an option.

As a general rule of thumb when working out what should be available and where it fits. I would suggest people take a look at the FASA mod as it has a full sized conversion of Gemini. It does show that there is indeed engines and generators. The delta-v is just enough to de-orbit but that's all. However RCS maneuvering is good.

As it stands Corvus is a close match and very much more Kerbal stock-like. An especially useful feature is the size remains the same for all the parts. The addition of a service module with working sub-assemblies is great.

Edited June 10, 2015 by nobodyhasthis

[Orionkermin]

Yea I like the idea of having the generator as its own part, so I'm sorry for the extra VAB clutter, but that's how it's going to be. I guess early on the "abort" action group could be used to toggle it on or off from inside the service module. It's kinda dumb that they lock all the custom ones until the final VAB level.

Also just going to throw a WIP album up. Not a ton of new stuff, but it's easier for me if I just use the same album and continually update it as I make progress. I've remade the chute and remapped the pod's textures. Now lot's of texturing ahead for me...

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[nobodyhasthis]

Yea I like the idea of having the generator as its own part, so I'm sorry for the extra VAB clutter, but that's how it's going to be. I guess early on the "abort" action group could be used to toggle it on or off from inside the service module. It's kinda dumb that they lock all the custom ones until the final VAB level.

Also just going to throw a WIP album up. Not a ton of new stuff, but it's easier for me if I just use the same album and continually update it as I make progress. I've remade the chute and remapped the pod's textures. Now lot's of texturing ahead for me...

http://imgur.com/a/Zhlku

Very good. Great ideas.

I do actually think the current chute/docking texture is perfect as is. In fact all the textures are good. Remember textures are always sacrificed later on for more RAM.

This how I currently integrate the Corvus into my game. For the aerodynamics add-on I already have a mini stack decouple and escape system on top. That gets ejected after leaving atmosphere. Just before orbital the insertion burn. Right now hitting abort separates my Corvus off the service module, fires the escape system and arms chute. Poor little pod gets violently thrown clear of a launch failure but the crew survive every time.

I also currently like use my own service module which is a 1.25m service bay containing a FL-R10 RCS Tank, TAC life supplies, battery pack and a few early science experiments. If your are using Mechjeb or Kerbal Engineering Redux parts they can also be attached in there. It is a very rewarding experience to pack it all in and shut the doors. I can see me using the new service module like this.

As I don't have the generator as a stand alone. A Universal Storage section can be added instead. In the early game this activated through right mouse button context menu not by action group. It comes into play just before solar cells. In my game solar cells come later and are awkward to fit for a while. Eventually I get the proper folding ones but the generator stays attached as an emergency back up all the way through the rest of the career.

She sits as an important step up from the basic single man pod. A real workhorse in for the first half of the total career. Eventually she gets replaced with bigger and better pods but never completely leaves the space program.

Edited June 10, 2015 by nobodyhasthis

[JPmAn]

i don't want this to go dead!

[TaintedLion]

Is the Corvus docking port compatible with the Clamp-O-Tron Jr.?

[komodo]

Is the Corvus docking port compatible with the Clamp-O-Tron Jr.?

I think it ought to be; you can check the config files, if the size is the same between the two, they should mate up.

[Orionkermin]

i don't want this to go dead!

It's not dead don't worry. I've just been a little busy with other games/ projects this last week, so I haven't had anything worth posting.

Is the Corvus docking port compatible with the Clamp-O-Tron Jr.?

I think it ought to be; you can check the config files, if the size is the same between the two, they should mate up.

Yup, unless something broke, it should be compatible with the clamp-o-tron jr.

[Murdabenne]

Mark as updated for 1.0.3 so CKAN picks it up again?

[JPmAn]

What's planned for the next update?

[Murdabenne]

I'll toss in a version range in the netkan entry, that should allow CKAN to see this as compatible.

[Murdabenne]

FYI, this mod (Corvus) plus the base HGR module of this was given an override as "compatible" with 1.0.2 thru 1.0.4 on CKAN, let them know if that was in error.

[Jarin]

So, I noticed something odd today. I've been running at 120% stock heating, and upon an airbrake attempt returning from Mun, my first pass depleted the ablator of the Corvus heat shield, and showed an explosion effect... except the shield was still there. Oddly, all it did at this point was start heating up the shield (stock heat overlay showing) and then... nothing. Second pass was a full re-entry from about 5kKm, which would have normally destroyed pod components, but it went smooth as silk; the depleted and broken heat shield still providing plenty of protection from the heat. Tried basically the same maneuver with a regular 1-man pod and heat shield and the ablator was much more durable (exited first pass with 160/200, landed with 85; never saw a heat gauge). Seems some values could use tweaking.

[stevehead]

Yeah, some of the parts could use a little tweaking with the heat system changes. The nose cone during ascent begins to rapidly overheat as I approach orbital velocity in the upper atmosphere (50-70 km range)... found myself having to burn radially out some to face the nose cone out of the air stream.

[nobodyhasthis]

I absolutely love this mod. I have never understood why there is no 2 Kerbal pods in stock when Gemini had a huge influence in manned space flight. So imagine my delight when a found that N3h3mia's old experiments mod had been resurrected. The one that put the Gemini experimental packages into KSP. This has given :wink:the Corvus a beautiful career path. Recreate all the Kemini missions with http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/118716-1-0-N3h3mia-s-Science-Mods-%28UNOFFICIAL-EXPERIMENTAL-BUILD%29. Big thank you to N3h3mia creating this and to micha for updating to 1.0.4 . Thanks to Cheesecake for showing me how to quickly include Corvus. Warning ***EXPERIMENTAL*** but with huge amounts of fun when mixed with Corvus.

Edited July 6, 2015 by nobodyhasthis
typo