Mk3 Expansion - [KSP 1.12x] Version 1.6 [10/5/21]

[MelancholyFlapper]

AJTheMighty;

-Mk3 fusion drive: Sounds like ABZB will have that covered

-Mk3 airliner cockpit: Will probably happen at some point.

-Mk3 2.5m triple-mode scramjet/turbofan/rocket hybrid engine: I do have a half-finished 2.5m jet engine, probably won't end up tri-mode, though

-Mk3 inline capacitor: As in NFE capacitors?

-Mk3 chine-form jet engine: Better solution would be mounting a 1.25m Jet on a fuselage extender mount, a chine sized jet would be in the .625m range, which seems too small for behemoth mk3 craft

@CptRichardson; -stubbie bicoupler: Done.

And continuing the trend of working on whatever random part I feel like at the moment, I started working on some mining kit - have a mk3 inline ISRU drill:

http://i.imgur.com/E6JKBAz.png

Mk2 drill and ISRU refineries are likely to follow.

One bit of criticism - looking at the cutting wheels, they don't protrude far enough down IMO. If a shuttle is mounted on standard medium or heavy landing gear the ISRU stuff should be able to reach the ground (i.e. I'm thinking about a shuttle that can fly to minmus or Laythe or the mun and drill there to refuel). It'd be a useful way to haul cargo from there to kerbin and vice versa. You could probably set up a nice base (science station, EPL launchpad, MKS/OKS base maybe) only a few flights that way.

[Svm420]

Would you be able to work out some AJE stats for the normal air breathing engines you've added?

[SuicidalInsanity]

@davidy12; Preliminary OMS tests are sucessful:

The new OMS pieces have been added to the mk3 github repo, link in the OP.

@MelancholyFlapper; Yeah, drills that can reach the ground are important. The final version of the mk3 BWE will extend farther than shown in the WIP image to take into account the height of the bigger landing gears.

@Svm420; I'll try to get something kludged together for the new engines sometime soon.

[Svm420]

Oh man that looks great amazing work!

[Siphonophore]

Fantastic work on that OMS!

By the way, any progress on the Cyclops cockpit?

Here's two more suggestions:

-Mk3 inline heavy science experiments

-Mk3 T-hub and L-hub

Edited September 15, 2015 by AJTheMighty

[davidy12]

AWESOOOOME!!! Thank you so much!!!

PS: What are those main engines on the shuttle? And what part are the OMS attached to?

Edited September 15, 2015 by davidy12

[SuicidalInsanity]

@AJTheMighty; Haven't started it yet.

-Mk3 science experiments: A mk3 sci-lab is planned; beyond that? I don't know. One one hand, more experiments are always nice, on the other, I'm already dreading having to come up with all the science definitions it would require

-Mk3 Hubs: Already modeled, and are awaiting Unity Import

@davidy12; The oms units are attached to an OMS shoulder that was previewed in the WIP image posted a few pages ago. The engines are from a parts pack I made back in the 24.0 era that I never released for reasons I thought good at the time. I suppose if anyone's interested I could throw up some pics later.

[CptRichardson]

Suicidal: Plus you have the issue that a Mk3 hull doesn't make sense for a dedicated science experiment. Well, maybe a giant orbital telescope, but anything else would work better in a smaller Mk2 formfactor. (Which also would give reason to the Mk2 ion probes and stuff, but...)

Addendum: In further consideration, it might be easier to steal (with permission! Stealing is always better with permission, though it's known as borrowing when you do) the science stuff from Dmagic and his orbital science pack, and create a set of modules for inserting into the service bay, with optional future modules to fit in the side bays if you ever get around to it.

Edited September 15, 2015 by CptRichardson

[SuicidalInsanity]

@CptRichardson; Yeah, for mk3 science experiments the only things I could thing of to justify the size of the module would be something along the lines of a compact cyclotron or some sort of artificial micro-gravity centrifuge experiment or something.

[ABZB]

Maybe a mk3 part that is compatible with Universal Storage System?

Then all the pieces are ready-made for insertion

[CptRichardson]

@CptRichardson; Yeah, for mk3 science experiments the only things I could thing of to justify the size of the module would be something along the lines of a compact cyclotron or some sort of artificial micro-gravity centrifuge experiment or something.

A variation on the Cacteye telescope, maybe? Something to generate science by starting an experiment at altitude for analyzing X-Rays or something, and then you have to hold it above a certain altitude for as long as possible, then head back to base?

[Nothalogh]

Mk3 part suggestion:

An inline Clamp-o-Tron Sr that extends at least 1.25m above the fuselage when deployed

[ABZB]

On the other hand, you *could* make a generic science part that has all the stock experiments available at once? maybe a lab integrated with them? that would be convenient... (as in one doesn't have to use up an action group or desperately try to find where one placed everything to do science in the 5 seconds before everything explodes )

[SuicidalInsanity]

@CptRichardson; Isn't that sort of similar behavior to how the science labs work at present?

@Nothalogh; Planned.

@ABZB; You might like the Science Alert mod. Not certain about the all-in-one science experiment, mainly since at least in my experience, the instruments i bring on missions change every mission, in both type and quantity, which means an all-in-one part would still need extra instruments bolted onto the craft somewhere. On the functionality side of things, can a single part have multiple different sci experiments?

[ABZB]

@ABZB; You might like the Science Alert mod. Not certain about the all-in-one science experiment, mainly since at least in my experience, the instruments i bring on missions change every mission, in both type and quantity, which means an all-in-one part would still need extra instruments bolted onto the craft somewhere. On the functionality side of things, can a single part have multiple different sci experiments?

- oh yeah, I forgot about that. I uninstalled it back, I think, due to some wierd bug, and I never got around to to re-installing...

- Yes. I have done it myself for personal use. If animations are desired for the various experiments, there is an optional field in the science experiment thing to select which animation that particular experiment should run, IIRC.

[Nothalogh]

So I tried out the CLEAVER

The LF consumption in jet mode is obscenely low, as is the TWR in jet mode.

It also seems that its atmosphere curve does not match a rapier, it flames out while hypersonic below 19km, and that's with two of your Mk3 side mount intakes

[Siphonophore]

@AJTheMighty; Haven't started it yet.

Oh that's okay, how about for next update?

[SuicidalInsanity]

@Nothalogh; The low fuel consumption is due to early versions of the CLEAVER using the turboramjet ISP and intakeair ratio. The low TWR is likely an earlier version of the CLEAVER before I buffed it to 840 thrust in jet mode. The flaming out at 19km was likely due to the engine consuming twice the IntakeAir it should, since the atmocurve and velcurve are the same as the RAPIER.

@AJTheMighty; I should have at least an exterior model done by them.

In other news, I've made more progress on the next Mk2 expansion update, working my way through the list of stuff to get done. In particular, I've gotten the fighter cockpit IVA I promised awhile ago finally working:

A much better field of view than the Mk1Cockpit placeholder.

[Nothalogh]

@Nothalogh; The low fuel consumption is due to early versions of the CLEAVER using the turboramjet ISP and intakeair ratio. The low TWR is likely an earlier version of the CLEAVER before I buffed it to 840 thrust in jet mode. The flaming out at 19km was likely due to the engine consuming twice the IntakeAir it should, since the atmocurve and velcurve are the same as the RAPIER.

Aye, makes sense.

The airbreathing exhaust effect is glorious though, also the rocket mode effect needs to be beefed up, it looks anemic in comparison

[SuicidalInsanity]

@ Nothalogh; FX tweaking is easy enough to do.

Got more IVA work done. Mk2 Science lab is finally getting an interior:

Still need to finish up the workstations and add thing like lights

[Svm420]

Why no ASET? other than that things look great!

[Siphonophore]

FINALLY! Mk2 deep-space cruiser with awesome IVAs, here I come!

Could you show me a WIP model of the Cyclops cockpit? I wanna see the progress on it.

[SuicidalInsanity]

@Svm420; ASET props aren't being used for a few reasons - Ignorance of the pack's existence to begin with, and then later a desire to try and minimize dependencies the mod uses, though to be honest, they would have been really useful to have had when making the R-71 IVA. At present, I am sorely tempted to go back and remake all the IVAs with those props, but I also want to take a break from IVAs for a bit - not the most fun things to make.

Edit: Having thought about it, I will remake the cockpits with ASET props. Now just to decide if they should be optional in the same way the RPM versions of the cockpits are or have ASET as a required dependency...

@AJTheMighty; I've been finishing the mk2 scilab IVA; At this point, the cyclops cockpit is near the top of the to-do list, WIP images of it will be posted when I get to it.

Edited September 19, 2015 by SuicidalInsanity

[SuicidalInsanity]

Bleh. I hate doing IVAs. Scilab is at a state I'm willing to leave it be and call it 'good enough for now'.

I also got the landing leg previewed a while back finally working, so I could conceivably have Mk2 Expansion ver 1.6 up in a few days.

[Svm420]

@Svm420; ASET props aren't being used for a few reasons - Ignorance of the pack's existence to begin with, and then later a desire to try and minimize dependencies the mod uses, though to be honest, they would have been really useful to have had when making the R-71 IVA. At present, I am sorely tempted to go back and remake all the IVAs with those props, but I also want to take a break from IVAs for a bit - not the most fun things to make.

Edit: Having thought about it, I will remake the cockpits with ASET props. Now just to decide if they should be optional in the same way the RPM versions of the cockpits are or have ASET as a required dependency...

Wooooooot. Take your time. As long as you want to do it Idc how long it takes I just love flying in IVA and being able to turn menus off without losing all the info I need esp with FAR. I have been trying to let any moder I see know about these props because they are so functional they really set that part well above competition though I know this isn't one. Thank you so much for this mod and your continued work on it. Definitely a must have here

- - - Updated - - -

One of the best non command pod IVAs i've seen nice!