Constellation Mission Packs Discussion Thread!

[Majorjim!]

48 minutes ago, Yukon0009 said:

115 parts and ~25 tons, I don't know if this is capable of being transported to Duna by DTV.

Some honest critiques,

 I've made something very similar to those solar panels before in an old Orion I made. The issue is the Ares 1 will look totally wrong because of them. You cannot stow them properly. I didn't like spoiling the overall look of the launcher. But again, as we know, Kompromise.

 I think the engine bell you have is too big also and I think the standard pod looks better than what you have there. I noticed you staged the fairing in half below. I know why this is and it annoys the hell out of me. You cannot get a clean release if you want to remove something from an un-staged fairing end.. Why Squad?? The geometry inside is total garbage so it either grips the thing you want to stage or flings it out with massive force which looks crap.

Just my two cents.

How you getting on with the other stuff?

24 minutes ago, Yukon0009 said:

It's delta v is fine with around 1500 dV, but it's 25 tons so sticking it atop a DTV will reduce the dV of the DTV. Also it's going to wobble around when the DTV's engines are on.

That should be ok man as you are thrusting through the length of the spacecraft. Also DTVs tend, as a consequence of design, to have an abundance of Dv.

[Yukon0009]

2 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

Some honest critiques,

 I've made something very similar to those solar panels before in an old Orion I made. The issue is the Ares 1 will look totally wrong because of them. You cannot stow them properly. I didn't like spoiling the overall look of the launcher. But again, as we know, Kompromise.

 I think the engine bell you have is too big also and I think the standard pod looks better than what you have there. I noticed you staged the fairing in half below. I know why this is and it annoys the hell out of me. You cannot get a clean release if you want to remove something from an un-staged fairing end.. Why Squad?? The geometry inside is total garbage so it either grips the thing you want to stage or flings it out with massive force which looks crap.

Just my two cents.

How you getting on with the other stuff?

Hmm, I made the command pod over 2m because I originally made it for an Kerbal scale SLS that I made which was 5m wide, so I oversized it to fit with it. The fairing is actually from the LES that I ejected, and yeah, the Ares I that I made to go with it looks like crap because of the fairings. Because if I go 100% full Kerbal scale for the entire Constellation I will either go nuts or my computer will melt, I'm considering making a smaller, more Kerbalized ConstellDuna pack.

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Yukon0009 said:

Hmm, I made the command pod over 2m because I originally made it for an Kerbal scale SLS that I made which was 5m wide, so I oversized it to fit with it. The fairing is actually from the LES that I ejected, and yeah, the Ares I that I made to go with it looks like crap because of the fairings. Because if I go 100% full Kerbal scale for the entire Constellation I will either go nuts or my computer will melt, I'm considering making a smaller, more Kerbalized ConstellDuna pack.

I know what you mean man. Correct scale for a constellation mission pack is effectively impossible as the craft would be enormous if they where to correct scale and that makes some of the builds silly, silly high part counts.

 I would love to see a mini version of the pack, i have been tempted to try it for ages. How many crew you thinking for smaller craft?

[Yukon0009]

Just now, Majorjim! said:

I know what you mean man. Correct scale for a constellation mission pack is effectively impossible as the craft would be enormous if they where to correct scale and that makes some of the builds silly, silly high part counts.

 I would love to see a mini version of the pack, i have been tempted to try it for ages. How many crew you thinking for smaller craft?

It's not quite as small as the pico one I did a while back, considering the lander is still 3m wide, but I'm going for a crew of 5.

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Yukon0009 said:

It's not quite as small as the pico one I did a while back, considering the lander is still 3m wide, but I'm going for a crew of 5.

Yeah me too, for the sake of the hab module I have 5. I could always just add seats but a 'real' pod is better me thinks.

[PixelatedPig]

Progress is good so far! I'm now testing the Orion And Altiar on a voyage to the Mun. here's a picture

I'm also testing the Ares I and V rockets. they are a bit unstable when it comes to staging. will have to fix that later on right now i'm more working on the spacecrafts.

PS: is it cheating if I use Kerbal Joint Reinforcement? please let me know.

 

 

[Yukon0009]

Just now, PixelatedPig said:

Progress is good so far! I'm now testing the Orion And Altiar on a voyage to the Mun. here's a picture

I'm also testing the Ares I and V rockets. they are a bit unstable when it comes to staging. will have to fix that later on right now i'm more working on the spacecrafts.

PS: is it cheating if I use Kerbal Joint Reinforcement? please let me know.

 

 

Looking good!

I'd personally try to keep it "bone stock" and build it without, but each to their own.

How many crew per Orion are you going to fly?

[PixelatedPig]

53 minutes ago, Yukon0009 said:

Looking good!

I'd personally try to keep it "bone stock" and build it without, but each to their own.

How many crew per Orion are you going to fly?

I would have liked it to keep it "bone stock" but I'm sick and tired that without Kerbal Joint Reinforcement the rocket keeps falling apart (at least for me). that's also a reason why I took a break from Constellation.

 

In my Orion I have seats for 6 Kerbals. For this Moon Mission I wanted 4 Kerbals but I ascendantly put 6 Kerbals in and didn't notice until I was in Orbit around Kerbin.

I'm planning for 4 Kerbals per moon Mission.

 

UPDATE MOON TEST MISSION: I had to Abort The lunar Landing cause of the bad rcs on the Altiar. when the Orion and Altair were docked it was fine but once I undocked the altiar could barely turn around. I cant return to the Vab because of a reload I did. I had to do a free return trajectory back to kerbin in order to save the crew. 

Edited November 5, 2016 by PixelatedPig

[Yukon0009]

Here's what I have so far. 2 rovers, and ~50 tons, 100-ish parts per lander.

Also about that Pico Constellation, I decided to work on it again.

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by Yukon0009

[Majorjim!]

9 hours ago, Yukon0009 said:

Here's what I have so far.

Good stuff Yukon! I too have a double leg arrangement on my horizontal landers. Four just 'aint' enough!

 Part count seems reasonable too. That is a concern for me. I will have around 800 parts on screen with both of my landers..

[Majorjim!]

Oh god.. I'm building the Ares V now and it's shaping up to be absolutely huge. Possibly the biggest launch vehicle I have ever built. I hope it will be controllable in flight as you have to launch the damn thing SEVEN times to build the Copernicus and aeroshell landers in orbit..

 Any making progress on Ares V? I'm trying to keep the same boosters on it as one that is used on my Ares 1.

[Majorjim!]

AAARRRGGGGGGGGG!

[pTrevTrevs]

6 hours ago, Majorjim! said:

SEVEN

.....Seven? Are you sure?

[Majorjim!]

10 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

.....Seven? Are you sure?

Yup,

 1.DTV Fore section

2.DTV midship section

3.DTV propulsion section

4.Ascent lander aeroshell

5.Ascent lander propulsion stage

6.Hab lander aeroshell

7.Hab lander propulsion stage

The exact number of launches that the real Ares V or CLV would have flown if constellation had gone ahead.

 

[Majorjim!]

13 hours ago, Majorjim! said:

AAARRRGGGGGGGGG!

This was premature, a bit.. I am seeing a bug I have never seen before..

 Anyone ever had a bug when you place a strut or fuel line and when you click again to place the other end it picks up the part you click on? It's absolutely maddening..

 As to keep scale of the Ares V I am having to use multiple orange tanks and multiple bundles of SRBs and I know the game does not like symmetry on symmetry so it may be due to that. I had to use auto struts to hold the SRB bundles to the core stage because of this..

 I am using EER which may also be casing it.

 

[PixelatedPig]

Did some testing for my MTV and HAB Lander.

Some pics:

Progress is good I have all the spaceships and rockets ready for testing. That's a thing with Constellation It's more testing a craft than flying one!

One thing I want to mention is that I removed Kerbal Joint Reinforcement. The game works better without it! 

 

6 hours ago, Majorjim! said:

This was premature, a bit.. I am seeing a bug I have never seen before..

 Anyone ever had a bug when you place a strut or fuel line and when you click again to place the other end it picks up the part you click on? It's absolutely maddening..

YES! This bug is a problem for building my crafts.

Edited November 10, 2016 by PixelatedPig

[Majorjim!]

After a week of silly long hours at work I have begun work on the Ares V again. Making a multi-tank launcher look good is hard.. The core stage is easy its the second stage and fairing that is tricky. I have got a good balance between scale and looks now though I think. It's hard to keep the lines clean though. I am concerned by its lifting capabilities.. The two landers are very heavy and I have only tested the core stage with boosters. I am using a direct copy of the booster cluster on my Ares 1 and I don't really want to have to redesign the boosters..

 The scale is ace though, it fits perfectly with the aeroshells and MTV parts in the fairing. The only thing that is out of scale is the propulsion stage and the lander aeroshells. I am not too bothered by that though as I didn't want the landers to be too small. Looking at the real proposed landers they where HUGE! And it's just not practical to scale everything else from those.

 I'm not sure if anyone who follows this thread remembers but I mentioned before I made three sets of aeroshells for the two landers. One from the stock procedural fairings and two from radiators. During intial testing the stock procedural fairings are far far too slippery to slow you down during aerobraking at Duna so you end up having to add chutes or air brakes to it which is crappy.. Luckily using the radiators provides plenty of drag and they can be properly areobraked.

 The first one I made is complex with at least three parts to it but it's wide. It fits perfectly with the Ares V I am making though but is out of scale with the propulsion stage. I made another radiator fairing that is narrower (you have no idea how much work was involved..) So it fitted better with the propulsion stage but even still it was slightly out of scale as my two landers are so big. They where also much simpler, read, less cool, , So I am happy to be using the larger more complex aero shells. I just have to make sure I have my latest version of the landers inside them! It's hard to keep track of all the craft variations. I am also going to release the lander skeletons as they are fantastic and can be used (repacked, re-purposed) for many other missions and cargos. I think I might just release the whole save file with all craft variations and subassemblies so you guys can reall get your hands dirty pulling everything apart. 

 Next part is flight tests of the Ares V and then my first orbital construction of the MTV. Both landers are already certified for EDL and ascent.

Wish me luck!

[Majorjim!]

You know what I realised the other day when looking through my completed craft? I will never be happy with them..

 I keep seeing things I can improve or change or modify and that is part of the reason I have not finished this in over a year.. I am actually afraid to release it.. I think that is just poor confidence and I just need to knuckle down and get it out of the door and move on. It's becoming a problem child for me..

 I have made the AresV but I'm not happy with it.. I'm not happy with the second stage. It's a monster of a rocket and getting the look of the second stage when using multiple tanks is a poodle. I was tempted to just use a single tanks stack design but the payload just looks so out of scale with it it's worse than using multiple tanks even though it would be SO MUCH EASIER!!! The landers are so kod damn huge. I wish I could be satisfied with less. I truly do..

[Frank_G]

The curse of perfection - early and endless optimization is also known as the silent death in the graphic industry. Just set yourself a deadline and then release it, regardless of what you think you still need to do. At a certain point, all optimization that "needs" to be done is only for one self. 99.9% wont even see it, not even when it is fixed for you.

And besides that, i am really thrilled to finally see your creation  

[SaturnianBlue]

Finally restarted work on at the least the moon part of the Constellation pack and it went pretty well! The main problem is a relative lack of fuel in the Orion and the Altair lower stage but I was able to finish the mission (with some cheating).

 

Any suggestion for improvement?

Edited December 28, 2016 by SaturnianBlue

[Servo]

I've started work on revamping my pack (big mistake, probably. I have nowhere near enough time atm to do anything, despite being on winter break atm), and I was wondering if any of you had done anything similar to this using the fairing interstages as a structural element. They seem perfect for a Constellation crew vehicle, especially one where part count is important. This is an example of what I'm talking about from a recent Duna mission.

[Raptor9]

23 minutes ago, Servo said:

I've started work on revamping my pack (big mistake, probably. I have nowhere near enough time atm to do anything, despite being on winter break atm), and I was wondering if any of you had done anything similar to this using the fairing interstages as a structural element. They seem perfect for a Constellation crew vehicle, especially one where part count is important. This is an example of what I'm talking about from a recent Duna mission.

That's not a bad idea at all.  Good thinking!

[Majorjim!]

10 hours ago, SaturnianBlue said:

Any suggestion for improvement?

That looks pretty darn good man! Maybe it could be a little cleaner, try other parts for the inter-stage  apart from that, great work!

10 hours ago, Servo said:

I was wondering if any of you had done anything similar to this using the fairing interstages as a structural element. They seem perfect for a Constellation crew vehicle,

I have heard folks mention it would be perfect for that but have not seen it used until now me thinks. It is perfect for lower part count MTVs, nice job!

On 12/13/2016 at 8:29 AM, Frank_G said:

The curse of perfection

I fear it is far from perfect..

[Frank_G]

21 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

That looks pretty darn good man! Maybe it could be a little cleaner, try other parts for the inter-stage  apart from that, great work!

I have heard folks mention it would be perfect for that but have not seen it used until now me thinks. It is perfect for lower part count MTVs, nice job!

I fear it is far from perfect..

The fear that it is not perfect is the problem of perfectionism... just show it.

[Majorjim!]

5 hours ago, Frank_G said:

The fear that it is not perfect is the problem of perfectionism... just show it.

Sorry im not trying to tease it at all it's just not finished. I am procrastinating.. I am still working on a few of the craft and the AresV is a bee eye tee see atch.