Can you dock ship to itself?

[Sharpy]

I know you can use three docking ports on a tricoupler so more than one attachment point between two ships is a-okay. But I wonder if - using moving parts (actually, bending) you can attach two docking ports of a single ship to each other out there (not SPH/VAB)?

Edited June 12, 2015 by Sharpy

[SanderB]

yes it is possible, though stock parts aren't extremely bendy to begin with and I'm not sure that there's a function a vessel docked to itself.

[Captain H@dock]

I reckon you can, because that's what people do when they build something in the VAB like : tricoupler -> 3 jr Docking port -> 3 jr Docking port -> tricoupler.

You only have a connection between one of each set of docking ports in the VAB, but the other two, being align with their counterpart, dock as soon as physic loads on launch. Also, ring stations would probably end-up in the same situation (the last docking port pair to attached would be located on the same ship)

[Psycix]

yes it is possible, though stock parts aren't extremely bendy to begin with and I'm not sure that there's a function a vessel docked to itself.

Circular stations.

[Red Iron Crown]

Definitely possible. Kasuha did a nice experiment showing it in action:

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[SanderB]

you can make circular stations by docking semi circles or parts of a hexagon or another geometric arrangement to each other with multiple docking parts I suppose that's kind of the same thing.

[Laie]

Definitely possible. Kasuha did a nice experiment showing it in action:

Whoa! I wonder how much development time went into the contraption before he could even conduct the experiment.

[MrWalrus123]

Danny2462 did it in MAKSP 7

[justidutch]

I have made three different ring stations, and all of them end up being technically docked together, but not visually. I have never been able to get the station to stay visually docked. I can get everything perfect, but as soon as I switch back to the space centre or another ship then return, the last connection of the station looks staggered again. Here's a pic:

It's technically docked in the sense that you can right-click the connection and choose 'undock', etc, but I've never been able to figure out how to keep them visually perfect.

[Sharpy]

Yeah! Orbital Crossbow, here I come!

(yesterday I built a catapult, but I believe a crossbow will be more efficient. But it needs to be drawn on the ground and brought to the destination primed for the shot.)

[ajburges]

There was a cool space plane in beta that actually had a clamshell hinge to expose payload and lander. (the cockpit doubled as a lander)

It used docking ports to anchor modes. I hear it was true Kraken bait while swapping modes though.

Justidutch,

Thanks for the insight on docking ring modules. Making an ascetically pleasing, modular, Mk2 ring station in the SPH was a goal of mine, but I could never get the joints as I wanted. I can abandon it completely now that I know any implementation would be doomed in practice. Do those issues still occur in more structurally simple stations, like a hexagon?

[StormKat]

Thanks for the insight on docking ring modules. Making an ascetically pleasing, modular, Mk2 ring station in the SPH was a goal of mine, but I could never get the joints as I wanted. I can abandon it completely now that I know any implementation would be doomed in practice. Do those issues still occur in more structurally simple stations, like a hexagon?

Doomed? I think not.

Did you say hexagon?

[ajburges]

StormKat that first example appears to be a single piece ring. What I am talking about is stations with modular ring segments that attach to form a ring. See Justidutch's station.

Thank you for confirming that lower count polygon rings don't appear to have the same issue going to and from active vessel.