[1.12.5] Bluedog Design Bureau - Stockalike Saturn, Apollo, and more! (v1.13.0 "Забытый" 13/Aug/2023)

[DaveyJ576]

SAMOS PROGRAM PART 2

When the limitations of the Samos E-1 readout camera system became obvious, the program quickly pivoted to returning the film to Earth for study. Unlike the parallel Corona Program, Samos pursued returning not only the film, but the camera as well. This would require a large pressurized capsule, which was also intended to provide the basis for a DoD/ USAF manned spaceflight program. In many ways, the concept was similar in nature to the Soviet Zenit program. The E-5 camera system and film was contained entirely within the reentry vehicle, although there was an additional camera/reflector that was jettisoned prior to reentry. The program  also shifted to the more powerful and restartable Agena B for these flights. Below is a recreation of the Samos 6 mission on March 7, 1962. Launch was from Point Arguello LC 1-2. Atlas 112D with Agena B A2204 provided the ride to orbit. It was one of the first completely secret flights from the U.S.

Spoiler

Launch, BECO and skirt jettison, staging, and final climb to orbit went as planned. A 200 km x 90.89 deg orbit was obtained.

Spoiler

Solar panel activation, nose cone jettison, antenna extension, and payload activation went as planned. The recon mission was concluded successfully. What was obtained remains highly classified. Let's just say the Krussian's secrets aren't so secret anymore, and leave it at that. 

Spoiler

The Agena did its work for the last time by performing the deorbit maneuver over the Arctic. Spacecraft separation was successful, followed by the jettison of the upper reflector/camera assembly. The spacecraft survived reentry and was picked up north of Hawaii.

In the real world, the Samos E-5 flights were almost total failures. This flight ran out of RCS propellent before it deorbited and the spacecraft could not be recovered. In the end the E-5 camera system did not do what was wanted, so the program pivoted once more to the follow-on E-6.

The capsule is a slightly Tweakscaled down Stock Mk1 pod. I really wanted to use the BDB Mercury, but it can't be Tweakscaled and I thought it looked just a little too big when compared to real photos of the E-5 capsule. It was a bit of a trick to get the parachute attached correctly. It required a lot of fiddling with the Move tool. I placed the main camera right over the window on the Mk 1 pod. 

[CobaltWolf]

An initial commit of the Renovated Command Module Lab is now on Github!

[DaveyJ576]

1 hour ago, CobaltWolf said:

An initial commit of the Renovated Command Module Lab is now on Github!

Does anyone know how many cubic feet of useable space this would have had in this configuration versus an LM-based lab?

[Richmountain112]

2 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

An initial commit of the Renovated Command Module Lab is now on Github!

It would probably be best to use it as part of an Eve or Tekto lander.

[biohazard15]

4 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Renovated Command Module Lab

TFW when real-life project is more Kerbal than literally anything you can come with in KSP.

[Richmountain112]

Also, why exactly is crossfeed disabled on the LM Descent stage tank?

[GoldForest]

5 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

An initial commit of the Renovated Command Module Lab is now on Github!

 

That Blk II Tunnel, is that a short variant of the docking tunnel? Or is it just embedded within the lab a little bit? 

[Richmountain112]

I can't find the CSM lab on Github yet.

Anyways, why are the flags flipped upside-down?

[septemberWaves]

I've never heard of this "Renovated Command Module" design. It looks interesting. Very reminiscent of all of the Apollo Applications proposals to reuse the LM pressure vessel for increasingly absurd ideas, only with the command module instead.

Edited October 1, 2023 by septemberWaves

[CobaltWolf]

3 hours ago, GoldForest said:

That Blk II Tunnel, is that a short variant of the docking tunnel? Or is it just embedded within the lab a little bit? 

uh I don't know. The cone half of the docking system is much smaller than it is in BDB, it's just that big to make sure the colliders don't get intruded on too much.

 

1 hour ago, Richmountain112 said:

I can't find the CSM lab on Github yet.

Anyways, why are the flags flipped upside-down?

It's on the 1.14 branch.

What flags?

[Richmountain112]

12 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

15 hours ago, GoldForest said:

That Blk II Tunnel, is that a short variant of the docking tunnel? Or is it just embedded within the lab a little bit? 

uh I don't know. The cone half of the docking system is much smaller than it is in BDB, it's just that big to make sure the colliders don't get intruded on too much.

 

14 hours ago, Richmountain112 said:

I can't find the CSM lab on Github yet.

Anyways, why are the flags flipped upside-down?

It's on the 1.14 branch.

What flags?

The flags in the "Flags" folder are upside-down. That's what I'm talking about.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Richmountain112

[CobaltWolf]

23 hours ago, Richmountain112 said:

The flags in the "Flags" folder are upside-down. That's what I'm talking about.

Oh, that's because they're .dds (game/memory optimized image texture) files. I don't know WHY,  but .dds files are stored flipped vertically. I even tried googling to try and give you a better answer than "that's just how they are" and didn't find anything helpful. But all the .dds textures for the parts are also flipped vertically, and I know that has been the case with most other games that use them.

[ra4nd0m]

On 9/30/2023 at 10:16 PM, CobaltWolf said:

An initial commit of the Renovated Command Module Lab is now on Github!

You just keep finding wierd stuff to add, right? It makes my inner web dev go crazy due to bundle size). Maybe stuff should be further organized in "conceptual" "ETS" and "historical" folders to keep manual pruning managable?

[Richmountain112]

8 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

On 10/1/2023 at 9:42 AM, Richmountain112 said:

The flags in the "Flags" folder are upside-down. That's what I'm talking about.

Oh, that's because they're .dds (game/memory optimized image texture) files. I don't know WHY,  but .dds files are stored flipped vertically. I even tried googling to try and give you a better answer than "that's just how they are" and didn't find anything helpful. But all the .dds textures for the parts are also flipped vertically, and I know that has been the case with most other games that use them.

Oh. That's why it's flipped. Otherwise it would look flipped in-game.

[DeadJohn]

3 hours ago, Richmountain112 said:

11 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

On 10/1/2023 at 10:42 AM, Richmountain112 said:

The flags in the "Flags" folder are upside-down. That's what I'm talking about.

Oh, that's because they're .dds (game/memory optimized image texture) files. I don't know WHY,  but .dds files are stored flipped vertically. I even tried googling to try and give you a better answer than "that's just how they are" and didn't find anything helpful. But all the .dds textures for the parts are also flipped vertically, and I know that has been the case with most other games that use them.

Oh. That's why it's flipped. Otherwise it would look flipped in-game.

According to an AI assistant (so this could be filled with errors):

The DDS file format was originally developed by Microsoft for use with the DirectX graphics API. Early versions of DirectX used a top-down coordinate system, meaning that the origin of the coordinate system was in the upper-left corner of the screen. As a result, DDS files were stored upside down so that they would be displayed correctly when used with DirectX.

When a DDS file is loaded into memory, it is typically flipped upside down before being used by the graphics hardware. This is because most graphics hardware uses a bottom-up coordinate system. Flipping the DDS file upside down during loading can improve performance by reducing the number of times that the graphics hardware needs to flip the texture during rendering.

[gooddog15]

On 9/30/2023 at 2:16 PM, CobaltWolf said:

An initial commit of the Renovated Command Module Lab is now on Github!

[Pxtseryu]

On 12/21/2022 at 5:49 AM, GoldForest said:

Hmmm, looks a little strange, can't figure out why tho...

Nope. Still can't see anything wrong.

More experimenting with CameraTools. Decided to go from the side of the rocket instead of behind it so I don't get just giant SRB plume shots. 

This is how you do dual payload, right?

Hey! Wait for me brother!

Um, thee uh... calculations for reentry might have been a tad off. 

Full album: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

very cool! i'd love to see a triple payload design based on this

 

 

[GoldForest]

1 hour ago, Pxtseryu said:

very cool! i'd love to see a triple payload design based on this

 

 

 

 A non-newtonian physics payload adapter? That's impossible. 

[Pxtseryu]

While I'm here, not sure who maintains the USILS patches here - but if any of you have patches that enable USI-LS supplies to be loaded onto the Kanola and other cargo vehicles it'd be much appreciated.  Currently it's limited to MKS supply kits, ore, water, and hydrogen+oxygen, rendering the supply vehicle semi-useless with USI-LS. I would really appreciate it

 

Edited October 7, 2023 by Pxtseryu

[Richmountain112]

I would like for there to be a cargo version of the Kane command pod for transferring (and landing) Ore on the surface of Kerbin.

Edited October 8, 2023 by Richmountain112

[GoldForest]

9 hours ago, Richmountain112 said:

I would like for there to be a cargo version of the Kane command pod for transferring (and landing) Ore on the surface of Kerbin.

Just make the cargo section of the AARDVARK reenterable by slapping a heatshield under the probe. 

I made this real quick, so it's not perfect, but you get the concept. Make sure you have plenty of parachutes and maybe some landing gear... it may crush itself on landing. 

[Entr8899]

3 hours ago, GoldForest said:

Just make the cargo section of the AARDVARK reenterable by slapping a heatshield under the probe. 

I made this real quick, so it's not perfect, but you get the concept. Make sure you have plenty of parachutes and maybe some landing gear... it may crush itself on landing. 

I think a cargo version would be cool, kinda like a primitive Dragon capsule, or like the already existing cargo Gemini.

[GoldForest]

2 hours ago, Entr8899 said:

I think a cargo version would be cool, kinda like a primitive Dragon capsule, or like the already existing cargo Gemini.

It would be yeah, but I was just giving an alternative they could use. 

[Pxtseryu]

17 hours ago, Pxtseryu said:

While I'm here, not sure who maintains the USILS patches here - but if any of you have patches that enable USI-LS supplies to be loaded onto the Kanola and other cargo vehicles it'd be much appreciated.  Currently it's limited to MKS supply kits, ore, water, and hydrogen+oxygen, rendering the supply vehicle semi-useless with USI-LS. I would really appreciate it

 

The Bungalow LEM lacks supplies as well, making its intended use as a long-term habitat impossible

[CobaltWolf]

37 minutes ago, Pxtseryu said:

The Bungalow LEM lacks supplies as well, making its intended use as a long-term habitat impossible

I do not believe anyone has given us updated USI-LS configs since before that part was released. Someone needs to update them and make a pull request.