[1.12.5] Bluedog Design Bureau - Stockalike Saturn, Apollo, and more! (v1.14.0 "металл" 30/Sep/2024)

[davidy12]

7 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

Uh, for what it’s worth none of the Saturn IB launches used an SLA with blow-off panels, I believe that was exclusive to Saturn V. Only one I’m not sure about is ASTP, because it actually involved extracting something from the SLA like on the lunar missions.

They did jettison it.

[CAPFlyer]

9 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

Uh, for what it’s worth none of the Saturn IB launches used an SLA with blow-off panels, I believe that was exclusive to Saturn V. Only one I’m not sure about is ASTP, because it actually involved extracting something from the SLA like on the lunar missions.

That may be, but if the 2 types of SLA panel are giving different drag values, then that does need to be addressed and fixed.  I almost wonder if that's not part of what's going on with the Delta rockets (not actually "shielding" the vehicle beneath).  This is a known issue with KSP not always registering fairings properly.

[x170doom]

13 hours ago, Zorg said:

plenty of people have asked for this but its just too much time, effort and texture space for essentially a meme.

Which errors? I couldnt spot any module manager errors (I might just be missing it) or do you mean in the SCANsat module? If there are any issues would appreciate the specifics (or a pull request  )

if i remember correctly the error is in the MM config itself, it propably isnt throwing any errors specifically because if i remember it's incorrect indenting on the file that means MM is just ignoring all the scansat defs for the apollo parts. i'll see if i can find the line where it starts but if i remember it was fairly obvious once i saw it

 

edit: seems to be line 695 to 716, all of the params under MODULE arent indented.  there might be some other indents missing in the sim bay components as well but i'm unsure, all i remember is that i like for like compared the way the patches for the apollo parts were written to some of the other components patches and noticed some issues that to my knowlage would cause MM to ignore everything past those lines

Edited February 1, 2022 by x170doom

[Drehverschluss]

Hello there.

 

Just a quick question. Does someone else have issue with some science if your try to run them via "xScience Mod"? Like the first camera you get. I can do the science from the part itself. but when i click the xScience button, the part basicly breaks and i cant collect anything anymore. Any reasons why this is so?

[Friznit]

3 minutes ago, Drehverschluss said:

Hello there.

 

Just a quick question. Does someone else have issue with some science if your try to run them via "xScience Mod"? Like the first camera you get. I can do the science from the part itself. but when i click the xScience button, the part basicly breaks and i cant collect anything anymore. Any reasons why this is so?

It's a long standing "feature" of [x]Science that impacts any science part that has two or more runs (such as cameras, mystery goo etc) and is not specific to BDB.  You have to run these experiments old skool by manually clicking on the part.

[Drehverschluss]

3 minutes ago, Friznit said:

It's a long standing "feature" of [x]Science that impacts any science part that has two or more runs (such as cameras, mystery goo etc) and is not specific to BDB.  You have to run these experiments old skool by manually clicking on the part.

Thank you very much!

[Zorg]

11 minutes ago, x170doom said:

if i remember correctly the error is in the MM config itself, it propably isnt throwing any errors specifically because if i remember it's incorrect indenting on the file that means MM is just ignoring all the scansat defs for the apollo parts. i'll see if i can find the line where it starts but if i remember it was fairly obvious once i saw it

 

edit: seems to be line 695 to 716, all of the params under MODULE arent indented.  there might be some other indents missing in the sim bay components as well but i'm unsure, all i remember is that i like for like compared the way the patches for the apollo parts were written to some of the other components patches and noticed some issues that to my knowlage would cause MM to ignore everything past those lines

I removed the indents that were preceding the equals sign in somelines, if thats the issue? Idk how it got there. Someone's text editor trying to be too clever I guess. Didnt get a chance to test the updated cfg with SCANsat though so if someone could check that for me, I will be able to take a closer look tomorrow.

[CobaltWolf]

So, good news / bad news. I am still procrastinating on getting the RCS in game, but on the plus side I made this.

Spoiler

 

[SpaceFace545]

3 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

So, good news / bad news. I am still procrastinating on getting the RCS in game, but on the plus side I made this.

  Hide contents

 

I love how Apollo engineers where coming up with the most complicated solutions to simple problems. 

[TaintedLion]

8 hours ago, Zorg said:

Didnt get a chance to test the updated cfg with SCANsat though so if someone could check that for me, I will be able to take a closer look tomorrow.

I noticed that the Scansat cfgs were updated on the github, but I tried it and it still won't work.

[pTrevTrevs]

Was hoping to have posted Apollo 17 photos by now, but I uh... accidentally launched the mission with a fourth Kerbal in one of the LRV's seats. The guy rode all the way to lunar orbit folded up in the LM before I realized he was there. Talk about duffle bag press... Anyway, somehow I don't have any quicksaves or backups from before the launch, so I'm currently doing some questionable tampering with the persistent file to try and remove him. Will it work? I have no idea. Is it cheating? Maybe. Do I care? No.

Since that's going on, I guess I'll just post some more miscellaneous screenshots this time.

Anik A1 on Delta 1914:

Quote

 

 

Another [fictional] commercial launch, Tundra 1, placed into a southward-pointing Molniya orbit by another Delta 1914 from Vandenberg AFB:

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Don't ask me what a contractor wanted with a materials bay (that they can't get data from anyway because Kerbalism) in a Molniya orbit; the money was good and the task was simple.

 

Atlas E/F with reentry vehicle from Vandenberg AFB:

Quote

This reminds me, when Atlas gets a touch-up, it might be worth it to add the guidance package bulge seen on Atlas E and F. On ICBMs it replaced the earlier guidance systems used on Atlas D and earlier, but on space launches using Atlas E/F it was just an empty shell.

 

Landsat 1 kitbash on Delta 900:

Quote

 

Finally, some stuff actually related to my Apollo 17 mission:

When the time came to select the landing site for the final Apollo mission, a faction within NASA (mainly composed of scientists, geologists, and Apollo 17 LMP Harrison Schmitt) pushed incessantly for a landing at the far-side crater Tsiolkovsky. This crater is unique in that its lowest areas have been filled with mare material similar to that seen on the nearside. Since the lunar far side has much less mare material than the near side, a landing at Tsiolkovsky would be an incredible boon for lunar science, as well as a technically impressive flight to end the program on as high a note as possible. In order to raise support for his scheme, Schmitt drafted a proposal to launch a communications relay to a lunar Lagrange point (probably the L2 point) to provide a connection to the astronauts during the landing and surface activities. A Titan III could easily place one or more relays into the proper position, and by modifying existing TIROS weather satellites the mission could operate on a shoestring budget. The plan was received poorly by the rest of NASA, who felt that the added risk and extra cost were too great to justify the benefits of such a flight. With the infinite budgets of Apollo coming to an end and NASA still trying to save what post-lunar programs it could from the Nixon Administration's chopping block, there was just no way Schmitt's plan could work, and Apollo 17 eventually went to Taurus-Littrow instead.

But in the Bluedog Cinematic Universe nothing ever goes wrong, the only thing Richard Nixon is president of is his local used car dealership, and crazy schemes are not only allowed but encouraged! Under these circumstances, I can finally perform the ultimate lunar flight and land at that Holy Grail of landing sites, Tsiolkovsky. Since we don't have any TIROS spacecraft appropriate to the era (the TIROS-1 design that we do have was long since retired), I've opted to modify Nimbus equipment instead to prove to people just how versatile it really is.

There are two spacecraft involved in this plan; the first is actually a mapping satellite, since the SIM instruments don't seem to have the SCANSat modules that they should. This satellite will be placed into a polar orbit around the Moon a month before Apollo 17 launches and will generate up-to-date altimetry and multispectral maps for the crew to use. The second is the relay itself, which will be placed in an orbit identical to the Moon's in a position roughly equivalent to the lunar L5 point about two weeks before '17's launch.

Quote

Titan III is honestly overkill for a payload of this size (I really should have used Atlas-Centaur or even Delta), but I wanted to stay as true to the plans as I could. Besides, there aren't that many "canonical" Titan IIIC payloads in BDB anyway, and the old girl did just get a texture touch-up.

Transtage is powerful enough to perform both TLI and LOI, and its use of hypergolics enables it to conserve its fuel long enough to do both.

As luck would have it, the mapping orbiter entered orbit with a line of sight to Tsiolkovsky itself. 

The Lunar Mapping Orbiter features a low-res altimeter borrowed from the upcoming Skylab program, a multispectral camera, and a cosmic ray telescope to collect data which can be compared to the results from Apollo 17 itself, which will also carry a cosmic ray instrument.

 

Quote

The Relay can't be trusted to maintain its position for that long, so it is launched as close to the Apollo 17 launch window as possible.

The spacecraft does have a small maneuvering engine to keep its trajectory in place if it ever drifts off course. After the landing it will still be needed to transmit telemetry from the Apollo 17 ALSEP.

Meanwhile, Apollo 17 stands ready at the pad for its historic nighttime launch. The closeout crew is sweeping the vehicle with flashlights and nightsticks for stowaways that might be trying to tag along. 

[Cheesecake]

@pTrevTrevs You can use Ship Manifest to "beam" him home.

It has an option to edit Kerbals in flight.

[biohazard15]

7 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

I am still procrastinating on getting the RCS in game

Please don't forget to add a ModuleEngines variant! Seriously, we need this.

7 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

but on the plus side I made this.

Okay, that looks nice, but... what's that? I don't see any Soyuz-like braking SRMs  on this thing, so IRL it would probably break some bones if it tries to land on any solid ground using chutes only.

[Jcking]

16 hours ago, SpaceFace545 said:

I love how Apollo engineers where coming up with the most complicated solutions to simple problems. 

That was one of several concepts. A NAA report depicts soft landing thrusters similar to Soyuz 

And one similar to TKS VA / Voskhod

Edited February 2, 2022 by Jcking

[CobaltWolf]

3 hours ago, biohazard15 said:

Please don't forget to add a ModuleEngines variant! Seriously, we need this.

Okay, that looks nice, but... what's that? I don't see any Soyuz-like braking SRMs  on this thing, so IRL it would probably break some bones if it tries to land on any solid ground using chutes only.

59 minutes ago, Jcking said:

That was one of several concepts. A NAA report depicts soft landing thrusters similar to Soyuz

Does the "Fore by Throttle" feature for RCS not work for that?

I am considering adding 3 retro solids to this heatshield, just to make it like... the ultimate one. Regarding this design, I think the idea is the stroke of the pistons absorbs the impact to... 'safe' levels.

[Saltshaker]

11 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

So, good news / bad news. I am still procrastinating on getting the RCS in game, but on the plus side I made this.

  Hide contents

*snip*

 

 

I think I know what this is but I absolutely know I love it

[DaveyJ576]

1 hour ago, CobaltWolf said:

I am considering adding 3 retro solids to this heatshield, just to make it like... the ultimate one. Regarding this design, I think the idea is the stroke of the pistons absorbs the impact to... 'safe' levels.

I agree on the shock attenuation of the pistons, but to get the maximum effect from this wouldn't the CM have to land on an even keel? Under the current descent configuration, the bulk of the initial landing shock would be borne by the struts on the side opposite from the hatch, possibly overloading them. But if the chute attachment was altered to enable an even keel landing, all of the struts would hit the ground at the same time and thus would share the initial impact forces. They could be made slightly lighter this way, and weight is everything on a spacecraft.

All of this of course is predicated on the CM touching down on flat, level land.

Edited February 2, 2022 by DaveyJ576

[Jcking]

3 minutes ago, DaveyJ576 said:

All of this of course is predicated on the CM touching down on flat, level land.

While the report on the 6 segment hinged heatshield concept doesn't state a landing site, earlier Apollo studies assumed landing in the lake beds of Edwards AFB for land landings.

[Zorg]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:18 PM, CAPFlyer said:

That may be, but if the 2 types of SLA panel are giving different drag values, then that does need to be addressed and fixed.  I almost wonder if that's not part of what's going on with the Delta rockets (not actually "shielding" the vehicle beneath).  This is a known issue with KSP not always registering fairings properly.

If anyone has any bright ideas we're all ears but we dont know how to fix this at present. We've never needed much aero expertise for the stuff we do.

Also what issue with the Delta rockets?

[CobaltWolf]

I can't believe I actually made this extremely blursed part...

[Doc Shaftoe]

I can't decide if I love it or hate it.

Beautiful work either way!

 

[pTrevTrevs]

1 hour ago, CobaltWolf said:

I can't believe I actually made this extremely blursed part...

Honestly looks like something right out of Animusic.

[septemberWaves]

1 hour ago, CobaltWolf said:

I can't believe I actually made this extremely blursed part...

Hey, at least it doesn't have a crew hatch in the middle like a certain other spacecraft proposal.

In seriousness though I think it's excellent. I'm already thinking of how to use this as an Apollo-derived Duna lander...

[Invaderchaos]

15 minutes ago, pTrevTrevs said:

Honestly looks like something right out of Animusic.

Love Animusic. Totally forgot it existed.

Also, I am giving into peer pressure and making a little something for ASTP:

Might make its way into Tantares as well.

19 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

Since that's going on, I guess I'll just post some more miscellaneous screenshots this time.

Wow, those are some really amazing screenshots! Love the Nimbus derived probe. Don't know if I said it here but Landsat 1-3 parts will be made in the near future.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Invaderchaos

[pTrevTrevs]

5 minutes ago, Invaderchaos said:

Love Animusic. Totally forgot it existed.

Also, I am giving into peer pressure and making a little something for ASTP:

Might make its way into Tantares as well.

Wow, those are some really amazing screenshots! Love the Nimbus derived probe. Don't know if I said it here but Landsat 1-3 parts will be made in the near future.

Ah, the good old days of 2001, we didn't realize what we had until it was gone...

 

Pretty stoked to hear that Landsat parts are coming, it's one of the big satellite families of the 1970s that's still missing from the mod.