[Min KSP 1.12.2] Buffalo: NASA Inspired Modular Space Exploration Vehicle

[DStaal]

Since @Angel-125 was wondering who would win the design debate, here's stage one of the base:

Mission plan was deviated from as power requirements are higher than anticipated.  (And the flexfuel pack isn't helping as was intended - for some reason it cannot be activated.)  Science and food became primary concerns - science because our research team thinks they can get fusion reactors working with just a bit more study, and food because it will take a while to get going.  The Switchback2's were abandoned, as the explosion problem persisted, despite all efforts.  A duplicate of the original base delivery vehicle was therefore sent up, with Switchbacks and Saddles, since the one Saddle sent as an experiment did not have the issue.  This has apparently solved the issue.  Not shown in the above image is a test resupply craft, with a Mule of Supplies, and a Kontainer holding science experiments and mining drills in KIS storage.  It landed about 200m away from the base.  (100m off target.)  Likely the next resupply will be sent with fusion pellets, allowing one of the stored workshops to be set up as a fusion power plant.  The only question will be if water can be mined fast enough to get the cooling tower working once it's set up.  (Oh, and if we can get power to start the fusion plant.  Alternate might be to send up either fuel cells or a small conventional nuclear power plant.)

Sidenotes - and these are really more Pathfinder than Buffalo: The science lab has no hatch, even though it's model has two.  And Pathfinder CLS support needs extensive work - I'll probably do a PR if I can get a patch that covers everything.  (Currently my patch doesn't cover the Mineshafts - something odd has to be done there to get those to work.)

[Angelo Kerman]

2 hours ago, DStaal said:

Since @Angel-125 was wondering who would win the design debate, here's stage one of the base:

Mission plan was deviated from as power requirements are higher than anticipated.  (And the flexfuel pack isn't helping as was intended - for some reason it cannot be activated.)  Science and food became primary concerns - science because our research team thinks they can get fusion reactors working with just a bit more study, and food because it will take a while to get going.  The Switchback2's were abandoned, as the explosion problem persisted, despite all efforts.  A duplicate of the original base delivery vehicle was therefore sent up, with Switchbacks and Saddles, since the one Saddle sent as an experiment did not have the issue.  This has apparently solved the issue.  Not shown in the above image is a test resupply craft, with a Mule of Supplies, and a Kontainer holding science experiments and mining drills in KIS storage.  It landed about 200m away from the base.  (100m off target.)  Likely the next resupply will be sent with fusion pellets, allowing one of the stored workshops to be set up as a fusion power plant.  The only question will be if water can be mined fast enough to get the cooling tower working once it's set up.  (Oh, and if we can get power to start the fusion plant.  Alternate might be to send up either fuel cells or a small conventional nuclear power plant.)

Sidenotes - and these are really more Pathfinder than Buffalo: The science lab has no hatch, even though it's model has two.  And Pathfinder CLS support needs extensive work - I'll probably do a PR if I can get a patch that covers everything.  (Currently my patch doesn't cover the Mineshafts - something odd has to be done there to get those to work.)

Looking pretty good. Sorry to hear about the Switchbacks, I'm investigating solutions. The Doc's hatch issues have been fixed and will be available next release. As for the Flex Fuel Power Pack, make sure you choose a configuration that can work on airless moons.

[Bombaatu]

Here's a fun little usage of the Buffalo Rover (along with the Surface Experiment Package from @CobaltWolf: SCIENCE ROVER!

 

[DStaal]

10 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Looking pretty good. Sorry to hear about the Switchbacks, I'm investigating solutions. The Doc's hatch issues have been fixed and will be available next release. As for the Flex Fuel Power Pack, make sure you choose a configuration that can work on airless moons.

I'm in the default lf+ox mode, which I believe should work without air.    I'm hoping it was a glitch - someone (possibly Bill) had enabled the crossfeed on the decoupler in the landing vehicle, which wasn't discovered until the rover was several dozen km from the lander.  This meant the internal tanks were empty until the most recent supply ship landed, as it was engineered to be able to take larger loads if needed.  (And therefore had spare fuel.)  So the flexfuel was empty on scene load, and then filled - and I haven't had a chance to cause another scene load for it yet.

[DStaal]

And just to complete, here's what I'd call 'stage one completed' of my Minmus station:

At this point there are no major issues to living in this base - Kerbals are not going to run out of food, water, or electricity overnight or something like that.  Food may actually be fairly self-sufficient, though this has yet to be tested.  As such, a mission is in planning to send out a semi-permanent crew, and to bring Jeb, Bob, Bill, and Val back home.

The difference between this image and the one above is a single supply mission - It brought in the parts for the flatbed trailer (mid-left, behind the three Mules), and the solar tower, as well as fusion pellets to run the reactor.  The trailer was used to help carry the scaffolding for the solar tower into place.  There were actually two panels sent up - Bill accidentally destroyed one while assembling the tower.  With both in place, this station would have been self-sufficient on solar alone during the day - as it was, everything had to be shut down long enough to build up the charge to start the fusion plant.  Jeb is likely going to spend the time until the new crew comes ferrying over the rest of the fusion pellets; they'll be stored in the building hidden behind the Old Faithful in the back.  (The Buffalo's been reconfigured to store them instead of it's KIS storage for the moment.)

Future plans are to expand the water-mining operation and to bring in the facilities to 'crack' the water into the hydrogen (and oxygen) that is planned to be the primary rocket propellant for further exploration and possible colonization.  This is going to require non-WildBlueIndustries parts, which has saddened some. 

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, DStaal said:

And just to complete, here's what I'd call 'stage one completed' of my Minmus station:

At this point there are no major issues to living in this base - Kerbals are not going to run out of food, water, or electricity overnight or something like that.  Food may actually be fairly self-sufficient, though this has yet to be tested.  As such, a mission is in planning to send out a semi-permanent crew, and to bring Jeb, Bob, Bill, and Val back home.

The difference between this image and the one above is a single supply mission - It brought in the parts for the flatbed trailer (mid-left, behind the three Mules), and the solar tower, as well as fusion pellets to run the reactor.  The trailer was used to help carry the scaffolding for the solar tower into place.  There were actually two panels sent up - Bill accidentally destroyed one while assembling the tower.  With both in place, this station would have been self-sufficient on solar alone during the day - as it was, everything had to be shut down long enough to build up the charge to start the fusion plant.  Jeb is likely going to spend the time until the new crew comes ferrying over the rest of the fusion pellets; they'll be stored in the building hidden behind the Old Faithful in the back.  (The Buffalo's been reconfigured to store them instead of it's KIS storage for the moment.)

Future plans are to expand the water-mining operation and to bring in the facilities to 'crack' the water into the hydrogen (and oxygen) that is planned to be the primary rocket propellant for further exploration and possible colonization.  This is going to require non-WildBlueIndustries parts, which has saddened some. 

Very cool! BTW, you can configure a Haciend as a Brew Works to make LiquidFuel and Oxidizer. Or you can ship up a Doc Science Lab configured as a Watney. It can split water. I'm also figuring out a workaround for the issue of not being able to place a Doc inside a shipping container.

[DStaal]

10 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Very cool! BTW, you can configure a Haciend as a Brew Works to make LiquidFuel and Oxidizer. Or you can ship up a Doc Science Lab configured as a Watney. It can split water. I'm also figuring out a workaround for the issue of not being able to place a Doc inside a shipping container.

The BrewWorks I knew about - I may set one up here eventually, but chemical fuel isn't in the plans much.  I'm going nuclear.    Thanks for the pointer to the Watney - I thought I'd seen something along those lines, but I couldn't find it so I figured I'd imagined it.  (Oh, and I've got about three undeployed Doc's in those containers...)  Now I just need some water drills around - The Goldigger works fine, but it's a pretty small drill.  (I've got three of them going so far.)  The stripmining configuration on Hacienda (I believe) doesn't appear to mine anything but ore; I wish I could switch it the way I could switch the Golddigger.

Next phase is getting my orbital build station up and running.  I may post a few pics of that in the appropriate thread - I've got the core up, and am finalizing the orbit.  I just need to get a crew in and to get production going.  Exactly how to do that is the question - I'm thinking I want an orbital ferry capable of landing on Minmus.  Possibly areobrake on the way back - it'll be doing a lot of long transfers.  (My build station is orbiting at 37,000km over Kerbin - the idea being that it should be easy to reach from Minmus, while simplifying orbital transfer calculations to outer planets vs. a Minmus orbit.  The only question is computing transfers to/from Minmus...)

BTW: A thought based on the mission to build that solar tower: A version of the flatbeds with integrated solar panels would be interesting.  My flatbed trailer could in theory be self-propelled, but it has no source of EC.  Maybe make them a bit flimsier and cost a lot more?  I wouldn't always want them, but being able to make short runs with things like the trailer above could be very useful...

[Bombaatu]

47 minutes ago, DStaal said:

My flatbed trailer could in theory be self-propelled, but it has no source of EC.

There are smaller chassis pieces with integrated solar panels. What would be great is to have a 'solar flatbed' panel; functions the same as regular flatbed panel except that it generates EC if nothing is on top of it.

[DStaal]

2 minutes ago, Bombaatu said:

There are smaller chassis pieces with integrated solar panels. What would be great is to have a 'solar flatbed' panel; functions the same as regular flatbed panel except that it generates EC if nothing is on top of it.

Yep.  That's what I was trying to describe.    Same sizes and shapes as regular flatbed, maybe a bit more fragile, costs a bit more, maybe even a bit more mass, but can generate EC if there isn't anything on top of it.

The smaller chassis pieces are nice for solar-powered science rovers, I use them all the time.

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, DStaal said:

The BrewWorks I knew about - I may set one up here eventually, but chemical fuel isn't in the plans much.  I'm going nuclear.    Thanks for the pointer to the Watney - I thought I'd seen something along those lines, but I couldn't find it so I figured I'd imagined it.  (Oh, and I've got about three undeployed Doc's in those containers...)  Now I just need some water drills around - The Goldigger works fine, but it's a pretty small drill.  (I've got three of them going so far.)  The stripmining configuration on Hacienda (I believe) doesn't appear to mine anything but ore; I wish I could switch it the way I could switch the Golddigger.

Next phase is getting my orbital build station up and running.  I may post a few pics of that in the appropriate thread - I've got the core up, and am finalizing the orbit.  I just need to get a crew in and to get production going.  Exactly how to do that is the question - I'm thinking I want an orbital ferry capable of landing on Minmus.  Possibly areobrake on the way back - it'll be doing a lot of long transfers.  (My build station is orbiting at 37,000km over Kerbin - the idea being that it should be easy to reach from Minmus, while simplifying orbital transfer calculations to outer planets vs. a Minmus orbit.  The only question is computing transfers to/from Minmus...)

BTW: A thought based on the mission to build that solar tower: A version of the flatbeds with integrated solar panels would be interesting.  My flatbed trailer could in theory be self-propelled, but it has no source of EC.  Maybe make them a bit flimsier and cost a lot more?  I wouldn't always want them, but being able to make short runs with things like the trailer above could be very useful...

You might want to double-check the Hacienda, I thought I added the ability to switch the drill to it. If not it'll be in the next release.

54 minutes ago, Bombaatu said:

There are smaller chassis pieces with integrated solar panels. What would be great is to have a 'solar flatbed' panel; functions the same as regular flatbed panel except that it generates EC if nothing is on top of it.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll see what I can do.

[DStaal]

48 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

You might want to double-check the Hacienda, I thought I added the ability to switch the drill to it. If not it'll be in the next release.

I will - so far I haven't actually deployed any in stripminer configuration, so I was going by what I could see in the interface.

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, Bombaatu said:

There are smaller chassis pieces with integrated solar panels. What would be great is to have a 'solar flatbed' panel; functions the same as regular flatbed panel except that it generates EC if nothing is on top of it.

Yup, totally doable. Here's a quick mockup of the standard width 1u and 2u flatbeds as solar panels, with a stock OX-STAT-XL for size comparison.

I see the 1u and 2u Solar Flatbeds being available in Advanced Electrics (same as OX-STAT-XL), with the 1u generating the OX-STAT-XL's 2.8 EC/sec, and the 2u generating 5.6. I should have them ready for the next release, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Angelo Kerman]

One thing I'm thinking of doing is combining a chassis segment with the solar flatbed. Not as versatile as separate chassis and flatbed, but it would also reduce part count on the rover. Any thoughts?

[DStaal]

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

One thing I'm thinking of doing is combining a chassis segment with the solar flatbed. Not as versatile as separate chassis and flatbed, but it would also reduce part count on the rover. Any thoughts?

It limits uses a bit - I can see doing things like laying a solar flatbed over the bed of a Malmute or Karibou.  Also I was going to say I've never used the flatbed without a chassis - but then I realized I had an example on this very page where I had: my flatbed trailer above uses a chassis segment and an AUX navigation unit, with flatbeds on top of both.  So I think keeping them separate makes sense.  Combined pieces only work for the uses you plan, separate pieces allow us to come up with our own uses. 

[Angelo Kerman]

3 hours ago, DStaal said:

It limits uses a bit - I can see doing things like laying a solar flatbed over the bed of a Malmute or Karibou.  Also I was going to say I've never used the flatbed without a chassis - but then I realized I had an example on this very page where I had: my flatbed trailer above uses a chassis segment and an AUX navigation unit, with flatbeds on top of both.  So I think keeping them separate makes sense.  Combined pieces only work for the uses you plan, separate pieces allow us to come up with our own uses. 

Fair enough. The new parts are ready, and they won't produce ElectricCharge if you have something attached to them. They'll also be more expensive than regular flatbeds and the stock OX-STAT-XL. Ruggedized solar panels are expensive...

[Angelo Kerman]

Get 0.7.0 here.

- Added standard width 1u and 2u Solar Flatbeds. If you have parts attached to them then they won't generate ElectricCharge. Thanks for the suggestion, DStaal and Bombaatu!

[DStaal]

Yay!  I'll be trying these out very soon.  (I may even edit my game file to put them into the flatbed trailer already on Minmus...)

If this works as well as I expect, I think NASA should be working on developing one for future space colonies. 

[Angelo Kerman]

Small update since KSP 1.2 is right around the corner.

Buffalo 0.8.0

- Added a Radial Engine Mount. It is particularly helpful for landing rovers onto the ground. You can stack-mount engines and fuel tanks onto the radial mount.

[AccidentalDisassembly]

Hi Angel,

Small suggestions (fixes?) for the latest Buffalo (I am using the Buffalo from the Pathfinder download, but I assume the files are the same in the standalone). I am suggesting reductions in mass because of the dimensions of the parts, really - they're 1m x 1m x something, and the Buffalo Chassis (1u) of those dimensions currently weighs ~550 pounds. Seems a bit heavy. Maybe more importantly, though, the ratio in masses between the parts seems off:

- The Buffalo Chassis (1u) mass could be halved to 0.125t - I think it currently weighs the same, dry, as the Buffalo Chassis (2u), which is 0.25t (and double the size, of course).

- The Buffalo Chassis (end) mass should also be lowered, maybe. Slightly smaller part than the 1u Chassis, perhaps 0.11t?

- Buffalo Half Chassis should probably then be 0.06t, and the quarter chassis maybe stays the same at 0.05t or gets reduced to 0.03t.

Or not, up to you! P.S. - one thing I'm curious about: what are the relative benefits/drawbacks of surface attaching wheels vs. attaching them to the nodes on the side of the chassis? Is there any difference really, other than being able to attach wheels even when there aren't nodes (if you surface attach them)?

 

EDIT: Also seem to be having an issue with wheels. The front wheels on this test rover are inoperative. They are attached using the nodes on the chassis under the cab:

 

Edited September 10, 2016 by AccidentalDisassembly

[Angelo Kerman]

13 minutes ago, AccidentalDisassembly said:

Hi Angel,

Small suggestions (fixes?) for the latest Buffalo (I am using the Buffalo from the Pathfinder download, but I assume the files are the same in the standalone). I am suggesting reductions in mass because of the dimensions of the parts, really - they're 1m x 1m x something, and the Buffalo Chassis (1u) of those dimensions currently weighs ~550 pounds. Seems a bit heavy. Maybe more importantly, though, the ratio in masses between the parts seems off:

- The Buffalo Chassis (1u) mass could be halved to 0.125t - I think it currently weighs the same, dry, as the Buffalo Chassis (2u), which is 0.25t (and double the size, of course).

- The Buffalo Chassis (end) mass should also be lowered, maybe. Slightly smaller part than the 1u Chassis, perhaps 0.11t?

- Buffalo Half Chassis should probably then be 0.06t, and the quarter chassis maybe stays the same at 0.05t or gets reduced to 0.03t.

Or not, up to you! P.S. - one thing I'm curious about: what are the relative benefits/drawbacks of surface attaching wheels vs. attaching them to the nodes on the side of the chassis? Is there any difference really, other than being able to attach wheels even when there aren't nodes (if you surface attach them)?

 

EDIT: Also seem to be having an issue with wheels. The front wheels on this test rover are inoperative. They are attached using the nodes on the chassis under the cab:

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll revisit them when KSP 1.2 is available. The wheel issues will be addressed in KSP 1.2 as well.

[AccidentalDisassembly]

Just now, Angel-125 said:

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll revisit them when KSP 1.2 is available. The wheel issues will be addressed in KSP 1.2 as well.

Sounds good!

[DStaal]

8 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Small update since KSP 1.2 is right around the corner.

Buffalo 0.8.0

- Added a Radial Engine Mount. It is particularly helpful for landing rovers onto the ground. You can stack-mount engines and fuel tanks onto the radial mount.

Jeb just got a look at this part.  He's now holding auditions for help in 'live-testing the first Mythbusters myth'.

So far, no takers. 

[Angelo Kerman]

16 hours ago, AccidentalDisassembly said:

Or not, up to you! P.S. - one thing I'm curious about: what are the relative benefits/drawbacks of surface attaching wheels vs. attaching them to the nodes on the side of the chassis? Is there any difference really, other than being able to attach wheels even when there aren't nodes (if you surface attach them)?

Forgot to mention that the only real difference between node-attach and surface-attach is placement. Node-attaching the wheels onto the chassis makes them line up nicely.

[Angelo Kerman]

Buffalo 0.9.0 Pre-release is available here.

Updated to KSP 1.2 Pre-release. Expect additional patches as KSP is fixed and mods are updated.

Command Cab & AuxEn
- The command cab and the auxen support part upgrades to improve their SAS levels.
- Moved the AuxEn to Advanced Flight Control.

Redecorating & Converters
- For the modules that used to require Engineers, now any class that has the ConverterSkill qualifies to reconfigure modules. For modules that used to require Scientists, now any class with the ScienceSkill qualifies to reconfigure the modules. Ditto for converters.

[DStaal]

On a minor issue while you're working on the rest: Would it be possible to rotate the trailer hitch so that 'front' for it is the same as the 'front' for the command cab and the AuxEn?  (I’m going flatbed-crazy at the moment, but the logical way to build them for me is to build them attached to my current Buffalo, and then detach.  Which works, but the resulting flatbed has 'forward' (on the nav ball and controls) being what I'd think of as 'up'.  So basically every time I switch to one I need to re-set 'control from here'.)