[WIP] Coatl Aerospace ProbesPlus Dev Thread [Beta] 10/19/2020 (1.8-1.10)

[Virtualgenius]

Awesome, IDisorder found him over on a devianart  site and managed to contact him through there 

[akron]

Just now, Virtualgenius said:

Awesome, IDisorder found him over on a devianart  site and managed to contact him through there 

Thanks for the hint. I know where to start!

[davidy12]

@akron: Just out of curiosity, will this work on 1.1?

[VenomousRequiem]

1 minute ago, davidy12 said:

@akron: Just out of curiosity, will this work on 1.1?

I use it and it works fine. 

[davidy12]

Just now, VenomousRequiem said:

I use it and it works fine. 

Thank you for informing me venom.

[akron]

Yes, thank you! I am currently testing with 1.1 to see how I am going to handle science experiment animations. I will also add search tags on the next update.

[Delta_8930]

Very nice!

Edited April 21, 2016 by Delta_8930

[akron]

8 hours ago, Delta_8930 said:

Very nice!

Thanks!

 

Brief update:

I've been slacking and playing KSP 1.1 because I can play 64-bit in Windows now! And it runs better! I am still slowly chugging along with the science pack, but I am mostly still testing using KSP 1.1 modules vs. DMagic ScienceAnimate.

Given the new KSP release and the many new mods that have started to pop up or get updated, I wanted to go ahead and start laying the rest of the Mod's scope. I know this is very early still, but I think it will help for me to start at least mentioning what I'll be working on so everyone knows. So here is a brainstorm/preliminary list of parts for the Phase 3 Lander/Rovers pack. I wanted to mention again for new readers that I do not make historical replicas, but instead I will do models heavily inspired by their real world counterpart with some stock-alike properties.

Lander Probe Cores:

• Low-Tech Light - Surveyor
• Low-Tech Heavy - Something Venera-ish, depends partly on what @Beale does with probe stuff in Tantares. But something Russian inspired will go in this category. High impact resistance
• Small Lander - Beagle (Kinda like a small cargo bay) Probably with built-in ablator
• Medium - InSight/Polar Lander
• Large - Viking

Rover Bodies:

• Rugged - Lunokhod
• Small - Yutu + Sojourner
• Medium - Exomars + MER
• Large - Curiosity

Landing Systems:

• Pathfinder "petal" landing system
• Curiosity Skycrane
• Aeroshells + Heathshields (I'm thinking around two sizes. 1.25m, 2.5m?)
• Russian-inspired Luna/Fobos landing system. With optional sample return assembly

Landing Legs:

• Airbags
• Small - Surveyor
• Medium - Russian Luna/Fobos
• Large - Phoenix/Viking
• Might also raid other designs for inspiration, like the Apollo LEM

Propulsion:

• I have not decided if engines will be separate or built into their respective probe core. Either way, there will be engines and fuel tanks based on Surveyor, Luna, Viking, and Curiosity
• Off-course, rover wheels based on different designs. I will probably Try and narrow it down to a small, medium, and large. Lunokhod wheels are guaranteed.

Utility:

• Landing Lights (Some may be built-in)
• Claw/Sample collector (science) - Hayabusa
• Different parachutes, probably 
• Science container capsule (Built-in ablator and parachutes)

Electrical

• Additional batteries for rovers
• Micro-RTG
• Medium RTG (Dustcover) - Viking
• Advanced RTG and cooling system - Curiosity
• Small Photovoltaic Lid - Beagle
• Large Photovoltaic Lid - Lunokhod
• Small Solar Panels - Various Rovers as needed
• Medium Solar Panels - Fobos
• Medium Solar Panels - Polar Lander
• Large Solar Panles - Insight

And possibly other stuff... Antenna and Science will be further looked at later, but expect a couple of high-gain antennas based on the Rovers and Russian missions. Mast-cams and other similar parts. Bio and Geological experiments including drills.

I am open to suggestions, specially anything that increases variety. I am still deciding how these two will be distributed, but they will likely be separate (Probes+ and the Lander pack). However, if I end up using resources from Probes+ in this pack, they may combined or it may be a pre-req.

Stay Tuned!!

~Cheers

 

Edited April 22, 2016 by akron

[CobaltWolf]

I'm not sure how to link it, but a quick tour through the various Mars landers on wikipedia would likely yield addtional parts such as science experiments. Don't forget about Hyugens as well as the Venera landers re: experiments and other parts. I will also keep a look out for 'proposed' missions. But overall, seems like a very good list to start with. Good variety.

[akron]

9 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

I'm not sure how to link it, but a quick tour through the various Mars landers on wikipedia would likely yield addtional parts such as science experiments. Don't forget about Hyugens as well as the Venera landers re: experiments and other parts. I will also keep a look out for 'proposed' missions. But overall, seems like a very good list to start with. Good variety.

Thanks! I have the rover tech manual too, which I will run through to get a lot of that info. Hopefully more details about Exomars and the Mars 2020 rover come out so I can incorporate some of that too. Right now there are a lot of "proposals" without many details. If the stars align just right I may come up with some sort of way of making the rover science make sense. For example, drilling near mineral deposits around previously mapped from orbit, looking for water deposits. I don't know, something more than just click and send science.

Oh, and Hyugens replaced Venera in Probes+ so it is coming as well

 

Edited April 22, 2016 by akron

[Delta_8930]

Will you add solar panels like the ones on Sentinel 1A/1B?

[akron]

3 hours ago, Delta_8930 said:

Will you add solar panels like the ones on Sentinel 1A/1B?

Hm. I thought I had seen those done by another mod before... I can't find though, so maybe. Good suggestion. Maybe a mix between that and Rosetta

[CobaltWolf]

14 hours ago, akron said:

Hm. I thought I had seen those done by another mod before... I can't find though, so maybe. Good suggestion. Maybe a mix between that and Rosetta

So I just saw the Europa probe NASA wants to do. It looks pretty cool but I can't decide what about it is special.

[akron]

On 4/23/2016 at 0:01 PM, CobaltWolf said:

So I just saw the Europa probe NASA wants to do. It looks pretty cool but I can't decide what about it is special.

This reminds me, is there any demand to make covered antenna like a lot of these newer probes?

[CobaltWolf]

1 hour ago, akron said:

This reminds me, is there any demand to make covered antenna like a lot of these newer probes?

I made something that kinda looks like it, the dome antenna in BDB. Which no longer throws COM bugs and moves your camera all over.

[akron]

1 hour ago, CobaltWolf said:

I made something that kinda looks like it, the dome antenna in BDB. Which no longer throws COM bugs and moves your camera all over.

Oh, so that's what that was... 

I never did figure out a way to make a toggle-able mesh the same way you can toggle flags without using an attachment node. This would be a great way to have the dishes with and without the thermal blanket covers. I'll look at this again on. There are a couple of instances where it would be cool for cosmetic reasons.

[CobaltWolf]

7 minutes ago, akron said:

Oh, so that's what that was... 

I never did figure out a way to make a toggle-able mesh the same way you can toggle flags without using an attachment node. This would be a great way to have the dishes with and without the thermal blanket covers. I'll look at this again on. There are a couple of instances where it would be cool for cosmetic reasons.

You need to use ModuleJettison, the one used for engine fairings. I think it only works with nodes. It's totally worth it though.

[Jeb1969]

I love everything about this mod, even if it is still considered WIP. I also have a part suggestion It's basically a map of the Kerbol system etched into a polished square of aluminum, on the bottom of the square a message is emblazoned in the dots and dashes of morse code which when translated would read  "Dear Finder, We are the Kerbals from the planet Kerbin, we come not to make war but come in the name of science." 

The aluminum square was inspired by the Pioneer Plaque.

The square can be radially attached to any probe core during probe assembly (it is completely optional) 

[akron]

4 hours ago, Jeb1969 said:

I love everything about this mod, even if it is still considered WIP. I also have a part suggestion It's basically a map of the Kerbol system etched into a polished square of aluminum, on the bottom of the square a message is emblazoned in the dots and dashes of morse code which when translated would read  "Dear Finder, We are the Kerbals from the planet Kerbin, we come not to make war but come in the name of science." 

The aluminum square was inspired by the Pioneer Plaque.

The square can be radially attached to any probe core during probe assembly (it is completely optional) 

Thank you! I am glad you are enjoying the mod!

Interestingly, I did have this idea, just a little bit differently. I wanted the 'Torekka' probe to have a toggle for a golden record, since it is based on Voyager. I could not get this to work the way I wanted it without Firespitter. It's actually what I have been asking @CobaltWolf about. Attaching this toggle to a Node is not the route I wanted to go. 

Anyway, I will keep this in mind and come back to it after the more important parts are done.

[akron]

Quick update!

Here is a WIP of the standalone UV spec/Atmospheric Analyzer, inspired mostly by MAVEN. This is another one of the new experiments. No texture or UV map yet. It sits a little above 800-something polys. KSP 1.1 testing revealed good performance improvements, so I may push the poly count and texture sizes a little. The inevitable revision of older models will bring those up to par.

Edited April 27, 2016 by akron

[CobaltWolf]

ooh, purty. 

EDIT: @akron, idea I had while trying to list out station science ideas. A weather monitoring part, like from the TIROS satellite series. Observing weather phenomena from space was an important development in practical applications for satellites. If you're not up to it (have enough on your plate) it will probably just roll into BDB's new probe stuff.

Edited April 28, 2016 by CobaltWolf

[akron]

20 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

ooh, purty. 

EDIT: @akron, idea I had while trying to list out station science ideas. A weather monitoring part, like from the TIROS satellite series. Observing weather phenomena from space was an important development in practical applications for satellites. If you're not up to it (have enough on your plate) it will probably just roll into BDB's new probe stuff.

I love the idea, but this would this sounds like it will need need a plug-in providing functionality. Just running an experiment above a Biome is not the way to go with this. I.E. Just because it is raining on the highlands now doesn't mean it will always be raining there.

Anything Plug-in related is out of scope for me right now. I want to try it at some point and I actually have programming experience, but it was ages ago and I's have to re-learn some of it. Java and .NET are also not what KSP uses

Edited April 28, 2016 by akron

[CobaltWolf]

3 minutes ago, akron said:

I love the idea, but this would this sounds like it will need need a plug-in providing functionality. Just running an experiment above a Biome is not the way to go with this. I.E. Just because it is raining on the highlands now doesn't mean it will always be raining there.

Anything Plug-in related is out of scope for me right now. I want to try it at some point and I actually have programming experience, but it was ages ago and I's have to re-learn some of it.

 

 

Eh, I would be happy with just a biome based experiment with sciencedefs that talk about something like 'There are never any clouds over the deserts' etc. Like the phrasing of the observations is somewhat long term sounding. For actual long term monitoring, a mod like Mission Controller 2 would be more appropriate.  This science part is more representing that the technology is developed / tested before being handed over to other organizations.

Edited April 28, 2016 by CobaltWolf

[akron]

4 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

Eh, I would be happy with just a biome based experiment with sciencedefs that talk about something like 'There are never any clouds over the deserts' etc. Like the phrasing of the observations is somewhat long term sounding. For actual long term monitoring, a mod like Mission Controller 2 would be more appropriate.  This science part is more developing the technology imo.

I have an surface-based weather experiment on the list, inspired by the Mars missions. Which will makes observations like that, a combination with temperature, wind-speed, barometry, and humidity. Nothing orbital though...

EDIT: Speaking of speaking of ScienceDefs, the IR defs are almost done

EDIT2: What you're describing can be done as "weather surveys" which would be a contract requiring certain parts, an orbit, and a time frame

Edited April 28, 2016 by akron

[CobaltWolf]

Just now, akron said:

I have an surface-based weather experiment on the list, inspired by the Mars missions. Which will makes observations like that, a combination with temperature, wind-speed, barometry, and humidity. Nothing orbital though...

EDIT: Speaking of speaking of SicenceDefs, the IR defs are almost done

 

Oh, awesome! Let me know when those are ready and I'll push them into BDB. 

For your weather experiment, our SEP weather station does pretty much the same thing, with the temperature, wind-speed, humidity, and air pressure. I don't know how @AlbertKermin feels but if he's ok with it I think the definitions would be appropriate.

The one I was talking about was an orbiting weather satellite like TIROS, which used a television camera to monitor the weather. Think more like 'birds eye view tracking of hurricanes and tropical storms that you can see from orbit' type stuff. Like I said, it was really pioneering for developing practical applications of space that help people back on earth. So a bit different.