What are you putting in your servicebays?

[Jetski]

I feel that I'm under using service bays, especially the 2.5m ones. What does everyone put in them? I've found a ton of batteries is kraken bait, and a command chair is an exploit for lightweight manned missions, but what is your favorite item or items to stow in a service bay, and why?

[GluttonyReaper]

Science stuff, good for stowing single mystery goos especially. If I'm using fuel cells, it's a nice place to put them to stop them creating drag. Obviously, it depends on what I'm using the ship for - if I need to dock it to something, there's going to be draggy RCS thrusters everywhere anyway, so I just slap everything on the outside and put a fairing over all of it.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

• Science gathering parts. (Science Junior, Mystery Goo, Barometer, etc... Keeps them all neat and together.)
• Parachutes! (Good place to keep them safe from heat, just make sure you open the doors first! Also great place to stow back-up emergency parachutes in case the mains fail.)
• Extendable Radiators/Solar Panels. (Although potentially dangerous if you are not careful in your placement, I use this method a lot.)
• Back up parts! (A secondary battery, possibly a secondary antenna, a back-up floodlight, etc...)
• A Ladder? (Sounds odd I know but in a pinch a Kerbal can grab the ladder, close the doors and ride home safely inside the bay, just don't time warp or he'll pass through the wall!)
• Mk.1 Lander Can. (Yes this works, and it gives it some heat/crash protection it is sorely lacking otherwise.)

Personally I love service bays, despite their tendency to summon the Kraken. I'm hard pressed to think of a part you couldn't stuff in a bay for some reason or other!

[Yukon0009]

You can use the size 1 bay as a very ghetto command pod that's light. It's possible to cram two kerbals into one small service bay and have them survive reentry with a chute attached.

[omelaw]

I used service bays for put tiny probe cores (okto/okto2) and not make ship break in half

[moppaking]

I have used the 2.5m bay as a combination of landing legs and engine compartment for a minmus ground station. Inside the bay, there are some batteries and other utilities and when opened, the doors reach out to the ground and the monoprop engines can fire for landing.

The vessel shown below was designed as a surface outpost for a contract to hold 8 Kerbals and was required to have monoprop.

Edited February 20, 2016 by moppaking

[Shikashi]

1 hour ago, moppaking said:

I have used the 2.5m bay as a combination of landing legs and engine compartment for a minmus ground station. Inside the bay, there are some batteries and other utilities and when opened, the doors reach out to the ground and the monoprop engines can fire for landing.

The vessel shown below was designed as a surface outpost for a contract to hold 8 Kerbals and was required to have monoprop.

Dang good idea, gonna be used for some modules that are required to be the same height

 

[rcp27]

the 2.5 m bay is just the right size for a small rover, so they come in handy for landing and deploying those.

[Shikashi]

I just realized that we already have a ray casting based aerodynamics system...

I still was thinking in the old system :|

[Tex_NL]

"What are you putting in your servicebays?"

Nothing. I don't use them. Service bays are where the Kraken lives.

[GoSlash27]

Same as the others; science instruments and batteries. Basically anything I don't want exposed to the air during launch and reentry.

Best,
-Slashy

[Chaos_Klaus]

2.5m service bay with command seats, a probe core, reaction wheel and batteriy makes a great lightweight capsule for about 6 Kerbals.

[RizzoTheRat]

I use RemoteTech, the Reflectron KR-7 antenna fits nicely inside a 1.25 meter service bay if I don't want to use a DTS-M1 for any reason

[Stocchinet]

8 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

"What are you putting in your servicebays?"

Nothing. I don't use them. Service bays are where the Kraken lives.

True story, i once placed some landing legs too much near the doors and suddenly, BooM!  ship destroyed and crew stranded in dres orbit, i don't trhust those things anymore, for kraken sake!

[Snark]

11 hours ago, omelaw said:

I used service bays for put tiny probe cores (okto/okto2) and not make ship break in half

^^ This.

You have to go ridiculously high up the tech tree before you get a probe core that's bigger than 0.625m.  (I wish they'd offer a low-tech 1.25m probe core that has, say, the abilities of an OKTO with the form factor and mass of the higher-tech 1.25m core.)

That's a major pain in the fundament, if I want my probe core to be anywhere other than up at the tip-top of the vessel.  (And of course I have to have a probe core on every single ship, because otherwise I have no SAS.  It's not like I'm going to waste valuable seating capacity on a pilot, after all.)

The service bay gives a great way around this, just shove an OKTO or HECS inside one and it's off to the races.  Later on, when I get an OKTO2, it fits nicely in the 1.25m bay with a small reaction wheel on top.  Works great, and I never have kraken problems because I never actually open the bay.

This is pretty much the only way I use service bays.  As soon as I unlock the 1.25m probe core, I typically never use the bays for the remainder of my career.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Snark

[Kryxal]

I like to put a probe core and a couple of batteries (and Mechjeb or KER components if so desired) in a bay then turn that into a subassembly ... makes life easier.

I had  a Kerbal in a service bay once, but it really wasn't on purpose, and it looked like poor Bob was going through the spin cycle in there...

[Tfin]

I usually don't use them, but I just got a four-tourist Mun orbit contract. The Hitchhiker storage, 2.5m bay (with OKTO, batteries, and antenna), and 2.5m - 1.25m adapter combo is lighter than the four-kerbal capsule I had used on the previous three-tourist Mun orbit, so the four girls got shipped off with a robot pilot.

Besides the battery, OKTO, engineer module, and dish antenna, I stuck the solar in there, mounted on the smallest structural parts I could manage, just because I had the space.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Tfin

[Skorpychan]

Science parts, batteries, small probe cores, an emergency solar panel or two. Generally just stuff them as full as possible.

Using them to hold thrusters is a brilliant idea. Maybe that's how my belly lander is going to work.

[Gibranrl]

Squeezing Kerbals in service bays for science and Kraken ritual.

[QuantumInc]

Anything small really. All of the things that would otherwise end up placed randomly around your command capsule. Science equipment, batteries, probe cores, various other stuff. Certainly in you want to incorporate a piece of a smaller diameter than the rest of your craft then inside the service bay is the best. The 2.5 meter service bay can even fit a minimal 0.625m probe.

[Kinglet]

Kerbak Inventory Systems tools and parts. I am kind of addicted to that mod. Even to the stage of turning debris into modern art post-flight.

[Dfthu]

I usually put in SAS, RCS tanks and batteries inside the cargo bays.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

I use it for drills in my self-refueling spaceplanes

 

 

 

[jhousen]

Hmmm, service bays, I normally use them for anything small (batteries,  science experiments, life support,  rcs, extra parachutes,  etc)

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

You know, I rarely use service bays... Just feels like added weight, considering I've never experienced issues with aero forces messing with whatever's attached outside.