[1.0.5] Jool DIRECT v0.4 (Now with Altair lander parts)

[Daelkyr]

So, I was trawling the forums when I found @benjee10 phenomenal parts pack. The problem is it's only available from Kerbalstuff and it hasn't been posted to for a few months.  What's a part junkie to do? Create his own parts. Which leads us to:

This project has grown from just a few 3.75 m parts to an ever evolving (it seems) collection of parts in 3.75 m and 5 m to help you realize your heavy lifting dreams. It is a kerbalized version of NASA's DIRECT program and their Jupiter rocket family. I provide an assortment of pieces designed to compliment what KSP already has and make use of existing rocket engines to create new and exciting missions.

For those of you interested in trying/critiquing what I've done so far, feel free to grab it at SpaceDock.

 

Current Parts:

Spoiler

1.25m Parts

• 5 Section SRB "Backfire"

Lander Parts

• Rockomax MSAM-4 Fuel Tank (.5 m Altair Ascent stage w/ monopropellent)
• Rockomax MSDM-16 Fuel Tank (1.5 m Altair Descent stage w/ electric charge and built-in decoupler)

3.75m Parts

• DIRECT Lower Stage Engine Mount
• DIRECT Payload Base (7m height)
• DIRECT Payload Fairing
• DIRECT Payload (uses Firespitter to switch fuel types)
• DIRECT Upper Stage Thrust Plate
• Orange Extra Large Tank (Twice the height of the Large 3.75m tank)
• Orange Fueled Nose Cap
• Orange Fueled Tank Bottom

5m Parts

• 5m Large Fuel Tank
• 5m Medium Fuel Tank
• 5m Small Fuel Tank
• 5m Engine Mount w/ decoupler
• 5m Fairing

 

For those who aren't familiar with the idea of DIRECT and it's Jupiter rocket family...

 

- Josh

License: CC-BY-NC-SA

        This parts pack uses textures from D.I.R.E.C.T - Super-Heavy Launchers & Interplanetary Spacecraft
        (Benjee10) (CC-BY-NC)
        
        This parts pack uses textures from Prodecural Parts
        (Swamp Ig) (CC-BY-NC)

Edited April 10, 2016 by Daelkyr
Updated to v0.4

[Kartoffelkuchen]

Nice, looks good!

[theJesuit]

Downloaded and tried.  I very much like the thrust plate.  Great job!

Peace.

[Nhawks17]

Holy, wow this is awesome man! Great job, looking forward to using this!

[Daelkyr]

Thanks for the kind words folks. 

I started this project because I couldn't get an Ares I/Ares V stock-ish build to work. (Which is funny if you know DIRECT's history).

I'm mucking around with the thrust plate shroud right now to make it look nicer. I also want to get some kind of Seperatron like nose cone for the SRB's. Besides that, my next task would be to balance the parts cost and tech tree placement. But what else should I include? More orange tank sizes? A more powerful 5 part SRB?

 

[Daelkyr]

Here's a look at the thrust plate shroud re-tweak. I narrowed the fairing from 3.8 to 3.75 so it would be seamed with the other parts correctly. It gives the fairing enough room for the engine bases but doesn't make the whole part seem too large.

But the question I'm dying to know... What do you think of the logo on the main post?

 

- Josh

[theJesuit]

2 hours ago, Daelkyr said:

But the question I'm dying to know... What do you think of the logo on the main post?

Very nice.  The slightly larger direct type draws the eye to it away from the word Jool, but not so much as to detract from the word Jool.  Because of this however, the picture itself doesn't capture attention first so if I was to see it later without the words it hasn't become memorable.

On the question of parts?  The part with 4 nodes in a line, why not make it with a variation having three nodes as the stock (mammoth?) already allows the same thrust for 4 vectors.  How about the possiblity give the option of a 2.5 node for stock engines with a round middle and the extended out 1.25 nodes?

Peace.

[problemecium]

My favorite part in this is definitely the long Size 3 tank. Ever since Size 3 was added to the game I've thought it odd that we don't have a long tank for it, orange or otherwise.

[benjee10]

Nice work man! You actually reminded me to re-upload the original mod to space dock! Had pretty much completely forgotten about it. I look forward to future updates! 

[Daelkyr]

8 minutes ago, benjee10 said:

Nice work man! You actually reminded me to re-upload the original mod to space dock! Had pretty much completely forgotten about it. I look forward to future updates! 

That's high praise indeed. I'm glad to see your amazing parts back in action. I wish I could texture anywhere near as good as you.

For the v0.2 update, besides the change to the thrust plate, I also wanted to add a few extra parts. Here is a test flight of my 3.75 m orange nose cone and 5 m Jool III main body. It has 8 RS-25 "Vector"s under it and the NARP payload is set to 150 tons. Made it into orbit just fine.

[Daelkyr]

Okay. 0.2 is up. Gave the 5m Large tank a not unattractive texture. And finished the nose cap and tank bottom. Also hacked up a 5m fairing for your ridiculous payloads. 

 

[Daelkyr]

On 3/15/2016 at 1:55 PM, theJesuit said:

On the question of parts?  The part with 4 nodes in a line, why not make it with a variation having three nodes as the stock (mammoth?) already allows the same thrust for 4 vectors.  How about the possiblity give the option of a 2.5 node for stock engines with a round middle and the extended out 1.25 nodes?

The reason for four nodes in a line was to match the NASA DIRECT proposal. You can always place three (or two) Vectors down, depending on what your payload profile is. In actuality, that was part of the DIRECT design plan. I do like your idea for a 2.5 m with 1.25's on the end. I'll think about it.

As for the logo suggestions, how's this? (Also doubles as a flag.)

[MrMeeb]

Loving the logo! It's so clean

[Daelkyr]

Work continues on the project. But I'm worried that I'm losing the original idea. I've been putting together parts to make the Jupiter III super-lifter. I even slapped together a 5-section SRB called the "Backfire" to help lift the thing off the ground. It's all still part of the original DIRECT proposal. is there demand for something that wonders into the 5m tank territory? (I wouldn't be making engines for it. Just more adapter for the SR-25 "Vector"'s.)

Edited March 19, 2016 by Daelkyr
Forgot the picture

[Daelkyr]

Okay. A quick question. Did anyone know why the Vector is priced at $18,000 and the Mammoth is $39,000? This makes the DIRECT setup cost prohibitive versus a Mammoth first stage.

[Wahgineer]

The higher price tag is to balance out the high gimbal, high twr, and surface attachment. To counteract this, make a low gimbal, non surface attach Vector copy-paste that's cheaper than the regular Vector ( close to 1/4 the cost of the Mammoth)

[Daelkyr]

On 3/23/2016 at 7:09 PM, awsumindyman said:

The higher price tag is to balance out the high gimbal, high twr, and surface attachment. To counteract this, make a low gimbal, non surface attach Vector copy-paste that's cheaper than the regular Vector ( close to 1/4 the cost of the Mammoth)

I'm done just that. It will be in the 0.3 release. Thanks for pointing that out.

[-ctn-]

Any part set that can make a Jupiter III rocket is gold. 5m tanks are welcome in my book, specifically for the crazy ridiculous Jupiter III heavy lifter. 

[Daelkyr]

Still working on parts ideas. I've been really enamored with the idea of a payload cover for the payload base. Something that really resembles the payload fairing in the DIRECT diagrams above. So I'm bashing out a payload fairing and tweaking the payload base. The base would be 7 m tall (which is the height of the fairing) and you would just stack your CSM on top or use a SDHI SMS version which would allow the SMS to sit in the fairing slightly. I also threw together a Payload container that uses Interstellar Fuel Switch to change into different resources. I'm trying to figure out how to make ISF include life-support options. I also took a comparison shot of the Jool 130 and 246 variants.

I really like the way that all is going. But we'll see how it gels.

 

[Daelkyr]

Alright, I've got v0.3 up on Spacedock. I finally feel like this is approaching something that is a coherent mod that people would use. Changes are in the main post. You CAN build a Jool 3 rocket (Jupiter 3) with these parts now. I especially want to send a HUGE shout-out and thanks to @benjee10 for the textures for his tanks. I asked and he graciously said I could use his textures for my tanks. They look great now. 

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by Daelkyr

[Daelkyr]

So, the tinkering continues. I keep thinking that the Upper stages to the Jool rockets need something a little more "Ooomph-ful" than the LT-V45 "Swivel". The actual DIRECT designs called for 3 or 6 RL-10 engines. The nearest I can figure, the KR-1x2 "Twin-Bore" has engines that if only were single, would fit the bill for the Jool Upper Stage. After a little bit of fun in Blender, I give you the KR-1 "Velocity" Liquid Fuel Engine. So now I need to teach myself how to set up engines in Unity...

 

[Daelkyr]

I finished up the thrust transform pieces of the KR-1 thanks to @Beale's fantastic tutorial. Now I'm just tweaking the emissive animation and within working on numbers that will compliment the KR-1 as an upper stage to the KS-25. I'm looking at the Skipper/Mainsail pair as my template.

I also want to take another pass at the thrust plate. I still don't love the bass.

[davidy12]

@Daelkyr: Can you include some craft files?

[Wahgineer]

Dude, this is amazing! Will download when I get the chance.

[Daelkyr]

@awsumindyman Thanks for the kind words.

@davidy12 I'll have to do that in the next update.