[1.4.2] Kerbal Space Transport System

[-MM-]

If you are running a successful space agency, you will be flying to Kerbin-Orbit a lot. The Kerbal Space Transport System (or KSTS) will allow you to record launches of your transport rockets and planes to be used in automated missions later. It will allow you to transfer resources, crew-members and even deploy brand new ships directly into orbit. And because the cost of launching your payload is only as high as the cost of the mission you've previously recorded, you will benefit greatly of building reusable space planes without the hassle of landing them by hand every time.

You can for example record the launch of a space-plane and deploy a payload with a mass of 2.5t at an altitude of 286km before returning back home:

Afterwards you will be able to pick this recorded mission-profile and launch new vessels with a mass <=2.5t into an orbit with an apoapsis below 286km for only the cost of the fuel used by your space plane:

The new ship can be deployed at any orbit of your choosing that is within range of your mission-profile or right next to an existing reference-vessel, making your life in low-kerbin orbit much easier:

 

Features:

• Record transport- and deployment-missions for rockets and planes.
• Deploy new ships directly to Kerbin-Orbit (must have less or equal the mass of the payload from your reference mission).
• Transport resources to vessels in Kerbin-Orbit (provided they are in range and have compatible docking-ports).
• Use multiple transport missions to construct new ships at space stations in Kerbin-Orbit.
• Transfer kerbals to and from vessels in Kerbin-Orbit.
• Compatible with KRnD (newly launched ships will always use the latest part-upgrades).
• Compatible with CLLS (modifications on vessels and crews are communicated via game-events).
• In-Game help which explains how to get started and how it works.

Third Party Support:

• StageRecovery: With this mod installed the total cost of your recorded flights is reduced by the value of successfully recovered boosters.

Known Incompatibilities (this mod skips the usual launch phase, any mod which depends on this might not work correctly):

• ModularFuelTanks (tank-configuration does not work)
• USI Life Support (some timers connected to the launch-time don't work)

 

You can download the latest version of this mod from GitHub:

• 1.11 (for KSP 1.4.2): https://github.com/mmoench/KSTS/archive/1.11.zip
• 1.9 (for KSP 1.3.x): https://github.com/mmoench/KSTS/archive/1.9.zip
• 1.7 (for KSP 1.2.1): https://github.com/mmoench/KSTS/archive/1.7.zip

 

Edited March 28, 2018 by -MM-

[udk_lethal_d0se]

Congratulations on the release @-MM-. This looks cool, shall have a look when I can.

[hab136]

Cool, competition for Routine Mission Manager.  This one doesn't require docking ports unless you're refueling something already in orbit, right?

[Nansuchao]

Brilliant! Congratulations for the release. I want to use this on KSP 1.2

[RedParadize]

it look more like Selling Space mod. Its author never created a forum page about it but its on forge. It was awesome. I wished that someone would do something similar for a long time and here you are!

Few question:

1: How do you simulate playload mass?

2: Discarded stage are taken in consideration when calculating cost?

3: Is there volume limitation for playload? If not do you plan on implementing it?

Edited September 19, 2016 by RedParadize

[-MM-]

6 hours ago, hab136 said:

Cool, competition for Routine Mission Manager.  This one doesn't require docking ports unless you're refueling something already in orbit, right?

Indeed. If you just want to launch a new ship or satellite, you don't need docking ports, just a transport rocket that can lift a large enough payload into orbit.

3 hours ago, RedParadize said:

it look more like Selling Space mod. Its author never created a forum page about it but its on forge. It was awesome. I wished that someone would do something similar for a long time and here you are!

Few question:

1: How do you simulate playload mass?

2: Discarded stage are taken in consideration when calculating cost?

3: Is there volume limitation for playload? If not do you plan on implementing it?

There are two different types of missions you can record: Transport- and deployment-missions. The former are for transporting resources (mostly fuel) or crew to ships in orbit and the later are for launching new ships.

For transport missions you simply dump a previously specified amount of fuel while in orbit, which is then counted as your payload. And for deployment missions you can select any number of decouplers on your ships which will then release whatever parts are attached and their mass will be counted as the payload. There is however a restriction that the parts you decouple must not have been used during your launch, so you can't just drop your ascent-stage and call it your payload. And for the sake of simplicity there is no limitation for the volume, you could even use a rocket with multiple radial decouplers for your payloads, whose mass will get combined.

And the cost of your carrier vessel is tracked as accurate as possible: If you start a one-way mission, the cost will be the launch cost minus the cost of the deployed payload and if you fly a round-trip, the cost will get reduced by the value of the ship you returned to Kerbin. Which means you could create a space plane which can launch its payload for the price of the fuel required to get to orbit and back.

[RedParadize]

Nice, I will try this tonight! Does it work with FMRS?

[Lazy8]

Does this or will it work with RO/RSS?

Edited September 20, 2016 by Lazy8

[-MM-]

5 hours ago, RedParadize said:

Nice, I will try this tonight! Does it work with FMRS?

No, stage recovery mods are not supported. They should not break anything, but you won't get any more money back when your mods recover your boosters etc.

7 minutes ago, Lazy8 said:

Does this or will it work with RO/RSS?

I assume that "Real Solar System" will work as there is no hard-coded reference to Kerbin in the mod, only the "Home Body" whichever that might be. If it will work with the various mods from "Realism Overhaul" I don't know, but I don't know of any reasons beforehand why it shouldn't.

[garwel]

Great idea! It is not compatible with Kerbal Construction Time, I suppose?

[Lazy8]

On 9/20/2016 at 2:15 PM, garwel said:

Great idea! It is not compatible with Kerbal Construction Time, I suppose?

That would be part of RO too....I guess someone should just install it and try it out...hmmm..brb

[Cheostian]

Hi,  I am having an issue with KSTS I am hoping you might be able to help with.

 

I built a reusable rocket with a docking port on the end of it and one empty crew cabin spot.  The root part was the main fuel tank I believe.

Then I built a small set of tanks and connected them to the top docking port with their own docking port (port to port).  I disabled flow through so the main rocket wouldn't use any of their fuel up (I basically wanted to put a full tank of fuel into space that could be docked with).

I had a fairing on the main rocket that I then used to encapsulate the fuel tank docking port "cargo"

I went to launch pad, hit record (at bottom of the window) on KSTS and launched into orbit.  Everything was recording properly it seemed.

Once I achieved a complete orbit I checked the box for the only detachable part to my rocket which showed as the docking port.  Then hit the release payload button at the bottom.  It correctly detached the docking ports on it's own.

I then re-landed the rocket on the ground at which point it gave me the option to "save and close" I believe.  which I did, and it seemed to save fine.  I then recovered my rocket afterwards and was back at ksc.

So....

Everything seems fine.

Now to test if it worked.  I went back to my rocket.  took away everything that WASN'T the payload portion of it.  So now I am just down to the docking port and fuel tank portion, saved it as it's own ship.

Went to deploy, selected the "payload" ship.  which is identical to the one I just sent up and recorded the mission for.

then it says to select the mission profile.  And here's where I run into a problem.

I can see my mission profile of the mission I just recorded but when I try to click on it, it does nothing and gives me no messages on why.

Here's the info of it:

Supply Rocket (Supply Rocket)

Mass: 98.1t, Cost: 10,145, round-trip

Type: deployment (this is in green colour)

Duration:0/00:05:16.89

Crew Capacity: 1

Payload: 0.0t to Kerbin @ 71,349m   (the 0.0t is in red)

 

So..

My concern I am thinking is the payload is an even 4t  yet it shows a payload of 0.0t for the mission profile.  I don't understand why that would be.  Any help would be useful.

 

Thanks,

Cheostian

 

Edit: I just tried it again, this time I changed the docking clamp on my reusable rocket with a separator (not decoupler) which was connected to the docking port on the payload.  Flew up to space and when I released payload I noticed it only showed in the notes a payload tonnage of .02t (which is the weight of the separator itself)  instead of the 4t weight it should have shown.  Retrying it again this time taking off the other docking port and using a straight decoupler only to see how it reacts.

 

Edit 2: Okay, so testing it with just a decoupler works.  It registered the full 4t payload being delivered.  I then modified the SSTO Fully Recoverable Rocket a bit and managed to just barely push a full 11t up into a stable 90km orbit.  I landed with no fuel (not even mono propellent) left.  Anyways, it registered that as well fine.  I ran a test deploy mission after and it correctly placed it into the chosen orbit.  So it seems that the issue is with docking ports and separator's.  Not sure why it's not counting the payloads correctly.

My next question though, is, can I in some way put a kerbalnaught into a deployed ship without having to send up a second mission?  Kinda sucks the only payloads I can launch are unmanned ones, even if I have available space for crew.

 

Edited October 7, 2016 by Cheostian
More Extra Info

[-MM-]

On 7.10.2016 at 3:55 PM, Cheostian said:

(...) So it seems that the issue is with docking ports and separator's.  Not sure why it's not counting the payloads correctly.

My next question though, is, can I in some way put a kerbalnaught into a deployed ship without having to send up a second mission?  Kinda sucks the only payloads I can launch are unmanned ones, even if I have available space for crew.

Hello Cheostian, thank you for your report. I've done a bit of testing with docking ports and seperators myself, but I was unable to reproduce this behavior. Did the recording tab display the correct payload after decoupling or did the error happen somewhere afterwards when returning back to Kerbin? Could you maybe send me your craft-file so that I might reproduce the bug?

As to the crew selection for a deployment mission, this is definitely planned for the next release. It just didn't make it into 1.0 of KSTS. I am however already in the process of moving to KSP 1.2, so the next release of KSTS won't be available until 1.2 is out.

[Cheostian]

4 hours ago, -MM- said:

Did the recording tab display the correct payload after decoupling or did the error happen somewhere afterwards when returning back to Kerbin?

 

Could you maybe send me your craft-file so that I might reproduce the bug?

 

As to the crew selection for a deployment mission, this is definitely planned for the next release. It just didn't make it into 1.0 of KSTS. I am however already in the process of moving to KSP 1.2, so the next release of KSTS won't be available until 1.2 is out.

On the first trip out with the docking ports, I didn't actually look at the payload amount on the recording tab after releasing.  First time I noticed was when I landed and had tried to send out a new flight using it.  On the second trip:

 

On 10/7/2016 at 9:55 AM, Cheostian said:

Edit: I just tried it again, this time I changed the docking clamp on my reusable rocket with a separator (not decoupler) which was connected to the docking port on the payload.  Flew up to space and when I released payload I noticed it only showed in the notes a payload tonnage of .02t (which is the weight of the separator itself)  instead of the 4t weight it should have shown.

 

  Retrying it again this time taking off the other docking port and using a straight decoupler only to see how it reacts. Edit 2: Okay, so testing it with just a decoupler works.  It registered the full 4t payload being delivered.

 

so on the second trip using the separator I watched the recording info as soon as I released payload and it only registered as .02t which I later checked in the VAB and confirmed is the weight of the separator on it's own. So short answer, No. On the second trip it did NOT display correct payload after decoupling.

On the third trip using the decoupler, the recording tab immediately showed the correct tonnage of the payload once I hit release payload.

 

As to sending you a craft-file.  I don't know how to do that.  However, my game is... some would say "Healthily Modded"   however, I don't expect any of the mods should be causing issues with yours.  Here is a list the of Mod's I have loaded currently (Most installed using C-Kan) :

[x] Science!, Action Groups Extended, AT Utils, B9 Part Switch, BZ-1 RAdial Attachment Point, Community NavBall Docking Alignment Indicator, Community Resource Pack, Community Tech Tree, Community Terrain Texture Pack, Connected Living Space, Contract Configurator, Contract Parser, DMagic Orbital Science, Easy Vessel Switch (EVS), EVA Struts, EVA Transfer, FIrespitter Core, Firespitter Resources config, Flexible Docking, Haystack Continued, Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes, Karibou Rover, Kerbal Aircraft Expansion, Kerbal Attachment System, Kerbal Inventory System, Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, Kerbal Reusability Expansion, Kerbal Space Transport System, Kopernicus Planetary System Modifier, KSP AVC, Malemute Rover, MechJeb 2, ModularFlightIntegrator, Module Manager, Near Future Electrical, Near Future Electrical Core, Portrait Stats, Progress Parser, RemoteTech, Science - Full reward!, Sounding Rockets!, Station Science, Throttle Controlled Avionics, Toolbar, TweakScale - Rescale Everything!, USI Core, USI Exploration Pack, USI Freight Transport Technologies, USI Kolonization Core, USI Kolonization Systems (MKS/OKS), USI Life Support, USI Survival Pack, USI Tools, Waypoint Manager.

(Here it is listed in the KSP Add-on version checker.  Sometimes the names are slightly different which is why I typed them all out above)

KSP: 1.1.3 (Win32) - Unity: 5.2.4f1 - OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (6.1.7601) 64bit
000_AT_Utils - 1.0.2
Toolbar - 1.7.12
USI Tools - 0.7.4
B9 Part Switch - 1.4.3
Community Resource Pack - 0.5.4
Connected Living Space - 1.2.3
Contract Configurator - 1.19
DMagic Orbital Science - 1.3.0.2
Contract Parser - 1.0.4
Progress Parser - 1.0.5
Easy Vessel Switch - 1.0.3
EVA Struts - 1.0.2
EVA Transfer - 1.0.4
Firespitter - 7.3
Flexible Docking - 1.0.2
Haystack Continued - 0.5.1
Kerbal Attachment System - 0.5.9
Kerbal Joint Reinforcement - 3.2
Kerbal Inventory System - 1.2.12
KSP-AVC Plugin - 1.1.6.1
ModularFlightIntegrator - 1.1.6
NearFutureElectrical - 0.7.8
RemoteTech - 1.7.1
ThrottleControlledAvionics - 3.2.3
TweakScale - 2.2.13
USI Core - 0.2.4
USI Exploration Pack - 0.5.4
Freight Transport Tech - 0.5.4
Karibou - 0.2.4
Kolonization Core - 0.2.4
Konstruction - 0.1
USI-LS - 0.4.4
Malemute Rover - 0.1.4
Sounding Rockets - 0.4.4
USI Survivability Pack - 0.5.4
UKS - 0.40.4
Waypoint Manager - 2.5.3
[x] Science! - 5.0

 

**************

One thing I may have neglected to mention earlier is that I am playing in Career Mode while using your mod.

Pic of full rocket ready to fly with decoupler and fairing built.

Pic of payload with fairing taken down

Pic of main rocket with LFO tanks emptied to show fuel line connections.

 

Okay, above are photos of the rocket I used.  The only modded parts that are added from what I am aware is as follows:

Inflatable LFO Tanks (Think this is from one of the USI mods, these are the yellow bags attached to the sides, invaluable IMO)

MechJeb 2 Module (from Mechjeb)

Falcon Landing Gear Small (Kerbal Reusability Expansion)

Landing Stabalizer (Think this may also be from USI.  It was only used to help bring the payload weight up to an even 4t  And you see it offset into the tank a bit so the fairing would fit.  The craft was just a "weight" not intended to be used after.)

Derp Storage Box (Also a roverdude expansion USI Survival Pack, you can see it offset into the side of the payload tank as well, (looks like two yellow buckles) also just added to bring payload to an even 4t)

AE-FF1 (the fairing.  I think this may actually be stock but I don't remember now.)

Everything else is stock parts.  However Kerbal Joint Reinforcement would also have effect on the craft.

I did not use TCA to bring the ship to orbit, (Manually flown) if it makes a difference.

 

So this rocket worked, the only difference between it and the two that didn't register was how they were linked up.  The first rocket replaced the decoupler with two stock Jr. Docking ports connected port to port.  instead (one on top of pod and one on bottom of payload tank.  This didn't register the payload correctly.  The second replaced the decoupler with a stock TR-2C Stack Separator instead.  No other changes occurred I believe between them.

 

**************

Onto your final point!  cannot wait for functionality for bringing crew up with payloads.  Currently my plan is to use deploy to put a craft into orbit, then transport to bring the crew up.  Haven't tested it yet but expect it should work and still keep everything reusable without me having to flying all the missions myself at this point.

 

Your mod is excellent by the way, keep it up!

Thanks,

Cheostian

 

 

Edited October 9, 2016 by Cheostian
Corrections.

[-MM-]

I've just uploaded a new version of KSTS (1.1), which is now compatible with KSP 1.2.0. You can find a link to it in the first post of this thread. In addition to some minor bug-fixes, you now can select a crew for new vessels as well as a different flag for new ships.

@Cheostian: I was unable to reproduce the error you've reported. Maybe there is a problem with one of your modded parts. Could you try again with the current version?

[Superfluous J]

This looks really cool. I can't wait to try it out! This is exactly the kind of automation KSP needs.

[mostlikely]

Great mod. Can't wait for the new orbital parameters.

Was it a conscious choice to disallow tourists for deploy mission crew?

Also I noticed staging for deployed craft is reset to single stage for the entire ship.

Edited October 19, 2016 by mostlikely

[-MM-]

13 hours ago, mostlikely said:

Great mod. Can't wait for the new orbital parameters.

Was it a conscious choice to disallow tourists for deploy mission crew?

Also I noticed staging for deployed craft is reset to single stage for the entire ship.

Hello "mostlikely", the current filter is set to kerbals which have the crew-flag, tourists are a different kind of kerbal, which is ignored just like unowned and applicant kerbals. I guess we could add them as valid crew-members, but I believe that would only lead to a situation where one could immediately finish most tourism-contracts, don't you think? You'd just transport one tourist up to a vessel cruising at his desired altitude and then bring him back down again with a second transport.

As for the staging-issue, I will look into this for the next release.

[mostlikely]

11 hours ago, -MM- said:

but I believe that would only lead to a situation where one could immediately finish most tourism-contracts, don't you think?

Actually once you orbit around or land on a new celestial body (mun, minmus, ect.) the tourism contracts start requiring orbits and landings on this body too (which I don't think KSTS does yet? But it might be a great future addition!)  

However there are multiple kerbin-orbit only missions (space station, satellite, rescue, ect.) where KSTS removes the control risk and player focus investment (remember you still pay the funds and wait the time) of the launch with the exception of these tourism contracts. This just seemed odd to me when I started using KSTS so I thought I'd mention it.

 

Another issue I noticed alongside the staging is the interaction with other mods that tweak parts. For example the settings for ModularFuelTanks are lost when a craft is deployed using KSTS. 

Edited October 20, 2016 by mostlikely

[Kerbonaut257]

Do we actually get to watch the launch and circularization and such? Or does it create the vessel and hack it into the proper orbit? 

[mostlikely]

2 hours ago, Kerbonaut257 said:

Do we actually get to watch the launch and circularization and such? Or does it create the vessel and hack it into the proper orbit? 

It creates the vessel in the proper orbit. 

It does so in the background though. So you could launch missions with KSTS while babysitting other vessels for maneuvering.

[COL.R.Neville]

record one then put the smart parts on to fly a few more with it. 

[Locob]

I just found you, and I love you!.

What you did with your mod, is what I had in my imagination for a long time, EXACTLY how it is.

This will save me much game time. I really thank you.

[Kielm]

Wow. I was just thinking yesterday about the possibility of a mod like this and someone's already made it!

Nice work @-MM-, will check it out shortly!

[Lord_Pall]

Looks great. I think there might be a bug in sandbox mode. I did a deploy mission ~15t. Setup a 12t space station bit, went to the main space complex view, setup a deploy mission, but it wouldn't let me start the mission. The cost amount was flagged in red even though it was sandbox. 

 

I'll retry in career. 

 

Still looks awesome and I can't wait to use it.