Bridge Construction Set

[Castille7]

Sector 7 Space Laboratories

"Bridge Construction Set"

In the early stages of this project the Suspension Bridge was not structurally sound for the reentry from saved games or when switching craft and as I strengthened the designed the part count climbed causing lag, this was a caused for design changes and new ideas. I then decided to try building the bridge on piers and this to was not working well because of reentry from a saved game on the water as mentioned before. The bridge is a far cry from what I would have liked but it's a functional Bridge that can be constructed. Often I used the Aqua Tram II for aligning the Bridge but in the end it was not necessary for the Bridge completion. Note: I am releasing the Pier section without knowing if it will actually work. I did notice during some testing that it can float free without the foundation mounted to the Ocean Floor and it survived reentry once during testing. Feel free to build these bridges on the water but as we know this game was not intended for water craft but it is still so much fun to build anything in KSP. I hope you enjoy the challenges as much as I did and have fun building bridges along with Rocketry.

 

 

First Design
This was looking really nice but not working in KSP

More Photos

Photos of Complications on the water

 

Mobile Lift & Bridge
Parts: 229
Mass: 38.656t
Height: 16.1m
Width: 21.4m
Length: 48.2m

Bridge Entrance
Parts: 264
Mass: 27.113t
Height: 10.3m
Width: 13.3m
Length: 31.8m

Long Bridge Section
Parts: 275 
Mass: 30.574t
Height: 10.3m
Width: 17.5m
Length: 52.6m

Bridge Pier Section
Parts: 231
Mass: 174.727t
Height: 28.8m
Width: 45.5m
Length: 12.8m

Aqua Tram II
Parts: 122
Mass: 27.055t
Height: 3.5m
Width: 5.2m
Length: 9.9m

Operation: I first brought Rover 7 to the coastline and then constructed the bridge straight off the rear of the runway starting with a Bridge Entrance then adding the center sections and then the Bridge Exit (Bridge Entrance). When docking them together alignment is very critical, sometimes they connect easily sometimes not. Much like connecting in space connect them very gently. Next shutdown the two engines on the Bridge Entrance manually so that all remaining engines will be running in one direction. The Bridge Entrance is a little shaky I makes turns near 10 m/s the center sections are much easier to handle. The Rover I am using must climb on the Bridge ramps slowly. The Mobile Lift is slow to start and can't make tight turns but it is placing Bridges nicely. When the Mobile Lift releases the Bridge it will collapse, at this point just return to the tracking center and remove the debris unless you have a 0 debris setting then this is unnecessary. I may have left out some needed information, please feel free to ask questions if needed.

Edited September 21, 2016 by Castille7

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Very impressive!  I haven't seen many bridges recently.

[The Flame Cat]

Seems neat, might try it.

[Castille7]

36 minutes ago, The Flame Cat said:

Seems neat, might try it.

Thank you!

2 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

Very impressive!  I haven't seen many bridges recently.

Thank you man!

[pTrevTrevs]

Connect Island Airfield to KSC.

Do it.

Spoiler

This reminds me of a class project I got to do in a Physical Science class back in middle school. We had to build truss bridges out of spaghetti and hot glue. Although my bridge wasn't the strongest (it was either second or third), it had the best cost to max weight ratio (each stick of spaghetti was calculated to cost $100 while each stick of glue was $1000), partly because most of our spaghetti came from other people's trashed designs.

Seriously, some people built an entire truss each day and threw it away afterwards, only to be picked up and salvaged by my team.

/rant

 

[Castille7]

On 9/21/2016 at 5:30 PM, pTrevTrevs said:

Connect Island Airfield to KSC.

Do it.

  Hide contents

This reminds me of a class project I got to do in a Physical Science class back in middle school. We had to build truss bridges out of spaghetti and hot glue. Although my bridge wasn't the strongest (it was either second or third), it had the best cost to max weight ratio (each stick of spaghetti was calculated to cost $100 while each stick of glue was $1000), partly because most of our spaghetti came from other people's trashed designs.

Seriously, some people built an entire truss each day and threw it away afterwards, only to be picked up and salvaged by my team.

/rant

 

Sounds like a bunch of fun to me! As for connecting to the Island, you will need to close that gap a bit. 

@pTrevTrevs Scouting the area now in my Maverick S7V and the Island next to the airbase looks doable!

 

@pTrevTrevs FYI, I took a look at the situation and the distance between the two islands are much too far apart. I will not start this project idea.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Castille7

[Rath]

x40000000 scale tweakscale incoming.

[KandoKris]

Bridge in space.. Bridge in orbit..

Bridge on a plane  Bridge almost  there.

there =  

Still needs some adjustments to steer better at sub 40m/s which is were it wants to glide at but I reckon I should have this one in place within the next few flights just need to get it to land flatter then currently ( it dives in and poof ) also I want to add on of those Aqua trams to it.

Awesome bridge : ) not at all flappy

[Castille7]

2 hours ago, KandoKris said:

Bridge in space.. Bridge in orbit..

Bridge on a plane  Bridge almost  there.

there =  

Still needs some adjustments to steer better at sub 40m/s which is were it wants to glide at but I reckon I should have this one in place within the next few flights just need to get it to land flatter then currently ( it dives in and poof ) also I want to add on of those Aqua trams to it.

Awesome bridge : ) not at all flappy

This is so cool! Did you try dropping it down with parachutes? This may help to get it in the area you would like.

[KandoKris]

Yep 6 chute's = 7m/s drop  which is fine but the main drama is holding the bridge flat for the fall, even under chute's the thing acts like a giant leaf/wing

Its steerable ~ ish  maybe more torque some more flaps and longer pontoons will correct it and then I can land like sea plane.

Either way I'm making progress, shouldn't be long now before the maiden drive  

Update;  Changed bridge location due to size confinement, turns out I need to many to reach the little island. On the plus side flying bridge now works like a 2 stage sea-plane able to land without injury or parachutes (landed 3 still wasn't enough to "bridge" the gap) all landed safe no damage.

Switching back to orbital to reach the long river north of the midlands, landing still too fast at approx 7m/s, yet to test latest version with a ridulous amout of chutes, hardest part is landing IN the river, dam steep hills either side of the river. It is funny to watch a bridge roll down but after the long leaf steering from 5km down its really frustrating as well.

Testing results;

I've worked out the control issues but now have a new drama. The flight is simple fly up past 5km then getle turns first stage etc.etc its forgiving now. Reach for plane is not enough really but will cross oceans easy, orbital is real easy land simple but, I'm running out of possible locations on kerbin. the bridge is great but, I now believe without tweakscale bridges have no place in a stock game which sucks

I think with minor adjustments it would make an awesome mobile landing strip or laythr base. The "bridge" / platform is light, study, simple and can easily fit extra bits. I may evan add a few extra boosters to test that 2.

 

http://imgur.com/a/HbcUz

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dizzya6iz0bbllp/Bridge Section Long V Orbital.craft?dl=0

 

 

Edited October 1, 2016 by KandoKris
updates

[Castille7]

On 9/27/2016 at 10:33 PM, KandoKris said:

Yep 6 chute's = 7m/s drop  which is fine but the main drama is holding the bridge flat for the fall, even under chute's the thing acts like a giant leaf/wing

Its steerable ~ ish  maybe more torque some more flaps and longer pontoons will correct it and then I can land like sea plane.

Either way I'm making progress, shouldn't be long now before the maiden drive  

Update;  Changed bridge location due to size confinement, turns out I need to many to reach the little island. On the plus side flying bridge now works like a 2 stage sea-plane able to land without injury or parachutes (landed 3 still wasn't enough to "bridge" the gap) all landed safe no damage.

Switching back to orbital to reach the long river north of the midlands, landing still too fast at approx 7m/s, yet to test latest version with a ridulous amout of chutes, hardest part is landing IN the river, dam steep hills either side of the river. It is funny to watch a bridge roll down but after the long leaf steering from 5km down its really frustrating as well.

Testing results;

I've worked out the control issues but now have a new drama. The flight is simple fly up past 5km then getle turns first stage etc.etc its forgiving now. Reach for plane is not enough really but will cross oceans easy, orbital is real easy land simple but, I'm running out of possible locations on kerbin. the bridge is great but, I now believe without tweakscale bridges have no place in a stock game which sucks

I think with minor adjustments it would make an awesome mobile landing strip or laythr base. The "bridge" / platform is light, study, simple and can easily fit extra bits. I may evan add a few extra boosters to test that 2.

  Reveal hidden contents

http://imgur.com/a/HbcUz

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dizzya6iz0bbllp/Bridge Section Long V Orbital.craft?dl=0

  Reveal hidden contents

 

@KandoKris I found the place close to Kerbin Control that you pointed out and the islands have a short gap between them. I am using an offshore speed boat I built named RipTide, I will post updates soon.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Castille7
Noticed you pointed out this location

[Castille7]

@KandoKris I found one of the places you pointed out and I am working on the bridge now, I will let you know how it goes later today. I am able to run at full warp, still takes a while.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Castille7

[Castille7]

@KandoKris The RipTide boat is working great but the bridge is still exploding at times and very time consuming to get each section there. I am calling it quits on this one.

[Castille7]

I did get a chance to do something I've been wanting to do during this attempt. I did a long distance run with RipTide and wanted to run in the river shown in the pictures below, but ran out of fuel and came up short.

Ran out of Fuel here