How do you name your spaceships?

[MR L A]

On 15/01/2017 at 3:27 PM, CaptainTrebor said:

I sometimes us Roman/Greek god names, although all my first crafts in career are called Genesis.

They all follow a naming system, which is: craft name - variant number - subvarient letter.

I have a shuttle series (Delta series) with a similar name. "Delta - Genesis" is the first available shuttle unlocked in career mode. The description reads ~"After a lengthy legal battle with Phil Collins and The Holy Bible, 'Genesis' is the first fully operational shuttle of the Delta family". 

Oh, and my current space station is named "Wilelyn Station". Wilelyn was the Kerbal aboard the very first module launched, though sadly, the launch went wrong and, during the abort procedure (mashing stage - abort tower not unlocked at this stage), his pod was destroyed by an SRB. The first, and currently only, Kerbal I have lost in my current play through... with all "reverts" turned off. 

[-M-TheDoctor]

so in my current career, I've only just made an orbit. The orbiter was Kerbin Rift I. My suborbital tourist ship is designed similar to Virgin Galactic's Space Ship 2, so of course, it's named Wonder of the Sky.  My Kerbin based science planes are named X-n based on the order of creation, then a nickname based on..... random things around me. My first plane, the X-1, is called the Dart. Also because it was a lawn dart the first time I released the breaks heh heh... All in all, LET CHAOS BE YOUR GUIDE!!! FLY WITH THE FISHES, SWIM WITH THE BIRDS!!!! NAME YOUR NEXT SHIP THE BOOPLESNOOF!!! ...... ahem... and have fun   

1 hour ago, MR L A said:

I have a shuttle series (Delta series) with a similar name. "Delta - Genesis" is the first available shuttle unlocked in career mode. The description reads ~"After a lengthy legal battle with Phil Collins and The Holy Bible, 'Genesis' is the first fully operational shuttle of the Delta family". 

Oh, and my current space station is named "Wilelyn Station". Wilelyn was the Kerbal aboard the very first module launched, though sadly, the launch went wrong and, during the abort procedure (mashing stage - abort tower not unlocked at this stage), his pod was destroyed by an SRB. The first, and currently only, Kerbal I have lost in my current play through... with all "reverts" turned off. 

You like to live dangerously I see..... that's a nope from me lol.

[Kokanee]

I tend to name my ships in the tradition of the "Coyote" book series by Allen Steele, such as:

"The Glorious Triumph of Collective Socialism"

[munlander1]

I name them after the use of them i.e: mun lander 1. Now that I think of it that's really ironic.

[53miner53]

I name my airplanes "Airplane x" where x is the number in the series. I add .x for engine change, no matter what the resulting plane's engine is, and other modifications add a .0.x.

rovers are "SuperCar x" where x is the number in the series. I add a .x when I make a major change to a working model.

spaceplanes are the same as airplanes, just with spaceplane instead of airplane. 

Other spacecraft are named with their mission and a number.

[-M-TheDoctor]

23 hours ago, Kokanee said:

I tend to name my ships in the tradition of the "Coyote" book series by Allen Steele, such as:

"The Glorious Triumph of Collective Socialism"

This has nothing to do with your post. You are now my new best friend simply because your banner has a hydroplane on it. Have you ever been to a race? 

[Kokanee]

19 minutes ago, -M-TheDoctor said:

This has nothing to do with your post. You are now my new best friend simply because your banner has a hydroplane on it. Have you ever been to a race? 

No, but it was a cool challenge here on the forums!

[-M-TheDoctor]

1 hour ago, Kokanee said:

No, but it was a cool challenge here on the forums!

Too bad. If you're ever bored look up unlimited hydroplanes. They are awesome. 

[Triop]

I always use this :

http://textmechanic.com/text-tools/numeration-tools/generate-list-numbers/

[MinimalMinmus]

My four stations, around respectively Kerbin, Mun, Minmus and Kerbol are named respectively Gael, Selene, Caesian (sky blue) and Helios.

My large Duna probe was named Rubidium (I am quite fond of Chemistry) and the relays it carried are Rubidium salts.

[Guest]

I came up with this today, like US Navy designations. Otherwise the names of the particular classes are whatever I feel like and follow the format of "[type] - [class]" eg. "LV - Shenzhen III". Lately I've been pulling names from the list of Chinese cities on Wikipedia. Some ships are simply named for what they are, eg. Nuclear Shuttle.

LV	Launch Vehicle; rocket type
TOV	VTOL Spaceplane; STS type
TOH	HTOL Spaceplane; SSTO type

O(I)	Unmanned (Interplanetary) Spacecraft
O(I)C	Crewed (Interplanetary) Spacecraft

D	Station
DF	Orbital Depot

B	Base
BM	Mobile Base

LL	Lander; L doubled to avoid confusion with LV
LLA	Atmospheric Lander

R	Unmanned Rover
RC	Crewed Rover

SC	Communications Satellite
SM	Mapping Satellite

P	Probe; may be relegated to SM
PL	Landing Probe

 

Edited January 28, 2017 by Guest

[Guest]

How do I name my vessels? Inconsistently.

[septemberWaves]

I've kind of gone down several rabbit holes with regards to spacecraft naming schemes as I've become more experienced at KSP and developed more and more complex vehicles. Recently I've gotten into the habit of even naming the individual missions as well as the rockets themselves, similar to how real missions are named.

I'm going to put my current naming schemes in a spoiler because I suspect that this might get rather long.

Spoiler

Mission Classifications:

• Many crewed missions will be repeat launches of a similar spacecraft, and will have a two-part alphanumeric designation that defines the spacecraft type, mission location, and mission . For example, Megido 1 spacecraft launched to Kerbin orbit will be designated M1 KOx, where M indicates Megido program, 1 indicates use of a Megido 1 spacecraft variant, KO indicates Kerbin Orbit, and the x is the mission number.
• Exploratory missions to another celestial body will have a specific name for that celestial body, followed by the mission number. Naming schemes come from various sources, such as minerals or deities, but are always unique to the chosen celestial body and kept consistent (e.g. if Mun missions are named Cassiterite, all missions to moons of celestial bodies will be named after minerals). Missions to subsatellites like Tal will share the name of missions to their parent body (and will probably actually be sent as part of the mission to their parent body).
• Exploratory missions to multiple celestial bodies, such as Cassini-like probes that study multiple moons of a gas giant and the gas giant itself, will have unique names. Repeat launches of the same vehicle will be denoted with an increasing series of numbers appended to the same name, even if they're being sent to a different celestial body.
• Relay satellites will be named with the celestial body they are in orbit of, a numerical system for constellation satellites, and the alphanumeric classification of the relay antenna on board. An example would be "Keelon Relay 5 RA-2", indicating that it is orbiting Keelon, it is the 5th relay in the constellation, and the relay antenna used is the RA-2. Vehicles deploying a relay constellation in orbit around a celestial body will be labelled "Relay Deploy" and display the number of individual relay satellites on board and the antenna types on the satellites, as well as the larger antenna type on the relay deployment vehicle (if relevant). An example would be "Sarvin Relay Deploy 15 RA-2 RA-100", indicating that the vehicle includes 15 RA-2 relays to deploy in the Sarvin system, and is equipped with a larger RA-100 antenna as well (this is to limit costs, and allow one large antenna to relay signals back to Kerbin from the planetary system whilst the smaller relays provide continuous ground coverage wherever needed).
• Surface bases will be named based on the celestial body they are on, a base type classification (Research Base, Refinery, Ocean Base, etc), a number if there are multiple of the same type of base on the same celestial body, and the biome that the base is in. For example: "Duna Research Base 2 Midlands". Stations will have a similar naming scheme, only with different classifications (Research Station, Space Dock, etc) and lacking the biome information as they will not be positioned in a biome. Rovers, boats, and planes will also have a similar naming scheme, but with different classifications (Exploration Rover, Passenger Plane, Mobile Base, etc) and lacking the biome information.
• Missions transporting new equipment to establish or expand advanced exploration operations at a location (such as transporting new station modules) will be considered a shipment, and will be labelled "[destination] Shipment [shipment number] [payload classification]". An example would be "Mios Shipment 12 SAR1", indicating that the shipment is transporting a Surface Advanced Refinery 1 module to Mios, and it is overall the 12th shipment sent to Mios. Shipments outside of Kerbin's SOI will usually be sent several at a time connected to IFTs (Interplanetary Freight Transports) and such collective missions will be labelled " [destination] Mass Shipment [mass shipment number]". The destination in this case only considers the planetary system, so shipments to moons may be included in the same mission. An example could be Jool Shipment 4, Laythe Shipments 5 and 6, and Tylo Shipment 1, all being sent at once as part of "Jool Mass Shipment 4".

Vehicle classifications and nomenclature:

• Nomenclature origins will vary depending on the vehicle, but similar types of vehicle will usually have the same origin for the names chosen.
• A launch takes the name of the primary spacecraft being launched. A Megido 1 spacecraft on any launch vehicle will still be considered a Megido 1 spacecraft, for example. If multiple spacecraft are launched at once, such as a command/service module and a separate landing module, the mission will take the name of the command/service module being used, but the lander will retain its own name and classification.
• Most launch vehicles will have naming schemes inspired either by Atlas V classifications, Saturn classifications, or a combination of the two. For example, the Bishop series of launch vehicles is numbered by the lower stage number (e.g. Bishop 1 and Bishop 4) like the Saturn launch vehicles, so there are some missing numbers. Most of the Raven series of launch vehicles has a number denoting the fuel tank length (I is obsolete as it was effectively useless, II and IV are the alternative options), followed by a three-digit number indicating the number of first stage engines (3 to 5 for the Raven II, 4 to 7 for the Raven IV), the number of SRBs (0, 1, 2, 4, 5 for the Raven II, 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 for the Raven IV), and the upper stage number (1, 2, 3 for the Raven II, 2, 3, 4, 5 for the Raven IV). Other launch vehicles may use similar naming schemes that take inspiration from either or both of these methods, but primarily the Atlas V method.
• Solid fueled launch vehicles will have a simpler naming scheme. There will be one series with one name, and that name will be followed by a number that indicates payload in ascending order, as well as a -L to indicate presence of a liquid-fueled final stage as opposed to a solid-fueled one. Payloads will generally be expected to have their own propellant for circularizing if using 100% solid variants.
• Station and base modules will have a unique alphanumeric code that describes the purpose of the module, as well as whether it is designed for surface or orbital use. An example would be OLH8, which expands to Orbital Large Habitat 8 (the number in the case of habitation modules indicates maximum crew capacity; on other modules the number is only present if there are multiple similar modules with the same or similar purpose, in which case it is used to differentiate between the variants).
• Cubesats have a specific naming scheme. Whilst the actual name of the mission will be derived from the destination, the cubesats themselves have independent classifications. The naming is as follows: "[structure size] [units] [type]", wherein structure size is T, S, M, or L (representing 0.5m, 0.75m, 1m, and 2m cubes), units represents the number of cubes attached in a line to make the satellite (1U, 2U, or 3U), and type is a classification that indicates purpose of the satellite (Relay, Magsat, Scansat, etc).