Your craft nomenclature?

[ave369]

How do you name your crafts? Do you follow some naming conventions?

I use two. During the early game, I utilize a convention from real space programs: families of related rockets with similar design are named Something-N. For example, Black Goose 1, Muna 3, Explorer 4.

During the late game when things are turning definitely sci-fi, I utilize a space opera-like system of ship classes.

 

Drone = tiny unmanned craft

Pod = tiny non-atmospheric craft

Clipper = tiny atmospheric craft (shuttles, SSTOs)

Boat = small to medium non-atmospheric craft

Cutter = small to medium atmospheric craft

Cruiser = large non-atmospheric craft (generally anything big enough to require orbital assembly is called a cruiser)

Frigate = large atmospheric craft

Every craft is given a class name, e.g. Tiny Tot-class clipper, Eve-class cutter, Princess of Helium-class cruiser

Edited December 21, 2017 by ave369

[Inverurie Jones]

Prefix denoting experimental or production craft and any specialist role- X, K (general use), O (orbiter), A (aircraft) for instance.

Number denoting size bracket- 1- 19 = small; 20-39 = medium; 40+ = large. The K-1 is a small, two stage satellite launch vehicle while the K-50 is a big (by my standards) ship designed for prolonged continuous use in space.

Individual vessel names vary by class but the K-50s, for example, all carry the names of famous figures from Kerbal mythology which, it turns out, is very similar to Greek mythology but everyone is shorter. The K-40 product tankers are named after merchant ships I remember from my days with the coastguard.

Currently active ships include: KSS Ajax,  KSS Achilles, KSS Daroja and KSS Trailblazer. This last was my first really successful 'Munship' but she's now being moved to the Mun permanently to serve as a shuttle between Munbase Alpha and the new Mun Station One.

Bases get letters, stations get numbers.

[SpacedCowboy]

My names range from "Lawn Dart" to "Interstellar".

ie :" Minmus Popsicle Stand",,, "Duna Dust Buster" etc.

[Geonovast]

Untitled Space Craft

Untitled Space Craft2

Untitled Space Craft3

Untitled Space Craft4

[Superfluous J]

Science 1
Orbit 1
Mun Flyby 1
Mun Lander 1
Minmus Flyby 1
...etc

Sometimes I break the mold and have "Mun Lander 2" or other numbers, when I have a 2nd or 3rd ship to do the same thing as a previous ship.

tl;dr I'm boring.

[Corona688]

I prefix them with a number 0-9 just for sorting order, with craft I use most often having the lowest numbers.  Then one or more letters defining its class, and finally, a decorative name.

The classes:

• A: Super-long-range craft for outside Kerbal SOI.
• H: Heavy-Lifting craft
• L: Landers / Rovers
• M: Mining craft
• S: Science craft or Satellites
• T: Transport craft, primarily carrying passengers.
• R: Rescue / Utility craft for intercepting and moving things in space.
• X: Experimental craft with no role as of yet.  Any brand-new craft is an X until its proved itself.

So if I made an interplanetary science satellite on a heavy-lifter, incorporating a space to return interplanetary travellers, it would be ASSHAT class.  But I haven't ever assigned a craft more than three classes at once before - The 0LMR MinMaxer, for a craft designed to land, grab an orphaned command pod, mine fuel, and carry the rescued command pod home.

Research into further vowels is ongoing.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Corona688

[NSEP]

LV - Launch Vehicle

OCT - Orbital Crew Transport

IU - ISRU Unit (acronymception)

[Zeiss Ikon]

In my current career (my first -- I don't get to play tens of hours a week like some people), my naming has been two "series" of craft.  Explorer series carries pilots (and eventually scientists and engineers -- just unlocked the Mk. 1-2 command pod last session) on exploratory and scientific missions.  Explorers with p suffix are modified to carry a (single) passenger.  Explorer II was the first to make orbit, and was retrofitted with a Stayputnik (as Explorer IIp) to permit ground control when it carried the first orbital VIP tourist (alone in a Mk. 1 command pod with all controls disabled).  Explorer IVp made the second Mun landing, carrying the first VIP tourist to land on the Mun.

Taxicab series are made to carry plural tourists, and in general have been spaceplane orbiters (for the early suborbital flights, they used a spaceplane crew cabin).  Taxicab III vessels recorded the first on-orbit rendezvous, and the first Munar flyby and Munar orbit, all with tourist passengers aboard (and all before retractable landing gear became available; recovery was by parachute after gliding to a low/slow enough position for deployment.  Taxicab IV, an ill-advised attempt to stretch the design to carry four tourists, resulted in the first death in my career; Adeny Kerman's Mk. 1 cockpit exploded during reentry, though the rest of the vessel was recovered intact with all tourist passengers unharmed.

So far, that covers my career -- two Mun landings so far, one with a VIP tourist, haven't been to Minmus yet (yes, I know, it's easier than the Mun, but the contracts haven't come up yet).

I envision building a series of Pathfinder craft when it's time to visit Eve, Duna, and Dres.  So far, these are all single launch (or, in Pathfinder series, once I have docking parts unlocked, may be two launches, a transfer vehicle and a hab or lander).  I expect Pathfinder I will strongly resemble Explorer VI

[The Aziz]

Zonda for unmanned, Brykieta for manned, if they're regular rockets.

Then there goes <body>downik for landers,(while I mean actual full craft name including the lifter, I don't use subassemblies) and here are such names as Mundownik, Mindownik, Dundownik, Evedownik etc.

But there can be manned and unmanned landers, right? So after each version of the craft (Mk1, Mk2 etc, which apply for all my crafts) there is K for manned crafts.

If the first stage is recoverable, I add R at the end.

There is also one exception, for relay probes, there is SCS instead of Mk (I can't even remember why it was SCS)

In the end, I have few crafts called Mundownik Mk4K and many called Zonda SCS6R and for most of the times I have no idea which is which. Eh.

Interplanetary motherships are much simpler, eg Duna 1, Duna 2 etc.

Orbital stations <body>butt (haha so mature, as above, no idea why) so there is Kerbutt, Munbutt and Dunbutt. Same prefixes go for bases. Moh-, Eve-, Gil-, Ker-, Mun-, Min-, Dun-, Ike-, Dres-, Jool-, none of the Joolian moons were used so there is nothing, and Eel-.

Ueah, pretty messed 

[DualDesertEagle]

7 hours ago, Corona688 said:

A: Super-long-range craft for outside Kerbal SOI.

And how much dV does a ship need to leave the SOI of a Kerbal? Like 0.0001 m/s? 

 

Gosh, now that I think of it my brain craps out images of a full-scale Saturn V powered by 5 Ant engines with their thrust limiters set to 10%

[Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut]

Satellites: Kerputnik

Manned Orbiters: Kostok

Munar Probes: Muna

Minnmus Probes: Minm

Manned Mun Landers: Apollo

Manned Minmus Landers: Hawk

Eve probes: Kernera

Gilly probes: Jumper

Duna Probes: Duna

Ike Probes: Ike

Jool System Probes: Jool Explorer

Manned Duna Landers: D-man

Space Stations: Skylab, and for interplanetary stations, (the first name of the planet)SS

Bases: I choose the name.

[ARS]

Every craft that I make is always named with 2 words, one of them is always related with space or weather phenomenon, such as:

Crimson Sunset (Giant passenger plane)

Faraway Sky (Science SSTO)

Grateful Sunray (Tourist SSTO)

Rolling Thunder (Mobile mining base)

Starlight Dream (General purpose SSTO)

[Zhetaan]

My probe to Duna was called Trail Locator and its little rover was called Honest Wanderer.

That kind of tongue-in-very-cheeky allusion follows most of my conventions; when I found out that tourists could not leave the ship, that spawned a whole line of craft named some version of Tourist Trap.

My asteroid mining vessels are all called something along the lines of Rocket with Real Rocks in It--especially after I got Asteroid Recycling Technologies, which has a 'Mass Driver' engine that uses a 'Rock' resource.

If I send a crew out on a training mission to get up to three stars before I ship them all out to points unknown, then that's called Magic School Bus because why the heck not?  If I could get a Frizzle Kerman to be the pilot, then that's the only thing I'd have her do.

When my wife sent up a fuel tanker in her game and called it Thomas, I made a station tug and called it Theodore because I was not about to be outdone by a children's television programme.

My first mission to Moho was called Hermetic (for Hermes, the Greek version of Mercury, the real version of Moho) and the flag for it featured a seal in a space suit.

My first 'escape the sun' craft looked like a big noodle (and moved like one, too--this was version 1.0), so I called it Ramen as a double allusion to both the noodle and the Clarke story about an interstellar visitor.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Zhetaan

[roboslacker]

Currently, I name my craft after stock planets/moons.

Moho- suborbital rockets

Eve- orbital rockets

Gilly- space planes

Duna- probes

Ike- Manned landers

None listed planets are undetermined.

[IncongruousGoat]

For RSS/RO/RP-0 , I typically use payload names from ancient Greek history and mythology. So, things like

Eratosthenes: LEO weather/science satellites

Homer: Communication satellites

Selene: Lunar flyby/orbit/impactor/lander probes

Jason: Early interplanetary probes

Herodotus: Survey/mapping satellites

Prometheus: Mercury-based crewed craft

Artemis: Gemini-based crewed craft

Daedalus: Apollo-based crewed craft

and so on and so forth, with each individual payload getting a number after the name for the launch number. Boosters get named after birds of prey (Kite, Osprey, Hawk, etc.) and upper stages get songbirds (Canary, Sparrow, Bluejay, etc.).

[RoboRay]

I sometimes pick a random mythology and use only names from that.  My Polynesian phase was fun.

Or, I go with a particular group of animals.  Right now, I'm using bird names for everything.  Comsat relays are Warbler I, II, III, etc.  Flyby probes are Starlings.  Landers are various flightless birds.  And so.

Edited December 21, 2017 by RoboRay

[KerBlammo]

In a previous save I did give actual names to my various orbital tugs always beginning with 'R' (e.g. Resolute).

Today I call my direct ascent mun lander "Direct Ascent Mun Lander" and my crew launcher "Crew Launcher" etc.

[Corona688]

2 hours ago, DualDesertEagle said:

And how much dV does a ship need to leave the SOI of a Kerbal? Like 0.0001 m/s? 

Depends where you start from, of course, and where you're going.

2 hours ago, DualDesertEagle said:

Gosh, now that I think of it my brain craps out images of a full-scale Saturn V powered by 5 Ant engines with their thrust limiters set to 10%

Many of my smallest interplanetary probes are ant-powered.  It's the poor-man's ion drive.

 

[DualDesertEagle]

35 minutes ago, Corona688 said:

Depends where you start from, of course, and where you're going.

It seems like u didn't get the joke. Lemme explain:

The Planet is named Kerbin and its inhabitants are the Kerbals

Get it?

Edited December 21, 2017 by DualDesertEagle

[Atkara]

I generally don't give my spacecraft any special names, other than the name of the planet/moon they operate on/around and what they are (orbital lab, station, ATV, relay, surveyor, sentinel, etc). For example:

• An asteroid miner operating in Dres orbit: Dres Asteroid Miner.
• A surface outpost operating on Moho: Moho Surface Outpost.

Things aren't much different in spaceplanes: With two main designs (light and heavy) and variants of them adapted for different purposes (cargo, passenger transport, debris recovery, science, ore/fuel delivery, etc) these craft are named like:

• Light SSTO for passenger transport: SSTO Mk1a (Passengers)
• Heavy SSTO for fuel delivery: SSTO MK2g (LfOx)

For the record, the light SSTO (Mk1) comes in 6 variants and the heavy one (Mk2) in 9. If I decide to send one of them to operate on Laythe (which I propably will), I'll prefix it with the moon's name.

[Tyko]

I use descriptive names for the type of ship in the VAB so I can easily find it again in the list. When the mission is launched I will give it a unique mission name so I can find it in the tracking station.

My first robotic landers got renamed several times:

• VAB - Robotic Lunar Lander 1    - "1" denotes it's my first design
• Mission name - RLL-1    - "1" now denotes that it's my first robotic lander mission to the Moon. The next robotic lander sent to the moon would be RLL-2 even if the design of the craft had changed.
• After it's landed - RLL-1 Moon Midlands

 

Edited December 21, 2017 by Tyko

[netbumbler]

12-21-17 Jool Transfer Ship 1.0 test 1

 

Yeah I use dates to make sure when I actually go on the mission I use the latest, best iteration.  The 'test x' field is when I tweak something minor on a proven base model.  I'll even put a descriptor in there like 'srb test 3' or something to let me know how that exact craft differs from the base model. 

[Ty Tan Tu]

I am really not very original.

Probe for unmanned crafts

Shuttle for a ship designed to transport resources or Kerbonauts, usually from the surface to a space station and back.

Space Station for a craft that is going to stay in orbit

Rover for - well rovers

Base for ships that lands and are staying there

Driller for mining operations

Tanker a subset of rovers used to move resources from miners to say shuttles or bases.

 

So, lets say you are setting up a base on Minmus to fuel a mission to Duna. I have:

Probe Minmus I (An unmanned satellite in a polar orbit around Minmus to identify areas with high resources.)

Probe Duna I (An unmanned satellite in a polar orbit around Duna to identify areas with high resources.)

Space Station Kerbin I (Space Station in a Low Kerbin Orbit)

Space Station Minmus I (Space Station in a Low Minmus Orbit.)

Shuttle Kerbin I (The craft that takes supplies and Kerbonauts from Kerbin to SS K I and back.)

Shuttle Kerbin to Minmus I (It just shuttles supplies and Kerbonauts between SS K I and SS M I.)

Shuttle Minmus I (The craft that takes supplies and Kerbonauts from Minmus to SS M I and back.)

Rover I (The rover to explore and move Kerbins around the surface of Minmus.)

Minmus Base I (Habitat for the rough necks manning the mining operation on Minmus.)

Minmus Base II Electric.

Driller I Rocket Fuel 

Driller II Rocket Fuel

Driller III Mono Fuel (All on Minmus.)

Tanker I (Just an unmanned rover to move fuel from miners to shuttles.)

Space Station Duna I (The Mother Ship that is going to take you to Duna.)

And then repeat for Duna....

[Pwnstarr]

A1

AA1

A2

 

I hate scrolling 

[0111narwhalz]

In normal use, I name things exactly as they are, usually with a mark. Examples: Fighter Mk I; Trophy Truck; MinMiner Mk I
Certain craft get special names. This is relatively rare, and usually only happens if that craft impresses me (positively or negatively ) or I have specific plans for it. Examples: Rocjet (heavy SSTO spaceplane lifter); The Longening (extremely long rocket lifter)

In my combat save, a vessel name might look like this: MWS_LV_06
The MWS is the faction ticker; the LV is the class (here, lift vehicle); the 06 is the model number (the sixth one ).
Launch vehicles have a suffix denoting the individual launch in that save to differentiate undeployed payloads.
Warships have an additional field: the name. The warships I've built so far haven't really followed too much of a theme (Handbasket; Eraser; Sharpener; Lockjaw; etc) but instead are supposed to match the shape, purpose, or some other characteristic of the vessel individually.
This syntax is designed to tell an uninformed observer as little as possible within the rules of the gamemode we negotiated, while still being unambiguous.