[1.8.1-1.12.x] Modular Launch Pads v2.7.0: Launch clamps evolved: Real-style launch bases and towers [04 July 2024]

[AlphaMensae]

20 minutes ago, skyhawkmlt said:

Have you considered doing the Shuttle Launch Pad?

That's on the to-do list, after the American Launch Stand and the Saturn tower arm and section revamp.

The FSS is pretty straightforward, but the RSS looks to be small nightmare

 

[AlphaMensae]

Added the hold down arms for the American Launch Stand base, which are actually in the tower part because of how something set up as a launch clamp handles the animation...doesn't like any extra ones.

 

The arms were designed to fit the BDB Saturn I/IB, and actually fit under the base of the fins, much like the real ones did (of course, there are only 4 of them here).  In order to reduce some complexity, I made them the only arms .

As the arms are brought in to fit smaller diameter rockets, they automatically reduce in width to make a better fit.

[AlphaMensae]

Well, after more thought, I redid the hold-down arms, now they are in the base as part of various switchable pre-set ring configurations rather than the deploy-limit slider adjustment.

 

This was to prepare for the splitting of the tower and arm assembly into separate parts, in order to reduce the complexity and right-click menu clutter of the tower...realized trying to cram everything into one part was just too much.

[flart]

Mod has been K-k-kottabosed!

 

[AlphaMensae]

@flart Thanks for the heads-up! 

OK, with the new method of putting the animated retracting hold down arms in the base component of the American Launch Stand, additional new options present themselves.  Since the hold down arms (or clamps   ) retract as part of ModuleLaunchClamp and not AnimatedDecouplers, this means the base can be used by itself as a bare-bones one-part "launch clamp".  So I'm going to add an option for a "no tower support" switchable option, which would turn off the suuport structure for the tower.

The tower configuration is still evolving, now I'm going to have all the variants as switchable options,  withdifferent heights, styles, with and without the crew arm, and angled or straight arms all in the mix.  The separate arm assembly will be switchable as well, varying in the number and type of arms.

I may just add the Atlas V "tower" as an option, and the SpaceX strongback as another (that idea still needs much thought).

 

[smotheredrun]

 

2 hours ago, AlphaMensae said:

@flart Thanks for the heads-up! 

OK, with the new method of putting the animated retracting hold down arms in the base component of the American Launch Stand, additional new options present themselves.  Since the hold down arms (or clamps   ) retract as part of ModuleLaunchClamp and not AnimatedDecouplers, this means the base can be used by itself as a bare-bones one-part "launch clamp".  So I'm going to add an option for a "no tower support" switchable option, which would turn off the suuport structure for the tower.

The tower configuration is still evolving, now I'm going to have all the variants as switchable options,  withdifferent heights, styles, with and without the crew arm, and angled or straight arms all in the mix.  The separate arm assembly will be switchable as well, varying in the number and type of arms.

I may just add the Atlas V "tower" as an option, and the SpaceX strongback as another (that idea still needs much thought).

 

This all sounds good, especially if it will drop the number of parts showing up.  

Regarding the SpaceX towers, have you seen this mod?

 

[HooHungLow]

Works great with non-Saturn BDB rockets. 

Here is my Delta-II Build.

[lextacy]

After the shuttle towers would be willing to work on the vintage pads like LC10-14 (Atlas, Titan II),  LC26 and LC 17 ?

[m.kerman]

I know KSP 1.2.2 isnt supported anymore but do you still have a download for 1.2.2? I really want this mod

[viperwolf]

Thank you for this mod, I actually gave up looking for a launch pad mod. I tried the available ones in other mods, but they just did not work the way i wanted. Good job, donation coming soon. 

[ChickenBot448]

I Think i have a bug or i might just have been blind but the selection of arms for the Saturn IB/V are gone from the parts menu. The Crew Access arm and the BDB arms are gone, with only 2 1.875m arms left. Has the mod been updated to only have these arms, or am i have i got some sort of bug/screwed up installation?

[AlphaMensae]

6 hours ago, m.kerman said:

I know KSP 1.2.2 isnt supported anymore but do you still have a download for 1.2.2? I really want this mod

v1.1 is still on Spacedock (click on the Changelog tab, then download v.1.), it doesn't use texture switching (B9 Part Switch didn't do texture switching until its version for KSP 1.3), so it works in 1.2.2; all the Saturn tower parts are in separate red and gray versions.

 

4 hours ago, ChickenBot448 said:

I Think i have a bug or i might just have been blind but the selection of arms for the Saturn IB/V are gone from the parts menu. The Crew Access arm and the BDB arms are gone, with only 2 1.875m arms left. Has the mod been updated to only have these arms, or am i have i got some sort of bug/screwed up installation?

The Saturn tower arms are currently hidden, i.e, removed from the stock Structural tab; this was a temp fix to prevent the part window from lagging with so many tower arm parts in it.  There is a custom category in v1.2 for Modular Launch Pads, and the arms can still be found by a search for "saturn tower arms).

 

7 hours ago, lextacy said:

After the shuttle towers would be willing to work on the vintage pads like LC10-14 (Atlas, Titan II),  LC26 and LC 17 ?

I'm currently working on the counterpart to the Russian Launch Stand, called the American Launch Stand.  This will be the launch clamp alternative to the big free-standing Saturn pad, intended for use in early-mid career mode, and works like a node-attched launch clamp, with optional add-on parts.  It's patterned after and is a generic blend of many of the pre-Saturn V mobile launcher pads/stands like Mercury-Redstone, Mercury-Atlas, Gemini-Titan II, and LC 34/37 for the Saturn I/IB.  The main base component itself is styled the pad used for LC 34/37 and the Saturn I/IB, and there will be optional switchable towers and arms in various configurations for both manned and unmanned rockets.

@smotheredrun Yep, I knew about that SpaceX launch tower pack, one reason (probably sub-conciously  ) that I didn't include any Falcon 9 stuff in the virst versions of MLP.  I can include a F9/FH strongback option for both the Saturn pad and the American Launch Stand, and maybe at some point include a switchable base for it as well.

@HooHungLow Nice!  I actually sort of forgot about all the little SRBs on the Delta II and didn't provide an appropriate hold-down arm configuration. I can do some research on it and provide a switchable configuration.

Everyone:

I'm going to put out soon v.1.3 of Modular Launch Pads, this will be a partial revamp of the Saturn tower arms from the current state of a separate arm for each length and type to a basic mesh-switchable arm for each length, in order to greatly reduce the parts that are loaded and have them back in the Structural tab.  This won't be the full revamp of the Saturn stuff that will come in v2.0 of MLP, but just a simple change with the arms that can be done rather easily by changes in the Unity hierarchy of the arms and setting up B9PS in the .cfg files.

I'll also make the clamp arms for the Russian Launch Stand part of the base, so just the base can be used as a one-part launch clamp and still have the retracting clamp arms; the crew elevator and service arm will be separate add-on options.

[smotheredrun]

@AlphaMensae

I likey

[AlphaMensae]

Demo of the new basic mesh-switching tower arms, the four main sizes (1.875m, 2.5m, 3.75m, 5.0m) are done:

Not just the umbilical connector is changed, but the pipe/tube details as well.

Just need to do the BDB Saturn V and IB-specific arms in the 3.75m, 4.25m, 5.625m and 6.4m sizes.

 

[AlphaMensae]

All the Saturn tower arms have had their basic mesh-switch revamp done.  There's now just four general types in 4 lengths, 8 BDB Saturn V/IB-specific arms switchable between normal and rescale sizes (the SM arm is actually just one of the 2.5m arms renamed for the Apollo SM) and the three crew arms; 15 total now.  That can be reduced even furthur, but will see how this goes.

The Russian Launch Stand has the clamp arms in the base, and now it's no longer the base, but the "Russian Launch Stand".  The crew elevator and service arms will be separate, in both single and combo parts.  I have ideas that I can implement right now that involve mesh-switching the service arm among three heights and single/dual umbilical...as well as 1 to 3 arms.   May be able to put all options into a single part.

 

[AlphaMensae]

Also, the revised Russian Launch Stand can now handle 3.75m stacks...as well as 0.9375m, 1.5m and 3.125m...all the BDB sizes!

 

Both launch stands can handle 0.625m stacks, but they look a little odd in such a stand...so now I have the idea to make a mini-stand designed for small rockets, maybe from 1.25m all the way down to 0.3125m.

 

[AlphaMensae]

The Russian Launch stand, now with a second color option so it can look like its big brother:

 

And working on a switchable-height fuel arm:

What is now called the arm assembly will become the full-service assembly add-on, with an on/offcrew elevator and from 1-3 fuel arms, each with switchable heights (I've decided against doing dual-umbilical arms), and will provide LF/O, Liquid Hydrogen and Monoprop.

The fuel arms and crew elevator will also be available separately, with each fuel arm providing a different resource, and able to be switched on and off.

[AlphaMensae]

And the multi-switchable fuel arms for the Russian Launch Stand are done, aside from reassembling the animations:

This turned out to be real easy to do with B9 Part Switch, except at first I couldn't figure out how to do it.  Turned out I was overcomplicating it, and then the answer hit me:  Just put the 9 arm objects (3 sizes for 3 arms) in the same group in Unity, each with a unique name, and then have 3 B9PS modules cycle through the sizes for each arm.  Success!

[StevieC]

How do I position the Russian launch stand's hold-down clamps to be BETWEEN the 4 compass directions, instead of ON the 4 compass points and the crew access and service arms to be on the east and west compass points?

[AlphaMensae]

6 hours ago, StevieC said:

How do I position the Russian launch stand's hold-down clamps to be BETWEEN the 4 compass directions, instead of ON the 4 compass points and the crew access and service arms to be on the east and west compass points?

Unfortunately there isn't way to do that with the current version, it's due to how to a launch clamp has to be set up in order to work.  Not an issue for the stock surface-attached clamp, but became one with a fancy node-attached "clamp" like this.

You'll have to rotate the rocket and/or command pod instead.

I've revised the Russian Launch Stand for v1.3 (coming soon   ), the clamp arms are now part of the base and are at the 45 degree positions now.

Edited April 22, 2018 by AlphaMensae

[AlphaMensae]

Now with switchable umbilicals!  No need for the animation deploy limit sliders (except for the crew elevator), which would have been way too much with three fuel arms in one part.

 

Edited April 22, 2018 by AlphaMensae

[Sokol_323]

The question is: what are the fairings used on the rocket to be able to access the crew for the landing? The stock fairers block access, the crew can be landed only in VAB. In this case, this functional disappears from these pads. Or is this possible only with fairings from Tantares and BDB?

[AlphaMensae]

Yep, that's the ironic thing about the Soyuz pad and Russian launch stand--you can't actually board a crew onto the spacecraft they were named/styled after.   It's the main reason I didn't make the main service arms (one of which has the crew elevator) for the Soyuz pad; since it was first made for my Soyuz, why bother spending the time on something that couldn't actually be used for its intended purpose?  I included one for the Russian Launch Stand mainly for looks, but it can be used with non-fairing manned pods.  In v1.3 of MLP, the crew elevator can be either turned off or not attached.

Boarding a manned spacecraft that are inside a fairing would require a special fairing, most likely a rigid 2-piece clamshell type, not a procedural one, that had a "hole" in one spot or side that would go over where the crew hatch was located.  I don't think there are any like that available; I'll ask Beale to see if he could make one for Tantares, otherwise I might try to make my own.

You can also do a "boarding" by attaching a small comnand pod, crew cabin or habitation module to something like a panel that is attached somewhere on the the deck of the Soyuz launch pad or the side of the Russian launch stand.  Have the Kerbals board that, then do a crew transfer to the spacecraft.

[Sokol_323]

Thanks for the answer. In the fashion of SDHI Service Module System https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/48073-13-sdhi-service-module-system-v324-18-june-2017/ there is a fairing with a hatch that allows get into the command module. However, this mod is not updated to version 1.4.2 and accordingly does not support the Mk 1-3 command module and is oriented only to Mk 1-2. The mod works in 1.4.2., However the hatch in the fairing does not match the location of the hatch in the module Mk 1-3. I tried using kraft, assembled using parts from this mod, with the Saturn pad. In order for the hatch to coincide with the ladder for the crew, it is necessary to turn the rocket to a certain angle and thus to select its position relative to the launch tower. With replicas of spaceships such as Vostok from stock components, we have to use fairings. Therefore, it is not possible to use the elevator for the crew. I'll try to use your advice and move the crew to the command module from any module attached to the launch pad.

[AlphaMensae]

A spacecraft like the Soyuz (and Vostok) would need a customized 2-piece clamshell payload-type fairing, and not one designed for conical capsule like the Mk1-2/3 and Apollo.

You could also simply not build the fairing, leaving the spacecraft exposed, but that may not be a good idea.