[WIP][1.6.0] Integrated Phoenix Industries - Space Tug [v0.03]

[cyberKerb]

Great work on the modelling on the parts.

[linuxgurugamer]

Looks nice.  Following

[Barzon]

Is everything OK with life @Orbital_phoenix because there hasn't been a post on this thread for about a month now?

[Orbital_phoenix]

1 hour ago, Barzon Kerman said:

Is everything OK with life @Orbital_phoenix because there hasn't been a post on this thread for about a month now?

Everything all good , just been caught up with RL work and such, didn't even notice a month flying by.

Work still progressing as usual, just juggling time. The new models are quite complex and using my new pipe tools have caused some errors with the meshes which needs a good cleanup before texturing. I'll be doing a few days of work on the mod to catch up, so I'll have some lovely dev pictures on the new work at the weekend.

[Orbital_phoenix]

Bit late, but finally worked out the animations of antennas extending, which has stumped me for a few days. The texture is a temp one while I test the animation in Unity.

The antenna still needs a few more small tweaks to extend out a little bit more, but it is overdue for the texture work to begin. Once this is out of the way, the next step is to fix some of the meshes and textures with the existing parts, but these won't break any craft files. Then finally sort out the mass, costs, and fuel amounts in the cfg's to bring them up to quality and I think that will be the next update.

Edited July 3, 2018 by Orbital_phoenix

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

I am interested to see if there's been any progress to this so far in the past month, especially the nerva . But as always, no rush to these things since modding takes time and stuff.

[Phers]

happy to be a tester

[Orbital_phoenix]

Sorry about the lack of updates, just been swamped lately with work. But I have been able to put together a mini update of all the latest work with some much needed updates to the fuel. The target delta-V for the space tug with the large fuel tank and 4 engine mount is to be able to land and take off single stage from the Mun, so these new values try to represent this, but will still take a lot of testing to get right. 

 

v0.0.2

 

DOWNLOAD:

> https://github.com/OrbitalPhoenix/Integrated-Phoenix-Industries/releases/tag/v0.0.2 <

 

CHANGELOG:

- Added Medium Propellant Tank.
- Added 2x Engine Mount.
- Added Snacks! compatibility.
- Changed all part stock fuel, mass, and cost amounts to (hopefully) improved values.
- Changed crew module to hold 4 Kerbals.
- Moved 4x Engine mount nodes to be slightly more centred.
- Re-positioned crew module's IVA to be inline with the mesh.

 

[Orbital_phoenix]

On 8/1/2018 at 6:49 AM, Jay The Amazing Toaster said:

I am interested to see if there's been any progress to this so far in the past month, especially the nerva . But as always, no rush to these things since modding takes time and stuff.

Unfortunately not much work has been done on the NERVA at the moment, as I want to get the last bits of the space tug done and ready before committing to the very large project of the RNS and NERVA. But it is the very next thing afterwards and most of the initial work is done for the NERVA. So, once the space tug is wrapped up, the nuclear stuff shouldn't be too far behind .

 

22 hours ago, Phers said:

happy to be a tester

Awesome, any help is always appreciated.

Everything is still very early in development but any feedback is welcome as well.

[Scorpiodude]

I look forward to the nuclear tug.

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Btw the tug works really well alongside the cormorant shuttle  

[Saltshaker]

10 hours ago, Jay The Amazing Toaster said:

Btw the tug works really well alongside the cormorant shuttle  







 

 

Perhaps because the original Integrated Program Plan intended for the STS to bring the tug to orbit? 

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

On 9/16/2018 at 10:49 AM, Saltshaker said:

Perhaps because the original Integrated Program Plan intended for the STS to bring the tug to orbit? 

dang you right, I mean I knew that I just mean it works well with it in combination.
 

On 8/3/2018 at 5:46 AM, Orbital_phoenix said:

Sorry about the lack of updates, just been swamped lately with work. But I have been able to put together a mini update of all the latest work with some much needed updates to the fuel. The target delta-V for the space tug with the large fuel tank and 4 engine mount is to be able to land and take off single stage from the Mun, so these new values try to represent this, but will still take a lot of testing to get right.  

1

@Orbital_phoenix IMO instead of balancing for that, it should be balanced against BDB (since this mod is sort of meant to be used with it) (Which btw is balanced for 2.5x scale))

In that case, I think your tanks need a lot more LH2 as BDB's Centaur tanks greatly outperform.

The large propellant tank: Note the delta V difference.


BDB's tanks at roughly the same size



The BDB's tanks in this image hold about 2625 units of LH2 each, which with 5 tanks hold about 13125 units whereas your large tank holds only about 8066.

So going by these numbers the large tank should hold ~13125, and the medium tank (which is about 3 of the centaur tanks) should have ~7875 units of LH2. I have no idea about the 4x mount though as it seems kinda weird for it to be compared to any normal cylindrical tank.

PS. take your time with the update lmao

[Foxxonius Augustus]

I feel like this and other Bluedog-alike mods need to get featured in the BDB OP @CobaltWolf Sort of a  'Blue Dog Seal of Approval' section or something If nothing else it would cut down on the 'Hey can you make a BDB version of X' posts...

[Orbital_phoenix]

(Obligatory not dead post hehe)

Work progresses ever onwards. Sorry it's taking so long, I've been improving my modeling workflow as well, so I hope I can start improving the quality of my models, but this has the unfortunate side effect of doubling the amount of time to UV and texture, but oh well. 

Here's a snap of all the new parts that are coming in the next planned update. 

These are, going clockwise from the middle top: Payload Mount, RCS Module, Radiator Kit, Navigation Light, Antenna Kit, and Manipulator Module for all your claw related needs.

The manipulator module for now is going to work like the stock claw, so you can use it to clamp on any vessel.

 

On 9/23/2018 at 3:59 AM, Jay The Amazing Toaster said:

dang you right, I mean I knew that I just mean it works well with it in combination.
 

@Orbital_phoenix IMO instead of balancing for that, it should be balanced against BDB (since this mod is sort of meant to be used with it) (Which btw is balanced for 2.5x scale))

In that case, I think your tanks need a lot more LH2 as BDB's Centaur tanks greatly outperform.

The large propellant tank: Note the delta V difference.

(snip)

BDB's tanks at roughly the same size

(snip)

The BDB's tanks in this image hold about 2625 units of LH2 each, which with 5 tanks hold about 13125 units whereas your large tank holds only about 8066.

So going by these numbers the large tank should hold ~13125, and the medium tank (which is about 3 of the centaur tanks) should have ~7875 units of LH2. I have no idea about the 4x mount though as it seems kinda weird for it to be compared to any normal cylindrical tank.

PS. take your time with the update lmao

Good idea about the balancing, and thanks for the numbers. I'll sort out the tank amounts for the next update to reflect the BDB ones, as that makes a lot of sense.

 

I also got some lovely screenshots from playing around with all the beauty mods:

Edited November 4, 2018 by Orbital_phoenix

[CobaltWolf]

Ermgosh

[theonegalen]

Gorgeous.

I need a new computer.

[Orbital_phoenix]

As a side note, I made this texture breakdown sheet a while ago to show how I textured the crew module. A little sneak peak of how I went about making it.

Hopefully someone will find it interesting. 

Edited November 5, 2018 by Orbital_phoenix

[Jesusthebird]

A great looking Orbital Tug I didnt have to design?aaaaaand its downloaded  Thanks for this lol. looks awesome!!

[BRAAAP_STUTUTU]

Is there already a cargo bay for the space tug? or like a small cargo compartement to put some sciene modules or other small utilities in?

nevermind, I just realized the intelligence module has those

Edited November 7, 2018 by BRAAAP_STUTUTU

[Pappystein]

On 11/4/2018 at 3:06 PM, Orbital_phoenix said:

Good idea about the balancing, and thanks for the numbers. I'll sort out the tank amounts for the next update to reflect the BDB ones, as that makes a lot of sense.

 

 

 

 

 

So Just saw this and wanted to say...  One thing to consider is the BDB tanks are designed to work with Centaur... Which is an Insulated Balloon tank design.  Your tank is a Structural truss with tanks inside it and thus will have less volume.   BUT because there are multiple BDB tanks for each of your singular tanks I think the numbers that the BDB Centaur-T/G tanks provide will be just SLIGHTLY too high.   Maybe drop those numbers by 5%?  If it was a singular BDB balloon tank vs your tank I would say the number would need to be cut by 20% or more.

[Orbital_phoenix]

4 hours ago, Pappystein said:

So Just saw this and wanted to say...  One thing to consider is the BDB tanks are designed to work with Centaur... Which is an Insulated Balloon tank design.  Your tank is a Structural truss with tanks inside it and thus will have less volume.   BUT because there are multiple BDB tanks for each of your singular tanks I think the numbers that the BDB Centaur-T/G tanks provide will be just SLIGHTLY too high.   Maybe drop those numbers by 5%?  If it was a singular BDB balloon tank vs your tank I would say the number would need to be cut by 20% or more.

Also good idea, I like to think that because they would not be dedicated fuel tanks as they are part of the vehicle, they wouldn't completely consist of fuel tanks, have to make room for electronics and piping. So I agree with the percentage differences. I think it would be closer to the Apollo service module levels but with a higher fuel content.

 

I've now finished the navigational lights for the space tug, and with KS3P, does look nice.

 

Work is also progressing on the claw

Edited November 8, 2018 by Orbital_phoenix

[Gordon Dry]

After I watched "Mars Direct in a Nutshell" I watched "THE MARS UNDERGROUND" - now I think the space tug could be combined with "Mars Direct" aka. "Duna Direct" to achieve the "Mars Semi-Direct Mission" aka. "Design Reference Mission" ...

[Barzon]

I used to use BDB, but had to stop using it sadly. Would it be possible for you, @Orbital_phoenix, to add a part variant for the stock 1.25m docking port that has matching textures? 

[Orbital_phoenix]

12 hours ago, Barzon Kerman said:

I used to use BDB, but had to stop using it sadly. Would it be possible for you, @Orbital_phoenix, to add a part variant for the stock 1.25m docking port that has matching textures? 

Yup, on my to-do list. Alongside 2.5m low profile docking rings for mixing and matching space tug modules.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Orbital_phoenix