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

[Barzon]

I just had an awesome idea! Would it be possible for you to make a capsule, decoupler and heat shield in this style? So the Space Tug could be used as an advanced ipper stage/ service module?

[Orbital_phoenix]

8 minutes ago, Barzon Kerman said:

I just had an awesome idea! Would it be possible for you to make a capsule, decoupler and heat shield in this style? So the Space Tug could be used as an advanced ipper stage/ service module?

Decoupler is on the list, but capsule and heat shield I think is outside of the current scope for this mod, maybe after release I might work on one if I find the time. But I think the Bluedog Design Bureau Apollo parts work well alongside this mod, and can function in the same roles with the same style.

[MaverickSawyer]

Second the suggestion of using BDB Apollo. The style is pretty much identical, and you get an absolute boatload of other parts as well.

[Pappystein]

I will third the motion on the Floor Visa-V using BDB + Integrated Phoenix....   The Motion carries

 

[Barzon]

I tried to do that, with an extremely trimmed down version of BDB, literally just with the capule and heat shield with decoupler, but it didn't work, so I asked here.

[Orbital_phoenix]

On 1/20/2019 at 7:42 PM, Barzon Kerman said:

I tried to do that, with an extremely trimmed down version of BDB, literally just with the capule and heat shield with decoupler, but it didn't work, so I asked here.

Does the style not work with the Apollo capsule, or is there technical reason?

 

also the space tug lunar base is coming together

 

[Barzon]

3 hours ago, Orbital_phoenix said:

Does the style not work with the Apollo capsule, or is there technical reason?

Technical reason, I think I deleted a texture file accidentally. I will try again, and report back.

Also that space tug lunar base looks awesome! I really like the look of the antenna! They could have some very good applications for interplanetary craft.

Opening KSP now...

Edited January 22, 2019 by Barzon Kerman

[Barzon]

Sorry for the delay in reply.

The Kane capsule fits perfectly with this!

[Invaderchaos]

I don’t know if this is a stupid question or not, but will the latest release work in 1.5.1? I understand there’s a previous release for 1.5 on  the GitHub, but there are so many cool things you’ve added in the latest release. If it doesn’t work for 1.5, I guess I’ll just settle for the previous release and/or wait till I find enough time to update all my mods to work on 1.6. Great looking mod though! 

[Orbital_phoenix]

5 hours ago, Invaderchaos said:

I don’t know if this is a stupid question or not, but will the latest release work in 1.5.1? I understand there’s a previous release for 1.5 on  the GitHub, but there are so many cool things you’ve added in the latest release. If it doesn’t work for 1.5, I guess I’ll just settle for the previous release and/or wait till I find enough time to update all my mods to work on 1.6. Great looking mod though! 

Not a stupid question at all, I'm still using the part exporter from before that version currently if it makes a difference, so I can't see any issues with the latest update with earlier versions. I've only found issues with versions 1.3.x and before that might create issues, but 1.5.1 should be completely fine.

[Pappystein]

On 2/5/2019 at 11:01 AM, Invaderchaos said:

I don’t know if this is a stupid question or not, but will the latest release work in 1.5.1? I understand there’s a previous release for 1.5 on  the GitHub, but there are so many cool things you’ve added in the latest release. If it doesn’t work for 1.5, I guess I’ll just settle for the previous release and/or wait till I find enough time to update all my mods to work on 1.6. Great looking mod though! 

it also seems to work in 1.6.1 aswell

[tater]

This is not strictly speaking the tug, but it clearly shows some tug ancestry, so I thought you might find it interesting:

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3085/1

https://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/vab/vab-projects/hercules/

https://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/files/2018/10/2018-06-NASA-TM-2018-219839.pdf

The Dragon-like engine placement has a detachable capsule on top as a Mars Ascent Vehicle (also a lunar version with a lot of commonality, see the PDF) that can detach/abort.

Some of the images have engines in shields that look just like the tug.

Yet another paper:

https://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/files/2018/10/2017-08-AIAA-2017-5288-Official-Paper.pdf

The craft is 5.99m diameter so the closest in KSP would be 3.75m (it's big). Still, saw it, and immediately thought of this thread.

[Scorpiodude]

On 2/6/2019 at 8:33 PM, tater said:

-snip-

Thank you so much for introducing me to this. It makes more sense then the brown triangle because of its ability to abort at all times and its modular construction.

[Orbital_phoenix]

Just giving a progress update:

The next update is going to be delayed for a little while, while I work on a new exciting system for my mod development. I'm now moving my entire texture pipeline from just Photoshop, over to Substance Designer, and Substance Painter. The key idea for this is to move a lot of my texture work over to procedural materials. Most of the work I was doing in Photoshop was very repetitive and time consuming, with Substance Designer I can create pre-made materials that be edited and changed to suit each model, while taking the time consuming aspects away from texture making. So, currently all part work is on hold while I work on building up a material library to use with my parts, I am still learning and experimenting so the early work probably will be bad at first, then improve with experience.  

 

Experimented here a bit with normal's and specular, it's very overpowering and a little off-putting but interesting to see the effects small things like bumps in the normal maps. This is very grungy and too strong contrast, but an interesting experiment of working out how realistic I want this to be while trying to fit it roughly with the KSP Style, by starting at the extreme end I can now dial back the effects to find the perfect middle ground.

 

 

The experiments continue, and will help me to learn more about material study and how to use Designer to create the textures I want.

 

Edited February 17, 2019 by Orbital_phoenix

[tater]

 

[Barzon]

I don't know if this might help:

http://nassp.sourceforge.net/wiki/Integrated_Manned_Programme 

There are loads of documents by Boeing and etc. on it at the bottom.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Barzon Kerman

[Pappystein]

12 hours ago, Barzon Kerman said:

I don't know if this might help:

http://nassp.sourceforge.net/wiki/Integrated_Manned_Programme 

There are loads of documents by Boeing and etc. on it at the bottom.

@Barzon Kerman most of those documents are for POST Apollo.  That is to say one of the myriad of proposals for the Space Shuttle.  Back in the negative Nixion years (he hated the idea of 'wasting money in space') a LOT of programs were restructured and had similar sounding names to disguise the extra funding being used on things the administration didn't really want.   Others, like the McDonald Douglas Big Gemini are talked about as if they are derivative from an earlier program.  The Big-G capsule would have been a complete re-engineering of the original Gemini capsule making it actually something new.    Same thing happened again 30 years later in the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet program... Besides general configuration, the two platforms have nothing in common except manufacturer.

 

But it is awesome to see a Navaho style Launch fully re-usable shuttle type program was thought of...=  

Also interesting to note that early on when NASA was looking for the most EFFICIENT Space Shuttle the HL-10 derived Lifting body was the most sought after design... Of-course it couldn't carry as much fuel as a slab sided shuttle so we got what we got.... Then they decided to remove the fuel from the Shuttle to an external tank....  Why didn't they go back to the MORE EFFICIENT HL-10?

 

Ok enough off topic

 

Oh and Speaking of Big Gemini and Phoenix Industries...

BDB for the engines and the Big-G parts, Stock for the Heatshield (so staged recovery can recover the SM)  RealChute because reasons, and Orbital Phoenix's tank and engine mount.    This is early in my career so I have not unlocked a docking port (Probe/Drogue or APAS/CAMBS) to place between the engines.  Solar panels are from Probes! Plus

 

That is The Galileo skybox/Sunflares ofMaar on the Galileo planet mod with all appropriate dependencies in a 2.5scale rescale.   The neat engine effect is stock to BDB courtesy JadeofMaar as well.

[Shadowmage]

On 2/17/2019 at 6:38 AM, Orbital_phoenix said:

Just giving a progress update:

As a fellow Substance user, feel free to hit me up with questions/etc.  I've been using it off-and-on for ~1 year now (more off, unfortunately), and find the methods that it provides for texturing to be so far beyond the normal standards (PS/Gimp), that there is no way I could ever go back.

I love the ability to slap a texture stack onto a model, tweak some layer masks, and have a nearly fully textured part with only ~10 minutes of work.  Granted, I'm using a 'Smart Material' setup (a preset group of regular Material layers/folders/etc) rather than going down the full Substance Designer Procedural Material route, but in the end the goal and use is very similar.

If interested in PBR textures/materials/shaders (e.g. Unity Standard shader), I would also urge you to check out Textures Unlimited (see signature for link), so as to unlock and take advantage of the full potential of Substance Painter, and Unity-PBR materials and shaders.

[Zorg]

@Orbital_phoenix On seeing this I felt disappointed... that I've not come across it earlier! Looks absolutely incredible! Thanks for pointing me in this direction. Always loved the alt history Apollo stuff in BDB and this adds quite of lot of interesting new possibilities to say the least.

[banditsan]

On 9/16/2018 at 10:10 AM, Jay The Amazing Toaster said:

Btw the tug works really well alongside the cormorant shuttle  

Which mod adds that Canada arm on your shuttle?

[Cheesecake]

On 3/12/2019 at 8:52 PM, banditsan said:

Which mod adds that Canada arm on your shuttle?

It`s from @Angel-125 KerbalActuators.

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

On 3/12/2019 at 12:52 PM, banditsan said:

Which mod adds that Canada arm on your shuttle?

 

On 3/13/2019 at 4:32 PM, Cheesecake said:

It`s from @Angel-125 KerbalActuators.

It's from the Cormorant Areonology dev version but it does require kerbal actuators to work.
 

[Barzon]

I don't know if this has been posted here before, but it is related:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20180004390.pdf

[Pappystein]

16 hours ago, Barzon Kerman said:

I don't know if this has been posted here before, but it is related:

I wonder if they just took the original Apollo proposals for the Moon and applied them to Mars with the new technology (it looks whiz bang better than that old crap.) 

 

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Currently testing out a restock version with some LH2 patches for the nerv engine of the nerva shuttle in the meantime...