simple stayputnik question

[GungaDin]

In order to test my interplanetary navigation without risking Kerbils I have managed to build a stayputnik probe complete with solar cells, communication gear and that wheel control thingie.  it works! But I just stuck it on top of a rocket with no shroud.  It makes it out of the atmosphere OK but just looks weird sitting there like an apple on a stick.  Can someone suggest a shroud part that would cover it and tell me how to mount it and eject the shroud?  Thanks.

[Superfluous J]

51 minutes ago, GungaDin said:

In order to test my interplanetary navigation without risking Kerbils I have managed to build a stayputnik probe complete with solar cells, communication gear and that wheel control thingie.  it works! But I just stuck it on top of a rocket with no shroud.  It makes it out of the atmosphere OK but just looks weird sitting there like an apple on a stick.  Can someone suggest a shroud part that would cover it and tell me how to mount it and eject the shroud?  Thanks.

Look in payloads for fairings.

[GungaDin]

I have an AEFF1.5 and an AEFF1 but how do you mount them?  I tried dropping them over the stayputnik but they don't seem to stick.

[Superfluous J]

2 minutes ago, GungaDin said:

I have an AEFF1.5 and an AEFF1 but how do you mount them?  I tried dropping them over the stayputnik but they don't seem to stick.

You put it under the thing you want to protect, like you would a decoupler. Then you kind of draw the faring up over what you're protecting by clicking. You can undo and even delete/restart if you don't like what you drew.

[Streetwind]

Note: the fairing base is not a decoupler in and of itself. First put an actual decoupler under your payload, then the fairing base below that. Generally, you want to use a fairing base that's larger than the decoupler you used, and larger than the payload; but in a pinch, a same-size fairing base will do. You just have to flare the shape of the fairing outwards.

Pay attention to the staging order, so that your fairing stages away before the decoupler that detaches the payload.

Edited November 7, 2019 by Streetwind

[Linkageless]

While assembling the fairing, if the writing goes orange it is indicating that it's clipping a part and won't let you set that bit of the fairing. In this case try a bit wider.

When you bring it together at the top it offers to 'close fairing' but again this is only possible when it is not clipping anything and the writing is green.

It is actually possible to close the fairing onto parts above, so its use is not limited to the top of a vessel.

[Foxster]

You might not need anything  - except for aesthetic reasons.

Fairings are fairly massive and draggy, especially if you get carried away and build larger than you really need. Except for complicated and large payloads, you may find that your craft gains little or nothing from the addition of a fairing.  

[GungaDin]

Thanks guys.  I did put a faring on and it looks sweet!  Even if it has no effect on my physics I'm keeping it.  I'm big on aesthetics for a rocketeer...

 

[Streetwind]

Personally, I often find myself gaining a lot from fairings.

Consider this tiny flyby probe, made from 0.625m parts, and launched by a 1.25m stack: https://imgur.com/a/BlOa0gw

It's a straight stack, with a pointy tip, and therefore should be properly slippy. Almost all the radially attached parts are physicsless (they add their mass and drag to the parent part, which in this case is in the straight, slippy stack). Only the two antennas aren't, and they're folded up during launch, which should reduce their drag profile significantly.

...And yet, without a fairing (and a conical adapter in its place), this thing is hell to fly. Any deviation from prograde whatsoever during max-Q instantly flips it, and it's not much more stable during other regimes either. In orbit, it always has a triple-digit number of dV less remaining than the variant with a fairing, as seen in the second picture. Even though that flares out quite a bit to handle the large dishes, and stretches up quite a bit to accomodate the flotation device, that variant flies like a dream and gets to orbit in a very fuel-efficient manner.

Most of my manned missions do not use fairings; indeed, I can recall only one manned launch from my last playthrough (a surface base designed to land on its side) that needed one. But by the same token, I find that most of my unmanned missions at minimum benefit from being enclosed, and sometimes outright require it.