[.19 PARTS] JebCorp M-209 SPHERE ball probe system

[dishycourier]

Sweet mod, love the probe. Sadly moving it around by rolling doesn't work too well in lower gravity; it tends to kind of flip up into the air.

I think it's partially due to the position of the SAS unit. I don't think the center of mass is correct. Test runs ended with me kart-wheeling on the mun. For more fun, strap some landing legs to it and go pinwheeling!

I find that the roll is better to use than yaw/pitch.

[Lazurkri]

I accidentally landed it in the water outside of the KSC, stuck it on its side and throttled up. 60 meter wall of water chased behind before the engine ripped off:-D

I'll look into making it a little more maneuverable in the water. I've been having waaaayyyyy too much fun with this.

Lolz. Now all we need is for it to make a squeaky toy noise when bouncing off stuff and the funs complete

[CAPFlyer]

To be honest the only thing I'm disappointed about is that I can't fit it into the aeroshell package so that I can not only have the fun of bouncing but that I can also have the fun of giving it a wild ride through the atmosphere or at least having a parachute attached.

BTW, have you considered adding the reenty effects to this? The probe is perfect for it as it will be for the film canisters.

[dishycourier]

To be honest the only thing I'm disappointed about is that I can't fit it into the aeroshell package so that I can not only have the fun of bouncing but that I can also have the fun of giving it a wild ride through the atmosphere or at least having a parachute attached.

BTW, have you considered adding the reenty effects to this? The probe is perfect for it as it will be for the film canisters.

The size is my own attention to detail. The ball was originally conceived as 50cm or 75cm, but I wasn't paying attention when I started cutting it up. I'm planning a parachute cap, some camera adjustments, and some animations in Unity. The film canister version will be smaller, darker, and have a more "intel agency" look to it. The science kit will be replaced with a parachute and the engine will be replaced with a single nozzle. I've got about 30 parts completed in all-around stuff, completing a few more for the spysat (when not playing Borderlands 2, add me on Steam if you want, PM me for an add). I'm looking to get into Unity this week, and I'll probably be asking some of the regulars for some input on that as well. If everyone wouldn't mind sharing this week what they either loved or hated about the probe, this would help me tweak both civ and military versions as I go.

[CAPFlyer]

Sounds like you about have everything I was looking for covered. Can't wait to get time to launch a fleet of these.

Also, any chance of adjusting a part or a suggestion on what part I could use for the "antenna" for RemoteTech? That is one of the things I can't do without anymore.

[dishycourier]

Sounds like you about have everything I was looking for covered. Can't wait to get time to launch a fleet of these.

Also, any chance of adjusting a part or a suggestion on what part I could use for the "antenna" for RemoteTech? That is one of the things I can't do without anymore.

Damn. That's something I hadn't thought about. I'll do another set of sections with various kits and distinct (enough) looks. What should the range be? Antenna or dish? Do you want a micro-dish, whip antenna, duckie?

(Note to self, reconfigure Spertnik to have antennas for RC)

[Aescwulf]

Dishy I'm loving your ball probe at the moment I'm having fun of going into orbit and then making it fall to Kerbin at high speeds then switch to on board camera to see what it's like to fall from space.

And currently have one orbiting Kerbin to have a look at stuff that's far away ( it's strapped to the rocket with duct tape because its hard to orientate the probe without anything else attached )

[Aletus]

Dishy, would it be possible for you to make a spherical outershell design with connection points on each hexagonal part that the sphere is built from. For the connection points, you would mainly use for shock absorbing parts when landing at high speeds.

For moving the sphere, you could use rover inside it, making it much faster on straight than with the pod's gyro.

You could also have hollow honeycomb-like parts to put cameras inside for 360 view.

Edited October 1, 2012 by Aletus

[CAPFlyer]

Aletus - I think that's overcomplicating it and making it much harder to put together. More nodes = more mess.

Dishy - I would say probably 2 comm packages are good. One long range with a microdish for the deep-space missions and one shorter range with an antenna. Make it though so both can be on the probe because there may be times where you need both on missions (like if you have a local relay network setup on Duna, you'll still need the microdish to get there because the UHF whip doesn't have the range).

[Aletus]

http://youtu.be/EHHBWcE_D_E

You can comfortably crash the probe with a long structural beams attached to it. Just make sure you aim straight down.

The beam that I used is "Probodobodyne DYI Kit Strut"

Anyway, great probe.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Aletus

[dishycourier]

I've sent the RC kit to my tester and we'll see what he comes up with. No real model change yet, just a spike antenna and some conduit lines. I guess I'll be learning Unity this weekend. I've been putting it off long enough. I really do have a lot of stuff to animate and do normal maps for. As soon as the results come back from Sixteenbit, I'll incorporate changes into 1.01. I probably won't change the collider mesh, so the antennas will be functional but cosmetic.

What I'd really like to do is have an ISA mapping section. I had been playing with spysat sections that both map and photo, but the new version of ISA mapper will not work with anything but folders named ISA_Mapsat*, even if the module is correct.

[SciMan]

Question, would it be possible to have the engine use the Isp using LiquidFuelEngine module instead of the fuel-consumption using LiquidEngine module?

That way, instead of having 0.23 fuel consumption/second at full throttle, the engine would have like 750-1000s isp, or something like that

[dishycourier]

Question, would it be possible to have the engine use the Isp using LiquidFuelEngine module instead of the fuel-consumption using LiquidEngine module?

That way, instead of having 0.23 fuel consumption/second at full throttle, the engine would have like 750-1000s isp, or something like that

Sure. The only reason I did it with consumption is because I didn't do the math. I was shooting for a 1.5-2.1 TWR for the system. Much less for the film canister version.

[Lazurkri]

I was thinking that having some sorta inflatable "Shock Absorbing" airbag system would be great, as I'm currently focused on seeding Duna with probes and finding that Mechjeb sucks at landing properly....

[mrrpamplemousse]

I was thinking that having some sorta inflatable "Shock Absorbing" airbag system would be great, as I'm currently focused on seeding Duna with probes and finding that Mechjeb sucks at landing properly....

If it's radialy snaped, we can use this on other probe or rover.

[dishycourier]

If it's radialy snaped, we can use this on other probe or rover.

With a long list of other things, I'm looking into airbags and parachutes. I don't think I can do the bouncy type like the Mars rovers, but there has to be some way to do them. I will have to take a look at how the Prometheus rover does it and then consult them for tips.

Currently, my parachute is stuck deployed and does nothing. I've missed something in either the config or the model.

[Runescope]

If I can make a request, it's that I think it needs a special decoupler. It looks a little silly sitting on air with the standard one.

Beyond that, I don't have a lot of problems with it. I got it to the Mün with one SRB! lol

[Aescwulf]

If I can make a request, it's that I think it needs a special decoupler. It looks a little silly sitting on air with the standard one.

Beyond that, I don't have a lot of problems with it. I got it to the Mün with one SRB! lol

So have to try this

[CAPFlyer]

If I can make a request, it's that I think it needs a special decoupler. It looks a little silly sitting on air with the standard one.

Beyond that, I don't have a lot of problems with it. I got it to the Mün with one SRB! lol

If you have the Probodobodyne kit, it has an aeroshell decoupler that works pretty well. The areoshell decopuler from the Aeroshell pack works well too, as do several from the NovaPunch pack.

[mrrpamplemousse]

You can use the standard decopler and put strut and it gonna look better.

Edited October 2, 2012 by mrrpamplemousse

[Runescope]

Both excellent suggestions! It's purely aesthetics of course. lol

Oh, one other thing I just thought of. The categories should be adjusted with the fuel and thruster under Propulsion and the Instrument Kit under Utility and Scientific. It's not THAT important, it's just my CDO kicking in.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Runescope
A thought! My Kingdom for a thought!

[Bully056]

Reminds me of the BALL from the Mobile suit universe "hint hin nuge nuge"

[Tommygun]

OK, I have playing with the textures a bit.

[dishycourier]

@tommy, do a deathstar :-D

[dishycourier]

Incorporating a few fixes into 1.01.

Next release will also include the M-12 launch vehicle. Comes with an aeroshell coupler and fairing, by demand. 1.75m, capable of SSTO -- Maybe.

Spysat is on hold for the week. Hexagon has a rough shape though. Some fine tuning and I'll cut it up, complete with fairing. This weekend though you'll get M209 1.01.