[0.19] Station Kit Mark 2! Large single launch station (in a box!) on Jool V rocket.

[Colonel_Panic]

You have to break it open like a Terry's Chocolate Orange.

Or, clip the camera into the ass-end of the 'box' stage. At the very back, you'll see a long truss with a docking node. Decouple the node, then use RCS and the sheath should come right off.

A couple of other notes: If you're using RemoteTech, you'll have to add antennas to the tugboat. Look for the big cluster of cylindrical monotanks inside, where the ASAS unit is at the end. That's the tug. Also, it has no batteries so consider adding some.

I did figure it out in the end, but even after decoupling the docking port the darn thing just didn't want to let go. I ended up burning a ton of rcs fuel and spent a lot of time thrashing the station back and forth and twisting it until it finally broke free. I also discovered the lack of battery in the tug when I undocked it after sunset... thankfully it didn't drift far before morning.

Assembling this thing is a real challenge and big undertaking. I love it. I think I'm better at docking already.

[Colonel_Panic]

I dub thee, "Lagasaurus Wrecks". Seriously, I get like 4 FPS with this.

What kind of system do you have? this is honestly one of the less laggy ships I've put in orbit.

[Frostiken]

Two GTX-680s and an i7 3770k. Don't ask me what's causing the poor framerates, my CPU only hits about 30% and my GPU doesn't even sound like it's under any stress at all.

After I ditched the 'box' the framerates greatly improved.

Assembling this thing is a real challenge and big undertaking. I love it. I think I'm better at docking already.

I'm not sure it's actually humanly possible to dock the escape capsules without the aid of mechjeb. If you did it with just raw controls, my hats off to you, sir. I spent like five minutes with that ****ing capsule on the end whirling it around trying to get it lined up. I thought Mechjeb might have major problems with the lack of translation but it docked it without any effort.

Waiting for my next pass around Kerbin when I'm over mission control so the tugboat will work again (RemoteTech) now so I can move the other capsule and then attach the power systems.

BTW regarding the sheath - the first time I took it off it had no problems, but then I found it needed some modifications so I terminated the flight and put a few improvements into it. The next time I had the same issue, where it was bound up on something. The best fix, actually, was to kind of twist the station around, then then enter warp. The sheath clipped right through the station and when it was clear, I took off warp and everything went great.

Edited May 27, 2013 by Frostiken

[Colonel_Panic]

Two GTX-680s and an i7 3770k. Don't ask me what's causing the poor framerates, my CPU only hits about 30% and my GPU doesn't even sound like it's under any stress at all.

After I ditched the 'box' the framerates greatly improved.

I'm not sure it's actually humanly possible to dock the escape capsules without the aid of mechjeb. If you did it with just raw controls, my hats off to you, sir. I spent like five minutes with that ****ing capsule on the end whirling it around trying to get it lined up. I thought Mechjeb might have major problems with the lack of translation but it docked it without any effort.

Waiting for my next pass around Kerbin when I'm over mission control so the tugboat will work again (RemoteTech) now so I can move the other capsule and then attach the power systems.

BTW regarding the sheath - the first time I took it off it had no problems, but then I found it needed some modifications so I terminated the flight and put a few improvements into it. The next time I had the same issue, where it was bound up on something. The best fix, actually, was to kind of twist the station around, then then enter warp. The sheath clipped right through the station and when it was clear, I took off warp and everything went great.

Nice, yeah, KSP isn't very GPU intensive. Do you have 8+ gigs of RAM? I'd suggest upgrading if not since KSP likes to have a full 4 to itself. Other than that you might try turning off hyperthreading on your 3770k. I have a 3930k and with HT off I clock around 4 GHz and KSP seems to run well for the most part, never using more than about 18% CPU (1 core), especially since the last update. I get maybe 16fps with this launcher. (though as low as 2-3 with my Ambition-class frigate... absurd part and node counts, ho!)

I have MJ on the main capsule, but did not think to add one to the tug. That said, a couple early difficulties notwithstanding (the main capsule is heavy and tends to cause RCS thrash with the ASAS or MJ on) getting the rest into place was pretty straightforward, if time consuming, without MJ. The trick with pretty much everything, especially the escape pods, is to attach the tug to a free docking port and then 'control from here' the docking port on the part you wish to attach, then just stay in chase camera mode and control it as if you're docking the part with a tug attached, rather than the tug with a part attached. IFR works pretty well if you just eyeball it to get as close to parallel as possible, then nudge (using precision controls) it gently in translation, slow enough for the internal gyros to keep up and keep it pointing the right way under ASAS. Also, it's easier to attach the hub with attached command module to the box end with the rest of the parts, than to attach the box end to the hub and command module. Just pop it off, twist, switch to control from the docking port, and guide it on.

EDIT: I got it all assembled!

Hardest part was chasing down the box and dragging it back over to the station to reattach it after all was said and done. You have no translation with the thing thanks to all your RCS being at the very end of your moment of inertia, and it had drifted away by around 3km by the time I got around to it... next time will have to see if I ca reattach it somewhere temporarily while working ont he rest of the station... if there is a next time. That was hard, and took probably an hour and a half all told to assemble.

Edited May 27, 2013 by Colonel_Panic

[Mulbin]

I managed (through cheating because I'm impatient and didn't want to spend another hour refueling the thing in LKO at 1 in the morning) to get the station into munar orbit. I'm trying to figure out how to remove the cover over the station parts. I figured out that stage 1 activates one of the escape pods and while it gets the cover off it destroys the dock on the end of the spire. Where do I click to decouple this thing?

I completely forgot to set a hotkey - right click the port and undock!

I dub thee, "Lagasaurus Wrecks". Seriously, I get like 4 FPS with this.

Very odd with your system specs, runs fine on my old geforce 260 with my amd bulldozer and 8 gig of cheap ram but in about half speed slo-mo at launch (I put delta time slider fully to right), speeding up to smooth full speed in orbit.

I'm not sure it's actually humanly possible to dock the escape capsules without the aid of mechjeb. If you did it with just raw controls, my hats off to you, sir. I spent like five minutes with that ****ing capsule on the end whirling it around trying to get it lined up. I thought Mechjeb might have major problems with the lack of translation but it docked it without any effort.

I never use mechjeb - make sure you are setting "control from here" to the correct docking port!

I got it all assembled!

Hardest part was chasing down the box and dragging it back over to the station to reattach it after all was said and done. You have no translation with the thing thanks to all your RCS being at the very end of your moment of inertia, and it had drifted away by around 3km by the time I got around to it... next time will have to see if I ca reattach it somewhere temporarily while working ont he rest of the station... if there is a next time. That was hard, and took probably an hour and a half all told to assemble.

Great! Glad to hear it was a challenge, it's supposed to be! When attaching the cover it sometimes helps to switch to the station and rotate that instead.

[Mulbin]

Also colonel... once completed did the tug get stuck on the end of the station? It's a known bug and I have a thread for it here....

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/28438-0-19-1-Docking-ports-set-to-disabled-after-connecting-Save-file-included

[Colonel_Panic]

Also colonel... once completed did the tug get stuck on the end of the station? It's a known bug and I have a thread for it here....

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/28438-0-19-1-Docking-ports-set-to-disabled-after-connecting-Save-file-included

Nope, I actually went back and undocked it after I took that picture and moved it to the other side, to offset the balance a bit better.

[evilC]

Was lying in bed last night and a crazy plan came into my head that maybe could make use of the box.

Imagine you have scattered mining operations on the mun, but you want to stockpile resources at one central location. How about this central location has a giant funnel (Made from the box) and you simply shoot payloads from the mining rig into the funnel.

Payload vehicles would be covered in wheels (all sides), so as it goes down funnel, you hold brakes to slow it down. Wheels of the payload could be mounted on something bendy and protruding, to let them push against walls of tunnel for traction.

I reckon you could test it on kerbin, launcher on runway - catcher on launch pad.

[Colonel_Panic]

Was lying in bed last night and a crazy plan came into my head that maybe could make use of the box.

Imagine you have scattered mining operations on the mun, but you want to stockpile resources at one central location. How about this central location has a giant funnel (Made from the box) and you simply shoot payloads from the mining rig into the funnel.

Payload vehicles would be covered in wheels (all sides), so as it goes down funnel, you hold brakes to slow it down. Wheels of the payload could be mounted on something bendy and protruding, to let them push against walls of tunnel for traction.

I reckon you could test it on kerbin, launcher on runway - catcher on launch pad.

you could call it the explode-o-matic.

[Bigred2989]

Was lying in bed last night and a crazy plan came into my head that maybe could make use of the box.

Imagine you have scattered mining operations on the mun, but you want to stockpile resources at one central location. How about this central location has a giant funnel (Made from the box) and you simply shoot payloads from the mining rig into the funnel.

Payload vehicles would be covered in wheels (all sides), so as it goes down funnel, you hold brakes to slow it down. Wheels of the payload could be mounted on something bendy and protruding, to let them push against walls of tunnel for traction.

I reckon you could test it on kerbin, launcher on runway - catcher on launch pad.

Sounds like a concept I read in "The High Frontier" by Gerard K. O'Neill

[linkxsc]

Just to say, love this stationkit here.

More then just a little annoying to put together stock. After about an hour of dicking around, I built a launcher that carried 4 little tug probes up and was finally able to finish the thing.

Then I tried it with mechjeb and well in its stock configuration, there isn't enough RCS fuel for all the thrusting that MJ does.

Ended up making a modified version of it that carries 2 tugs into orbit, which makes maneuvering everything around about 1,000,000 times easier. Also it drags up 2 large RCS tanks.

Last but not least was adding a hotkey to disengage the box because on my computer I don't really have the power to try and look beneath the hull for the right docking ring.

All in all though, great little project. I ended up taking 2 of them and building them together, and have been stockpiling lots and lots of RCS and fuel tanks.

The box is great for storing all the tug probes I have and the couple spaceplanes I've been using the ferry the large RCS tanks, (still trying to come up with one that can bring a full red tank into orbit, without exploding on the way back down)

And well once I get a bit more fuel up there, I'll start sending up parts for the large ship I'm planning to build.

Cheers

[Bigred2989]

Just to say, love this stationkit here.

More then just a little annoying to put together stock. After about an hour of dicking around, I built a launcher that carried 4 little tug probes up and was finally able to finish the thing.

Then I tried it with mechjeb and well in its stock configuration, there isn't enough RCS fuel for all the thrusting that MJ does.

Ended up making a modified version of it that carries 2 tugs into orbit, which makes maneuvering everything around about 1,000,000 times easier. Also it drags up 2 large RCS tanks.

Last but not least was adding a hotkey to disengage the box because on my computer I don't really have the power to try and look beneath the hull for the right docking ring.

All in all though, great little project. I ended up taking 2 of them and building them together, and have been stockpiling lots and lots of RCS and fuel tanks.

The box is great for storing all the tug probes I have and the couple spaceplanes I've been using the ferry the large RCS tanks, (still trying to come up with one that can bring a full red tank into orbit, without exploding on the way back down)

And well once I get a bit more fuel up there, I'll start sending up parts for the large ship I'm planning to build.

Cheers

With mechjeb it's a good idea to turnon the RCS balancer. That said I do agree that it's hard to control the probe without mechjeb since it only has one ring of thrusters and is somewhat imbalanced. The docking autopilot gets around this very easily. Also, by the time I finished unpacking everything the cover had drifted over 30km away so I ended up launching a new ship to catch and retrieved it. Next thing I need to do is add new fuel tanks to the station because I had to use every drop to retrieve the shell.

[linkxsc]

With mechjeb it's a good idea to turnon the RCS balancer. That said I do agree that it's hard to control the probe without mechjeb since it only has one ring of thrusters and is somewhat imbalanced. The docking autopilot gets around this very easily. Also, by the time I finished unpacking everything the cover had drifted over 30km away so I ended up launching a new ship to catch and retrieved it. Next thing I need to do is add new fuel tanks to the station because I had to use every drop to retrieve the shell.

Honestly after having a pair of probes attached to everything (so you have a good balanced load you're moving) it's actually not too hard to do stuff manually anymore.

When doing my current rendition though (2 stations built into 1) I actually cheated a bit and had the 2 shells docked to eachother then docked those to an unused part of one of the stations while working. Surprisingly having 2 tugs actually saves a massive amount of RCS fuel as well (less fuel wasted making roll corrections).

At its existing size though I can't use the main station ASAS though because it starts to twitch violently back and forth, and rather have to manually stop its rotation and such. My next step, I'm gonna rip off the comm antenna part, and mount a set of RCS thrusters to each one (prolly just a large RCS tank with 4 thrusters and 2 docking ports, and an SAS mod) then stick the antenna on top of those. That should make it a little more stable and less twitchy while running ASAS. Nothings more annoying while docking then a slow roll with the docking port you're aiming for running away from you.

Gladly now though with the 60 large RCS fuel tanks, and 70 800 sized fuel tanks attached to it, even if I bump into the station at fairly high speed it doesn't start rolling much or move.

Wonder though, whats a good way to build like a catching system. Was thinking like a shell addon thats fairly large. Rather then building my fuel tanks to have large amounts of mobility for guiding them in. Could just have minor guidance to them. Aim to hit the shell with them and have that buffer their speed. Then use a tug to pull them out and put them where they belong.

[Colonel_Panic]

With mechjeb it's a good idea to turnon the RCS balancer. That said I do agree that it's hard to control the probe without mechjeb since it only has one ring of thrusters and is somewhat imbalanced. The docking autopilot gets around this very easily. Also, by the time I finished unpacking everything the cover had drifted over 30km away so I ended up launching a new ship to catch and retrieved it. Next thing I need to do is add new fuel tanks to the station because I had to use every drop to retrieve the shell.

I've never had luck with RCS balancer. It always seems to cause even more thrash, wobble and instability, waste fuel faster, and end up being counter-productive.

I wouldn't use MJ for fine docking like this. These ships and parts are so small you do better on your own. Line it up visually -close enough- and then turn on precision controls with capslock and do your translation nice and slow and easy. I managed to assemble the entire station using less than 2 round RCS tanks worth of fuel. LOADS to spare, not even counting the RCS fuel pods that come with it.

[Bigred2989]

Honestly after having a pair of probes attached to everything (so you have a good balanced load you're moving) it's actually not too hard to do stuff manually anymore.

When doing my current rendition though (2 stations built into 1) I actually cheated a bit and had the 2 shells docked to eachother then docked those to an unused part of one of the stations while working. Surprisingly having 2 tugs actually saves a massive amount of RCS fuel as well (less fuel wasted making roll corrections).

At its existing size though I can't use the main station ASAS though because it starts to twitch violently back and forth, and rather have to manually stop its rotation and such. My next step, I'm gonna rip off the comm antenna part, and mount a set of RCS thrusters to each one (prolly just a large RCS tank with 4 thrusters and 2 docking ports, and an SAS mod) then stick the antenna on top of those. That should make it a little more stable and less twitchy while running ASAS. Nothings more annoying while docking then a slow roll with the docking port you're aiming for running away from you.

Gladly now though with the 60 large RCS fuel tanks, and 70 800 sized fuel tanks attached to it, even if I bump into the station at fairly high speed it doesn't start rolling much or move.

Wonder though, whats a good way to build like a catching system. Was thinking like a shell addon thats fairly large. Rather then building my fuel tanks to have large amounts of mobility for guiding them in. Could just have minor guidance to them. Aim to hit the shell with them and have that buffer their speed. Then use a tug to pull them out and put them where they belong.

All that energy is going to transfer into the station and flip it. I had the tug bump into the solar panels by accident and nearly lost control of the station as a result.

[linkxsc]

I've never had luck with RCS balancer. It always seems to cause even more thrash, wobble and instability, waste fuel faster, and end up being counter-productive.

I wouldn't use MJ for fine docking like this. These ships and parts are so small you do better on your own. Line it up visually -close enough- and then turn on precision controls with capslock and do your translation nice and slow and easy. I managed to assemble the entire station using less than 2 round RCS tanks worth of fuel. LOADS to spare, not even counting the RCS fuel pods that come with it.

WHAT, theres a capslock controlled thingy..... DA HELL.

[Bigred2989]

WHAT, theres a capslock controlled thingy..... DA HELL.

Yes. You press caps lock and the arrows on the left turn blue and will travel slower so you don't apply too much force in one direction.

[intidragon]

I omitted all space station parts and left the engines and renamed it the "Mulbinar Lifting System" if that's alright with you. I'm sorry but I couldn't resist. . . but after seeing your projects, I wanna restart KSP all over again and just use the Kethane mod. I feel like I've been playing the game wrong all this time. I really want to learn more on how to build things that look and function as cool as these. Please release a guide. . . and I'll follow every word.

[Mulbin]

I omitted all space station parts and left the engines and renamed it the "Mulbinar Lifting System" if that's alright with you. I'm sorry but I couldn't resist. . . but after seeing your projects, I wanna restart KSP all over again and just use the Kethane mod. I feel like I've been playing the game wrong all this time. I really want to learn more on how to build things that look and function as cool as these. Please release a guide. . . and I'll follow every word.

Lol glad it is useful! I generally call it a Jool V Rocket (after the Saturn V)... if you want a version with three stages instead of two there is this version.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/28073-0-20-UPDATED-LANDER!-Munbug-VI-Apollo-CSM-Lander-Buggy-Jool-V-Rocket!

[Inphered]

Can I ask, since I'm thinking of doing something similar and then say your post, how did you go about making the box?

Sorry for the dumb question, but I'm sick and really new at this lol

[Mulbin]

Can I ask, since I'm thinking of doing something similar and then say your post, how did you go about making the box?

Sorry for the dumb question, but I'm sick and really new at this lol

The easiest way to understand the construction would be to download the craft and have a look at it in your VAB. Basically it is made up of smaller panels.