Using the Clamp O Tron Sr to Make HUGE Interplanetary Yachts

[ComradeGoat]

My Yacht is now safely in orbit around Tylo. No, I'm not going down there; it's scary!

[Marohen]

A heavily iterated, 3-part yacht. All it requires is a payload before it's ready to head off on adventure!

As you can imagine, I did some pretty dubious work with the "Tail", clipping 3 orange tanks like that in a tight cluster (I'd have done something a fair measure more legitimate if the stock parts came with a 2-meter tri-coupler, but this will suffice for now).

This particular model hasn't undergone any manner of rigorous testing yet, earlier models lacked sufficient fuel, hence the tail-tastrophe-waiting-to-happen. There might be an issue with crossfeeding (Or lack thereof) that I have yet to test.

Quite wobble-prone with SAS, sadly. Hopefully 0.21'll fix it.

[TMS]

^ nothing wrong with part-clipping, man. Looks good.

[SDIR]

Looks even better with the clipped parts. Right now I have a large interplanetary ship that is ready for deployment, just that I have 2 ASAS units on it, so it wobbles like crazy whenever I turn on the SAS system, so I'll mostly be waiting for 0.21 to come out before launching it.

[Marohen]

Looks even better with the clipped parts. Right now I have a large interplanetary ship that is ready for deployment, just that I have 2 ASAS units on it, so it wobbles like crazy whenever I turn on the SAS system, so I'll mostly be waiting for 0.21 to come out before launching it.

Thanks!

I've pared down the SAS modules a lot on my ship as my design progressed (Each part had their own in addition to a large RCS tank), shaving a fair measure of weight.

I'm really not sure, it seems to be the head, I actually had to replace the prior head model with slight adjustments to the struts because the hitchhiker would wobble around like it's possessed by some otherworldly entity and is about to pop off. I adjusted the struts so it's locked down to the docking port, but even then it still seems rather dubious.

[SDIR]

@Marohen, what do you mean "pared down?" Do you mean the ASAS units were detachable and that you re-entered them as soon as a new module was installed? My next iteration of the same interplanetary tug will actually arrive empty, through fuel transfers to the other stages and will not have an ASAS module (although it will have a probe body) and be refuelled through some large refuelling tankers.

[Marohen]

@Marohen, what do you mean "pared down?" Do you mean the ASAS units were detachable and that you re-entered them as soon as a new module was installed? My next iteration of the same interplanetary tug will actually arrive empty, through fuel transfers to the other stages and will not have an ASAS module (although it will have a probe body) and be refuelled through some large refuelling tankers.

I've actually assembled this ship about a half-dozen times, each time with new iterations upon the past model.

Here's the oldest model I still have in the air:

Back then the ship came in four parts, and every part except the head and core propulsion could detach and move autonomously. A lot of this I eventually scrapped and made them increasingly dependant on eachother, resulting in a much sleeker construct.

[ComradeGoat]

Looks even better with the clipped parts. Right now I have a large interplanetary ship that is ready for deployment, just that I have 2 ASAS units on it, so it wobbles like crazy whenever I turn on the SAS system, so I'll mostly be waiting for 0.21 to come out before launching it.

IDGI: My yacht has at least 6 ASAS systems. It doesn't wobble at all. Have never seen this issue.

[SDIR]

IDGI: My yacht has at least 6 ASAS systems. It doesn't wobble at all. Have never seen this issue.

Really? I just had to detach the head of my tug (which contains the second ASAS unit) and re-enter it, then install a completely new head onto the tug just so the ASAS wobble wouldn't be too bad. Did you have the command pod and ASAS in the cemter of your ship or something?

[ComradeGoat]

Really? I just had to detach the head of my tug (which contains the second ASAS unit) and re-enter it, then install a completely new head onto the tug just so the ASAS wobble wouldn't be too bad. Did you have the command pod and ASAS in the cemter of your ship or something?

They appear to work the same everywhere. There's one on the 3 kerbal RCS tug, one on the 1 kerbal RCS tug, one on each of the 4 landers, one on the main drive module and one on the launch. That's 8 ASAS modules and 7 command pods and other than a barely perceptible gentle swaying around the clamp-o-trons when I turn ASAS on, it's solid. Left ASAS on for the entirity of my 25 minute departure burn from Kerbin, all worked as it should.

Of course, turning RCS and ASAS on at the same time on a big craft like that would be a very bad thing, but I'm assuming we aren't talking about doing that? I used RCS thrusters while still half a year out from Jool to fine tune my periapsis, because the engines gave me dar too much thrust for the tweak needed, but I did that using forward/backward translation with ASAS off. Can't think of another scenario in which I'd ever want to turn RCS on for the main yacht.