Random question...do more than one docking port clamp to the same thing at once...?

[darkstrike]

Ok, first off, I wasn't sure how else to word the subject of this thread, but let me try to explain and please bear with me, haha!

I am trying to work on a re-usable "mother ship" for my far off planetary expeditions to save fuel/building "costs" (well...in my mind anyway, as we all know there are no real costs in sandbox mode...I like to create my own storyline in my head though!). I'm basing it on my current design, the "Moho Special - B" seen in the pic below. Currently, it jettisons its 4 symmetrical secondary tanks on the way to wherever it's going (to save weight/fuel once they are empty), but once it's returned to Kerbin, there's no way to re-attach NEW secondary tanks as I currently use decouplers for them. This means that I have to re-land the ship on Kerbin, "End Flight" it, and launch another one every time it finishes a mission and comes back. This has, needless to say, given rise to a number of "______ Special" named ships in orbit around Kerbin in my save game that all have to be landed. I know the landing part is fun, of course , but it's also fun to engineer things that are interesting and make scientific sense as well! After all, the Space Shuttle was designed to be re-usable, as is the in-development Dragon capsule from SpaceX!

I can dock, no problem, so I can easily refuel the built-in tanks on each "Special", but without the secondary tanks, they cannot go anywhere near as far out-system. I COULD currently re-use them now by docking a large secondary tank to the Clamp-O-Tron port on the bottom of the ship, or secondary tanks to the two Clamp-O-Tron Jr. ports on either side of the ship, but the bottom port is for "towing" payloads to their destinations, and the side ports are for docking my single-seat "Ike Mini" and "Ike Mini II" Mini-vessels.

The 'Moho Special B' looks like this by the way (it's the ship in the foreground, this is an older screen so I apologize):

You can clearly see the 4 FL-T800 secondary tanks attached in an asparagus config on each side. My question is, if I put TWO Clamp-O-Tron Jr. docking clamps on each tank/each corner of the ship (to ensure the tanks always re-attached perfectly straight each time), would both of them "connect" to the main ship, or would just one of them "connect"? Like, would the game engine consider the tank as being structurally attached by only ONE of the ports (the one that touched first, per se?) or would they both be considered "attached"? I hope my question makes sense...

If only one were considered attached, I'd have to try and go with one port for each tank, but two would be stronger, and easier to dock with once the docking magnets kicked in on both ends...

Thanks for any comments!

Edited September 6, 2013 by darkstrike

[dudester28]

The answer is yes but it is really hard. To get both ports to dock, everything must be perfectly aligned.

[WillHop]

It is possible to get both docking ports to connect although it can be a little bit difficult. Even if one connects, try wiggling it around a little or trying again and they should both connect.

[M4ck]

Even if you did it perfectly, something might get a bit twisted(most probably by errors/rounding in saving stressed parts to persistence) which would make your ship rotate while firing engines or uneven drag. this happened to me once after attaching two similar engine modules to the mothership(each was connected via a bicoupler with twin docking ports). One module was obviously misaligned with the rest of the ship, even though all the docks were connected and the ship constructed as exactly symmetrical. It just happens.

[mellojoe]

Like this?

Yes it is possible. Just remember, you are now aligning FOUR axis. X, Y, Z as well as ROTATION. It isn't super hard, just requires a light touch and patience. Sometimes only one of the ports will dock. You just then undock it, float backward, then push forwards again. One of mine took 4 tries, but the fourth time I switched to controlling the other ship and that worked. Just needs a little extra wiggle and aligning.

[darkstrike]

Well, it's good to know it's doable, if a bit glitchy....I may have to give it a try! Thanks guys!