Magnets/Electromagnets.

[_Aramchek_]

With north and south poles, possibly reversible. Not just magnetic connectors, but plain old magnets as a part too.

STRONG ones.

[Urben]

Yea the question is, ****ing magnets, how do they work?

[boomerdog2000]

I don't understand. What purpose would this serve?

[Helix935]

i think he wanted them for things such as docking (pulls the craft in), maybe mono pole based travel, or for artificialish gravity through magnetic boots for evas

[BrokenPhysics]

What would be the use for simple magnets, other than what the docking ports already provide? If you want to pull something as heavy as another ship over a distance longer than a couple of meters, you'd need some extremely strong magnets, which means they'd be too heavy and too power hungry to be put on your spacecraft.

Yeah magnetic boots for EVA would be cool, but that sounds like a different suggestion, since they are not really "parts" (at least from player perspective)...

[_Aramchek_]

Launching things, ostensibly ships, in to space without rockets. For one, really the only limits are what you can imagine..and I can imagine a variety of situations where magnets would be pretty sweet. Also railguns.

[Seret]

Do you mean magnets, or some kind of electromagnetic linear motor?

[BrokenPhysics]

Launching things, ostensibly ships, in to space without rockets.

You know that those electromagnetic launch systems would have to be several kilometers long, if you want to launch something as big as a probe with them, don't you?

Even though there are some military prototype railguns that are much shorter while reaching high velocities, these a) fire much lighter projectiles, not entire sattelites, and even if they could launch something as big as a sat, they would rip your vessel apart, due to the high acceleration forces.

So yes, it could be done, but would rather be a new KSC facility rather than a player-built structure. Also it wouldn't fit into the (core) game, in my eyes. I guess someone could make a mod out of this, though.

To those other uses of magnets:

Could you name some, that are a) not covered by docking ports and don't require ridiculous amounts of electricity (such as pulling a ship over several hundred meters)

Even if you tried to circumvent the electricity by using permanent magnets, these would have huge masses. (And once they grabbed something, they won't let go)

[DoomtrainInc]

Magnet Boots are now my #1 most wanted mod because of this thread.

[Outlander4]

I don't know why people want magnetic boots (even putting aside the fact that they're implausible in the real world, etc.). Walking outside of your space stations? Well, you'd need a pretty big space station for that, and the novelty of doing it would wear out pretty fast.

[vexx32]

I can just see magnets being an absolute nightmare to simulate without something going absolutely bonkers xD

[_Aramchek_]

You know that those electromagnetic launch systems would have to be several kilometers long, if you want to launch something as big as a probe with them, don't you?

Even though there are some military prototype railguns that are much shorter while reaching high velocities, these a) fire much lighter projectiles, not entire sattelites, and even if they could launch something as big as a sat, they would rip your vessel apart, due to the high acceleration forces.

So yes, it could be done, but would rather be a new KSC facility rather than a player-built structure. Also it wouldn't fit into the (core) game, in my eyes. I guess someone could make a mod out of this, though.

To those other uses of magnets:

Could you name some, that are a) not covered by docking ports and don't require ridiculous amounts of electricity (such as pulling a ship over several hundred meters)

Even if you tried to circumvent the electricity by using permanent magnets, these would have huge masses. (And once they grabbed something, they won't let go)

Yeah, the ships part was really just a diversion, I only really just want to make railguns.

[Pulstar]

If you ever tried editing a decoupler's part.cfg file to give it a lot more "oomph" and use it to launch things into orbit with the separation force, you will know that nearly nothing survives such a decoupling apart from at most one part. Don't let Jeb try it, trust me. I was thinking of delving into that to try and mode a mass driver to launch fuel tanks into Munar orbit, but I figure you would have to code something like a pushing tractor beam that gradually accelerates you "for free" until you reach a certain distance, otherwise everything will just blow up.

Also electromagnets are fun in the KAS mod. I use them to assemble modular surface bases. I am wondering if they could be used to haul small metallic asteroids (like up to 10 meters wide) around. They're also pretty good for recovering capsules or satellites with no docking ports from orbit.

[boomerdog2000]

Yeah, the ships part was really just a diversion, I only really just want to make railguns.

... so you want weapons?

[_Aramchek_]

... so you want weapons?

I want multi-purpose parts that , yes, I could also make weapons out of as well as doing other things with.. I do not "want weapons" directly.

[vexx32]

I wonder if it's possible to somehow use the docking port module to do a magnet-y thing without the whole docking thing. Might be worth attempting.

Also, as I'm sure you're aware, suggestions pertaining to weapons are forbidden, and I would advise you avoid getting into a debate about them, as they always turn ugly sooner or later.

[_Aramchek_]

and I would advise you avoid getting into a debate about them, as they always turn ugly sooner or later.

My suggestion is a general purpose idea as i could and would use them for many purposes, I also think it would be better to warn the person who tried to start that whole can of worms, I'll remain in control, I am not responsible for others' actions however.

[coolitic]

Docking uses magnets.