A simple way to attach an Apollo Style LEM wanted. . . .

[Johno]

It's embarrassing to admit it, but there you go. I have forgotten how to do it!

Last night, I tried everything . . nothing. I just could not get it to work!

Okay, so wise people . . .

What is a nice simple way to attach a Lunar Module and CSM to a rocket so as to perform a LOR mission?

[Johno]

Incidentally: It should work like Apollo, but it doesn't have to look like it. Cosmetic differences are fine.

[FenrirWolf]

There's no real special method to it that I know of. I do it by building a CSM with a docking port on top, building a lander with a corresponding docking port on the bottom and/or on top, then building a lifter under the whole mess to take it all into space.

[katateochi]

The way I did it sounds similar to FenrirWolf; docking port on top of the lander, connected to a collar which is attached to a decoupler on the CSMs engine and then a docking port on top of the CSM. I first undocked the landers docking port, then turned the CSM round, decoupled the collar and then docked the top of the CSM to the lander.

If you want to pick my Apollo craft to bits to have a look you can download the craft files here, there is a fully stock and a mod version.

There's a vid of the mod version

Edited November 16, 2013 by katateochi

[Moar Boosters]

Oops... I thought i was posting in another thread.

[Scarecrow88]

I found it a fairly straightforward matter of just building the rocket around the lander.

I added some screening to make the whole thing look a little more rocket like. If you use the procedural fairings mod, I am sure it would have done a prettier job.

Once in orbit it's a simple matter of detaching the CM and SM to turn around and attach to the LM.

Once safely attached it's time to jettison the shroud and orbital insertion stage.

Which leaves us with a complete LEM ready for departure to the Mun.

[Nibb31]

You don't even need a decoupler. You can just stick the LM docking ring to the bottom of the CSM engine and right-click Decouple (or assign an action key to the Decouple action).

@Scarecrow: Why use 2 inverted decouplers like that? The blue separators do exactly the same thing.

[Scarecrow88]

@Scarecrow: Why use 2 inverted decouplers like that? The blue separators do exactly the same thing.

It was to do with keeping debris out of the way. With just one decoupler or a seperator, the shroud around the CM engine detached when decoupling the CM from the orbit insertion stage and was then in the way between the CM and the LM when trying to re-dock. By using two decouplers, fired in separate stages, I was able to keep the shroud attached to the CM until after I re-docked with the LM, which is the situation shown in the last picture I posted above. At this point another press of the stage key will detach the shroud making the Lunar insertion engine available for use.

Edited November 16, 2013 by Scarecrow88

[Spinewire]

How do people clip those tanks though each other like that?

Cupcakes Landers are full of weird connections that i don't know to do as well. I can't even put them back together most of them time.

[Sethnizzle]

How do people clip those tanks though each other like that?

Cupcakes Landers are full of weird connections that i don't know to do as well. I can't even put them back together most of them time.

Press alt + f12 to bring up the menu. Then enable part clipping.

[sgt_flyer]

You can try how mulbin does it : use the fairings to connect the csm to the launcher, then build the lander from the ground up.

How it works : you put radial decouplers on the bottom of your csm ( usually with x4 symmetry) then build the fairings from those decouplers.

Once the fairings are done, switch to x1 symmetry , put a decoupler (The one you want) at the bottom of one of the fairings, and attach an i-beam ( this I-beam have to reach at least the center of the rocket).

to this i beam, attach a cubic strut, and center it. (You can attach an i beam at the center node of your csm to 'guide' you when trying to place the cubic strut).

You can now attach your launcher under the cubic strut, and a decoupler above it. Then build the lander from the decoupler. (Advice at this point - only keep the fairing which acts as a link, and replace the others fairings after you finished building your lander)

In the end, your csm and lander will not be directly connected together, so no shroud to dump between the lander and the csm.

[Taki117]

Another thing about the decouplers is instead of staging two decouplers, if you use a stack separator and use the decouple node option on the lander docking apart it will function the same way (with keeping the shroud in place. I have an Apollo style mission report somewhere, will have to find the link, that shows this.). As far as part clipping, some parts will naturally clip through each other. (Round batteries specifically) however you need to attach 3 in such a manner to get the nodes to line up correctly, and I don't know about any others that do this. (Though some aircraft parts can partially clip)

Found my Kerpollo mission report (If you are interested. I will have to dig around for the craft file, if I still have it.) Kerpollo Mission Report

Edited November 16, 2013 by Taki117
Found Link

[Scarecrow88]

Another thing about the decouplers is instead of staging two decouplers, if you use a stack separator and use the decouple node option on the lander docking apart it will function the same way (with keeping the shroud in place. I have an Apollo style mission report somewhere, will have to find the link, that shows this.)

You're right, but my design was done as part of an engineering challenge to come up with an Apollo style rocket that was reasonably straight forward to fly. By doing it the way I did, it meant that all the actions necessary to fly an Apollo style mission could be done with sequential staging rather than issuing instructions about having to manually decouple seperators, especially as the separator needing to be manually decoupled would be tucked away behind the sheeting protecting the lander on the completed rocket, making it virtually impossible to click on.

[Mulbin]

You can try how mulbin does it : use the fairings to connect the csm to the launcher, then build the lander from the ground up.

How it works : you put radial decouplers on the bottom of your csm ( usually with x4 symmetry) then build the fairings from those decouplers.

Once the fairings are done, switch to x1 symmetry , put a decoupler (The one you want) at the bottom of one of the fairings, and attach an i-beam ( this I-beam have to reach at least the center of the rocket).

to this i beam, attach a cubic strut, and center it. (You can attach an i beam at the center node of your csm to 'guide' you when trying to place the cubic strut).

You can now attach your launcher under the cubic strut, and a decoupler above it. Then build the lander from the decoupler. (Advice at this point - only keep the fairing which acts as a link, and replace the others fairings after you finished building your lander)

In the end, your csm and lander will not be directly connected together, so no shroud to dump between the lander and the csm.

Quite right!... if you build it so one of the fairings supports the CSM you can have the lander and CSM with a gap between them and nothing in between. I haven't used a decoupler between them since munbug 4.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Mulbin

[Majorjim!]

Quite right!... if you build it so one of the fairings supports the CSM you can have the lander and CSM with a gap between them and nothing in between. I haven't used a decoupler between them since munbug 4.

I pulled your Munbug apart last night for the first time ever. I was very impressed with what I found. The technique you used for the Csm fairings is genius.

I just wish I had seen it sooner.. Im gunna have to redesign my Saturn 5.

MJ