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Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread


GusTurbo

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I'm just curious... does anyone else free-hand draw ideas for their ships before building them?

I've done it a couple times to try to get a more unique design, and help plan out what should go where.

Yep. Mostly for updatings.

yJ3VyNp.jpg

QBOxLsr.jpg

DC6sgS0.jpg

As long as I can tell what they mean...

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Awesome! Glad I'm not the only one :)

http://i.imgur.com/bW65r4O.jpg

I find I can come up with awesomer stuff if I work with the 3D parts in the editor. But I do plan stuff a lot, especially how something that will take tens of separate landings and a lot of assembly, is going to look like, and what kind of modules I have to take with me interplanetary where you don't have launch windows every day:

nc7DE43.jpg

That's me brainstorming base module configurations for a kethane extraction site, I think I will do a 3-base-packs thing in the end. If you want to have a stab at making sense of it, it's the Eagle Base Pack modules, the circles are the nodes and habs (depending on whether they have one connection or three), and the squares are the labs and fuel dumps. This is extremely helpful to see if I will need extra modules and/or passageways sent up, and to get a good looking base in the end. Something like what I did on Minmus, only there I built an hexagon with parts from six different packs:

PVGG2XE.png

Rune. The final configuration I chose in the end, of course, is the one that is all scratched and redrawn. Now all I have to do is 15 Mun landings, and not twenty. :rolleyes:

Edited by Rune
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Spent more than an hour designing this Eve lander today. It quite a challenge to keep it compact enough to fit inside the less-than-elegant deployable heat shield assembly, but I like how it turned out.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

^View in full resolution for more detail.

The launch vehicle is an Upsilon B2, which is more than enough to get the job done, but the extra room for error in such a substantial mission is always welcome. :)

Edited by Giggleplex777
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Spent more than an hour designing this Eve lander today. It quite a challenge to keep it compact enough to fit inside the less-than-elegant deployable heat shield assembly, but I like how it turned out.

http://imgur.com/a/VPtdC

^View in full resolution for more detail.

The launch vehicle is an Upsilon B2, which is more than enough to get the job done, but the extra room for error in such a substantial mission is always welcome. :)

Hey, that heatshield is inmensely clever. I would have never thought of making it out of antennas!

What I don't understand, however, is what the thing below the rover is. You know, the one with lander legs and an extra (non-deployed) antenna. It kinda looks like a lander, but I don't see any propulsion or a chute in there.

Speaking of propusion, how is the rover supposed to land? I don't see a skycrane or some other method like it.

EDIT: Oh, I think I've got it now. The chute on top deploys, the heatshield separates, the legs on the thing deploy, and it lands solely on parachutes. Then the white antennas close and that cover is staged along with the other thing, so the rover can drive away. Did I get it somewhat right?

Edited by astropapi1
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Well, at least now I know how many parts my O'Neill colony will have: 1.3k if I leave things here with "only" room for 200 kerbals. Then again, this is one of the few configurations that allow cylinders with longitudinal axis longer than the diameter to rotate in a stable manner... it would be a shame not to show that on the replica (that, being stock, doesn't rotate of course). So over 1.5k if I send a couple more hab rings and put the total population at around 300.

k15rRWX.png

QRfId0z.png

yJH9xm0.png

As you can see, I still have to move some pieces of the mirrors around, and the hab rings also need some reconfiguring so this is balanced if I don't end up adding more. A bug with BD armory screwed the orbit, BTW, that is why you can see Mun (this is supposed to be at "L3"), so I'll have to move this into synchronous orbit again when completed. Kod knows how, but it'll involve Nerva pods and a lot of patience to turn this behemoth, even getting it to point at the sun takes minutes of real life time. Lag is not funny now.

Rune. Don't even ask me how many flags I've had to plant to pay for this.

Edited by Rune
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impressive. i love the design.

i use another style as you do. my rover is a little bit bigger. would love to see some detail shots of the rover design.

i send a bigger lander with all the science stuff and a small rover to eve for the "explore eve" contract. i never set a foot on eve. i don't need that thrill. i only accept contracts with millions of funs as reward :D

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Ok, now the only thing left to do with these is the all-up test mission. Anyone recognizes the architecture? It's easy, I copied even the names:

qK1GLhD.png

n6q012f.png

Though I had to invent a bit (since the details on the MEM+PMM+Probes stack are sketchy at best), I think this will be one of the most accurate replicas I have done to date. I might even give the Exploration Module a second third pass to see if I can put the dropping tanks the entry on Encyclopedia Astronautica shows in some concept art. Totally cosmetic of course, I have excess delta-v already and fattening up the stacks was the main problem. And I'm going to have so much excess fuel in the PPMs, it's going to be a joke. But I suppose you could swing by Eeelo on your way to Duna.

Rune. And yeah, I keep the Skipper:F-1 scaling factor I used in my Apollo replica. I bypassed the Apollo Applications Program completely!

Edited by Rune
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Late reply, but...

http://imgur.com/a/t9e2j#edYZ6yG.jpeg

http://imgur.com/a/t9e2j#rgiqoSZ.jpeg

I do as well :D (I mistook the lengths and dimensions of the parts though :P)

Great sketches, did you end up building any of those in real life? Real life being ksp of course and pics please!

I made a thing

I like your thing lol, can it make it to space or is it solely an atmospheric vtol unit?

Edited by Yakuzi
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Hey, that heatshield is inmensely clever. I would have never thought of making it out of antennas!

What I don't understand, however, is what the thing below the rover is. You know, the one with lander legs and an extra (non-deployed) antenna. It kinda looks like a lander, but I don't see any propulsion or a chute in there.

Speaking of propusion, how is the rover supposed to land? I don't see a skycrane or some other method like it.

EDIT: Oh, I think I've got it now. The chute on top deploys, the heatshield separates, the legs on the thing deploy, and it lands solely on parachutes. Then the white antennas close and that cover is staged along with the other thing, so the rover can drive away. Did I get it somewhat right?

No quite. :) I say Eve Lander for a reason. It houses a high-gain antenna and an atmospheric sensor. My plan was perform some science during the decent, send the data using the high-gain antenna and then repeat it after landing before detaching the rover (which carries the rest of the instruments to save cost).

The original design from 0.23 consisted of a larger lander and a small tumbling "rollver" with a fixed heat shield. Turns out the rollver wasn't very effective on Eve and took 5 minutes to travel 500m. I revived the design for my budget mode save and built the rover but with a lithobraking lander. The plan was to detach from the parachute 150m from the ground and then hopefully land away from where the parachute would land. It works, but I wasn't satified with the looks, so I proceeded and changed the base to the current one you see and just have the rover drive the parachute off after landing.

Damn parachutes. :P

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Once she's ready to take wing...

C1zIVtM.png

...gently into that good night we shall not go. (This whole poem has probably been way overused since the film came out...)

It actually has a fourth module docked now, meaning the ring is one third complete. I reckon another day or two and Stargazer will be ready to go :)

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