totm june 2018 Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread

[DeadOnDuna]

35 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

You have to upload them to Imgur or a similar website, then right click on each image and click "open image in new tab". Then copy the url from the tab that gets opened and paste that url into the forums. It automatically embeds the image if you've done it right, and you should be able to see the image in the post editor. If you can't see the image before you submit the reply, you've done something wrong and the image won't appear on the forums.

open image in new tab and pasting  the url didn't work for me ... but clicking  on the image a menu appears and i selected the   BBCode (message boards & forums) link

That did it!

thanx for the help eloquentJane! you are the best

[Servo]

I'm trying to get a F8U Crusader variable-incidence wing working. This was my final iteration, though it still doesn't work. @Torquimedes Do you have any tips for something like this?

Also, when they close, the docking ports weld, which is extremely frustrating.

[Frozen_Heart]

Working on yet another mothership. This one to hopefully post on Hatbats thread.

Might remove the wings as they make it look way too mass effecty and someone else has already nailed that style. Haven't done any flight tests yet and there are still parts to add so not even close to done.

 

 

 

[Gman_builder]

5 hours ago, Servo said:

I'm trying to get a F8U Crusader variable-incidence wing working. This was my final iteration, though it still doesn't work. @Torquimedes Do you have any tips for something like this?

 

Also, when they close, the docking ports weld, which is extremely frustrating.

Did you try the standard reaction wheel hinge? A great example of it's use is here;

 

[Torquimedes]

6 hours ago, Servo said:

I'm trying to get a F8U Crusader variable-incidence wing working. This was my final iteration, though it still doesn't work. @Torquimedes Do you have any tips for something like this?

Also, when they close, the docking ports weld, which is extremely frustrating.

If @Gman_builder's suggestion doesn't give you the answer, you might have to post the craft file for community reverse engineering.  I bet it would be tricky with lift force torquing the wing upward, how would you oppose that force to rotate it downward again?

By "weld" do you mean the ports won't undock?

[klond]

6 hours ago, Servo said:

I'm trying to get a F8U Crusader variable-incidence wing working.

Also, when they close, the docking ports weld, which is extremely frustrating.

 I think you should keep the dock because you really want all the control surfaces on the same craft.  Also, I ain't found many videos or technical drawings of the wing pivoting action - I'd like to know where the original pivot point is at.

and I want to see a pinball machine.

Spoiler

 

[Triop]

Getting there...

Edited January 15, 2017 by Triop

[Servo]

8 hours ago, Torquimedes said:

If @Gman_builder's suggestion doesn't give you the answer, you might have to post the craft file for community reverse engineering.  I bet it would be tricky with lift force torquing the wing upward, how would you oppose that force to rotate it downward again?

By "weld" do you mean the ports won't undock?

I was figuring that I could use the trim tabs to force the wing back down, though that could be tricky. Probably a combination of that and a lot of SAS.
 And yeah, welding = when you can't click "undock" any more.

8 hours ago, klond said:

 I think you should keep the dock because you really want all the control surfaces on the same craft.  Also, I ain't found many videos or technical drawings of the wing pivoting action - I'd like to know where the original pivot point is at.

One design I had was a little like a seesaw with a docking port on each end so it was docked either way. However, I was having problems with the docking ports not reengaging. What is the minimum range to re-engage?

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5wk8xexh3tbysc/F8U Wing.craft?dl=0

[Torquimedes]

4 hours ago, Servo said:

I was figuring that I could use the trim tabs to force the wing back down, though that could be tricky. Probably a combination of that and a lot of SAS.
 And yeah, welding = when you can't click "undock" any more.

One design I had was a little like a seesaw with a docking port on each end so it was docked either way. However, I was having problems with the docking ports not reengaging. What is the minimum range to re-engage?

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5wk8xexh3tbysc/F8U Wing.craft?dl=0

When I staged the craft, I observed:

The upper docking port magnet activates with so much force, it overpowers the landing wheels and even the thermometers, yanking the wing assembly straight down a few centimeters past the docking node of the docking ports.  

It appears the separate crafts decide they are docked when the upper port crosses the node threshold, but since it's still moving the ports don’t agree they’ve docked.  So the wing swings down and merges with the parent craft, but the ports cannot be undocked because they don’t agree they docked.  They are indeed welded together.  That could have interesting possibilities for other applications, depending on how solid the joint is...

The solution may be to start with the ports docked, and see if they will separate and then rotate together properly.  This would depend on the minimum dock separation distance (5m?).

[Servo]

30 minutes ago, Torquimedes said:

When I staged the craft, I observed:

The upper docking port magnet activates with so much force, it overpowers the landing wheels and even the thermometers, yanking the wing assembly straight down a few centimeters past the docking node of the docking ports.  

It appears the separate crafts decide they are docked when the upper port crosses the node threshold, but since it's still moving the ports don’t agree they’ve docked.  So the wing swings down and merges with the parent craft, but the ports cannot be undocked because they don’t agree they docked.  They are indeed welded together.  That could have interesting possibilities for other applications, depending on how solid the joint is...

The solution may be to start with the ports docked, and see if they will separate and then rotate together properly.  This would depend on the minimum dock separation distance (5m?).

Thanks for the critique. I'll have to do some investigation to see how far the separation distance is. If it's 1m, I could probably make it work, but 5 would be much harder.

Also, I made a GAU-8 equipped stock A-10. Brrt.

[Gman_builder]

@EpicSpaceTroll139 How did you calculate the required thrust from the tail rotor in this craft; https://kerbalx.com/EpicSpaceTroll139/Heli-MKll-18-8

I want to make my dreams come true and fly a stock Huey with Fortunate Son playing in the background.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Gman_builder

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

1 minute ago, Gman_builder said:

@EpicSpaceTroll139 How did you calculate the required thrust from the tail rotor in this craft; https://kerbalx.com/EpicSpaceTroll139/Heli-MKll-18-8

I want to make my dreams come true and fly a stock Huey with Fortunate Son playing in the background.

I didn't!  I just built the little thing (doing the usual tweaking of the motor and prop for efficiency like with any other design) and stuck it on there and it pretty much just worked. I don't remember, I might have had to adjust it forward or backward a little bit to try optimize the countertorque (same thrust at a greater distance provides more torque and vice versa), but I definitely didn't do any calculating.

 

[fourfa]

On 1/14/2017 at 3:04 PM, Servo said:

I'm trying to get a F8U Crusader variable-incidence wing working. This was my final iteration, though it still doesn't work.

Does it have to be a 100% stock moving-bearing design?  I prototyped something like this using the stock all-moving control surfaces and their deploy & authority limit controls.   Works great!  You can scale it up using tons of them (not very Crusader-like) or Tweakscale (not stock obv, through at least there's a decent selection of fins in the stock parts).  It is very fun to adjust wing incidence on the fly to control climb rate, with the ship locked on prograde for low drag.

They have a worse mass ratio to be sure, but I think everyone here is capable of coping with that

Edited January 16, 2017 by fourfa

[Jefzor]

On 15-1-2017 at 5:48 AM, Gman_builder said:

Did you try the standard reaction wheel hinge? A great example of it's use is here;

 

This is awesome. I really like how you show the way the pivot is constructed, very helpful. 

 

 

Not very original, but I made an F-16

https://kerbalx.com/jefzor/F-16

Edited January 16, 2017 by Jefzor

[DeadOnDuna]

It's gonna be a long range rover ... someday

Spoiler

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by DeadOnDuna

[Yukon0009]

WIP Tycho Brahe from Copenhagen Suborbitals

Delta IV Heavy. Needs more work especially on second stage

This thing has been consuming most of my KSP time recently. A mothership capable of ferrying ~140 tons to Jool and back in it's cargo bays, for a reasonable 165 part count. Unfortunately, refueling operations will take forever, since it launches pretty much empty, it has the equivalent of many MK3 LF tanks and my tanker only has 1 big LF tank. Sigh

[Gman_builder]

12 hours ago, Jefzor said:

This is awesome. I really like how you show the way the pivot is constructed, very helpful. 

Not my video lol. Just an example.

[Jefzor]

43 minutes ago, Gman_builder said:

Not my video lol. Just an example.

Oh, OK. Still thanks for sharing, it's very helpful. 

[Servo]

For posterity:

The minimum unstick range for a small docking port is 1.375m.

At least, it was between 1.3 and 1.4m, so I assume 1.375 because it's a round number.

Here's the test rig, in case anyone was curious. I undocked and worked my way around until I was at the right distance away, then attempted to redock.

Now some keywords to make google searching this easier, because I found it nowhere on the internet.

Kerbal Space Program docking port unstick range magnet magnetic minimum distance hinge redock ksp

Now to continue with that F-8 crusader.

[Torquimedes]

2 hours ago, Servo said:

For posterity:

The minimum unstick range for a small docking port is 1.375m.

At least, it was between 1.3 and 1.4m, so I assume 1.375 because it's a round number.

Here's the test rig, in case anyone was curious. I undocked and worked my way around until I was at the right distance away, then attempted to redock.

Now some keywords to make google searching this easier, because I found it nowhere on the internet.

Kerbal Space Program docking port unstick range magnet magnetic minimum distance hinge redock ksp

Now to continue with that F-8 crusader.

Thanks for sharing this valuable research.  This will save a lot of time for folks trying to build small moving assemblies.

Now I know some of my design notions won't work, so I can focus on finding different ways to build a better mousetrap.

Best o' luck with the Crusader.  If you get tired while testing it, I hear the intake is big enough for the pilot to sleep in if quarters aren't available.

[He_162]

13 hours ago, Yukon0009 said:

WIP Tycho Brahe from Copenhagen Suborbitals

Delta IV Heavy. Needs more work especially on second stage

This thing has been consuming most of my KSP time recently. A mothership capable of ferrying ~140 tons to Jool and back in it's cargo bays, for a reasonable 165 part count. Unfortunately, refueling operations will take forever, since it launches pretty much empty, it has the equivalent of many MK3 LF tanks and my tanker only has 1 big LF tank. Sigh

Sounds like a job for my 1 kT refueling lifter.

https://kerbalx.com/He_162/He969-MJ

Or maybe my 200 ton lifter:

https://kerbalx.com/He_162/He710

I also have this reusable lifter, if you can land it! Just take the science "hub" for my station off, and put a fuel tank in there.

https://kerbalx.com/He_162/N3-l6

[fourfa]

Been working on a stock frigate-class mothership. Front hab/bridge section with middle internal spaceship bay.  Rear drive/ISRU section (4x Rhino powered) detaches and refuels on the surface.

Main problem with the bay is nothing much larger than 2.5m can get through the doors.  So for a Laythe spaceplane, the wings have got to be detachable. I've managed to get this concept working pretty well, though I think I might have shown it here before:

[DeadOnDuna]

the pittsburgh steelers boosters

Spoiler

on the way to the Super Bowl

[Aerospike]

On 13.1.2017 at 3:24 PM, Rune said:

And I like it a lot, just enough to do its job. Just one tiny tip, tough: if you used four four-way RCS ports spaced 90º (say, at the edges of the fuel tanks) you would not only have the same 6DOF translation authority, you would also have 6DOF rotation authority, just in case you run out of electrical juice during the night.

 

Rune. Rarely useful, but when you do use the feature, it's to save your mission.

Thank you! I feel humbled that one of the epic engineers likes one of my rather basic designs as I still have a lot to learn about some of the more advanced construction techniques. I followed your advice and changed the RCS to a 4 x 4-way thruster layout in 90° rotations on the edges of the tanks as you suggested. It caused a minor dip in dV (only about ~80 m/s), but the lander still has ~2.6 m/s dV so even with my poor flying skills I should be able to visit 2 spots on the surface before returning to the spacecraft and head home to Kerbin.

I also finally figured out how to make a sub-assembly of 1x cubic strut + 6x Oscar-Bs + 2x legs + 2x 4-way RCS -> to attach in 2x symmetry to the sides of the Science Jr.
The previous iteration had 3 tanks + leg attached 2 times with 2x symmetry because I could not get it done otherwise. That was a bit frustrating when adjusting the position of the tanks and/or legs. The trick was to attach the Oscar-Bs with mirror symmetry to a cubic strut and then rotate them 90°. Previously I had them attached with radial symmetry to the cubic strut, but then rotating one clockwise made the other one rotate counter-clockwise... and I just could not wrap my head around how to solve it.


Also thanks to @He_162 for reinforcing that advice

Edited January 17, 2017 by Aerospike
fixed typos

[TheSpaceManiac]

I designed a "tank" to be airdropped out the back of a Mk3 Cargo Bay and Ramp (in this case, on the Stearwing A300 stock craft). Nothing really new here, just my attempt to make something airdroppable.

I still have to build a "proper" transport.

It descends nearly vertically until the chute opens fully.

After landing. It's still WIP because it sometimes flips during landing.

Currently the biggest issue is keeping it from flipping on landing. After that, making a better "transport rack" so that the "tank" can drive off easier.

Edited January 17, 2017 by TheSpaceManiac