"Kolsys 5.2 Explorer" - Heavy Lifter, Orbiter, Lander & Rover - AIO

[Ezriilc]

This was my first downloaded craft ever, I wanted to get into how to construct this kind of spaceship that can carry a real payload.

It is a cool lifter, but when taking it apart, to find a way get my own ideas into better function, I had to see the parts, are somehow cheated into their Position, how?

2 engines at the same position, is that really stock?

Thanks!

I'm not sure what you mean by "cheated". Everything on the ship was done with all-stock, vanilla KSP, with no mods, plugins or add-ons of any kind. I did press ALT-F12, and check the box to "Allow Part Clipping in Editors." However, I try not to clip things too much beyond what could exist IRL, and I don't recall having "2 engines at the same position" on this ship. Which engines do you see that way - maybe I missed something?

I am very particular about how I build. I use a lot of fine (SHIFT-w/a/s/d) angles, and I'm VERY careful with symmetry. Maybe I'm just so good that it blows your mind?

[Ezriilc]

So.... I stole some of your launcher design and built Quasar II - My new largest Fueling station of all time. It carries up to 115,560 Liquid fuel with 40 Red Jumbo-64 tanks and a conservative 151 parts. Thanks

Hory makalor! Got a pic?

You're most welcome. I'm glad to be useful.

[Ezriilc]

I've been here before. Once your landers start getting too huge, try designing more compact, and lighter.

One tip I have for example - Remove ALL batteries and add just a few generators, depending on how many SAS modules you have. One generator can continuously power two SAS modules for a good deal of continuous time with just the 10-100 charge offered natively by your Kerbal Capsule. as you make your ship lighter, you can drop legs, which will make you lighter still.

Another - Struts when added carelessly can actually ramp up the weight of a smaller lander shockingly fast. Each strut is .05 tons, meaning that just 20 of them brings you to a FULL TON. Same goes for fuel lines.

Similar things apply to many structural parts - Always be aware of the weight of your structure. There is a tiny cube part that weighs .001. It is extremely useful for its "Weightlessness" and can save your life even if you have to string several together to accomplish your needs.

Being as light as possible and not carrying deadweight is extyremely important. Every thousand pounds you carry for no reason will fight you every step of the way.

These are all excellent tips, that I too use, having learned them over a long, explosion filled history of frustration and triumph.

[Hallofo]

That is an outstanding ship. In the spirit of "cooperative knowledge sharing" I'll be using it (or a variant thereof) for a lit of my IP builds.

[Ezriilc]

Well, thank you very much! Coming from someone with that many ribbons is impressive.

As always, I'm working to make it even better, and I'll post anything notable.

[Ezriilc]

Looks good, but I would like to see more pictures. I guess I will have to try it out to see.

Here's the latest incarnation of Kolsys, the 5.1 Explorer, with all my best tech. Now for a shakedown flight to... hm...

Edited March 5, 2014 by Ezriilc

[Camaron]

Here's a few photos of Quasar II as requested. Shrunk my pics down 50% because 1080p images run off the sides of a forum post.

In my case, I traded the four smaller Rockets for larger ones and put the jets onto the end with their own fuel tanks, which also isolates Jet fuel to prevent imbalancing. The large rocket model I used also has thrust vectoring, which gives me some great flight control with 18 SAS modules to help.

Just as with Original Quasar, This ship depends on emptying itself in the process of launching, so refueling is needed in order to actually fill it up. In fact, 25 of the 40 tanks are empty right from the start. It would be far too heavy to lift this way otherwise.

Quasar II has a large dock in the rear, and a medium dock up front, and carries 115,560 fuel VS Original Quasar's 80,000-ish, and didn't include a medium dock. Also, the original Quasar didn't include any monoprop storage. I made sure Quasar II had six tanks. Monoprop is fuel too! Doesn't do much else - it's really just a huge Fuel Warehouse in 200K orbit.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Camaron

[Ezriilc]

Well, this is embarrassing... In my first attempt to land on the Mun, I've discovered a distinct lack of power. Noob move.

I'll be adding some generators and maybe some solar panels, and then re-upload.

[Ezriilc]

Launched ship exactly as given... OK.

Injected to Munar orbit... OK.

Un-docked... OK.

Landed so beautifully - by hand, I might add, no MechJeb... OK.

Relaunched... OK.

Began rendezvous w/ orbiter... "KSP.exe has stopped responding."

...

!@#$%&*!

[Ezriilc]

Here's a few photos of Quasar II as requested.

Crikey! That's beautiful!

Remember, anything you're extra-proud of, please send it to me so I can include you in our gallery.

Shrunk my pics down 50% because 1080p images are monstrously oversize for a simple forum post.

Bring out the GIMP!

Scale down to 1024 wide and save as a .jpg compressed to < 100kB, and Bob Kerman's your uncle.

[Camaron]

I just meant that 1080p pics go way off the edge of most people's screens. I wanted them to be reasonable.

I've been there with that whole sudden death of KSP situation. In my case I had just finished launching some big beautiful ship after a laggy 15 min launch....Windows Update Forced Restart. Poof.

[eran100]

Here's the latest incarnation of Kolsys, the 5.1 Explorer, with all my best tech. Now for a shakedown flight to... hm...

http://www.kerbaltekaerospace.com/users/ezriilc/Ezriilc%20-%20Kolsys%205.1%20-%20Explorer%20-%20First%20Light.jpg

Oh my god, gimmie dem link!

[Ezriilc]

Oh my god, gimmie dem link!

On the downloads page at KerbaltekAerospace.com, and scroll down to my section. You'll find this ship and all the goods.

I'm just about to publish Kolsys 5.2. The new explorer version has a new lander with a really cool rover attached.

[Ezriilc]

I've built a "better" lander with its own (extra-cool) rover, making this ship the best of everything I have to offer, for such an ambitious expedition wessel [channeling Chekov].

Extensive testing by our tireless Kerbal crew, and sadly the loss of 2 fine kerbs, has nevertheless proved this craft to be extremely precise, powerful, and quite satisfying to fly, in the proper hands. We've tested every major system exhaustively on Kerbin, and taken her through a full excursion to the Mun and back, while even recovering the rover (a little tricky, with a teeny bump to the lander's engines) and the lander back to the orbiter.

At ~684 tonnes of 723 parts on her wedding night, she's a whole-lot-a rocket, and worth every kilogram. Enjoy!

Edited March 5, 2014 by Ezriilc
updated broken image links

[Alewx]

Thanks!

I'm not sure what you mean by "cheated". Everything on the ship was done with all-stock, vanilla KSP, with no mods, plugins or add-ons of any kind. I did press ALT-F12, and check the box to "Allow Part Clipping in Editors." However, I try not to clip things too much beyond what could exist IRL, and I don't recall having "2 engines at the same position" on this ship. Which engines do you see that way - maybe I missed something?

I am very particular about how I build. I use a lot of fine (SHIFT-w/a/s/d) angles, and I'm VERY careful with symmetry. Maybe I'm just so good that it blows your mind?

Ok that "Feature" of clipping disabling was new to me, so no then it is not cheated, but extremly cool and mindblowing I mean These last stage engines, with the simple Jet engine and the advanced engine at the same spot.

I'm using your ship as design reference my own massive rocket currently, it only lacks a little power for orbinting without carrying extra fuel for that.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Alewx

[Ezriilc]

Ok that "Feature" of clipping disabling was new to me, so no then it is not cheated, but extremly cool and mindblowing I mean These last stage engines, with the simple Jet engine and the advanced engine at the same spot.

I'm using your ship as design reference my own massive rocket currently, it only lacks a little power for orbinting without carrying extra fuel for that.

I'm glad to be able to point that out to you. All it does is make it possible to place parts in symmetry that may otherwise have only been place-able one at a time. Many times, a part will refuse to attach only until it's moved slightly and then back again, or if symmetry is altered while holding it. That setting makes the behavior a bit more predictable and consistent, IMO. Personally, I think it should be on (checked) all the time, by default, and I don't consider it cheating by any measure, however some people do for some reason.

Thank you for the compliment! I relish in the idea that my work has inspired or assisted someone. I spend far too much time playing KSP, and 90% of that is mucking about in the VAB and SPH, so somebody should benefit.

[Ezriilc]

Now that Kolsys is "complete" once again, for my next trick... Re-inspired by Camaron to push the jet performance envelope, I've decided to apply the concept to Kolsys inasmuch as possible, but while (and here's the real challenge) reducing the part count significantly. Thanks, Camaron!

I don't know about 35 kilometers, but 25-30 should be doable, and I'd like to make her much less laggy on the pad. A test ship of mine, "Maxair", has made 32km alt with very little lag, and I think I can do better.

[Alewx]

I'm glad to be able to point that out to you. All it does is make it possible to place parts in symmetry that may otherwise have only been place-able one at a time. Many times, a part will refuse to attach only until it's moved slightly and then back again, or if symmetry is altered while holding it. That setting makes the behavior a bit more predictable and consistent, IMO. Personally, I think it should be on (checked) all the time, by default, and I don't consider it cheating by any measure, however some people do for some reason.

Thank you for the compliment! I relish in the idea that my work has inspired or assisted someone. I spend far too much time playing KSP, and 90% of that is mucking about in the VAB and SPH, so somebody should benefit.

Yeah I know this problem, of parts not willing to attach correct, because of some strange background clipping calculations, but I didn't know there is such a simple solution;.;

I will give it a try this evening, i'm currently building a tanker and a Duna mission, also for some docking practice, but wow that is really exhausting.

[Ezriilc]

The nature of the KSP editor and the way ships are built is a subtle and nuanced art, for sure. The longer I play it, the more tricks and techniques I learn, some of which have huge impacts on the performance of my ships. My recent "Surfex" ship is a perfect example of some recent leaps in ground and water craft development I've discovered (I'm sure others learned them long ago) - namely the art of flexible suspensions, and floatation balancing with high-impact parts. But many techniques are about making things less... exhausting. Good luck with that.

I look forward to seeing your work.