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Tonight, I begin my first serious project on the new machine!

Whackjob

By Whackjob
in KSP1 Mission Reports

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Whackjob

Whackjob

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Will be logging the progress of it all as I start tonight (At office).

Overall plan: Land a lander tower on the Mun of improbable proportion.

Goal: Tower will have seven truss-honeycombed tank columns and will extend 10 VABs in height. Sections 2 VABs tall will be launched separately and then be assembled in orbit via multiport docking. Once assembled, ship (lol?) will land on the Mun in a pre-scouted mostly-level area. And if possible, after a brief photoshoot, will leave and return to Kerbin via powered landing.

Probable problems:

-Just one of these sections would qualify as the largest launch I've ever done. Size wise anyway. Thanks to the new engines and tanks, the part count will be less than I've had to deal with, and with the part rigidity tuned, it will be a little easier.

-The multidock port areas will be a structural weakness that will have to be overcome somehow. I've got this thing in mind, it's one long truss, with claws on each end, but rotated to the side, which would act as a sort of structural staple. I could launch a bundle of those and use an RCS tug to place them. If they'll even work that way. Anyone know?

-Control! This may end up being near two kilometers tall. I'll probably have to use action grouped aerospike engines to steer.

- *NEW* Landing gear. I will have to build landing gear of a size heretofore unseen. I've got an idea. Just... we'll leave it at, "I have an idea."

Assured hilarity:

-The first section I expect to fail many times. The detonation from something that large will be sublime.

-First landing will probably be handled poorly, and will crash on the Mun. I expect the altitude readings to be a bit weird... I doubt they measure from the closest part of the ship, but rather the console itself. Which will be perched at the top. So even instrument landings probably will not be useful.

So, tonight I begin to build and share pictures.

*Mods, I know you like to put this sort of thing on the spacecraft exchange, but given there isn't an exchange or even a space ship yet, can we keep this in general? Mostly I will be asking for advice for the new parts, as I did with the claw thing there.

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Whackjob

Whackjob

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Whackjob, we wish you luck on this grand project. May the Kraken be with you.

If half of what I heard is true, then them claws are pure kraken bait. It'll be... informative... to see what they'd do to my ship! :D

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Whackjob

Whackjob

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Here's how the honeycomb truss structure works. Well, I was going to do a little ASCII thing, but realized I already have a picture with that setup in it:

cdox3u1.png

Now, the big project here isn't going to be mixing narrow and wide parts like that. That's just asking for more trouble than what I'm already in for. But do you see the large trusses holding them together? They fit perfectly.

Now, I know you already see something questionable. "But Whack!" you say. "... You can't have a closed loop! They don't connect!" And you're quite right. Which is why, if you look really close, the trusses that meet in the middle that would be "open" have a strut connecting them. I find it works wonderfully. Like a locking pin, holding them together.

With seven core columns, six are on the outside. 360/6 = perfect 60 degree angles between each, giving me nice little equilateral triangles that assure a snug truss fit. By using tanks of equal radii, I can assure the trusses still fit nice. It's quite elegant. I think.

By the way, what happened with your mouse issues?

USB mouse still fails. Managed to pick up both a PS/2 mouse and keyboard. Didn't need to PS/2 with the keyboard, but I got one anyway, because just in case.

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Whackjob

Whackjob

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For the bottom section's landing assembly, I'm planning to put an engine cluster under each of the six outside columns. Specifically, twelve of the largest non-engine-and-tank mounted to the bottom tank of each outside column. If memory serves (and it usually doesn't LOL) they are 2,000 pounds of thrust each? Should be enough.

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Whackjob

Whackjob

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That's a neat trick with the struts - definitely going to be pinching that one.

Please do! Main reason I post stuff like this it to share the tricks I've learned. And the main reason I lurk other's threads is to learn from them by pinching their ideas. :)

#opensourceconstructionoftheimprobableandinefficientfortehlulz

So, does anyone know if an object with two claws can grip the same potatoroid / ship with both claws simultaneously? Or does one attach and the other float through it?

#EDIT: Realized I'd forgotten the problem of landing gear of that kind of size needed, added it to OP

Edited by karolus10
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Whackjob

Whackjob

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Yes, two or more claws can attach simultaneously, just as two or more docking ports can dock at once, but you do need to take care that they all attach at the same time :)

Excellent. Action groups will do that for me. So the idea of claw-girder-staples should pan out. I like this... this opens even more possibilities.

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FenrirWolf

FenrirWolf

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Here's how the honeycomb truss structure works. Well, I was going to do a little ASCII thing, but realized I already have a picture with that setup in it:

Now, the big project here isn't going to be mixing narrow and wide parts like that. That's just asking for more trouble than what I'm already in for. But do you see the large trusses holding them together? They fit perfectly.

Now, I know you already see something questionable. "But Whack!" you say. "... You can't have a closed loop! They don't connect!" And you're quite right. Which is why, if you look really close, the trusses that meet in the middle that would be "open" have a strut connecting them. I find it works wonderfully. Like a locking pin, holding them together.

With seven core columns, six are on the outside. 360/6 = perfect 60 degree angles between each, giving me nice little equilateral triangles that assure a snug truss fit. By using tanks of equal radii, I can assure the trusses still fit nice. It's quite elegant. I think.

Reminds me of my first successful interplanetary ship built back when I was first starting to get the hang of this game

JvGb044.png

KYXaEPc.png

That thing was horribly inefficient and resulted in my crew being stranded on Duna with no way to return home, but it's still one of my favorite ships I've ever made

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Whackjob

Whackjob

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That thing was horribly inefficient and resulted in my crew being stranded on Duna with no way to return home, but it's still one of my favorite ships I've ever made

I see the exact same problem I ran in to with a four-column outside system. The trusses have to be adjusted with a small piece, and it still doesn't seem to look right. Try a six-column symmetry. Two med trusses out to the external column, and then to med trusses between them on the ring. And they'll touch. String a strut between, and you're golden. :)

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tstehler1

tstehler1

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Reminds me of my first successful interplanetary ship built back when I was first starting to get the hang of this game

[insert amazingly sexy pictures here]

That thing was horribly inefficient and resulted in my crew being stranded on Duna with no way to return home, but it's still one of my favorite ships I've ever made

That's a slideshow producer if I ever saw one... I have a tendency to leave my video card turned way down until my first launch... At which point, my framerate of about 4/second serves as a nice reminder that my ATI Radeon HD 7770 has all the video processing power of a medium-sized refrigerator when on lowest settings.

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