[24.2] Deployable Airbags [v0.4.0 - 2014.08.17]

[RoverDude]

Good, have you test them on bigger thing with many (small) parts attached (small batteries for example) ? If so, is everything stay in good condition after some distance travelled ?

By the way, on the dev thread video, the deployment is a bit too fast I think.

If you hit at too hard of a velocity, you will have some disintegration (but at least your crew will live... usually...). I was trying to time the speed with what I saw in the Spirit video, which was surprisingly fast (looking to add a particle effect to help convey the sudden inflation).

@RoverDude: You should mention the requirement of Squad's Worl Cup mod.

Done!

Are you planning on making them somewhat realistic in terms of velocity and breaking forces? They could not put Curiosity on Mars this way and I feel airbags should reflect that. Only suitable for lightish loads at low speeds.

Wow, that is impressive. Very lifelike. If this mod could replicate this it would be pretty great.

Going to take a gander at these stats and do some playing around as well as some additional tests. And yes, would like to add some 'squishyness' long term, but wanted to get the basics out there to begin iterating.

[RoverDude]

New video showing the probe sized bag (this has the toughest collider to keep blasting through the ground). Updated animation plus a new plugin that makes the airbag a bit more 'squishy' as it dampens the velocity on impact. Probes are rated for a 50m/s drop (this one did fine a bit faster than that). Also shows my probe not tearing into little bits on impact. Will add a video of the big airbags tonight (the dampening is more pronounced on the larger ships).

[RoverDude]

New update, pretty much wrapped up for now.

New actions, decoupling, and requirement to reset/recharge via EVA. Dampening has been tweaked, and for those experiencing their ships disintegrating, the key seems to be to encase your ship in a bubble of airbags, since the overlapping colliders help hold things together long enough for the vessel to land and bits to settle down.

[helaeon]

It works! SO excellent! I did a pretty good landing at 25 m/s on my 25T lander with the medium bags (the same lander was previously being shredded by the earlier versions).

I'm using tweakable everything, and the inflate-deflate controls get messed up if you inflate them in the VAB to see where you are placing the expanded bags then deflate them again before launch.

Not a big deal. Great work.

[Linear]

Hahah, brilliant mod - great work!

[RoverDude]

It works! SO excellent! I did a pretty good landing at 25 m/s on my 25T lander with the medium bags (the same lander was previously being shredded by the earlier versions).

I'm using tweakable everything, and the inflate-deflate controls get messed up if you inflate them in the VAB to see where you are placing the expanded bags then deflate them again before launch.

Not a big deal. Great work.

Ping me with some details and I'll take a look

[erbmur]

where would one find the world cup mod required for this to function?

[RoverDude]

where would one find the world cup mod required for this to function?

Up on curse, probably a sticky somewhere as well - it's an official Squad mod

[RoverDude]

Linky..

http://www.curse.com/ksp-mods/kerbal/221319-kerbin-cup

[erbmur]

Linky..

http://www.curse.com/ksp-mods/kerbal/221319-kerbin-cup

Thanks! (10 characters)

[orangewarning]

Probably you can create an airbag thats like a donut underneath the pod

sort of like this

[RoverDude]

Probably you can create an airbag thats like a donut underneath the pod

sort of like this

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/11/Apollo-11-splashdown_edited.jpg

Actually something like that with an integrated heat shield would be downright nifty...

[Justin Kerbice]

just a tiny detail, right to the download link:

(It's Airbags_0.1.0.zip)

version may be updated here (or some people might say => ":huh: where is Airbags_0.1.0.zip ?")

[LameLefty]

Probably you can create an airbag thats like a donut underneath the pod

sort of like this

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/11/Apollo-11-splashdown_edited.jpg

I believe that floatation collar around the capsule was added by the recovery swimmers before they began to help the crew out of the capsule. The ones on top inflated automatically after splashdown to make sure the capsule floated in the "Stable 1" position (pointy side up!) in the water while awaiting rescue, rather than the Stable 2 position. One mission (I want to say Apollo 15 but I may be mis-remembering) ended up in Stable 2 before the airbags inflated.

[orangewarning]

I believe that floatation collar around the capsule was added by the recovery swimmers before they began to help the crew out of the capsule. The ones on top inflated automatically after splashdown to make sure the capsule floated in the "Stable 1" position (pointy side up!) in the water while awaiting rescue, rather than the Stable 2 position. One mission (I want to say Apollo 15 but I may be mis-remembering) ended up in Stable 2 before the airbags inflated.

well, still pretty cool to include into the mod anyway. =D

[sumghai]

Probably you can create an airbag thats like a donut underneath the pod

sort of like this

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/11/Apollo-11-splashdown_edited.jpg

Actually something like that with an integrated heat shield would be downright nifty...

I believe that floatation collar around the capsule was added by the recovery swimmers before they began to help the crew out of the capsule. The ones on top inflated automatically after splashdown to make sure the capsule floated in the "Stable 1" position (pointy side up!) in the water while awaiting rescue, rather than the Stable 2 position. One mission (I want to say Apollo 15 but I may be mis-remembering) ended up in Stable 2 before the airbags inflated.

well, still pretty cool to include into the mod anyway. =D

Not to steal RoverDude's thunder (neat add-on, by the way!), but I'm already working on something like that - the feature is dependent on a special floater plugin that stupid_chris is developing, which will allow the floatation collar to trigger automatically on splashdown without user intervention, and apply proper buoyancy effects as required.

[dtobi]

Not to steal RoverDude's thunder (neat add-on, by the way!), but I'm already working on something like that.

Funny... I already made such parts a while ago but never released them. I'll release them in a short while with a bunch of other things that I made for myself...

These parts contain heat shields, inflatable bubbles, inflatable other things. They float. These are actually quite nice for Laythe bases. I made these parts in January... So no plagiarism either. The floating logic is an improved version of firespitter's floating code. It can be deactivated (for inflatables) and allows multiple float points per part.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edit: it does auto inflate on splashdown as well... Funny how similar one's needs and ideas are. If you want, I can share code.

[Alewx]

Sorry if the question was already asked before in the 42 pages, but why is the Worldcup Mod from Squad required?

[Superfluous J]

Sorry if the question was already asked before in the 42 pages, but why is the Worldcup Mod from Squad required?

Because these airbags are repurposed soccer balls. I think.

[helaeon]

Never mind my PM RoverDude.

Upon more fiddling with the bags in the VAB once you deflate them there is a "recharge" option and you can cycle them as much as you like.

EDIT: So I was wrong. Alt-copy with them open and they get stuck open in the vab (still using tweakable everything)

Edited June 20, 2014 by helaeon

[Alewx]

Because these airbags are repurposed soccer balls. I think.

Thanks, never mind 42 pages, was mistaken with another thread. Sorry

EDIT: @dtobi: Is the heatshield from Deadly Reentry?

Edited June 20, 2014 by Alewx

[dtobi]

Thanks, never mind 42 pages, was mistaken with another thread. Sorry

EDIT: @dtobi: Is the heatshield from Deadly Reentry?

I made the heatshield for myself but it uses the deadly reentry plugin and it's compatible.

[Alewx]

I made the heatshield for myself but it uses the deadly reentry plugin and it's compatible.

That explains why it looks so good.

[RoverDude]

Sorry if the question was already asked before in the 42 pages, but why is the Worldcup Mod from Squad required?

Because these airbags are repurposed soccer balls. I think.

I use their ModuleBounce in addition to my own PartModule (though I may poke through their source code and see if it's just easier to integrate the two bits into the single plugin).

[RoverDude]

Not to steal RoverDude's thunder (neat add-on, by the way!), but I'm already working on something like that - the feature is dependent on a special floater plugin that stupid_chris is developing, which will allow the floatation collar to trigger automatically on splashdown without user intervention, and apply proper buoyancy effects as required.

Funny... I already made such parts a while ago but never released them. I'll release them in a short while with a bunch of other things that I made for myself...

These parts contain heat shields, inflatable bubbles, inflatable other things. They float. These are actually quite nice for Laythe bases. I made these parts in January... So no plagiarism either. The floating logic is an improved version of firespitter's floating code. It can be deactivated (for inflatables) and allows multiple float points per part.

http://imgur.com/a/4Oxrf

Edit: it does auto inflate on splashdown as well... Funny how similar one's needs and ideas are. If you want, I can share code.

Awesome stuff! And saves me reinventing the wheel. Although I still have to do some fiddling to make mine a bit more water tolerant (buoyancy vs impact tolerance on splashdown are two different problem spaces).