Better Stock Crafts 2: This Time it's Personal!

[Sirine]

In the spirit of good sportsmanship we should all agree to NOT vote for our own entry. Thoughts?

[manni01]

In the spirit of good sportsmanship we should all agree to NOT vote for our own entry. Thoughts?

yah, either that or no voting for people who gave an entry

[advil]

yah, either that or no voting for people who gave an entry

So the Op gets to decide?

[Mathman]

This will be a much simpler challenge than better stock crafts one, and quite different.

[Mathman]

Use the pop up tweek settings (right click) during construction in VAB. Three colours are available. All on = white. Red on and Green and Blue off or very low = Red... etc. This can not be changed after launch. hope this helps.

[Mathman]

In the spirit of good sportsmanship we should all agree to NOT vote for our own entry. Thoughts?

[advil]

Good for me, who do we send the votes to? "Mathman"

[Mathman]

Probably, he did mention something about creating an offsite vote, but I think we have to wait until he becomes available. Probably safe to say the vote window is going to be at least 48 hours to make sure people in all time zones get equal exposure to it.

And for those of us off to real work. I have my day job to get off to as a (wait for it) mathematician for the government. ta ta. I'll check again when off shift.

[John FX]

After reading that description of a `tug` I`m happy with my entry. I have not tried but I suspect it could get a small craft from LKO and place it on the surface of Mun. It can get station cores, join them in LKO then take the whole thing to GKO (then have enough spare Dv to go to Mun and land itself or maybe do it again)

The only change I would make is to dock a grabber unit (attached to a probe core and some RCS) to the standard docking port to allow a docking port to be added to any craft but I`m not sure that would be suitable for a `stock craft for beginners`

I`ll be adapting my own craft though.

EDIT : Of course it is suitable, if they don`t need it the craft operates the same.

Edited July 10, 2014 by John FX

[Pecan]

flash and size is what America is all about

[John FX]

What is this 'America' of which you speak? Is this the fictional nationalistic-militaristic universe you young Kerbals talk about all the time?

Edited July 10, 2014 by John FX

[Pecan]

As the poll has not been posted I will make a late change to my craft (I`ll understand if it is too late)

As far as I'm concerned unless and until there's a vote all updates are valid.

[John FX]

In the spirit of good sportsmanship we should all agree to NOT vote for our own entry. Thoughts?

I`d say in the spirit of fair competition we should all agree TO vote on our own craft, then we all get a vote (which is nice) and nobody can cheat as we have all done the same.

It`s a level playing field if we all do or all don`t.

As long as we all do the same everyone wins (or nobody loses)

As far as I'm concerned unless and until there's a vote all updates are valid.

Cool, as long as the OP agrees, hehe.

EDIT :

It looks like the entries are in. Let the judging begin. I would like to make a comment to the judging though.. The challenge has been to design a space tug, 'tug' being short for tugboat. But what is the tug supposed to do? Form follows function afterall.

The Oxford dictionary defines a 'tug' as A powerful boat used for towing larger vessels, especially in harbor. This is indicative of helping to move larger vessels around to 'dock' with shore, etc. A tug does not normally leave harbor. This implies use as an aid in assembly, etc. Especially when unpowered cargoes or parts are being moved from one ship to another. This is similar to what sci-fi authors like James White and Arthur C Clarke have proposed for space station construction.

NASA - as part of the 'space transportation system' defined a space tug as "a chemically fueled space tug to move crew and equipment between Earth orbits (including geosynchronous), and which could be adapted for use as a lunar orbit-to-surface shuttle" Wow - Mün lander too!

in judging this contest which end of the spectrum (The NASA gold plated version or the commercial version) is going to be given presidence? Bigger and better or smaller and more efficient? I won't say. I just raise the idea.

Let the judging begin. (Personally I think flash and size is what America is all about)

Why not both? Mine would move a station to GKO or the smaller pod could move parts dock them and do `station maintainance` all in one handy package.

Launch two bottles into the shower? I think not, new `dock n go` has the great orbit cleaning you need with the station management shine you desire.

Edited July 10, 2014 by John FX

[advil]

Mathman, you never said how exactly we were to vote lol

[Pecan]

When/if the OP comes back he'll set up the voting.

As to how people will judge for which to vote I hope that they, at least, have read the OP. "Your craft should be easy to use, simple and safe - stock craft are mostly for new players" and "dock either two stock Space Station Cores together, or dock a stock Space Station Core to a pre-existing space station, then either de-orbit or dock to another node on the station", for instance. That would seem to favour the submissions that have demonstrated completing the tasks in the simplest way ^^.

[Sirine]

Lets give the OP a 48 hours (2 days from now) of waiting. - from this post date stamp.

If he did not turn up. We can start our own voting. via, just stated here (in this post) who would you vote.

Aside from that. I would like to promote my Tug abit.

1) It has TWR of 1.95 (while fully fuel) : It can push a pretty high mass. (10~50 Tons)

2) It has 2830 Vacumn-Delta-v : It can land on Mun, and back to LKO with its spare Ion engines no problem.

3) 2164 Vacumn-Delta-v of Ion Engines mode : It has spare Ion engines just in case that it can go to fuel-station to refuel itself, and no need to wait for other to come for it.

4) It has Science equipment on it. (Added value)

5) It has the direction indicator. The light pointing which way is Up.

6) It has RSC for fine-movement.

7) It has Reaction Wheel value of 20.5: enable easier turning, or stabalizing its toll.

8) Simple design, that the docking port can be easily switch to Jr. or std. docking port.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Sirine

[advil]

When/if the OP comes back he'll set up the voting.

As to how people will judge for which to vote I hope that they, at least, have read the OP. "Your craft should be easy to use, simple and safe - stock craft are mostly for new players" and "dock either two stock Space Station Cores together, or dock a stock Space Station Core to a pre-existing space station, then either de-orbit or dock to another node on the station", for instance. That would seem to favour the submissions that have demonstrated completing the tasks in the simplest way ^^.

I'm going to vote for the craft I like the most, the criteria on which I will decide that is up to me as a judge I'm sure there's going to be at least one person that ends up voting for themself but it's not going to be me.

- - - Updated - - -

I officially know who i'm NOT voting for.

[Mathman]

Mathman, you never said how exactly we were to vote lol

How would I know? I sent a personal message to the original poster but what do I know? I'm searching for enlightenment like everyone else. ..

[John FX]

Maybe something happened in Rl, it does sometimes.

Time for some shameless plugging of my craft then I suppose while we wait for the poll,

My tug has two action groups which change direction of thrust (1 and 2) so you can push or pull and lights that show the active port to select and direction of thrust (green standard docking port, red docking port Snr). It has about 4000Dv unloaded and a relatively high mass (so the Dv won`t drop loads when loaded). It can dock with a standard docking port or a docking port Snr, It has a utility pod (which acts like a standard docking port if not used) with a claw and standard docking port which can operate independently of the main tug and provide a docking port on craft that were launched without one for example smaller probes (which can be grabbed then docked to a station). The utility pod can do many of the mission criteria by itself. It can dock two cores together and then dock itself to the station or deorbit. It has 100 Mono, a few batteries and a control ring. It highlights its docking port in blue. It is very small and can slip into areas to control station parts that other tugs cannot reach (doesn`t even need a docking port)

The main tug can put a station core in orbit around Mun (then possibly land on Mun itself) It has plenty of torque and is nuclear powered so no solar panels to get in the way of doing anything. It has no science because it is a tug. It has plenty of RCS ports to turn even the largest of stations and about 1200 mono, which should be plenty.

The launch vehicle gets the tug in orbit cleanly and without incident with some fuel spare. This can either refuel the station the tug has been sent to or be used to deorbit the last stage (which remains controllable after separation)

My craft shows SLS parts, asparagus (sort of) staging, action groups, the claw, clean space techniques, is overengineered to allow mission flexibility, can partially replace stage 3, is stackable and compact.

It`s a no nonsense, stock utility vehicle that is easy to operate and would enhance the station keeping duties of any space program.

How would I know? I sent a personal message to the original poster but what do I know? I'm searching for enlightenment like everyone else. ..

Why does your post remind me of slartibartfast saying "I`d rather be happy than right any day"?

arthur "Well are you?"

slartibartfast "What?"

arthur "Happy"

slartibartfast "No, that`s where it all falls down"

Edited July 11, 2014 by John FX
speelling and a joke

[John FX]

So I just checked and there are 9 entries. I think it would be sad for just one person to not get voted on so I would hope that all of us go into the poll instead of only one getting eliminated (unless any do not qualify)

So, in order of posting the 9 candidates are :

1, Randomness5555 "Orbital Station Tug 1A"

2, Pecan "a simple space tug"

3, Mathman "Autonomous Recoverable Mover"

4, WK40Krules "my Tug"

5, Sirine "Tug."

6, Koolkei "Unnamed"

7, Advil "DockBot"

8, Manni01 "Reusable Adaper Tug MKIII

9, John FX "tUG"

It seems tug is a popular name.

EDIT :

I'm going to vote for the craft I like the most, the criteria on which I will decide that is up to me as a judge I'm sure there's going to be at least one person that ends up voting for themself but it's not going to be me.

- - - Updated - - -

I officially know who i'm NOT voting for.

I`ll not vote for myself as that seems to be what we are doing. I think I have a candidate to vote for (that isn`t me)

I`ll be basing my vote on utility, ease of use and chance of a new player `breaking it` The more it does, the easier it does it for a new player and the tougher it looks the higher it will score for me.

Edited July 11, 2014 by John FX

[Pecan]

I'm going to vote for the craft I like the most, the criteria on which I will decide that is up to me as a judge ...

I officially know who i'm NOT voting for.

Which is a pity because any judge should look at the design criteria stated for the challenge and how each entry demonstrated its ability to meet them, or doesn't. Of course you can then rate them for other features like artitstic merit, endurance, etc. but only as tie-breaks.

Or you could just use politics and vote for your bestest friend ^^. To paraphrase Holmes, "When you have eliminated the ones you're NOT voting for what remains, however unsuitable, is the solution." Not suggesting any of these can't do what's required, btw, I just didn't think that quote through until I was most of the way through typing it, doh! Anyway, no worries - these things usually go that way and I only chucked mine in at the start to illustrate how it could be done.

GregroxMun has been active on the forums today so I assume he's not checking-in here.

[Whirligig Girl]

Looks like I forgot about this thread. Just have a mod close it.

EDIT: Or just have it run by someone else, that would be cool.

Edited July 11, 2014 by GregroxMun

[manni01]

Looks like I forgot about this thread. Just have a mod close it.

wait!, just let us write here until we are done voting. please. don't just close it, that seems kind of harsh D:

[Stealth_Eagle]

Well guys, I guess my mothership won't be able to be submitted in time.

[Whirligig Girl]

Nah, just have someone else do it. I'm too busy to set up an active challenge right now. Check out my Apollo Redirect Mission challenge as well, which is not active on my part.