[0.21][Parts Pack]Deep Space Mission Pack - Now open source!

[kockaspiton]

This pack aims to provide parts for the deep space part of the game. It contains many parts for building an interplanetary craft, including but not limited to: ion engine, nuclear reactor, struts, centrifuges. Also contains a 2001 Space Odyssey’s Discovery like spherical command pod.

Sadly I don't have time for maintaining this mod anymore, people were asking for permissions to modify it, update it so I'm making it open source.

License:

You may do anything you wan't with it as long as you:

1. Don't ask money for the parts directly, you may use them in monetized youtube videos, you may paint a picture of them and sell it for profit, but not sell the actual parts.

2. Give some credit.

Source:

3D models and textures

1.9 released:

• Updated for 0.21
  
• Major optimization on textures (they are reduced to 1/4th of their size)
  

Changes in 1.8:

• Updated format for 0.20
  
• Decouplers no longer allow fuel cross-feed (no more stolen fuel from upper stages by the lower ones)
  

Changes in 1.71:

• The gold foil is really gold this time (thanks Felorius)
  

Changes in 1.7:

• Now both pods contains an autopilot, so you can control them without kerbals inside.
  
• Command pods now also store and generate some electricity.
  
• The ion engine is now a little bit more powerful and consumes less energy (enough to be on pair with the nuclear reactor)
  
• As it turns out what I intended to be gold foil all along was something of a bright green mess (I’m colorblind), now its fixed (I suppose ), thanks Kerboniminal for pointing that out.
  

Changes in 1.62:

• fixed the airlocks, now going to EVA won’t launch your kerbals away from the ship
  
• fixed the decouplers (hopefully, tried it for some times now) breaking things
  

Changes in 1.61:

• fixed strut tank and strut rcs tank
  

Changes in 1.6:

• Updated for 0.18
  

Changes in 0.152:

• Strut Hub is now less buggy (some still exists)
  
• Larger airlock "zone" for the pod, it's now possible to actually get inside the pod from a ladder
  
• Struts now allow surface mounted parts
  

Changes in 0.151:

• Fixed a bug where occasionally the struts changed to be an ASAS when loading a ship.
  

Changes in 0.15:

• Rescaled everything to 2.5m - vanilla compatible
  
• Remodelled command pod (with proper size front node)
  
• Nosecone added
  
• ASAS module added
  
• Nuclear reactor, quite heavy, but generates power without the need of sunlight
  
• Ion engine now have a built in battery
  

Changes in 0.141:

• Fixed some incorrect part names and config file stuff
  
• Hopefully no more breaking parts when decoupling
  

Changes in 0.14:

• Upscaled everything to 3m in diameter
  
• Remodeled almost every part
  
• Retextured every part
  
• Generally improved quality of parts
  
• Added working airlocks to the pods (and to the cargo containers for unlucky kerbals)
  
• New strut hub module, (when placing it first it bugs, you have to press w, then it works fine)
  
• New strut decoupler module
  
• Rebalanced things
  

Screenshots:

More screenshots at:

http://imgur.com/a/r3MhH

Download:

Kerbal Space Port

Mirrors:

Media Fire

Dropbox, use the other please if possible, dropbox bans me if I use this too much

OLD VERSION (pre 0.20 format)

MediaFire

Dropbox

Edited August 26, 2014 by kockaspiton

[Blinkin]

This looks very cool.

Looking forward to updates.

[Rico88]

Nice looking ship.

There is one mistake: The windows on the rotating module are misplaced, because during rotation the centrifugal force pushes everything to the sides, so their current position is actualy the floor.

The windows should be placed like this:

Also it would be good to see heat radiators for the ship. Otherwise this is realy a good concept

[kockaspiton]

LOL, I haven\'t thought about it, windows in the floor isn\'t that cool as it first sounds, I\'ll fix it.

[benjaminlawrence27]

I agree that the windows should be on the sides of the centrifuge. Though it just occurred to me that having windows on the floor of a spinning module would be totally psychedelic.

[benjaminlawrence27]

This also just occurred to me. Fuel tanks should be big, round spheres with lots of volume to hold hydrogen (Well, I assume hydrogen, it\'s a hell of a propellant).

For those of you who live under a rock, this is the ISV Venture Star from James Cameron\'s Avatar. Coincidentally I cannot stand this film, but I love this ship because it is realistically designed (Cameron assembled a team of scientists to conceptualize it for the film).

So that\'s pretty neat, and though this is a non-superlumnial starship design, it\'s still a great resource for building interplanetary type vessels. If you\'re going for realism, then I would definitely draw from a design like this.

The way it works (in a nutshell) is that a fusion reactor aboard the ship would superheat the hydrogen fuel (in spherical tanks ), creating a plasma which would then be ejected through an exhaust port (=thrust).

Here\'s an article about how that works in greater detail:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/fusion-propulsion2.htm

Furthermore, a ship designed like this could eventually be made to self-replenish its fuel. Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. Eventually, something like an electromagnetic funnel could be made to channel gas into the engine, effectively making it so that you could go like hell for as long as you wanted.

I look forward to seeing this mod later on, because what you\'ve done so far looks great.

P.S. I don\'t want to tell you how to make your mod, I just get really excited about this sort of thing.

[Galactic Nexus]

Very cool picture there Benjie, I never realised that the ship had the engines at the front, I thought they were at the back and that the shield was at the front, I don\'t know why I thought made more sense.

Anyway, on topic, I\'m definitely liking the concept here kockaspiton. My one worry is how you\'re going to get it up there. Isn\'t this sort of ship you would launch from orbit? The large, bare truss in the middle looks like it would be a huge liability, aerodynamically. Do you plan to stick the truss and below inside a massive fairing?

[Rico88]

Very cool picture there Benjie, I never realised that the ship had the engines at the front, I thought they were at the back and that the shield was at the front, I don\'t know why I thought made more sense.

Anyway, on topic, I\'m definitely liking the concept here kockaspiton. My one worry is how you\'re going to get it up there. Isn\'t this sort of ship you would launch from orbit? The large, bare truss in the middle looks like it would be a huge liability, aerodynamically. Do you plan to stick the truss and below inside a massive fairing?

Good point. I think it should be modular, so the modules should be launched seperatly, then assemble them in orbit. We are going to get docking in 0.15, so it would be possible.

[benjaminlawrence27]

I think a ship this large would have to be assembled and launched from orbit, on the grounds that it would be far too heavy and encumbering to launch from the ground.

OFF TOPIC: Don\'t call me Benjie. I hate that name (However, no offense taken).

[kockaspiton]

By all means continue with the suggestions, I\'m making this mod for the community, not for my personal entertainment (although I do enjoy modeling). The Venture Star concept is interesting, and I agree that this is one of the most realistic ships seen in Sci-Fi movies, however It\'s for traveling between solar systems. For the current goals of this pack we have to come up with down-sized solutions, I don\'t think the Kerbals would be advanced enough to crumple a fusion reactor in such a small space, so these ships must be built in orbit. Hydrogen ram scoops (bussard collectors) are something worth considering, I\'ll take a look at the plugin documentation, when it comes out and see if I can come up with something for these parts like higher speed -> more collected hydrogen.

As for launching this ship, the struts are just optional parts. I made this ship to show all the modules, how you combine them is up to you, I don\'t want to tie the hands of ship designers, but yes, massive fairings, and probably 3m rockets would be necessary. But in the future orbital assembly would be preferred, with a talented plugin maker it would be possible now, let me explain:

Lets say you want two parts of the ship connected. You design the full ship, then the two halfs and launch them, get them close to each other, the plugin detects that both of them are present, destroys the two half and spawns the complete ship, from the plan. That wouldn\'t be to hard to implement, but it\'s not true docking, just a trick.

[Awaras]

I agree that the windows should be on the sides of the centrifuge. Though it just occurred to me that having windows on the floor of a spinning module would be totally psychedelic.

A centrifuge that small would have to spin once every second or even faster to generate an apparent 1G gravity. Looking out of ANY window would be totally psychedelic. S:|

Also, as I have bored people before, but just can\'t let go, an ion engine still needs a propellant, not just electricity...

[benjaminlawrence27]

In the future, you may also consider a \'tether and canister\' approach to the centrifuge. What I mean by this is that, once the ship is no longer under acceleration and it\'s safe to activate, the centrifuge would extend on a second, truss-like tether, which would then be attached on the other end to rotating hub. This would allow you to make the centrifuge as large as you like (Handy because the larger the diameter of the centrifuge\'s spin, the less angular velocity you have(less rotations per minute) This would allow your kerbals to experience kerbin-norm gravity without constantly throwing up in a small centrifuge with a high angular velocity.

I think that makes sense, I trip myself up at times when explaining these things.

Also, to extend on my obsession with space craft, and on my above post, putting the engines on the front of a ship (thus towing the rest of the ship) reduces the ship\'s mass, thus reducing the amount of delta-v needed to move about. An all around good thing, I would say.

Regards

[Rico88]

I think there should be attachable fuel tanks for the struts. Furthermore it\'d be good to see some docking ports, so you could bring landers or probes to your missions. A communication dish and antennas would be pretty neat as well.

[Rico88]

This would allow your kerbals to experience kerbin-norm gravity without constantly throwing up in a small centrifuge with a high angular velocity.

According to a new study, the size and the rotation speed of the centrifuge is not as important as they thought, peolple could still withstand the fast rotation of a small centrifuge pretty well. Of course we won\'t know for sure until we try in space. Although I like your suggestion, I\'d be great to see more types of centrifuges.

[AirBorn2Kill]

damn, this is gonna be so epic when it\'s done :w00t:

[kockaspiton]

Strut with fuel tank, do you guys like this orange template? I\'m thinking about the same color set for the final textures.

[benjaminlawrence27]

Also, I was just looking at the images of the models, and something I thought would be neat is if there was a small tube running down the center of the tensile truss, this would be a pressurized tunnel for the kerbals to have access to the propulsion module without having to do an EVA.

[benjaminlawrence27]

Strut with fuel tank, do you guys like this orange template? I\'m thinking about the same color set for the final textures.

I do, orange/white are nice reflective surfaces for a spacecraft, makes it easier to sea things. (Plus it looks awesome)

[Rico88]

Yeah, orange is perfect, or dark grey.

[witeken]

so pre built ships are out of the question.

[

Rage page quit :\'(

[Awaras]

According to a new study, the size and the rotation speed of the centrifuge is not as important as they thought, peolple could still withstand the fast rotation of a small centrifuge pretty well. Of course we won\'t know for sure until we try in space. Although I like your suggestion, I\'d be great to see more types of centrifuges.

Could you please post a link to this study, I would be very interested in reading it.

[kockaspiton]

Rage page quit :\'(

Don\'t get me wrong, I mean there is no 'mandatory design', like the Cyclone or the Vanguard, those are pre built ships (damn fine prebuilt ships), which you can modify of course, but it\'s neither recommended nor useful.

[Rico88]

Could you please post a link to this study, I would be very interested in reading it.

I have read just a summary about it, here is the site:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11020210?dopt=Abstract

The whole article can be downloaded, but it needs a membership from the library, which I don\'t have.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1097-4547%2820001015%2962:2%3C169::AID-JNR2%3E3.0.CO;2-B/abstract

I couldn\'t find the study itself on the internet, although it might be there somewhere.

[benjaminlawrence27]

I have read just a summary about it, here is the site:

Interesting, I wonder what would happen if you fell down in a centrifuge spinning that fast? Hard as hell to stop, I suppose.

[ultrasquid]

Also, I was just looking at the images of the models, and something I thought would be neat is if there was a small tube running down the center of the tensile truss, this would be a pressurized tunnel for the kerbals to have access to the propulsion module without having to do an EVA.

A pressurized tunnel would mean a large structural mass and volume of breathing gas that wouldn\'t be of much other use. A cable run through the center of the truss would be a safe way to transport EVA suited kerbals using a simple ascension motor.