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

[benjaminlawrence27]

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.

This would definitely be more efficient, and I thought about it too. My rationale was that there would be quicker access to the reactor in the rare case of emergencies. (In this case however, the ascension motor still makes more sense, because it\'s probably cheaper to have three kerbals die in an explosion than to pack in the extra fuel needed to move a pressurized tunnel.)

In short: good point.

[Drakomis]

I want.

Seriously, great job man. Great job,

[Thobewill10]

Been looking for a parts pack like this for a while.

[manuelasa1999]

I second that

[Festivefire]

This pack looks great! Also reading about human tolerances and centrifuges was interesting.

[Rocketscienist]

I will say ITS REALLY COOOOOL! 8) 8) 8)

[Westo454]

I have a suggestion, how about a .5 m docking port that is in line with the ship so you can do something like the Apollo space missions and carry your lander with you in line with the ship, then detach it and re dock it on the front of the ship, also this could be used to dock with say a space station in orbit.

[Herman Poto?nik]

Very excited, wish you luck

[Galactic Nexus]

I was thinking, assuming that eventually the solar panels will be programmed to only generate power when in direct line-of-sight with a star and the power generated is inversely proportional to the distance from it, are you going to have an auxiliary power supply for when behind other bodies, or beyond the efficient range of the solar panels? Such as a small nuclear fission reactor for example.

[Lazurkri]

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.

Actually, its not fully Hydrogen, its a Antimatter Torch... the giant radiators at the (Current) front of the ship are to dissipate the heat from the torch. I too find Avatars story shit, but the basic science behind a lot of the movies tech is sound.

http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Interstellar_Vehicle_Venture_Star

[Panichio]

Looking good so far!

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

Looking good so far!

But will it beat the Space Kraken?

[kockaspiton]

Sorry for the lack of updates, Im abroad without internet, but I\'m working on the models. Stat tuned.

[fairtonybeta]

remember that ion engines still use propellant. if i were you, id just make it a low thrust engine with a large fuel tank.

[kockaspiton]

I\'m back, and I must say that the time spent was rather useful. I learned UVW mapping from scratch, and the pack is coming along nicely. I don\'t want to rush it out, the textures still require additional work.

-1.5m command pod done, and textured (but still needs work in the future)

-1.5m fuel tank done and textured

-2m centrifuge done and textured (textures will be revised later)

-3m centrifuge added and textured (I may make it longer)

-1.5m decoupler done (I\'ll add one with covering shrouds for the engine)

-1.5m engine done (nozzles will be detailed more)

I\'ll continue with the electrical propulsion system, time to learn how to animate solar panels!

[benjaminlawrence27]

Looking forward to this. It\'s exciting to see that more and more \'deep space\' packs are being developed so that we can finally get out of LKO.

[kockaspiton]

Textured some new parts, if everything goes to plan I\'ll release an alpha tomorrow.

[Cepheus]

God damn that\'s sexy. Please keep the light colors.

[NovaSilisko]

I\'m planning on making a centrifuge plugin for the Truss Pack and my eventual station pack, would you want to use it for yours? I could make it a universal plugin.

[ultrasquid]

This would definitely be more efficient, and I thought about it too. My rationale was that there would be quicker access to the reactor in the rare case of emergencies. (In this case however, the ascension motor still makes more sense, because it\'s probably cheaper to have three kerbals die in an explosion than to pack in the extra fuel needed to move a pressurized tunnel.)

In short: good point.

A potential compromise: A pressurized capsule on the cable transit system; essentially an elevator booth running on rails through the truss. It would offer the protection and comfort of a tunnel with only slightly more weight than an ascension cable alone.

[kockaspiton]

I\'m planning on making a centrifuge plugin for the Truss Pack and my eventual station pack, would you want to use it for yours? I could make it a universal plugin.

Yes! I would very much appreciate it!

[benjaminlawrence27]

So, I downloaded the pack, and had a disastrous fun romp in orbit with a Deep Space Mission ship.

Meet Discovery I. It was my goal with this test flight to try to eventually break kerbin orbit.

What is life without glamor shots.

Test flight I was a failure. Appearently, there is a bug in the pack that breaks the next stage when you decouple the current stage (Thus, my engines kept falling off.)

Not quite as adventurous as I hoped for, but that\'s ok.

[kockaspiton]

I\'ll look into that decoupler bug. Maybe that 'small explosive bolt' wasn\'t that small afterall . To fix it for now, go to parts/dsm_15m_engine/part.cfg and change this line crashTolerance = 7 to this crashTolerance = 20.

[Spearka]

i am so annoyed i cannot get 1.4 now

[Galactic Nexus]

Even after increasing the engine\'s crashTolerance, I\'m still finding it gets ripped off most times I try to decouple.