Flying real plannend missions in KSP

[KSat]

Hello fellow Kerbonauts,

I made two videos (and the KSP parts) for missions that are plannend around my university.

First the SHEFEXIII Mission. The unique shape is developed to minimize costs and complexity of reentry vehicles. The surfaces are made of C/SiC ceramics. The temperature of the tips will rise to 4-5000K durign reentry, therefore active cooling measures have to be used. In reality gas is pushed to tiny cracks of the ceramic to cool the tips. After reentry only the tips need to be replaced, making it a very cheap heat shield.

The 5min video you can see here:

Second the MIRKA2 Mission. A cubesat satellite mission currently developed by the KSat student team and the Institute of Space Systems of University of Stuttgart. The cubesat consist of two segments. A 30cm long deorbit module, that is propelled by a experimental pulsed plasma engine, that is developed by the Institute of Space Systems. The engine is used to deorbit the satellite from the ISS orbit, where it is planned to be launched.

The second segment is the reentry capsule (micro reentry capsule 2 -> MIRKA2), that carries a experimental heat shield. It gets ejected at an orbit altitude of 125 km. It will then collect data during reentry about the ablation behavior and transmit said data before exzessive litho/aquabraking occurs.

The 5min mission overview video you can see here:

If you have any questions about the science or how the parts were created for KSP do not hesitate to ask.

Cheers,

KSat

[Stinger771]

Hi there, I'm usually not a fan of modded parts but I really liked these videos of yours, well done! I worked on a cube sat somewhat like the one you showed in your video, fun stuff! So how'd you make the parts??

[KSat]

Hello Stinger771,

the parts were originally in CATIA. I then exported them as .STL Files to import them into Blender.

If you are also working with CATIA, do not use the standard export as STL option, because there normals are often screwed up and I was not able to repair all of it. Better you use the surface tesselation and export as STL options ,from "Start-> Machining->STL Rapid Prototyping".

The rest is the usual modding way (I guess). The UV-Map exported from Blender is then edited with photoshop. Reimport the UV-Map to get the texture to work. Then Unity-3D with part tools. Then export these parts and define them for KSP with the .cfg files.

I do not know if I will find time to make a tutorial that shows how to make a part from catia to KSP.

If you are willing to invest some time, these 3 links provide everything you need to know. You only need to workout where to put what.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25013-Compilation-of-modding-information-links-for-0-19-20-21-22-23-Last-update-24th-Jan---%20PartTools%200.20%20---

One more complicated thing is the solar panel animation, for that you need to implement a rig and make an animation in blender.

Cheers,

KSat