Spacedock Proof of Concept, swap engines in orbit with Infernal Robotics

[LaytheAerospace]

A while back I was experimenting with what I've been calling hot swap engine bays, where instead of bolting an engine onto the back of your craft, you use a pair of docking ports then the engine. This would let you send your heavy LV-N engines up once, and reuse them over and over again by just leaving them in orbit. The problem was, it was a huge pain to swap the engines out by docking. I made a robotic arm for my Space Truck, but it was slow and hard to control because it tended to wobble badly, and it couldn't replace its own engines without getting even longer.

I was already working on a station to hold the engines not currently in use, so I decided to make it into a full fledged spacedock. Here's what I ended up with as a small proof of concept. I used HyperEdit to get this into orbit, the full size version will either unfold using hinges, or be assembled in pieces.

Don't pay too much attention to the time. I spent a lot of time trying to get good screenshots, it's really not very hard to swap engines.

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For future enhancements, I'm going to add a second rear arm to hold the existing engine so you don't need to drop it and pick it up again. I also plan to make the drum replaceable. Using a standard docking port, you could plug one of the engines into the port that would normally connect to the spacedock, and fly it around. It's also going to be made larger, perhaps with multiple bays so you can leave a ship or two gassed up and ready to go.

This was made possible by the fantastic Infernal Robotics and Kerbal Attachment System.

Edited July 27, 2014 by LaytheAerospace
Forgot to mention KAS

[Dodgey]

That's really neat, have you thought about using the part welding mod in order to create a better looking space dock? The ends of the large fuel tanks just don't look right as structural pieces.

[LaytheAerospace]

Maybe. The final spacedock will be made mostly of structural components. Those tanks are just to add mass and stop the station from moving much as you shift the plane around with the bed. Currently you can't even get at the fuel in them.

This weekend I'm probably going to see what I can do for a proper spacedock, and launch it the hard way instead of using HyperEdit.

[prophet_01]

Nice idea. And finally a convincing reason for a spacedock

I wonder if it might work in stock using the claw on a tug. Anyway its a great concept, espacially for spaceplane ssto's amd reusable crafts

[mike9606]

I remember a while back someone else had a SSTO that could swap it's engines out to allow for travelling farther.