[1.12.x] Freight Transport Technologies [v0.6.0]

[vectorbased]

is there a way I can switch those huge (30k/250k unit) spherical Starlifter tanks from liquid hydrogen to Liquid Fuel + Oxidizer?

Would prefer to have a duplicate versions in LFO so I can keep using hydrogen/karborundrum options as well. It would make the most amazing looking fuel storage tank on my newest refinery station if its possible. Much preferred aesthetic to using procedural parts-

Also, Roverdude, I just want to say its an absolute pleasure to use your mods. Game wouldn't be the same without them... most of the USI catalog is past of my "must-have" mods

Well done sir, I applaud you!!

Edited December 28, 2014 by vectorbased

[RoverDude]

Sure, just copy the config somewhere and give it a different name and just change the part name and the storage info.

[vectorbased]

Sure, just copy the config somewhere and give it a different name and just change the part name and the storage info.

Wow, that's it? Thanks, not much of a "coder" but this is too good to pass up. Much appreciated info-

[almagnus1]

Getting back to the alternative space craft designs - something that's essentially a flying bar would actually make a lot of sense for an asteroid transport, as the width will allow you to put forward and reverse engines out far enough to clear the asteroid, and also allow you to mount RCS at the ends of the bar, to help maximize the torque they can apply to the asteroid. To go into more detail on what I'm thinking for craft design, behind the Starlifter cockpit would be SAS, a reactor, and the asteroid capture claw. On each of the booms would (maybe) be a docking port, with inline fuel storage, then a cluster of engines and RCS at the end of each boom, giving you the necessary torque to wrestle the asteroid, with forward and reverse engines at a 2:1 ratio (more pushing forward than pushing backwards for better acceleration, but still enough to break).

This is where having engines that will function as both engines and RCS engines would be helpful, as you're going to need a lot of thrust to be able to wrestle an asteroid.

It's also why giving us various adapters and junction points can allow us to create all sorts of wild and crazy vehicles with your parts pack. And really, that's what makes KSP a true modern classic.

[RoverDude]

FYI - RCS and Engines mixed in large form factors is a bit sketchy right now, as I've experienced myself.

[Pectus Solentis]

Hmm... I am favorable to your mod, but I have a wish for this mod...

Why don't you add Starlifter Passenger Module? (maybe 20 passengers per passenger module?) It seems that it's cool for Starlifters to have that.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Pectus Solentis
mistyped ; this topic is for MKS/OKS mod.

[lordyod]

Hey RoverDude, having a problem with the large hydrogen tank/large nuclear rockets. http://imgur.com/a/F0jKm GNR-3750 hooked up directly to a tank with 30k liquid hydrogen in it, and the engine won't fire as it's saying it has no hydrogen. Any tips for solving this?

[Psykikk]

could someone link me a video for a starlifter usage ? i like em big but this thing is obscene....

Rover,

even though I am having problems using all your mods and parts and such... I istall them all :-) great work mate. great work

[KerBlam]

Is there a guide for the HoneyBadger somewhere? I don't think I'm setting it up correctly, and I definitely can't fly it, let alone get it into orbit

[Captain Sierra]

Is there a guide for the HoneyBadger somewhere? I don't think I'm setting it up correctly, and I definitely can't fly it, let alone get it into orbit

Its like setting up any other VTOL: it takes practice, troubleshooting, and help from random forum gurus on the internet.

Images are worth ten thousand keystrokes. Provide them por favor.

could someone link me a video for a starlifter usage ? i like em big but this thing is obscene....

Rover,

even though I am having problems using all your mods and parts and such... I istall them all :-) great work mate. great work

Once your in orbit, you're halfway to anywhere, though the starlifters have such extreme range even with payload that orbit might only be 15% or so of your dV expended.

If its the getting to orbit part, heres some inspiration:

That barely took it to orbit . . . empty.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Captain Sierra

[Jarin]

http://i.imgur.com/RYhEAZ5.png

That barely took it to orbit . . . empty.

Cripes. Yeah... time to run with EPL and just build the starlifter ships in orbit.

[KerBlam]

Its like setting up any other VTOL: it takes practice, troubleshooting, and help from random forum gurus on the internet.

Images are worth ten thousand keystrokes. Provide them por favor.

Sure I'll put up a screeny when I next boot up KSP

Also I think I need to research action groups, I've been putting that off, and I found a sweet tip for balancing the fuel load using 2 way fuel lines which I think will help.

via Mischief:

Put the engines on as the furthest outside points. As in furthest from the center.

For fuel consumption you can use TAC fuel balancer or personally I just use 2x fuel lines. Each fuel system has one fuel line going to the 'central' (whatever the center one feeding your primary engine is) and one fuel line going BACK From it. If you have fuel lines and only going one way that causes those fuel sources to be used first. If you have fuel lines going TO and FROM your radial fuel supplies then all your fuel gets drained at the same rate.

That provided me balance for VTOL and regular flight, with and without cargo. Also build the ship without the cargo in it, then add your payload. If the payload is uneven I put the cargo in weighted aft and put a small fuel tank with the correct weight of fuel attached to a docking port on the ships nose, then turn off resource passing through the docking port so the tank doesn't get emptied. After I deploy the payload I turn resource transfer on and move the fuel from the tank into my central fuel tank (so I haven't just wasted the weight) and undock the tank. I've wasted at most 100 funds or so on just the empty tank that way and kept ship balance.

Keen to try this out!

[Psykikk]

Its like setting up any other VTOL: it takes practice, troubleshooting, and help from random forum gurus on the internet.

Images are worth ten thousand keystrokes. Provide them por favor.

Once your in orbit, you're halfway to anywhere, though the starlifters have such extreme range even with payload that orbit might only be 15% or so of your dV expended.

If its the getting to orbit part, heres some inspiration:

http://i.imgur.com/RYhEAZ5.png

That barely took it to orbit . . . empty.

ouch. :-)

how long does it take you to fill up those kontainers ?

it took my mining setup almost a year to fill up ONE of those things..

and what do you do with it then ?

built stuff in orbit ? or at a station ?

thx for the inspiration mate

[KerBlam]

Screenshot of my massive HoneyBeaver frame (I dubbed it that, no reason). haven't added my new fuel lines yet, but I think it's a bit better balanced now anyway. Now to learn about Action Groups... So much learning, my poor noodle.

Moved construction to SPH

Added fuel lines, but not the two way job, because I actually can't figure out how that works, my tanks are joined, except for one and fuel lines won't reach between them. Time for a test.

Flipping over and blowing up the runway seems trendy, maybe I'll do that 20 times.

Having various degrees of success, if success is measured by the height gained before flipping over and destroying the runway. I'm killing it.

New Screeny

Edited January 7, 2015 by KerBlam
Don't wanna spam do we?

[helaeon]

Screenshot of my massive HoneyBeaver frame (I dubbed it that, no reason). haven't added my new fuel lines yet, but I think it's a bit better balanced now anyway. Now to learn about Action Groups... So much learning, my poor noodle.

Moved construction to SPH

Added fuel lines, but not the two way job, because I actually can't figure out how that works, my tanks are joined, except for one and fuel lines won't reach between them. Time for a test.

Flipping over and blowing up the runway seems trendy, maybe I'll do that 20 times.

Having various degrees of success, if success is measured by the height gained before flipping over and destroying the runway. I'm killing it.

New Screeny

You should get RCS Build Aid. It will help you figure out your center of mass vs center of thrust on the lifting engines on that thing so it doesn't flip over quite so readily.

[KerBlam]

You should get RCS Build Aid. It will help you figure out your center of mass vs center of thrust on the lifting engines on that thing so it doesn't flip over quite so readily.

Well, I did just that, and it showed me something, that I don't know if it's a glitch or intentional but it's a proper pain in my tiny green ass.

I noticed it with landing struts, but in symmetry mode, when you place something on one side on an outrigger, it flips the other side 180 degrees... soooo my engines were facing in the opposite direction from one another which would explain the flipping. Now I have to redo my action groups before I test again, but I think that will definitely help.

Roverdude, is that something fixable? Seems painful to place everything one at a time.

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Edit: After moar testing, I no longer flip laterally, I now flip vertically! Progress! So (as you can see in above screenies) I have added a ballast tank to the front, which isn't beautiful, I know, but it's helping me understand.

Final Edit: SUCCESS! Started again with a less ambitious design, well balanced AND funnily enough, it turns out that RCS is really useful, and I'd left the HoneyBadger RCS control unit off my design completely! Although I'm not getting it anywhere near the Mun, I did sustain flight, nearly landed it at the island runway (so so close) before I ran out of mono and drove that sucker deep, deep into the abyss.

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Thanks for putting up with my drivel.

Edited January 7, 2015 by KerBlam
I'm telling a story here

[Captain Sierra]

@KerBlam, Don't try and SSTO those things. You're setting yourself up for failure. Also, try to put the reactor near the center, it's very heavy and your CoM will almost always gravitate towards it.

I'd slap that thing on top of a 3-core SLS launcher and send it. Best way to get it to the Mun is to have something else put it in munar orbit.

On your last larger design, if you put most of your fuel tanks ahead of your cargo bay, you might be making money. As for your landing leg issue, make sure you're in MIRROR symmetry not RADIAL. I've made that mistake before.

@Psykikk, I can fill 1 of those kontainer trusses a launch (my heavy lift capacity is that good) so it only takes 6 theoretical launches to fill up the haul. There was a fuel line error and it did not actually make orbit, but the dV and TWR says I can. As for filling the LH2 tanks, I'm not sure what that entails launch-wise.

[Psykikk]

seems like the starlifter struts do not hold togethet that well. at least for me they don't.

I tried the 5x5 quad adapter and put one cluster of tanks on it. then i attched my boosters to each cluster.

and once I launch gravity seems to take effect much more than anticipated:

see a timelapse here :-)

what did I do wrong ?

http://imgur.com/a/gk2Ev

[KerBlam]

@KerBlam, Don't try and SSTO those things. You're setting yourself up for failure. Also, try to put the reactor near the center, it's very heavy and your CoM will almost always gravitate towards it.

I'd slap that thing on top of a 3-core SLS launcher and send it. Best way to get it to the Mun is to have something else put it in munar orbit.

On your last larger design, if you put most of your fuel tanks ahead of your cargo bay, you might be making money. As for your landing leg issue, make sure you're in MIRROR symmetry not RADIAL. I've made that mistake before.

Thanks so much. Didn't know there were symmetry modes! (edit: after searching everywhere for the life of me I can't find a way to change this, other than save and load in the SPH, Of course now, because I'm attaching it to a launcher I'm rebuilding in the VAB... there must be a better way! Tell me your secrets!)

The only issue with placing the fuel tanks in front of the cargo bay is that the bay doors clip the VTOL fans when they open.

I'm still a bit flummoxed as to how fuel behaves. If the fuel tanks are seperated by another compartment, say a cargo bay, will the main engines get that fuel, or does it need to be directly connected to the engines? I'm guessing yes, but the problem with that is that fuel lines don't run along the side of the ship! That's why I was unable to do the two way fuel lines to balance the fuel load.

It would be awesome if one of you mod gurus could fashion up an inline fuel hose connection

Having something else put it on the moon pretty much negates the need for the fans and reactor, at least until I reach some other planets with atmo, which is a way off.

seems like the starlifter struts do not hold togethet that well. at least for me they don't.

Are you using Kerbal Joint Reinforcement? That may help. That's a must have mod IMO the stock joints are piddly.

- - - Updated - -

Edited January 8, 2015 by KerBlam
I like to edit

[RoverDude]

@Psykikk - it's a mass ratio thing. Something I am considering is adding ballast tanks to some of the modules to increase their mass specifically for holding bits together, and to also make some larger engine/tank clusters via model welding.

[KerBlam]

So... I built a stupidly huge launcher, and I had spare delta-V so I decided to go to Minmus

Got there, left a near full tank of hydrogen in orbit and landed the HoneyBadger easily enough.

Happy Days! Right? Nearly...

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I can't get the Packrat out of the Cargo Bay which was the whole point of this expedition... I stuck it to the roof instead of using a docking node or some such... Every time I try and release it, it explodes. Not that I mind explosions, but is it supposed to explode?? Is there some cheeky way of getting this thing off the roof?

[Captain Sierra]

-snipped-

The trick to symmetry mode change is the R key. Another secret of the new VAB mode is the ability to toggle 'local' mode with offset (the offset arrows become relative to the part you're offsetting, not the craft as a whole) with the F key.

EDIT:

And WHYYYYYYY????????? What is the point of all that delta V just to go to Minmus? Take that thing to Eeloo and back!

[KerBlam]

And WHYYYYYYY????????? What is the point of all that delta V just to go to Minmus? Take that thing to Eeloo and back!

I know, but I'm learning so the tendency is to overdo things, and that HoneyBadger is heavy... and on the upside I now have heaps of hydrogen floating around Minmus that I can use later. Cleverly theres a pipe node on it.

Know how to get my packrat off the roof Captain?

[rabidninjawombat]

I know, but I'm learning so the tendency is to overdo things, and that HoneyBadger is heavy... and on the upside I now have heaps of hydrogen floating around Minmus that I can use later. Cleverly theres a pipe node on it.

Know how to get my packrat off the roof Captain?

Not totally sure,i could be wrong, but if you just stuck it to a attachment node in the VAB its pretty much stuck. you'll wanna use a docking port or decoupler in the future.

[KerBlam]

Oh well, if that's true I guess I'm going to have TWO massive tanks of hydrogen floating around Minmus

I can hear all you long-term expert bastards cringing from here. XD

Ok Ok I'll TRY and make the launcher smaller... Just for you Captain Sierra since your help has been invaluable.