[PARTS] P.E.S.T. - Probe Expansion and Science Things

[-ctn-]

Hello everyone! I wanted to share the development of a new mod I've been working on sporadically for the past month or so.

When I first started playing the game a few months ago, I almost exclusively flew unmanned probes. For me, a big part of the game is about flying to different planets and soaking up all the science (I often create little "profiles" of the planets, including theorizing make-up and formation) and I wanted to create some parts for probes that may add to that experience.

No download link yet, as I'm about to skitter off to work, but I was hoping I could get some feedback on this idea and/or tips or comments. Originally I wanted this pack to be more expansive but I'm a little lost when it comes to adding emissives and animations to parts.

So far, I have four parts.

Coiled Antenna

A stackable part (topmost in the picture) styled after the Venera landers' antennas. High output, low energy consumption.

Double-Sided Sphere Core

Same as the stock sphere core but tweaked so that parts can attach and stack to top and bottom.

Gas Chromatograph

Loosely based on the instrument design on the Huygens lander. Added a science module for it, so it reveals what I theorized the atmosphere compounds are for different planets.

Shock Absorber

Based on the Venera Lander shock abosorber, this piece unfortunately doesn't save your craft from hard landings. (I couldn't figure out the coding - I wanted it to raise the crash tolerance of the entire craft it's placed on, i.e. if the probe lands on the shock absorber at 90m/s, the craft DOESN'T explode.) However it weighs quite a bit and creates drag, which helps to ensure that your craft lands right-side-up and slows descent most of the time, which is also helpful.

So what do you guys think?

Aborted/postponed parts:

Mass Spectrometer

A Mass Spec that grabs a surface sample and tells you the chemical compounds. (Would require animation)

Radially Mounted Ion Engine

A small, radial version of an ion engine. (Would require animation/emissive)

Thanks for looking!

[RainDreamer]

Oh oh this is nice! Looking forward to this!

Does the coiled antenna comes with that rockomax adaptor thingy as a dish? Trying to figure out if it is a dish antenna or an omni antenna for use with RT.

You can try looking at what roverdude did for his airbags in survival pack. I think he abused the wheel colliders or something, giving it a massive amount of cushion without blowing everything up. Or maybe you can try using it as a heat shield for probe landing and recovery in DRE.

[biohazard15]

Nice Venera!

RainDreamer, that thing is not a dish, but an aerobrake. Not sure if it can work as an aerobrake in stock, but I suppose it could work as such with FAR. Just look at what folding heatshield from DRE can do...

[Drakoflame]

wow looks amazing! can't wait!

And, I've been thinking if making a mod myself, mind telling me what you used to make these?

And, I agree with RainDreamer, would the antenna be an omni directional or does it come with the rocomax adaptor as a dish? IMO with it being a coiled antenna, it might be its own antenna and have an insanely small FOV (maybe like 0.1 FOV, perfect for long ranged missions to Eeloo or another star system, if you have one installed!) Like I said earlier, can't wait for release, looks like a lot of fun!

Idea: maybe you could make the double sided probe core 2 pieces so you could stick things inside of it to keep it protected (Far has a tendency to pluck things off up ships when they travel to fast, and DRE likes to make them into marshmallows).

Another thing could maybe have the probe core contain fuel of some kind so you could strap little rockets to it (maybe a large reserve of monoprop) to help control its speedy decent thru the atmosphere/to the planet, because, no-one wants an uncontrolled rocket rushing twords the ground without being able to control it in any way!

One last thing: A camera. I know, I know, their over done, but hear me out. There would be 3 cameras. the 1st would be unlocked in the first science tier, "a simple black and white camera someone decided to stick onto the ship with ducktape. The wires that make it work shock the scientists whenever they touch them." Would provide very little science, but has full transmit data (because it'll go on a probe, and those are hard to get back IMO). The second would but a full color camera, unlocked in the Electronics tier, "After the scientists complained about the first camera zapping them, the engineers came up a camera that directly attaches and uses some new fancy technology called 'Klu Tooth' to link up to the probe to send pictures. With the upgrade came better pictures to! Now with Tekno Kolor!" would have slightly better science value, same full data return. Lastly, a full spectrum camera, unlocked in the probe science/core tab, "When the scientists complained to the engineers that their new camera interfiered with their selfies and pictures of the probe when they were building it, the two teams came together to develop a special camera that only required one wire to send data to and from the probe and the camera. Without the bulky Klu Tooth device haphazardly stuck into the camera, the teams were able to upgrade it once more, giving it a thermal option, UV option, and a higher resolution standard camera. The scientists talk with the engineers about upgrading it further, but the engineers say their tierd and have done their work requirements for the year." Would give 10 science even from the launch pad (for scale so you know what to give other planets and such) and has 90% science return. a little flavor text that could be added to the part would be: "But because of the high resolution, the camera can't send back all its data, at least with the current battery technology." The camera Mits would be (based on from the launch pad) as follows: 10 Mits for BW cam, 50 Mits for Kolor cam, 150 Mits for Full spectrum.

[-ctn-]

I may add a resource to the probe core so it contains some Monopropellant.

The camera, ehhh. There's already a great group of mods with cameras, and I think that requires a bit of plugin work which I am not capable of.

[Drakoflame]

The camera, ehhh. There's already a great group of mods with cameras, and I think that requires a bit of plugin work which I am not capable of.

Oh no, with the camera I'm not talking about having it be an ACTUAL camera, I'm just thinking its a science thing, and the picture is only seen by the kerbal scientists. That way its easy on you so you don't have to use any fancy plugins. Basicly its just using what you know currently! Easy! (I hope)

[-ctn-]

I'll brainstorm a bit about it and see if I can come up with something that works well for the mod.

I'm also working on a command pod / probe core that should be pretty slick if I can do it right.

[Mekan1k]

Hello everyone! I wanted to share the development of a new mod I've been working on sporadically for the past month or so.

Shock Absorber

Based on the Venera Lander shock abosorber, this piece unfortunately doesn't save your craft from hard landings. (I couldn't figure out the coding - I wanted it to raise the crash tolerance of the entire craft it's placed on, i.e. if the probe lands on the shock absorber at 90m/s, the craft DOESN'T explode.) However it weighs quite a bit and creates drag, which helps to ensure that your craft lands right-side-up and slows descent most of the time, which is also helpful.

So what do you guys think?

Thanks for looking!

Well, if you wanted to spend the time on it, the shock absorber would need to function like a landing gear/leg, with higher impact tolerance and a flex-distance, to prevent the rest of the craft from exploding because you landed 1m/s too fast.

[-ctn-]

Brilliant! I hadn't even considered that. I'll have to give it a go.

[Drakoflame]

Do you think we can get an update? I'd hate to see this mod disapear...

[-ctn-]

It hasn't died, I'm a film school graduate and so I jump on opportunities when I can - at the moment I'm composing the score for a time travel short film and writing my own ISS short film.

[Drakoflame]

ahh, okay, I was just worried because the last thing we heard from you was back on the 9th, I just wanted to be sure that this mod didn't stop developement. Is it compatible with Remote Tech? if not then I'd be willing to try and see what it takes to make it compatible! That being, what would you say the range on the antenna would be? I think it would be a high range omni, something around 1Gm? (I think thats a billion meters, and would cover anything in the Kerbin system, as well as an orbit that is just below kerbins SOI, but always is near it (like the geosyncronus orbit around the Mun)

[-ctn-]

I didn't get that deep into the CFG file yet, I was just testing the basics to make sure it works. Since it's modeled after the antenna on the Venera probe, I would try to translate the actual antenna's properties as much as possible to the part. As for being compatible with RemoteTech, I have not used that mod yet but I may install it and check it's compatibility.

[SmashBrown]

Ooh mod for me to cram into my game. If you can make it compatible with SCANsat and antenna range, I will send you cookies.

[Drakoflame]

Ooh mod for me to cram into my game. If you can make it compatible with SCANsat and antenna range, I will send you cookies.

How would he make it compatable with SCANsat? And I think Antenna Range has easier config settings than Remote Tech (which are the same thing, AR just doesn't have Remote Tech parts, I think)

[kiwiak]

Nice, never enough of science parts.

[-ctn-]

Small update, still tweaking this. Some ideas have been dropped.

In celebration of NASA's DAWN spacecraft reaching Ceres orbit later this week, I've made a probe core and new science part. The probe core is hollow inside (like my lander fuel tanks) to allow resources inside. It also carries a charge of 200 units and 20 units of monopropellant.

The science part is a GRaND (Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector) based on Dawn's unit of the same name. This device analyzes the reflection of cosmic rays from the surface of a body and can determine the elemental composition of the surface based on those cosmic rays. It also detects hydrogen traces, which can be used to estimate the presence of water or water ice.

[Drakoflame]

Woo! I had forgotten about this mod! Well, I'mma gunna need to download (When the Download is available xpx) it and throw something at Eeloo launch something to Eeloo now!

[-ctn-]

Mod has been released here.