[Showcase] Show Me Your Cargo Bays (aka How'd You Pack THAT in There?) Post Ur Mk2 and Mk3 Cargoes!

[inigma]

With the proliferation of crafts with cargo bays, and Squad's upcoming aerodynamics model changes making cargo bays useful to cut drag for lifting cargo, what have YOU designed to fit snugly in a cargo bay?

If you have subassemblies to share those would be great too!

Here's my favorite cargo: the Orbital Fuel Pod. Standalone or attachable to stations.

[Spartwo]

I've got other boring stuff like fuel silos and landers.

[Rune]

Well, I use a standard fuel tank assembly for a few versions now, and it's awesome. Let's face it: you never have enough storage space, and you are always expanding:

So it's nice that they can dock with themselves in different configurations, plus they can be grabbed with MMUs to move around. 11 parts total.

So that kind of gives me a yardstick to design stuff, a standard size to work with. Given that, the other day I put this together for the Dao:

A nuke stage, plus a lander with 3km/s on its own. The nuke stage gives it an additional 3km/s.

And then there is the big payload project: my base pack! I am very, very close to updating it, too. Most of the things are designed to be just as big as a half orange tank capped by docking ports, so they fit snugly in the bay of the new Eagle (that's the old one though, I have reworked it for the nth time to take advantage of the gizmos, now it is even more compact and good-looking, with less parts). Either that, or they can fit sideways in the bay, which works out slightly bigger than a crew can:

I don't have many pictures on that, tough. Photo ops for the brochure are currently ongoing on Mun! In the meantime, I'm having loads of fun:

Rune. Tomorrow will be upload day, I think. I think.

[Yukon0009]

[inigma]

I am in the final stages of tweaking and testing my space shuttle. I just need a challenging complicated cargo to show off in a video. Anyone care to make a cool looking stock full mk3 cargo package subassembly that I could attach into an empty mk3 cargo bay? No limits. Would prefer if it filled up the entire bay. Be creative.

Edited January 20, 2015 by inigma

[JPmAn]

http://i.imgur.com/wi4Oxht.png

I want download!

[DerpenWolf]

I made a VTOL SSTO Dropship that I have named "The Pig" Largely due to its absurd fuel consumption.

[soulreaver1981]

still working on this one

not really a mk2 or mk3

Edited January 23, 2015 by soulreaver1981

[problemecium]

That thing looks like it's... more than meets the eye.

[eddiew]

...http://i.imgur.com/EK955kl.png

A nuke stage, plus a lander with 3km/s on its own. The nuke stage gives it an additional 3km/s....

Those... are very clever... Does leaving the nukes inside make it easier to handle during takeoff?

[Rune]

Those... are very clever... Does leaving the nukes inside make it easier to handle during takeoff?

Right now, payload bays serve no other purpose than aesthetics and providing attachment space, everything inside still produces drag and stuff, if that's what you are talking about. That of course is supposed to change when the new aerodynamic model gets here. But that is only an example payload on a SSTO that is not meant to go further than LKO, of course. Maybe you thought the nuke stage was for pushing the Dao?

Rune. That would be horribly inefficient... but doable.

[soulreaver1981]

That thing looks like it's... more than meets the eye.

Its not a transformer and i forgot to say is stock

[KandoKris]

Mmmm what do I hid in a cargo bay... My snazzy little science craft for coastin out to mun or dipping into the atm o of duna this little beauty is great fun to take for little trips out away from the "mothership" aslo there great little shuttles

Mk 2 EP for Chubby

The lift comes courtesy of my SSTO "Chubby"

[AbacusWizard]

The Voyager I, which recently visited Eve and Gilly (and is now stuck at Moho awaiting the arrival of a tanker), is hiding two huge cargo bays in its central fuselage.

The fore cargo bay holds a science lab and the most compact three-person lander I've ever designed. Had a lot of fun with that one.

The aft cargo bay carried a probe rack with seven tiny drop probes, each with a tiny engine capable of entering Eve's atmosphere and a parachute that can take it safely to the surface.

[inigma]

GotR HQ station core, plus workbee orbital tug. This is my first real STS-1 Space Shuttle mission. See sig for orbiter craft file.

[Bonafire]

Oh my god, it's full of probes! I do hope I get to take them out in the planned order.

I had to change the packing arrangement after taking the VAB screenshots, bonus points for spotting the two problems (good thing I tested unloading).

[inigma]

I designed this: STS SpaceHab 2X Mod EDO (STS-107)

Link to the STS is in my sig. Subassembly soon.

[OscarWilde]

The aft cargo bay carried a probe rack with seven tiny drop probes, each with a tiny engine capable of entering Eve's atmosphere and a parachute that can take it safely to the surface.

Seriously one of the cooler things I've seen! It's like a carton of eggs! I've sent so many individual ships up holding one or two probes at a time (one mounted to each end of the cargo bay..) NEVER thought about a system like that!

Do you have that as a sub-assembly download somewhere?

[Windspren]

Cool. I like the idea for the egg-carton probe rack! Great Job!

[WhiteKnuckle]

I'll echo everyone else's comments, I love the Eve probe packaging Abacus!

And now for something completely different in a cargo bay...

VTOL engine cluster. Useless in stock aero (although cool looking) but completely necessary in FAR where aerodynamic stress will rip your engines off if you don't shield them.

[Othuyeg]

I think this belongs here.

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- - - Updated - - -

The same plane got reconfigured and was used to launch an expedition. This time it stayed under 10 000 meters all the way to the south pole.

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[inigma]

STS Service Module:

A Kanadarm (IR, Tweakscale), KAS Containers, a Mk2 Crew Module for additional Kerbals, two xonight Hercules Mk 8 MMUs, a dish, and a docking port. Single subassembly (a trade secret).

Edited February 13, 2015 by inigma

[Redshift OTF]

Hmmm, maybe I should switch them for probes or something more peaceful.

[drewscriver]

I've got a nice little rover for manipulating science pods that I managed to fit inside the Mk2 bay on my Hypatia II.

Edited February 13, 2015 by drewscriver

[LordFjord]

Ok, maybe not the most imaginative cargo, but probably very similar to what many others pack in there... all what you need for biome-hopping to gather all the science.

It's a side view on this SSTO - I liked the twinhull-sideways-cargobay design.