Using the DGIV to build space stations....

[Hubleman]

In the future, when the DGIV is released, I guess we will be able to create our own cargo for the DGIV's cargo bay,
what if in someway, we create station modules of some kind to build whole  futuristc space stations using this
futuristic craft ( DGIV) , I dont know if its a good idea but the DGIV will help a lot because all the other addons dont
help very well but this craft has the potencial.

Please tell me what you guys think.

[Quick_Nick]

It is a good idea, but you will only be able to carry little parts. Not a big cargo bay.

[Felix]

Let's make the modules inflatable then.
Like here: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/187/1 - outdated however, there's already a prototype in orbit, for several
months now actually, and apparently doing well: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/660/1

DGIV has a satellite that unfolds its solar panels after release from cargo bay, so maybe it would be possible to have a
white capsule thingy expand to, say, 3 times its original diameter, 20 times its original length or something like that.

Might even solve the "excuse me, where is the toilet?"-problem with DG on longer flights. One of those docked to the nose
cone could have a toilet in it, along with some kind of shower and a tv set plus a Wii. That would eliminate most of the
hassle one has with non-sedated passengers on a cruise to Mars, and you can't keep them comatous all the time. I wonder if
DGIV's antenna could still pick up TV emissions from beyond Mars.

[Quick_Nick]

Inflatable module sounds dangerous and just plain weird. But whatever you want may be able to be created.

[Felix]

i agree, it looks fairly weird at first. however, it doesnt appear to be all that dangerous really.. i mean, if i was to be
shot at, i'd prefer wearing a kevlar vest to a knight's armor (most wouldnt stop a bullet). high-tech membranes are extremely
robust. also, it's a lot easier to devise self-sealing membranes than it is with solid materials, i believe. there's these
self-sealing tires that are being introduced in germany at the moment. you have a large pressure difference there, too, and
they work. same goes for the stuff they put into the fuel tanks of the concorde to have smaller leaks seal by themselves.
and we're talking about really thick compounds of high-tech membranes, about 30 centimetres thick in the case of the nasa
module. you can put a lot of shielding against radiation into that, i suppose. i'd have more trust in 30 centimetres of
membrane than into half a centimetre of some solid material.

[nakile64]

I remember seeing a TV show on this. It talked about how several thin membranes spaced an inch apart creating a foot thick
wall would really stop anything (Ok, maybe not anything, but you get the idea). I don't think the little pellet they fired at
it at 17000 MPH or so made it past the fourth layer.

Or we could just be unrealistic, and have a mini ISS in the cargo bay. Release it, hit G, and it becomes 200 times its
original size.

[Felix]

lol
or we could go all the way and put a mini dgIV carrying a mini ISS in cargobay. the mini ISS could be docked to a mini space
shuttle with the moon in payloadbay. and another DGIV could be landed at brighton beach, having a mini Apollo Saturn V in
cargobay.

[Ilpalazzo]

I suggest you to use Energia & co. addon to build your own space station, then you can attach some more "utilities" to it.
For example, you can power it with the nuclear cargo, then bring some stuff like food and other consumables with other cargo...
Just an idea

[Felix]

I still think we should be able to put the moon into cargobay, but other than that, your idea sounds reasonable to me.
might still try myself on these inflatable modules though, i like the concept. but only after i've passed that exam.

[sunshine135]

Felix wrote:
I still think we should be able to put the moon into cargobay, but other than that, your idea sounds reasonable to me.
might still try myself on these inflatable modules though, i like the concept. but only after i've passed that exam.

Inflatables would be very cool. I have difficulty seeing how the unflation would work though Don't know if you could team
that up with the Spacecraft3.dll to provide the animation. I guess it depends how much programming expertise you have.

[Felix]

not sure either. i havent done anything for orbiter yet, i do know enough c++ for some smaller projects, and some scripting
stuff (php, ruby ...), but that's it. programming is just a hobby for me, in real life i'm studying biology.
the whole thing seems to be far more difficult than i had anticipated, i thought i could use the mechanism dan uses to have
his satellite unfold its solar panels (i gather it does that, is that correct? i'm not in the beta team ) to trigger the
animation, for starters at least. if i am not mistaken, then the animation itself should be pretty easy to do. did something
like that in a game  i was doing a small modification for, had something shrink. if i was able to do it back then, it must
have been pretty easy.
no idea yet how animations are being handled in orbiter, though, i'll have to do background reading on that topic.

[JoshB]

Felix wrote:
lol
or we could go all the way and put a mini dgIV carrying a mini ISS in cargobay. the mini ISS could be docked to a mini space
shuttle with the moon in payloadbay. and another DGIV could be landed at brighton beach, having a mini Apollo Saturn V in
cargobay.

lol! Like the nested Russian dolls.  That'd be an awesome joke add-on.

One question though... will all that still fit in the Buran cargo bay if I already have an Alpha Centauri payload loaded?  I
really don't want to make more than one trip for that.  

BTW, the Buran is inside the Apollo Saturn V glovebox, which is inside the DGIV at Brighton Beach from your example.

[DanSteph]

Felix a écrit:
i'm not in the beta team

Wanna be ? I like the way you help and the fact that you are verbose...
Send me a pm if yes (<-Msg nex my name)

Dan

[Felix]

Dan:
Though I'd really love to, no, thanks. Flattering though to receive such an offer.
If I get my hands on a DGIV now, I wont have to attend that exam, because I'd fail anyway.
Still got to gnaw my way through the better part of all higher lifeforms (you wouldnt believe how many different ways there
are to put cells together so that something worm-shaped results .. about the most mind-bogging thing i've encountered since i
started studying biology.)
I'll try to be helpful  on the forum instead.

JostB: Yep, will fit. Fly it all to .. umm, some hypothetical planet with loads of mass and 100G at the surface between the
orbit of Mars and Jupiter, which hasnt been discovered yet because it has "Anyone who can read this is dumb and ugly!"
written over its surface and astronomers just dont want to admit that theyre dumb and ugly, which they are once they've read
it .. get it all there, survive the huge g-forces somehow, then sit down on the pile of stuff and have someone wrap tape
around it until Neil Armstrong stops twitching in the apollo capsule.
Should fit into Buran cargobay afterwards. Sometimes there's something pointy protruding from the top and make things too big
to fit. You can just bend it until it snaps, it's just a young half-fossilized cedar tree that keeps sneaking in through a
disruption in the space-time-continuum that happens to come into existence when the crocodile that hides in Neil Armstrongs
left pocket gets compressed too strongly.
You can also use WinZip of course, but as the moon doesnt exactly like non-free software, it might babble random stuff while
being compressed and thereby blow up the size of the package until it becomes dangerously big, like the sun. It can do that,
proved it once in spring 1998, when two scriptkiddies from japan tried to do just that, but with a more crappy compression
algorithm. The hard disk was small and the moonbabble streamed in until the disk couldnt withstand the pressure anymore and
blew up. The blast was still felt in Belgium, reportedly.
So, I'd strongly advise you to take approach #1 (works with whales too, with blue whales you only need 1.5G).

So much for now. I'm off again, studying sponge anatomy.
Greeties,
Felix

[willy88]

Um, WHAT?

[Felix]

willy88:
Beg your pardon, but what exactly are you refering to? It's a bit hard to tell, as you're dont exactly go into details in
your posting.. maybe if you could clarify things a little, I might even be able to answer something halfway intelligent.

[jer11]

Lol. without a RMS, there is no way to build a space station!

[willy88]

Felix wrote:
You can just bend it until it snaps, it's just a young half-fossilized cedar tree that keeps sneaking in through a
disruption in the space-time-continuum that happens to come into existence when the crocodile that hides in Neil Armstrongs
left pocket gets compressed too strongly.
You can also use WinZip of course, but as the moon doesnt exactly like non-free software, it might babble random stuff while
being compressed and thereby blow up the size of the package until it becomes dangerously big, like the sun. It can do that,
proved it once in spring 1998, when two scriptkiddies from japan tried to do just that, but with a more crappy compression
algorithm. The hard disk was small and the moonbabble streamed in until the disk couldnt withstand the pressure anymore and
blew up. The blast was still felt in Belgium, reportedly.
Felix

[Voyager]

jer11,

i'm not sure that's true. Just take a dragonfly for example. it'll be all you need to assemble any size station. a MMU can
even do it now, if the module has a attachment point on it

a inflatable station module sound feastable for the DGIV's cargo hold, and solar panels and radiators can be folded to fit in
the cargo hold as well. the only downside would be to spend alot of resources to get a DGIV in space just for a single solar
panel. Present day reusable rockets are relatively speaking alot cheaper can can carry quite a bit more load then the DGIV could.

Allthough the DGIV could be used for a multitude of tasks, constructing space stations doesnt seem to be one of the more
effecient ones. Although it could very well replace some of our current space shuttles tasks like resupplying the ISS and
transferring crew. And repair a satillite on its way back to earth

[Felix]

willy88:
Oh, well. I suppose you might call that "utter nonsense", not to be taken seriously but with a ton of salt. Sorry if I
somehow caused confusion to you.

As to the manipulator thing, i can hardly believe that among the multitude of station parts there isnt a single manipulator arm.
but even if there isnt, no real problem. lets provide the modules with tiny little thrusters. Imagine strapping cartridges
with compressed gas to them, some simple electronics for remote controlling them .. shouldnt be all that impossible. then
release it in roughly the right angle and orientation, and with minimal release velocity, and have the mini rcs thrusters do
the rest. you'd probably want to do the inflation process once the module is docked, and with n2/o2 from the station itself,
that way you could again downsize both the inflatable and the thrusters considerably. The package would be light enough and
at such a low velocity as to not cause any real damage if the docking ring should be missed (but then, even automatical
transporters can perform a docking maneuvre with satisfactory accurace..) The per kilogram cost of getting stuff into orbit
should be pretty low with dgiv anyway (at least if you take some well-paying tourists with you..), and with inflatables being
considerably lighter than modules made of solid materials (i assume they are), some additional weight wont hurt that much.
Well, no real idea if that would be feasible. I suppose it would at least be difficult, but to someone who never mastered any
manipulator arms anyway, it looks doable.
or, like Voyager said, have a mmu do the job.

Felix

[willy88]

Felix wrote:
willy88:
Oh, well. I suppose you might call that "utter nonsense", not to be taken seriously but with a ton of salt. Sorry if I
somehow caused confusion to you.
Felix

I was acknowledging the utter nonsense with "Um, WHAT?" proving that I AM, in fact, an orange sent from the planet
Mercuryplutomars whose destiny is to slay the mighty limebanana of Qoplouatxtan.

[Felix]

ah, now i understand. where i come from, Atlantis, we used to exclaim "Um, WHAT?" if we were unbearably confused and had no
continental people at hand to wage war on to distract ourselves.
We just used to say "Moo" instead of "Um", because cows hadnt been invented yet and thus were holy. Which is another thing
about Atlantis that never quite made sense, but if life was supposed to make sense, then there wouldnt be so many different
kinds of worms.

You're cool. I've never before had the pleasure to meet an orange on a quest to slay an evil superfruit. You must be the
bravest orange that I've ever met, in fact. Nice to meet you, superbrave superfruit-slaying orange from far away!

[R Groszewski]

Can I be A Cucumber? Oooo!, Oooo!, I could be "Cuke Skywalker"!  I could help you slay that big superfruit bully with
my lightsaber! Then rip it apart with the force and freeze-dry it....

[scinrd]