Help (re)build Lagrange Science Station alpha

[McBrain]

Yup, wait a moment...

[McBrain]

[DocHoliday]

Aha, so you just dock in the front and off you go? Did you make sure the DG3 is in the line of thrust of the main
engines, so the whole structure doesn't slide of course?

[Shmi]

DocHoliday wrote:
Wow, we all got three X's now *blush*

Thanks Doc, for the Babylon 5 idea - I'd love to visit, I was a great fan of the series, but I wouldn't like to have
to run it!

What makes you think I meant to give you all three kisses!
It might have been 1 each for the 3 who contributed to Free Ride the most:

x Strogoff
x AphelionHellion
x DocHoliday

plus a smile of thanks for McBrain
with kind regards Alison

[McBrain]

DocHoliday wrote:
Aha, so you just dock in the front and off you go? Did you make sure the DG3 is in the line of thrust of the main
engines, so the whole structure doesn't slide of course?

It slides away currently because I thought there was an option to change the CoG in spacecraft.dll but it's only to change the CoG forward and backward.
I now will make 4 tanks, 2 on the wings and 2 below.

Shmi wrote:
plus a smile of thanks for McBrain

Thanks!

[DocHoliday]

Hehe, shmi okay that works too!

McBrain, since you have four tanks, take a look at that phoenix photo and you will see it also has four main engines
you think you could work it up into that?? If I was any good in Anim8r I'd help you with it...

Also which direction does it drift? up, down, left right? I assume left right?

[McBrain]

DocHoliday wrote:
McBrain, since you have four tanks, take a look at that phoenix photo and you will see it also has four main engines
you think you could work it up into that??

Maybe another day. I could make it as another transport booster.

Also which direction does it drift? up, down, left right? I assume left right?

Down. The engines are above the CoG.
How did you come to left or right??

[DocHoliday]

Well, if your docking port weren't perfectly centered... and because you said you changed the CoG back and forth,
only left and right remained... AND I FORGOT that you are not using the DG for thrust... I was thinking along
the lines of shuttle and ET... duh.

Not much else but an extra set of engines then

[AphelionHellion]

Shmi: I personally identify with that name, too
Why work when you don't have to?  Hehehe


Mcbrain: Awesome!    Saturn, here we come!

Not to sound like a nagging ingrate, but are there going to be tanks for O2 (for the crew of the DG) to supplement
onboard O2? Also I was thinking some sort of little "hab module" right in front of that docking port might add realism
as well - sort of a little extra room for the crew to stretch their legs during the long trip. Also, it doesn't look to me like
the DG has a toilet!

If my comment bugs you, though, please ignore it. Just keep up the great work!

[McBrain]

AphelionHellion wrote:
Mcbrain: Awesome!    Saturn, here we come!

Not to sound like a nagging ingrate, but are there going to be tanks for O2 (for the crew of the DG) to supplement
onboard O2? Also I was thinking some sort of little "hab module" right in front of that docking port might add realism
as well - sort of a little extra room for the crew to stretch their legs during the long trip. Also, it doesn't look to me like
the DG has a toilet!

If my comment bugs you, though, please ignore it. Just keep up the great work!

O2 tanks: You can refill them unlimited as long as you're docked to the booster! Same with the fuel tanks!
Hab mod:  Should it be with artificial gravity?
Comments: Don't hold them back! That's the only way to learn what you can make better!

[AphelionHellion]

McBrain: Oh I know you can refill O2, fuel and N2 tanks whenever the DGIII is docked to something, but I meant extra
tanks on the model to represent O2/N2 tanks, for visual realism's sake. Of course if there's some sorta "shroud" or
external fuselage over the tanks or whatever, then that's not necessary  

Hmm, not sure about artificial gravity section. Nice as the idea is, I haven't seen very many ships/stations that use a
rotating gravity hab module that looks realistic to me. Feel free to give it a shot, though, perhaps you can succeed
where others have failed
If I were designing a real interplanetary ship, I'd design the habitation section in a "belt" configuration and just rotate
the entire ship while in transit. If you have an independant rotating section, you need motors, reaction wheels,
vibration damping stuff, 360 degree airtight seals, coaxial utility lines with rotating connectors... It's a lot of heavy
junk! Much simpler just rotating the whole ship, there's less mechanical stuff to go wrong. Besides, you don't need
gravity the whole time (why not take some time to play around in zero G?)  You just can't stay in zero G for weeks
and weeks at a time - that's when you set the ship spinning, during the transit part of the trip where you don't need
to really do anything (make navigational maneuvers) for long periods of time.

And if it seems strange to have the whole ship spinning through the void for months at a time, just remember how
many satelites and interplanetary probes are rotation-stabilized.

[DocHoliday]

many satelites and interplanetary probes are rotation-stabilized.

I thought they were spinning to cool down   The so called "barbeque mode"

Anyway, McBrain, did you try out the CEV-1 addon yet??? If not check it out. One of the cool things that really stuck
and wanted to share was that CEV actually simulates gas leaking when the rocket is still on the ground. There is a
thin smoke stream coming from the top of the rocket, similar to the DG3 engine and APU exhaust.. It looks extremely
realistic and when you launch there is a realistic smoke effect around the shaft of the rocket, really nicely done! How
did they do that??

Cheers,
Janez

[McBrain]

Hey folks,

I played around with the DG Cruise Booster:



Tell me what you think about it.

What color does O2/N2 tanks usually have?
Should I make the front section separatable? Maybe as rescue capsule.

[Atom]

Can you make it compatible with the DGIII fuel and O2 programming?

[McBrain]

Atom wrote:
Can you make it compatible with the DGIII fuel and O2 programming?

Yup, no problem. If someone teaches me C++.

[Krytom]

McBrain, would it be good if there was a docking port on the nose of the booster so you can dock it with a station
and go and get it with the DGIII?

[McBrain]

VERY good idea, Krytom.

But tomorrow, please. Don't hurry with an old man.

[AphelionHellion]

McBrain: 8o Awesome!!!
Almost exactly the image I was thinking of the other day.
Looks like it'd fit a Shuttle-A or even the pb Spacebus, also

So you're pretty good at modeling (from what I can see) but you don't do C++?
We're gonna need a volunteer for that part I guess
I'd offer to help in a second if I knew more than two C++ commands

[McBrain]

AphelionHellion wrote:
McBrain: 8o Awesome!!!

Thx!

Almost exactly the image I was thinking of the other day.
Looks like it'd fit a Shuttle-A or even the pb Spacebus, also

The spacebus won't work because the docking port is on the top.

So you're pretty good at modeling (from what I can see) but you don't do C++?

Exactly.

We're gonna need a volunteer for that part I guess
I'd offer to help in a second if I knew more than two C++ commands

Dan? No, it's OK, you have to work, we all know this.

[DocHoliday]

Yup, I like it too! It actually looks like the Phoenix from that movie Very nice work, McBrain. I've been fiddling around
with Anim8or a few days ago.. Lot of work still till I understand it all. Can you convert existing mesh files into what
anim8or can read perhaps?? So I can dissassemble what's already done?

I've been working on scaling down the drydock/assembly structure the last day or so. I will post a photo when I get it
the way I want it. So we can build orbital shipyards

[McBrain]

DocHoliday wrote:
Can you convert existing mesh files into what anim8or can read perhaps?? So I can dissassemble what's already done?

There is a way to do this, but I don't know how.

[DocHoliday]

I just found a mesh viewer on orbithangar. That should be helpful for starters

[Krytom]

I've tried mesh viewer. It only views meshes and you can't edit them as far as I know, so I got rid of it.

[DocHoliday]

Well it actually didn't work at my machine at all. The installer kept trying to add a new file and reset my machine.
Obviously this thing isn't made to work on XP..

[Krytom]

When it asked me to replace the odd system file or not I just clicked on no. It worked for me.