OHM UCGO Gantry

[OrbitHangar]

Author: paddy2

 UCGO Gantry MK1  

Designed (In future) to service Delta Gliders on The Moon and on Mars, The Gantry can take 6 crew and 8 cargo modules. The MK1 is a proof of concept vehicle for use on earth. Using very simple components it can easily be assembled off world. It acts as a cargo transporter, a crew delivery vehicle and a maintenance platform.

The six crew slots are intended to be a Gantry Driver/ crew chief plus the DGIV's Captain and 4 crew. The 8 cargo slots allow for quick turnaround, arriving at the landing pad with 4 full/new pods and leaving with 4 empty/delivered pods.

The gantry can manoeuvre over a DGIV with its Cargo Bay doors open as the central cargo area is elevated. In Situ two working platforms fold down to near wing level and are held in place with a rotatable restraint. The gantry also has a short range 3D Imaging radar which coupled with its Thin Dropdown Marker ( DTM ) allow for accurate placement over the DGIV.

With 4 interdependently driven wheels the Gantry can approach a DGIV on a type one landing pad and when finished manoeuvre off the Pad via the entrance without reversing should the need arise.

 

Keys

2 Platform Rest Restraint

3 Port Side Working Platform

4 Starboard Side Working Platform

5 3D Imaging Radar

plus standard UCGO controls for driving/steering/crew/cargo

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It really goes without saying it Requires UCGO and While it will work with stock Delta Glider its best with a DGIV. Unzip from Orbiter directory maintaining folders.

Only possible thanks to awesome work done by “DAN”. Inspired by the work and help of such as “4thRock” “ar81” “csanders” “cpnt_hensley2” “orb” and of course “wehaveaproblem” for showing what can be done.

Special thanks to “Hielor” for the wings3d exporter.

“Standing on the shoulder of giants”



DOWNLOAD

 

[Interceptor]

Cargo placed by gantry too far from DGIV to grapple it.

 

[Athena]

Looks like a good addon...downloading.. :download:

 

[paddy2]

I really thought I had fine tuned the Placement so that Dropoff /Pickup steps mentioned in the Help screen worked. Did You Line up on the nose?

Will recheck the placing. Thanks so much for letting me know

 

[Mojave]

Hmm, I like the concept, man. Would make a good addition to those who actively run a VSA.

 

[wehaveaproblem]

Nice idea paddy, cargo management systems are always welcome.

The design is perhaps a little oppressive for my tastes though, but horses for courses.

 

[paddy2]

The design is perhaps a little oppressive

Not 100 % sure what you mean. I take it you mean is workmanlike, function, not pretty. In that respect is is "designed to look like" it was designed to be functional. In fact it is at the upper limit of my very poor design skills.

I actually added the "standing on giants shoulders" as a homage to yourself.
(god what a creep I can even hear myself saying!!!)

---------- Post added at 11:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:50 PM ----------

Cargo placed by gantry too far from DGIV to grapple it.

Checked the Cargo collection method as per the internal help screen ( F1 and the H key) and it does work.

Had to set it like that as otherwise you would get to pick up a mixture of each others cargo. Thanks for the feed back though

 

[wehaveaproblem]

Not 100 % sure what you mean. I take it you mean is workmanlike, function, not pretty. In that respect is is "designed to look like" it was designed to be functional. In fact it is at the upper limit of my very poor design skills.
I actually added the "standing on giants shoulders" as a homage to yourself.
(god what a creep I can even hear myself saying!!!)

ha, thanks for the compliment, you should see the pile of shoulders I'm standing on!

As to the design, yes, I mean it's "workmanlike"nature. The oppression for me comes from the bars, making it a bit cage-like. But that's just my design tastes, so kudos for making and releasing a decent addon.

I've sent you a PM with some design thoughts if you care to read them, because I don't want to clog up your comments thread with irrelevant stuff.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Looks nice, Ill have to download & take a look. Are you going to try making any other add-ons besides gantries though? :lol:

 

[paddy2]

Have to admit I do fancy getting into a Mark2, but this is at the limit of my skill.

I also have an idea for a mobile workshop but its not even at the line drawing stage yet.

 

[Aeadar]

I kind of like that 'motorized scaffolding' arrangement. Simple, very inexpensive, and it does the job just fine.
Looks nice: I've downloaded and looking forward to checking it out!


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Well Paddy, thank you! I've been playing with this and I like it! It looks neat, slowly tooling around CSSC. And it looks really cool wrapped around a DGIV in the Spaceplane Processing Facility.

Even if it's used just for eye-candy, it's definitely worth having!

(My next test: Add UCD to the Gantry, place it squarely over a DGIV, and see how it looks using the gantry to 'drive' the DGIV to it's launch position.)

 

[paddy2]

Even if it's used just for eye-candy, it's definitely worth having!

Thanks so much for that

Interceptor sir, did you get the pick up/ drop off working?

Sometimes I think that because I wrote it everybody must think / read things the way i do. ALL feedback welcome folks

 

[Interceptor]

Thanks so much for that

Interceptor sir, did you get the pick up/ drop off working?

Sometimes I think that because I wrote it everybody must think / read things the way i do. ALL feedback welcome folks

NO,there always one,or two cargos that the DGIV won't grapple because it's out of range,I guess I will have to mess with the UCGO config to fix it,thanks for this addon thou.

 

[paddy2]

Will spend some more time on it tomorrow (27th) and see how tight I set it

Again thanks for the feedback

 

[Interceptor]

BTW,Paddy2 this a great addon.:thumbup:

 

[paddy2]

A number of users have expressed concern over the loading and unloading of cargo via the UCGO Gantry. This is due to the way UCGO handles Grapple and Release and is not under the author’s control.
UCGO always make use of the first cargo slot if available. That is to say it will always fill or empty the 1st slot no matter what is, or is not, in the others
Example
You pop up to the ISS and drop off two cargo loads of “cheeseburgers” out of your cargo of 4. This leaves slot 1 & 2 empty and 3 & 4 full. You then pick up 2 cargo loads of rubbish for return to earth. Now you have 1 & 2 with rubbish, 3 & 4 still have Cheeseburgers. Off we go to MIR to drop off some cheeseburgers for them too.
When we get to MIR we have a full cargo bay so are unable to pick up their rubbish, we have no choice but to make some room. However, we can not drop off the cheeseburger as they are in slots 3 & 4, we can only release from slot 1 first! We HAVE to drop off the rubbish first.
We have to drop off all 4 cargos, 2 rubbish and 2 cheeseburgers and then pick up the 2 rubbish we have just handed over. If MIR had 2 rubbish pods already in slots 1 and 2, we would have been able to put the cheeseburgers in slots 5 and 6 and picked up all 4 rubbish cargoes. Had their rubbish been in slots 5 and 6 we would never have been able to get those cargo pods.
This is why the Gantry has 8 cargo slots. You must arrive with 4 cargos in slots 1, 2, 3 & 4. The DGIV empties its cargo and the gantry can then collect the 4 empties. The Gantry will put these in slots 5, 6, 7, and 8. It will then release cargo from slots 1, 2, 3 and 4 (the ones we loaded up before getting to the DGIV). The DGIV can then pick these up and the gantry pulls away with the used cargo pods in its slots 5, 6, 7 and 8.
The DGIV always drops its cargo just in front of its wings, 2 to the left and 2 to the right. I therefore decided the gantry would drop it’s cargo outside of the gantries “footprint”. This means that the DGIV would pick up its own cargo before the gantries cargo. For this reason there has to be a procedure.
1) Gantry arrives with Cargo.
2) DGIV releases its cargo.
3) Gantry picks up.
4) Gantry drops off.
5) DGIV picks up
6) Gantry leaves.
Hope this helps.