Idea Turn docking ports to attachments?

[JackJL]

To solve the landing with docked vessels problem, would it be possible to convert a docking port to a parent-child attachment mid flight, for example with an MFD?

I guess it could work if you had some kind of intermediary that found the dock, inactivated them and replaced them with attachment points. You could organise it so the parent attachment(s) was on the ship with the MFD and the child attachments were on the vessels docked to that one.

Then you could land, de-attach (or attach extra bits maybe?) take off and then revert back to docking ports. Of course things like UMMU transfer and refuelling would be broken whilst in attachment mode.

I have no knowledge of what goes on behind the C++ curtain so this may be completely implausible, but it would sure be useful.

Thanks

Jack

 

[N_Molson]

I'm pretty sure that Velcro Rocket can do that, I remember about reading something about it in the doc.

 

[JackJL]

This is from the velcro doc

GETDOCKINGPORTS Normally 0. If set to 1, your stage will cleverly steal the docking ports
from its primary payload, and attach them to the root stage instead.
When the stage is undocked, the process is reversed. Use caution,
though; because when the docking port is replaced on the payload, its
handle doesn’t get replicated. This may cause bad effects, depending on
how the payload is programmed. Use this if you need to use the
payload’s docking port while it’s still attached to a lower stage; handy for
dual-launch Apollo missions and the like. Leave this option off unless it’s
needed, and leave it off for lower stages, or the docking ports will
propogate all the way down the stack.

So this does seem possible for some things

 

[sputnik]

Actually, Velcro Rockets doesn't quite do that. It does a lot of fooling with attachment points of course, and you've found GETDOCKINGPORTS, but that just creates more docking ports.

But, if you check out the code for the Station (IV and V) in World of 2001, it does this. When you dock on the centerline port of the station, it moves you to a side port. It proved impossible to just move the docking port, or to re-define the port you're docked to. So, I had to create an attach point, force an undock, force attachment of the attach point in the new location, let the Orbiter engine find the docking, then un-attach and remove the attach point.

It sounds complicated, but it really isn't.

Something similar might provide a work-around for the landing-with-docked-ships issue.

 

[JackJL]

Thanks Sputinik, I'm glad to hear that this sort of mucking around with docks and attachments is possible.