First update on Kerbal 1, the first spaceship that will bring kerbonauts to another planet! and, maybe back to kerbin too. but that is an extra.
as I said earlier in this thread, it is going to be a modular ship, assembled into orbit, and therefore relatively large.
This poses a problem however: strength of docking ports. the spaceship will be very long, and therefore wobbly.
the standard solution could be a tricoupler, but I find that solution unappealing, since it makes building the rockets harder ( I would need a tricoupler on either side, where I would normally place probe and engine)
what could the solution be? well, for example moving docking ports on support beams on the sides.
I just docked the first 2 engine stages ( one of which kept part of the last rocket stage, which I will use to refuel any moducle that will not be full at docking).
you can see between the 2 engine stages my first attempt, that comes from necessity of keeping engines clear. it has 3 ports mounted on an L beam. due to difficulty of repeating the design with sufficent accuracy, for the rest of the ship I'll use a new method. beams mounted on radial nacelles/fuel tanks ( depends on how much I can lift). for this first link they are 6, but I am not sure if I should switch to 4 for the rest of the ship. any adviceon that?
either way, this kind of docking allows for a sturdy rocket. and they are not as hard to dock as I feared, I linked engine modules on my first attempt, iwthout any trouble.
by the way, if I slapped a capsule on the engine modules, I am sure I could get to most places in the solar system. but where would the fun be if I didn't overengineer it?
edit: while continuing to use the 6 port docking for the whole ship is heavier, it probably makes aligning ports for docking easier. wasn't a problem this time, but why risk trouble? besides, I have launchers that can handle it.