We already have a flyable Constellation and a flyable P-52 Merlin. How far are we from a workable tech for docking and undocking? Is this something we can expect in the near future -or is this a functionality planned further down the line?asked by J. Stalker
TL;DRRoberts wants to get Merlin-Constellation docking working and says it's technically not hard, likely the next task for the landing-systems developer, but other priorities have come first and no date is given.
I really want to actually get the p-52 and the constellation to work together cause they are meant to work together. It's probably something we'll start to work on with Craig Grounsoll who's done the sort of landing systems. Still got some landing system stuff that he's wrapping up for Squadron 42, and some enhancements for star citizen, and this will probably be the next task to get this working.It's not that difficult. Basically you just kind of want to get, it's just like the landing system really. You get in a certain area and you say "ok, dock" and we just sort of bring you in and connect you, and the merlin would be attached to the constellation, and then hopefully you get out and should just be able to enter into the back of the Constellation.So I do want to get it moving 'cause it's actually not that difficult, technically, to get working. It's really just people have had a whole bunch of other things they are working on first. For instance, you know, we, ah haven't shown it yet, but you know we have an Idris flying around and you can land inside it, and take off inside it, and walk around it, and it's pretty cool.So, that was sort of the higher priority, and we've still got some to do on the bigger ships in terms of building it out, like we have this object contain system which we detailed in our February monthly report that just came out, and you know that's kind of how, well, all the future sort of big stuff like big space ships or space stations and, you know, even the landing areas will be taken care of.It's sort of like containers of geometry and objects and stuff that can be nested inside each other, and sort of stream in and out depending on the situation, and that's how we'll bring in the interiors of the bigger ships and stuff like that. So we're doing that but obviously trying to have a dockable Merlin with a Constellation is, you know, on our list.