Forum link: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/61040-0-23-6S-Service-Compartment-Tubes-Design-smooth

Introduction

However I tried making my KSP rockets as smooth looking as possible, it is very hard, you always need to put a tonne of stuff on top of the hull, be it RCS tanks, mechjeb, life support packages, batteries..

And then, I noticed something quite astonishing that I never did before when dissecting real spacecraft designs.. Ya’ see.. Real spacecraft use something they call “service compartments” aka “service modules” or something Russians would call “instrument agregat”, an unpressurized module where they store all the stuff we would otherwise put on the top of our hull! So I thought.. WAIT A MINUTE, Y U NO IN KSP??

So then, I came up with the simplest design I could. I call them..

6S Service Compartment Tubes!

Why “6S”?

Simple,
Sturdy,
Stock Styled,
Seamlessly Stackable

It’s so short! It’s useless!

I’ve modeled it so that spherical RCS tanks could fit inside. Most of the other stuff like mechjeb, flight engineer etc, are not bigger than spherical tanks and they can all fit inside.. Together.
If you need more space.. Just stack them!!! (check the pictures for tricks) Also, when stacked to double, the 1x1m structural panels fit right inside! Just put whatever you need on them

There seems to be a door, but I can’t open it!

You can only open the door manually during EVA (no servos I’m afraid, to keep it reliable and simple), so you can pick up or leave bags or KAS stuff you store inside. Also useful when transferring fuel from the tanks inside (you could do this on the other hand by zooming the camera inside the compartment, although this might be wonky and frustrating).

Any future plans?

There are some texture quirks, so I might do an art pass later on. I don’t plan adding more parts.

The tubes appear first in “general construction” in the Tech tree cause before that, you practically have nothing to put inside.

Thanks to Snjo for Firespitter, and well, listening to my irritating ideas xD

The firespitter.dll is bundled in the pack. If new Firespitter versions appear you should freely overwrite the old one.

Changelog:

v1.1
- Added new Firespitter version
- FAR now shields everything inside
- Bay opening action group is now not functional (although it appears in menu)

v1.2
- Added latest Firespitter plugin compatible with 0.23.5

v1.3
- Fixed part scaling issues introduced with 0.25. Special thanks to NoMrBond
- Fixed prices for career. 1m and 2m tubes now cost 150 and 200, respectively
- Bundled a fresh Firespitter .dll