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Real talk: Solar orbit stations


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Every once in a while you'll get a contract asking you to build a space station in a solar orbit. These pay ridiculous amounts of money, more than something like visiting frickin Duna. And this wouldn't have been a problem if a solar orbit wasn't one of the easiest things in the game. Cluster a bunch of SRBs, build whatever silly station they want, launch it straight up, escape Kerbin's SoI and you're done. Then delete it because you hate yourself and you hate this silly mechanic but you didn't want to grind meaningful contracts that barely pay anything just so you could unlock the next level of science labs.

Ugh.

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I use Antenna Range mod. Each of my stations serves as an communications hub, housing a set of biggest, most power-hungry antennas. Stations in solar orbit are usually left unmanned as soon as contract is completed - i have better things to do for my Kerbals than pickle in Hitchhikers Cans for decades :)

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So I've been thinking about a permanent solar station in an orbit that would keep it perpetually the same distance from Kerbin - just outside of Kerbin's SOI.  Easy enough to do I think, just escape Kerbin either pro or retro to Kerbin's orbit of Kerbol and then shortly after escaping Kerbin, tweak the station's orbit to match Kerbin's (but not to return to Kerbin).  Seems like this might offer benefits as someplace that's relatively easy to get to plus very easy to use as a staging/refueling location for longer trips  might even simplify some trips, no?  Am I just nuts or is this a moderately decent idea?

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2 hours ago, rocketbuilder said:

Use the station contracts mod, it makes you build stations and only rarely asks for a new one. Most contracts are like to add a new habitation module and cycle the crew around.

 

 

Actually Kerbin Space Station will only ask for a new station if it doesn't already find one in orbit around that body. That was very important for me, the endless "build a new station" contracts drove me batty.

Edited by severedsolo
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I like the "build a station in orbit just out of Kerbol's SOI" but I'd be worried about the fuel cost to and from it over time.  I'm horrible about planning fuel costs in general and just had the fun of burning my mono thrusters for 10 minutes to get my Peri down enough for an aerocapture after retrieving a random space part in Kerbol orbit.  And to add to that I had an engineer on the mission who I had, literally, just rescued the day before from his own "lost in space" pod....

 

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1 hour ago, severedsolo said:

Actually Kerbin Space Sation will only ask for a new station if it doesn't already find one in orbit around that body. That was very important for me, the endless "build a new station" contracts drove me batty.

And THANK YOU so much for that!  The incessant begging for new redundant space stations was really getting to me.  I'm using your KSS pack and the only trouble I have now is the repetitive contracts to evacuate or respond to a medical [not] emergency. Anyhow, I'd love to give you some rep for that, but it's not yet clear to me how to do so... I thought clicking the little plus next to your rep would add it, but that does not seem to be the case....

 

Danny

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4 hours ago, CrashTestDanny said:

So I've been thinking about a permanent solar station in an orbit that would keep it perpetually the same distance from Kerbin - just outside of Kerbin's SOI.  Easy enough to do I think, just escape Kerbin either pro or retro to Kerbin's orbit of Kerbol and then shortly after escaping Kerbin, tweak the station's orbit to match Kerbin's (but not to return to Kerbin).  Seems like this might offer benefits as someplace that's relatively easy to get to plus very easy to use as a staging/refueling location for longer trips  might even simplify some trips, no?  Am I just nuts or is this a moderately decent idea?

This isn't as easy to do as you think.  If  you're close to Kerbin's SOI, then it won't be long before it enters Kerbin's SOI and either impacts or gets catapulted far, far away.  This usually happens when you're warping another ship at high rate and not paying attention to the station, when SOI boundaries (and even planetary surfaces) often get a bit fuzzy.  So to be safe, I'd put it at least 25-30% of an orbit ahead of or behind Kerbin, not anywhere really close to it.

At which point, you have to ask yourself, what's it good for?  Is it a useful place to use en route to another planet?  No, it's actually worse.  While it's exactly as far from everywhere else as Kerbin is, you can't use any of the transfer window figure-outers, and you get no Oberth effect when doing transfer burns at the station.  Is it quick and easy to get to?  No, it will take the better part of a year to get there, and rendezvous is about the same level of difficulty as catching an asteroid in solar orbit.  And then you have to get yourself back instead of riding the asteroid home, which is another long trip.  So other than using it as a prison for your worst criminals, there's not really any reason to go there.

However, if you use Remote Tech or Antenna Range with LOS blocking turned on, it can be useful to put automated communications relays in such positions.  They allow you to see around the sun.  But OTOH, you can just put relays in highly elliptical polar orbits at every planet and you'll also have a path around the sun, and if you're going to other planets anyway, why not take the relays with you?

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So what is stopping you from adding your own challenge to the contract?  Not a thing at all.  As long as you match whatever requirements are set, you can do whatever you want to get it done. This is not so much a case of a silly contract as more a case that you can't be bothered to take advantage of a contract like this to try some new parts, some new launch method, or anything else you can imagine.  Something to keep in mind with 1.0.5 is that station is likely going to come up in a later contract to add a module to it of some kind, bring kerbals to it, or maybe even bring it to a different orbit.

I definitely appreciate the responses to this post, but when you boil it down, this is just another complaint post to something you just don't like, and actually do not need to initiate.  Find something you can engage yourself in. There are a lot of options available, with more to come.  You do not have to do every single contract offered.  I, for one, really don't care for the testing and hauling contracts, so I really don't bother with them myself unless they do fit into a mission I do want to perform. I never turn down the extra funds, science, or rep that may come from that.

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Well I did just really look at the money payout on that Solar Base contract and it's left me wondering if I should put some time into making the one I just put up a functional one.  Right now it's parked just outside of the Kerbol SOI and I'm debating on pulling it BACK into orbit so I can use it for something a little more productive and a little less risky (I've got a tourist, scientist and pilot aboard it now).  

I'm also at a small pinch point with feeling like I need to do something to get more cash in hand given that I'm growing my science pretty stupid fast but I don't have the funds to upgrade RnD yet to use it.  

My plan for the solar base is to make it either a Munar or Minus orbiter and put it to work there so I know I can get my people on and off of it safely.

 

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Yes, there is very little use for a solar space station. Time to get there will be very bound by windows.

I use a lot of space stations, but I've none around Kerbol and my Kerbin station is never used, except on very rare occasion to refuel my space plane for high orbit operation (kerbal rescue due to old and ill designed return vehicle from interplanetary transfers)

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On 30/11/2015, 17:32:53, severedsolo said:

Actually Kerbin Space Station will only ask for a new station if it doesn't already find one in orbit around that body. That was very important for me, the endless "build a new station" contracts drove me batty.

Yeah, I meant that it rarely asks for a new one around any body, and never ones with stations.

And I've never seen it ask about a solar station.

Edited by rocketbuilder
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1 minute ago, Curveball Anders said:

One could try to advertise it to tourists as a very exclusive (and expensive) tanning studio for rich and influential Kerbal.

(Or would that be a greening studio?)

In a pure roleplay style, this station wouldn't be much fun. In beta, I had a dedicated mission around Kerbol. This mission was boring. The scenery was nearly still. On the opposite, the station orbiting Laythe was increadibly nice with Jool-rises and neaby Vall and Tylo with the naked eye. Fantastic sight !

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