Solar Orbit Space Station?

[qoonpooka]

An interesting contract came up with a Kerbol orbit between Duna and Kerbin.  I thought, for a moment, and my brain said to me: "Hey. That means you could stop for gas on your way from Kerbin to anywhere beyond!"

And so I moved the mouse over to click 'accept.'

My finger had velocity when another part of my brain suddenly burst out of it's office screaming at the top of it's lungs, "STOP THE PRESSING!!!!!"

There was a flurry of mental papers and commotion as the mouseclick was aborted, and I look at that part of my brain tensely, waiting for the explanation.  It took a moment to gather itself and then added:

"If you park that station in that orbit, you'll never know if it's ANYWHERE near where you're going to want it to be for those trips. Sure, you can maneuver to intercept but each orbit being more than a year, rendezvous maneuvers could take decades to complete unless you're carrying way more fuel than you need to complete the mission anyway.  Even if you do find it useful for refueling, any mission with that kind of stop will DEFINITELY take decades to finish."

 

I passed on the contract.  But was that part of my brain correct?

[Tex_NL]

You're correct. Interplanetary refuelling is generally not worth it.

But if you had already accepted the contract it would not have been a complete waste. Any new craft that ticks all of the boxes would have qualified as a station. Even a large multipart mothership going for a Jool V mission.
Contracts like these are a great way to fund your large interplanetary missions. With clever combining of contracts you can make a great profit.

[qoonpooka]

2 minutes ago, Tex_NL said:

You're correct. Interplanetary refuelling is generally not worth it.

But if you had already accepted the contract it would not have been a complete waste. Any new craft that ticks all of the boxes would have qualified as a station. Even a large multipart mothership going for a Jool V mission.
Contracts like these are a great way to fund your large interplanetary missions. With clever combining of contracts you can make a great profit.

Yeah, I have no problem contract stacking. Mostly I was just looking for confirmation that I hadn't missed a sweet infrastructure project.  I think this required 11 Kerbals and 4k fuel on board. That's a huge payload to go anywhere with.

[Tex_NL]

1 minute ago, qoonpooka said:

... I think this required 11 Kerbals and 4k fuel on board. That's a huge payload to go anywhere with.

4k fuel isn't that much. And you don't actually have to have 11 Kerbals on board. You craft must be CAPABLE of carrying 11. 2 Hitch-hikers and a Mk1-2 pod is enough. (1 Hitch-hiker, 1 Lab, 1 Mk2 Lander can, 1 Mk1-2 pod would be more useful.)

[qoonpooka]

Just now, Tex_NL said:

4k fuel isn't that much. And you don't actually have to have 11 Kerbals on board. You craft must be CAPABLE of carrying 11. 2 Hitch-hikers and a Mk1-2 pod is enough. (1 Hitch-hiker, 1 Lab, 1 Mk2 Lander can, 1 Mk1-2 pod would be more useful.)

Sure, but hitchhikers are heavy and I've only just unlocked the Skipper. 

[Tex_NL]

Use the money to advance your career and save the contract for later. Nobody says you have to do it NOW. A lot can happen in 1 or 2 years.

[Kerbart]

29 minutes ago, qoonpooka said:

Sure, but hitchhikers are heavy and I've only just unlocked the Skipper. 

With a skipper those Sol orbit stations are very doable. You rarely need to spend more than 200k on launching one, and the contract usually yields north of 500k. That's 300k in easy money. Use the Mun for a slingshot out of the Kerbal system.

[Sresk]

So I'm playing with the interstellar mod so my opinion is going to differ but I personally loved that contract. I wanted to put some huge solar panels in low solar orbit for beamed anyways. So adding in a science lab and some life support wasn't that much worse. 

I have a drone on its way to that station right now for some resupply and the Delta v isn't that much worse than a Moho mission sure I had to burn several 1000 Delta v radially to get my intercept lined up, but once I get there I won't need very much Delta v to match velocity. So all in all its honestly not that much worse than a Moho trip and in some ways easier because my sun station isn't on an online orbit.

Oh and I plotted the trip without a transfer window so really it's not bad.

[Norcalplanner]

I commit to the ultimate purpose of these sort of contracts by naming the craft "Throwaway Station" and lofting it as cheaply as I can.

[qoonpooka]

11 minutes ago, Norcalplanner said:

I commit to the ultimate purpose of these sort of contracts by naming the craft "Throwaway Station" and lofting it as cheaply as I can.

I'm playing on ultra-hard, with payouts down at 40%, so they're barely offering me 200k all-in.  I have to be picky and careful about what contracts I accept because margins are super tight.