Interplanetary Space Station

[Thromm]

Hey, so I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm trying to design a space station capable of reaching Eeloo, but I don"t know how. I know how to make space stations, but making one capable of interplanetary travel is a challenge. I don't know how much fuel I will need, how to transport the fuel to the station, and then make the station itself stable enough for travel. My problem really is stability. If anyone knows how to make a stable station with tons of fuel, hit me up.

[Starman4308]

You could try modular design, with relatively stable sections sent individually to Eeloo and docked using the biggest docking ports you have. You could also try sending it separate from the fuel it's supposed to store, and filling up the tanks with a separate mission, possibly via ISRU on Eeloo's surface. It doesn't matter how wobbly the final product is if sent in segments capable of assembly at the destination.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

I think it also depends how much you want it to look like a space station. A large ship would serve the same purpose, and be easier to fly, but it won't exactly look like your prototypical space station.

[Ohm is Futile]

Not sure what to say, either treat it like a very large spaceship which means a very big rocket with lots/large engines and a lot of fuel or do as @Starman4308 said and split it in smaller, docked pieces.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

And by the way; welcome to the forums, @Thromm!

(If you don't say that you get dirty looks from people )

Edited May 23, 2017 by Cpt Kerbalkrunch

[Spricigo]

 

The same basic principles of smaller design applies, Its just a bigger scale.

Try to make anything that need to be lifted from kerbin as aerodynamic stable as possible. Avoid weak joints.  Design for a good balance of power and precision since you will probably need to trade one for another.

The idea of transporting each module in a separate flight and assemble it at the destination make a lot of sense. You will break a big problem into several small problems.

For more specific help we need more info. (what is required for the station? what is the technology available? how do you plan to delivery the modules?)

29 minutes ago, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

And by the way; welcome to the forums, @Thromm!

(If you don't say that you get dirty looks from people )

Too late...we already judged you.

[steuben]

Yes, the conventional approach is to ship the station in pieces to <insert location> and assemble it there.

But...

*brief moment of static*

This! Is! KSP! <kicks rocket into a dry well>

*brief moment of static*

<singing voice>Long haired convention need not apply. Can't you read the si~~~~gns? </singing voice>

*brief moment of static*

My recommendation is to use a puller design along the long axis through the CoM of the station.  Though, if you want to you can strap a whole bunch of engines to strategic, and/or random, points and balance the effects of the thrust with a number of gyros, and KER.

 

 

 

[bewing]

The key is -- the smaller you make it, the less fuel it takes to get it there.

OK, so it sounds like you can make the station you want and get it to LKO. Stability is not a problem. In space you can use low-thrust engines, which avoid joint oscillation problems. Just expect that your burns will take a long time, and make your station symmetrical. If you can get it to LKO, then you can get it to Eeloo. You just need to refuel it. How do you refuel it? Either you mine ore on the Mun or Minmus, convert the ore to fuel, put it on a tanker ship, dock the tanker to your station, and manually transfer the fuel -- or you launch as much fuel as you can from Kerbin multiple times, and dock and transfer that way.

And to find out how much it takes -- you either use a mod to tell you how much dV your station has. Or you use the debug menu to put the station someplace and then test it to see how much dV it has. Or you go into sandbox mode, and you just try it and see if you end up short or not.

 

Edited May 23, 2017 by bewing

[Norcalplanner]

Just think Skylab instead of ISS and things will be a lot easier.

[Foxster]

Autostruts are your friend. 

[Reusables]

I recommend composing root part and root sections with heaviest ones.

So the root part could be fuel tanks which is rarely drained, or with heaviest dry mass like.. mk1-2 command pod(sigh). And the root section containing the root part would be central section as well with refinin/science facilities.

It could help you with wiggling problem, and help even more with Autostrut: Root Part.

[KerikBalm]

How much fuel depends on the mass of your station, and the engines that you are using. Specify the mass of your station and if you'll use Nukes, Poodles, KR-2Ls, etc...

As for making it stable, build it inline, enable advanced tweakables and then do part auto strutting.

I made this before part auto strutting. The destination was Jool, but that's very similar ot going to Eeloo (after all, Eeloo crosses Jool's orbit)

Getting the SSTO to balance just right was tricky. Fuel tanks in front of the docking port were emptied, those behind it were full, I designed it very carefully in the editor so its CoM was right at the docking port in that configuration.

Or you can just make a ship with multiple docking ports, and turn it into a station later:

to:

Use Sr. docking ports when possible, or do a puller configuration:

Above, I don't do either of these...

But.... the LV-N section is detachable, a "tug", I can detache it and reattach it in a puller configuration, or use it to provide propulsion to other things (rendering the "station" a true station with no propulsion system). Although in the above case, many perapsis kicks would be needed.

The most recent "station" that I built:

note the use of autostrutting:

Spoiler

Also note the high orbital velocity, its on a 3x resize of the kerbal system, so dV requirements are much higher.

Attach stuff inline, not to the sides, for the transfer. You can attach all you want to the sides at the destination later.

In the above case, I had a small module docked to the side, but I'd put it at the front node before a burn