How to do Mining in 1.0.2

[Bogeyman]

Hi all,

I am looking for tips and/or tutorials as to how to use the ISRU and how to mine. Well, actually I know how the system itself works. I am rather interested in how do you setup a mining factory. How do you interconnect the parts? How do you transfer the fuel that you have processed to your landed spaceship or airplane? How do you "land" this on Mun or other planets?

I found an old tutorial which is really awesome (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/48876-The-art-of-modular-base-building),

but it is old and is based on old parts.

How do you do it in the new version? Any links, pictures, texts about your strategy is welcome!

Thanks in advance

Chris

[Voyager_sput]

After scanning for a good deposit I usually bring down a mining/refining base. It has some Lf/Ox storage space, but usually only to land it. I use a seperate ship with various fuel tanks to fly between this base and an orbital refueling station. I find this easier then hauling the whole heavy rig up to orbit again and again. Not to mention the chance of losing my high yield mining spot

This way I build a multipart interplanetary ship with only partially filled fuel tanks to save weight on launch from Kerbin. Fly the ship to Minmus to have it be refueled at the Orbital station before it sets off on its interplanetary journey

I connect the mining base to the fuel ship using pipes from the KAS/KIS mods. Makes for easy fuel transfers and gives my Kerbals something to do. I always have trouble with complicated rover setups with docking ports on them....

[KerikBalm]

The claw makes the issue of lining up docking ports on the surface a non-issue.

Just have a "fuel truck" approach the refinery and bump it wth an open claw-> joined!

Transfer fuel into the truck, unhook the claw, drive it to the fuel ferry that brings it to orbit.

But I'm even lazier... the ISRU converter is only 4 tons... If my fuel tanker is carrying 2 orange tanks worth of fuel, thats already 72 tons... adding another ~5 tons of drills+converter+ solar panels doesn't change much.

I'll stick a flag where I was if I want to land there again because its a good spot.

So I just fly the whole "refinery-ship" too and from orbit to fill up an orbital fuel depot.

Occassionally, I use the refinery-ship as a fuel depot itself for when I want to reach polar locations/high lattitudes with a lander (as I like to keep my fuel depots in equatorial orbits).

In that case, I'll launch the refinery into a polar orbit as a temporary fuel depot.

[Geschosskopf]

Voyager_sput and KerikBahn have pretty much covered it all so I'll just add a few minor things.

While the Claw (advanced grabbing unit, used to catch astroids) is simple and effective, it does have problems. BE SURE that when using the Claw, the Claw is on the vehicle you're controlling. DO NOT drive a vehicle into a Claw on the other vehicle as this might destroy the universe. Seriously. Also, you might find this process a bit inelegant. A cool alternative is to use KAS to connect the 2 vehicles together with pipes installed by Kerbals on EVA. However, this can also be a bit glitchy at times so there's really no perfect solution (not even docking ports).

An interesting feature of all resource gathering/using systems (stock or mod) is that the vehicle with the drills and/or refinery parts doens't need much tankage of its own, provided it's connected to the ultimate recipient ship (which does have lots of tankage) while the drills and/or refinery are operating. All the drill/reefer unit needs is minimal tankage of each type involved. So say you have a combined drill/reefer rover. It just needs the smallest tanks. You start the drill and ore starts filling the small ore tank. Once you get a little in there, start the reefer and product will start filling the small tanks for that. Once you get a little product available, start pumping it into the final recipient ship which is already docked/clawed/KAS'd to the drill/reefer. The whole process then runs on the "Just In Time" principle (assuming you have adequate power), so no need for large tanks of product inventory at the base.

This can be quite useful for minimizing part count at the base, and as well as minimizing what you need to launch out there to make the base. If you have a good deposit on reasonably flat ground that can be used as a landing area, then your entire refueling base can be reduced to a single rover with the drills, reefer, small tanks, and power. Just land your ship somewhere in that area, drive the rover up next to it and connect, then start drilling and refining and pumping. If the deposit is in hilly terrain, your base can be just drills, reefer, and minimal tankage, and you then need a big fuel tank rover to move from the base to the landed ship in the closest flat area.

Otherwise, a few general points.

1. It's really not worth the time, trouble, or money to set up a refueling mining system in the Kerbin system, unless you just want the practice. It's always easier and cheaper to just send up fuel from Kerbin as needed. The whole idea of refueling only becomes worth it at other planets.

2. It's more efficient to move product than it is to move Ore, due to the empty weight of the Ore tanks.

3. When planning a refueling system, think about what you'll be using it for. Often, you'll need 2 separate fuel systems. For example, at Duna, you'll need a mine on Ike to refuel the space-going stuff that never touches the ground. And if you plan on using a lot of fuel on Duna itself, you'll need a separate system there. Same at Laythe. Mine Vall to keep your spaceships full and Laythe itself for flying around there and also for getting your crews back into orbit.

[Bogeyman]

Geschosskopf, (and the rest before you), great explanations, thanks!

[Laie]

Some numbers: with a three-star engineer, and on the best deposit I could find (11% on Minmus) five drills cannot quite provide enough ore to keep the converter running at 100%.

Think big. The ISRU stuff works in timewarp (as long as you watch the vessel), so you whatever effort you put in, you get as much fuel out as you can carry. If you can provide enough Ore to keep it busy, a single converter could fill up 24 large Kerbodyne tanks in one game day.

Minmus is arguably the best place. Not only from a delta-V standpoint, but also because everything but the slopes is reasonably level and easy to land on. On the Mun, you need to scout for a good landing site before you may bring down your refinery.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Laie

[peachoftree]

I don't know if you use mods, but if you do KAS is a huge help for this. Connect everything with pipes and land your refinery in sections rather than one huge ship. Also have a station in orbit that can hold fuel so that you can have a dedicated ship for ferrying fuel from the surface to the station and so that you don't have to land everything you want to land. (a waste of about 580 m/s on the moon, also ship has to be designed to land.)

[Xaver]

Can i ask a question? Could a spot be pumped dry or is the amount of ore infinit?

Edited May 18, 2015 by Xaver

[Geschosskopf]

Can i ask a question? Could a spot be pumped dry or is the amount of ore infinit?

On planets, you can't exhaust a deposit. Asteroids run dry, though. Kethane ran dry (and way too fast).

[Alshain]

2. It's more efficient to move product than it is to move Ore, due to the empty weight of the Ore tanks.

This is incorrect. The mass of the Ore tanks is not more than the mass of the fuel tanks that hold an equivalent conversion. However it is slightly more efficient to move product rather than ore because you have to land enough fuel mass to return, where as returning product, when you finish landing your craft can be completely out of fuel, thus taking less fuel to have set it down in the first place.