Best Jool space station location

[Warzouz]

In 0.90, I did a Jool space station around Laythe (500km circular orbit), mostly because it's a nice place. I visited all moon several times (my space station had a lot of fuel) and gather 40000 science points. That was a fun a long mission with its own recue missions (hopefully from the station, not from Kerbin)...

I was wondering in 1.0.4, as we have those refueling capacity, what would be the best place to place a space station. I was wondering about Vall.

- It's quite mid-placed, moon transfers are mitigated.

- dV for landing is reasonable. The refueller wouldn't loose too much fuel.

- Vall SOI to low orbit has a reasonable cost.

What do you think ?

Other options :

- Laythe : refueller would have a very hard time landing on the few available islands. Takoff would be costly, even landing would be cheaper. SOI traval would be more expensive. BUT, it's a very nice place...

- Tylo : not much hope of refuelling the station efficiently. Well placed fot transfer costs, but the SOI to LO is expensive.

- Bop : Cheap to land, and SOI to LO, but not well placed, longer trips (due to plane changes), higher moon transfert costs.

- Pol : Cheap to land, and SOI to LO, but not well placed, highest moon transfert costs. Quite a nice moon.

Edited July 17, 2015 by Warzouz

[NASAHireMe]

Yup, agree with Vall for practicality. If you're gonna do mining/refueling, that seems like the logical place to do it.

I play with RemoteTech so I've got a main station around Vall and a constellation of commsats throughout the Joolian system... it's quite complex.

I've always liked Laythe stations though. Making a Laythe-capable SSTO is one of the most satisfying goals in KSP.

[Norcalplanner]

I'm partial to Vall myself. I've also read (but haven't yet actually done this) that a station in orbit around Jool itself, between the orbits of Vall and Tylo, is supposed to be the most efficient. You don't have to circularize around a moon, and you can reduce delta v requirements using gravity assists from the other moons, particularly Tylo.

[Geschosskopf]

What do you think ?

As always, stations and bases depend on what your ultimate plans are. Is this a 1-and-done, flags-and-footprints explorations trip or are you going to end up with a large-scale, long-term colony project? There's also the question of where you're going to be using any fuel you make, whether on the ground or in space? Depending on that answer, you might need multiple bases/stations.

For instance, let us assume you want to colonize Laythe and tie it in to a regular "trade route". So you'll have SSTOs moving Kerbals and (mostly imaginary) "stuff" up and down, which means you need a station at Laythe to transship cargo between the interplanetary freighters and the SSTOs. And you'll need a spaceport on the ground where the SSTOs load/unload and refuel, and then probably several dispersed villages scattered about in scenic places, served by atmospheric planes, and each of these villages will probably need refueling capability.

Now, you'll probably also want to refuel the interplanetary freighters, plus anything else you've got going on in Jool space. This will mean getting fuel from the ground to orbit. I like to get this from Vall because the gravity isn't too bad and it's close to Laythe. So there's a mining base on Vall, then a fuel depot in Vall orbit and a tanker lander than the just goes from this depot to the mine. There is then the question of whether you refuel the spaceships at Vall or the Laythe station, or both. Any refueling at Laythe will require that station also being a fuel depot and you'll need another tanker optimized for the Vall-Laythe run.

And you can grow it from there. Want to colonize Tylo as well? Put another station there plus whatever ground bases you want, and tie it by tanker into the Vall-based fuel system.

[Warzouz]

Well it's just a station for efficient science striping. Event my whole tech tree is unlocked, I find trying to land on various locations quite rewarding.

Laythe and Tylo (SSTO) landers would have to be specifically designed and trucked to Laythe/Tylo LO and I think I would manage a generic lander for the other moons (without tug).

I think I would install the station and the refueler first along with a "recon probe" and maybe a generic lander.

Then later, a second mission would bring the dedicated tylo and laythe lander and a return vehicle.

But that's a long shot. I even don't have any decent interplanetary stage yet.

[Grumman]

When I go there, I'm probably going to put it in Pol orbit to start with, refuel fully and then put it in Laythe orbit to stay. That way, spaceplanes coming up from the surface don't have to go as far to refuel.

[Evanitis]

I'd consider an airbreathing Laythe SSTO miner with an ISRU base in orbit. Probably not more efficient than Vall, but the scenery is better and spaceplanes never get old. Also Laythe is somehow always in the way regardless of where I'm going.

Think I'll establish that in my career. At least Jeb will have something to do - poor guy was mostly a tourist guide in the last 10 years or so.

[juanml82]

The good thing about Laythe is that ships going there can aerocapture and save fuel.

Well, I guess they can aerocapture, that with all changes to atmospheric reentry.

[Evanitis]

I guess they can aerocapture, that with all changes to atmospheric reentry.

I'd guess they can't, at least not without a plethora of heat shields. Maybe aerobrake to orbit in a few passes - really carefully. I'm yet to actually test that on Laythe, as Jool space has so many moons around that getting gravity assist for slowing down is no big deal - and it's perfectly safe.

[Warzouz]

Thk you for your insight

- Orbiting Jool : I'm afraid that it would make rendez-vous much longer that orbiting a body. Further more, that would make refueller being less efficicient. I could give it a try before going to Vall.

- Pol refueling : Even for a first approach, I'me wiondering why this is efficient. Pol has a small SOI and you would have to go "back" outward after gravity asist or aero-capture.

- Laythe plane refueler : That maybe a big plane. I'm worried that the chances to have a medium/high rate location along the equatorial would be very low (mainly because there are very few equaltorial islands). Futher more, this time, I'll really do the plane SSTO to Laythe and not only a "rocket SSTO" as in 0.9.

I'll stick to Vall, mainly because the refueler will be much simpler to design than a plane for Laythe, and more reliable/easy to land. Futher more, it's better to explore Jool moons in another way. I already did the Laythe station (no refuel in 0.9, but 6 orange tanks).

Here was my station in beta 0.9

- Core station

- 6 orange tanks

- RCS tanks

- 1 stage lander for Tylo + tug

- 1 rocket SSTO lander for Tylo + tug

- 1 rocket SSTO lander for Latyhe

- 3 rocket SSTO for Val, Bop and Pol

- Return vehicle for 11 kerbals (which is docking on the screenshot)