Best orbit for a space station?

[Kerbinchaser]

So I'm planning a space station, but I don't know what altitude I should park it in. Any ideas?

I've seen some in 500 km orbits, but that seems too high.

[LordFerret]

Mine, in orbit around Kerbin, is 300km. My Mun and Minmus stations are at 100km.

[Kermanzooming]

Assuming you are talking about Kerbin, most people like to put their stations at 125 Km so you can benefit from time warping at 100x.

Here you have the minimum altitudes above each body for the different time warping speeds.

No matter the altitude, remember to make the orbit as circular as possible to make rendezvous and docking easier.

[septemberWaves]

If I'm using ISRU from Minmus, I tend to put a primary fuel depot in a 505km orbit. That way, it's close enough to Minmus that there's not much delta-v spent to get there and back, and it's above the parking orbits that I use for interplanetary vessels (I keep those between 255km and 500km at 5km intervals. Those interplanetary vessels are also only a small amount of delta-v away from the station.

If I'm not planning to use a Minmus-based refuelling depot, I'll generally just have m Kerbin station in a 120km orbit, so that it's above most of my standard payload parking orbits (I'll usually launch into an 80km or 100km orbit, with some exceptions) and below my construction/loading orbits (125km to 245km at 5km intervals).

If I'm using the Orbital Utility Vehicle mod, and my Worker Bee construction spacecraft, I'll usually have a hub station for those in a 250km orbit, so that they're pretty close to anywhere they're likely to be needed.

Basically, the orbit you choose for your station depends entirely on your play style and what you plan to use the station for.

[regex]

1 hour ago, Lo Var Lachland said:

So I'm planning a space station, but I don't know what altitude I should park it in. Any ideas?

Wherever's clever.

Seriously, wherever you want. The timewarp suggestion above is pretty good but I usually put a satellite much higher that I can switch to on demand for that purpose. Plus, you can always approach the station from "above" if that's an issue.

[Sharpy]

250km is good.

The gap from 70km is enough to allow smooth planning of encounters of newly launched stuff without waiting countless orbits to synchronize. The altitude isn't too costly to reach, both from outside and from inside. It allows a time warp good enough you won't be waiting for ages. It remains in sunlight considerably longer than <100km.

I had stations both on 100 and on 1000km, and both were a bother.

Syncing with 100km from 70 was taking forever, even with well timed launches, and more than half of the time all the docking, EVA work and so on would be done in darkness. One good thing was fast deorbiting.

1000km was be much better in these respects, but the delta-V difference between it and LKO was unpleasant; SSTOs going there for fuel were struggling to reach it; returning and departing craft couldn't utilize Oberth effect to the fullest.

Probably 500km would be good too, but for now I'm using 250km and I'm perfectly satisfied.

[Kerbinchaser]

Thanks everyone!

[ThatPilot]

I'm playing with Kerbalism mod. Which means I need to keep my Kerbin stations below roughly 300km to keep them below radiation belts and inside the magnetosphere radiation shielding.

For Minmus, I keep the stations at or below 100km. This way I can benefit from high timewarp settings, and yet station is short flight time away from surface. High orbits above Minmus have so slow orbital speed and orbital periods that my limited life support resources render them too expensive in flight time.

[TheEpicSquared]

I usually place my stations in a 150x150km orbit. High enough to enjoy Kerbin but not too high for rendezvousing.

[Kertech]

Don't do what I did first time I launched a space station, 

station launched and crew module sent up, rendezvous set up and encounter ready, get to the encounter and find the target relative velocity was about 2000m/s, and my closest point was 0.0km... Anyway, smashed all the solar panels but Jeb wasn't hurt.

 

(basically avoid retrograde orbits...)

[KerbMav]

There is also an altitude at which the game uses a less taxing texture for Kerbin, which was deemed helpful for big/high part stations.

If I only could remember all these numbers.

[Pecan]

I run a lot of flights at the same time, I seem to have an awful lot of ships floating around anyway.  As such I find it useful to stick to designated 'traffic control' orbits.  For Kerbin:

• 70km re-entry
• 75km launch/return
• 150km low-orbit rendezvous
• 250km station
• 350km lunar/parking orbit
• 600km interplanetary/parking orbit

Then anything launching is required to make at least a 75km orbit (pretty obviously, really).  Ships being constructed in orbit or awaiting <whatever> from below sit at 150km (for easy rendezvous).  Parked Kerbin-system vehicles, service vehicles (tugs, tankers, ferries) and day-trippers park at the station (that's what it's for).  Vehicles shuttling backwards and forwards from the moons or just waiting to move further in hang around at 350km (not used much).  Finally, long-term parking/waiting for interplanetary transfer windows is at 600km (to keep them out of the way as much as anything).

Outbound: Launch to 75km.  Transfer to 150km (deliver to construction/low-orbit re-supply), 250km (deliver to station) or 600km (wait for transfer) as required.
Inbound: Brake to 75km orbit.  Transfer to 70km (re-entry) orbit or re-cycle as outbound.
Service: Normally operate across 75km - 600km as required but in Kerbin SOI are usually Mun/Minmus capable anyway, just in case.

350km tends to be the 'junkyard' orbit.  Service vehicles that aren't needed at the moment but don't have a parking-spot at the station, stuff that needs a bit of help and is waiting for a service vehicle or - let's be honest - things that "seemed like a good idea at the time" but are now on the 'must think about that one some time' list.

[Deddly]

Moved this question about gameplay to Gameplay Questions

[Kerbinchaser]

21 minutes ago, Deddly said:

Moved this question about gameplay to Gameplay Questions

Thanks!

[Vanamonde]

7 hours ago, KerbMav said:

There is also an altitude at which the game uses a less taxing texture for Kerbin, which was deemed helpful for big/high part stations.

If I only could remember all these numbers.

160kms. 

[Mikki]

2864km is also cool, keostationary (I tried a lot, 5000, 3000, 1000, 300km...) good height to launch for other major bodies.
 

[Red Iron Crown]

Major altitude thresholds around Kerbin, decide what is important to you:

70km: Edge of atmo. Seriously, don't go lower than this.
100km: Switch to non-rotating reference frame, no maneuver node creep.
120km: 100x warp available.
160km(I think?): Switch from PQS to ScaledSpace for planet rendering, better game performance here or higher.
240km: 1,000x warp available.
480km: 10,000x warp available.
600km: 100,000x warp available.
2863km: Synchronous orbit.

Personally, I don't care too much about warp limits (they're easy enough to sidestep), but getting above the switch in planet rendering makes a big difference.
 

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

21 hours ago, Lo Var Lachland said:

So I'm planning a space station, but I don't know what altitude I should park it in. Any ideas?

I've seen some in 500 km orbits, but that seems too high.

110km. Good compromise

[Sharpy]

8 hours ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

110km. Good compromise

Yeah, everyone equally dissatisfied.

[ThatPilot]

13 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

160kms. 

TIL. 

Is this constant for other bodies? I'm asking specifically Duna and Eve and Kerbins moons.

Edited September 6, 2016 by ThatPilot
Kerbals go to Duna not Dune, duh

[Vanamonde]

17 hours ago, ThatPilot said:

TIL. 

Is this constant for other bodies? I'm asking specifically Duna and Eve and Kerbins moons.

I do not know. However, I bet @Claw does. 

[touzenesmy]

Around 150km