Orbital rendezvouz, solar panels and inventory

[PayadorPerseguido]

Howdy,

I have a few questions, I'm building a space station in my career game, its altitude is almost exactly 90.000 around. I have added two habitats modules, along a "pilot module" and a storage/life support module. I have a few solar panels, but all of them in proportion to the station itself, in other words, they aren't those huge ones. But as i expand the station, i thought it would be cool to add those really big solar panels. But how? Do i build the whole structure then simply dock it to a free node? or is it better to separate the process in sections (first the central column, with docking ports jrs. along its sides, then adding each solar panel individually by docking it to the column, etc)? What is a good way to add big solar panels and the support structure for you guys?

Which bears me to my second question, last night i saw Scott Manley's solar flare challenge, on which he did a orbital rendezvouz the nasa way. He simple matched his ascent from the launch pad to the targeted vehicle, without having to orbit kerbin first, and do hohmann transfer next. Now i'm curious, what is the kerbal math behind this? Is there any good rule of thumb for it? 

My third question is a quick one. I have KIS/KAS mod, and in one of  my crew exchange missions to my space station, i thought of bringing on a storage compartment big solar panels to be added by the mission specialist on an EVA. Thing is, the solar panel's volume is around 350. And the maximum volume a kerbal can take is 300. Is there any way around this? Is it possible to manipulate items and structures with volume's greater than the kerbal top limit?

Thanks !!

[Sharpy]

Re: gigantors.

Option 1: KIS. Probably best. Load them up in a container, send to the station, have an engineer with a screwdriver attach them. Try not to get them floating anywhere - only use "attach", not "drop" because chasing them through the void is not fun.

Option 2: Make a minimalistic dockable module with these panels, dock it.

Option 3: Make a normal station module, with whatever features it provides - lab, fuel storage, habitat, whatever - and have it bear the solar panels too.

A word of advice: keep them away from docking ports actively used for arriving craft. These things are fragile and it's waaay too easy to botch docking, and break them. Also, keep them in a fairing on ascent, or at least fly in a rather steep trajectory, not too fast. They are easily broken by aero forces, even folded.

Re: rendezvous. Wait until KSC is about to pass under the station's orbit, at a moment when the station is about to fly over the KSC. Launch into the same inclination, when you arrive into orbit you'll be really close to rendezvous. There's no good kerbal math for it (NASA math would work, but trust me, you don't want to go down that rabbit hole) and "the right moment" is relatively rare unless you manage your station's orbit really carefully.

Re: storage. You can move arbitrarily sized (though mass-limited) objects directly from container to attach place - or from one attach place to another. So your engineer floats up to the container (hey, add a Pegasus Mobility Enhancer to the manifest, it's really much easier to operate from a ladder than floating around, and you can attach the ladder just the same, plus it does fit in the backpack.) Attaches the panel (H) to the container. Floats some way towards where the panel is to go, grabs it (G) and immediately attaches a little way down (H). Repeat as needed.

Alternative option: the small KIS box. It has 1000l content and can be worn as a backpack (just drop it into kerbal's inventory). You cannot access the contents when you carry it - but you can attach it to the station right where you want to work (in one move, from inventory, to surface, attach) and then access it conveniently, or reattach at a different spot if you must work elsewhere. After finished work, (G)rab, drop into inventory, and stow in the big container. Or slap it on the side of the big container and fill with more items.

 

Also, remember you can KIS-attach new docking ports

Edited January 18, 2017 by Sharpy

[bewing]

1 hour ago, PayadorPerseguido said:

What is a good way to add big solar panels and the support structure for you guys?

I just have the panels with a decoupler and a klaw on top of some ship that I launch for some other purpose. The ship goes up to the station, grabs on with the klaw wherever it's convenient, and decouples the panels. Then goes off to do something else.

1 hour ago, PayadorPerseguido said:

Now i'm curious, what is the kerbal math behind this? Is there any good rule of thumb for it? 

All you need to know is how long it takes for the docking ship to get to the right altitude. You put the ship on the pad, switch to the target ship, and click the orbit over KSC to see how long until you arrive. When the time is right, you switch back to the ship on the pad and launch. Do your gravity turn like normal, and get to the upper atmosphere. The entire rest of the maneuver is just a very high speed docking maneuver. Go into target mode on the navball, lock SAS on retrograde, and burn like hell. When the velocity difference is down to something manageable, you start pushing the retrograde marker around to get a close encounter and then a docking.

1 hour ago, PayadorPerseguido said:

My third question is a quick one. I have KIS/KAS mod, and in one of  my crew exchange missions to my space station, i thought of bringing on a storage compartment big solar panels to be added by the mission specialist on an EVA. Thing is, the solar panel's volume is around 350. And the maximum volume a kerbal can take is 300. Is there any way around this? Is it possible to manipulate items and structures with volume's greater than the kerbal top limit?

I don't use KIS/KAS -- but as I understand it, a kerbal can drag things that are too big to take into inventory.

 

[PayadorPerseguido]

Thanks for the input, guys. I'll work around those solar panels on a new orbital station i'm planning. The current one, "Karl Sagan Orbital Station" is just too much of a mess. Too many unecessary parts putting the final count way up, even though the whole of the station isn't that big. I also unlocked better docking ports recently, the juniors are not enough to put up a decent station for me.

If you guys don't mind, i have another question, this time about the unmanned communication and relay mechanic. I have 3 satellites in a kerbosyncronous orbit around kerbin. Its communication dishes are the same for all the three of them. 3 lesser dishes (one for the satellite ahead, one for the sattelite behind, and one to mission control) - And finally a big dish that i point to the unmanned at any given time. For example, i set up a munar exploration probe, it was unmanned. Therefore, right before the rocket launch, i select all three of the communications satellites and i select the target at launchpad, ie the munar probe. All goes well regarding signal relay (the same cannot be told about the probe integrity, two launches so far, both managed to the mun only to crash at the surface). 
The question:

Is there any way to have the signals between satellites bounce automatically, without me having to select, individually, all the available communication satellites and target them to the desirable target? Its not that i care much, but it would make my space program way quicker. Is there any big dish with a big range that wont require targeting? 

ps: I'm using RemoteTech2

Thanks for answering the questions again, guys! More may come to mind later!

[bewing]

That question is very specific to Remote Tech2 -- the answer in stock is totally different. So you are going to have to ask that one on the RemoteTech2 thread.

 

[Spricigo]

35 minutes ago, PayadorPerseguido said:

Is there any way to have the signals between satellites bounce automatically, without me having to select, individually, all the available communication satellites and target them to the desirable target? Its not that i care much, but it would make my space program way quicker. Is there any big dish with a big range that wont require targeting? 

ps: I'm using RemoteTech2

Set target to "active vessel".  Done. 

[PayadorPerseguido]

12 hours ago, Spricigo said:

Set target to "active vessel".  Done. 

Worked perfectly. It seems i missed the red buttonn. 

Thanks @Spricigo and @bewing 

[Spricigo]

Personally, I prefer to have Omnis for local coverage and just using relays to connect the distant "LANs". For relays I use a pair of satellites in same orbit phased 180degrees just inside the "LAN". This possible means no connection in mid-course between different celestial bodies but the need for this can be easily avoided.

At the moment I'm not using RT since I want to focus in other aspect of the game, so stock its enough for me. But I really miss the  "setup a network around X" contracts.