Quick stupid question about excess ore

[SpacedCowboy]

Just completed a contract for extracting 900 units of ore from Minmus. ( didn't have to bring it back or anything )

Refined some of it to fill the tank for return to Kerbin. Still have like 500 units left over.

Here comes the stupid question,,, Is that extra ore worth any kerbucks if I return it, or should I just jettison it ?

[Kryxal]

I wouldn't bother to dump it till you're on reentry, instead process it and replace fuel.  A powered landing never hurts...

[DD_bwest]

i believe ore is worth a little but not much

 

i do know that the price for ore when launching a vehicle, is less than  the amount of money you get  if you turn that ore into monoprop and recover it lol

[bewing]

It's so darn heavy that it's miserable to land it.

[Streetwind]

Yeah, if you don't need it for fuel, ditch that stuff. Unless the tank is heatshielded, it's probably not going to survive reentry anyway.

[Sharpy]

2 hours ago, Kryxal said:

I wouldn't bother to dump it till you're on reentry, instead process it and replace fuel.  A powered landing never hurts...

Solid advice if you're hauling the ISRU. If you have ISRU, think of ore tanks as 'universal fuel tanks'.

It's actually pretty special - considering the ISRU conversion rate to LF, ore tanks are actually the most efficient tanks (best wet:dry ratio) for Liquid Fuel. If you decide you NEED the ISRU, and your rocket uses LV-N (LF only), you're better off taking 10 tons of LF and 100 tons of ore, than 110 tons of LF, delta-V wise. Although if you don't need the ISRU "for other reasons", the break-even point lies somewhere around 30 large ore tanks (you're worse off with 20 ore tanks AND ISRU than with the same mass in full LF tanks alone. But if you were to choose between ISRU+40 ore tanks, or just LF, the ore option will give more delta-V).