How should I go about constructing a Mün base?

[Squidiness]

Ok, so I already started my Mün base, but it's a mess; I have some cheap lander on one edge of a small crater and some gargantuan mining lander on the other, so it really doesn't qualify as a base at all, does it? I've considered docking everything together at the Münar surface, but I'm terrible at precision landing, and that's why the two landers I wanted to be close together ended up 2km apart, so I don't think this is an option. I've also considered constructing it in orbit and then landing it, but the CoM would be off, so this would be fine if I could use parachutes, but since the Mün has no atmosphere, and I can't use parachutes, It would probably fail. I've considered (and already have) landing a bunch of facilities in roughly the same area as each other (their compactness would depend on my more or less non-existent precision landing skills), but this just turns out to be a mess, and I see no use for a spread-out colony other than to waste some time and funds. Now, I've constructed a mobile base (keep in mind it's still in the VAB, just waiting to be launched), which seems now to be my only option. It's CoM is off, however, so the rocket to get it to the site on the Mün in one piece always flips over ten seconds into the launch, and I'm not sure what I'll be able to do about it, or if there's anything I can do about it, for that matter. Anyways, how can I fix this problem? And if a mobile base isn't a good idea, what else can I do? Thanks in advance!

Edited February 10, 2017 by Squidiness
Damn autocorrect

[Freshmeat]

The disheartening answer is "practice precision landings". I am building a modular base myself these days for the first time, and there is really nothing to do but quicksave and retry, over and over again. If mods are your thing, Waypoint Manager comes handy, as it lets you make a waypoint at your base. With practice, you can hover a few tens of meters to get closer to other parts, but reloads will happen.

I saw a thread where the author carefully built modules with legs to the same height, then used a small robotic rover to move the pieces for assembly. Could be a possibility.

Finally, Pathfinder by Angel-125 lets you ship the entire base in crates and assemble them on site. This is the solution I ended up using.

[George van Doorn]

Hey man!

 

Anything that:

- has some kerbal capacity

- has an antenna

- can generate electricity

basically qualifies as a base

 

Optional:

- has mining equipment

- can refuel itself on the ground

- can take off and go into orbit

 

You don't have to be good at precision landing, you can always dock your base parts in orbit and then land. They don't even have to be constructed with such a thing in mind if you have a carrier on top. With a skycrane of sorts, you could always play with the thrust limiters of one engine and see if it stabilizes that improper CoM.

You can use parts like this:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=807318420

 

and dock them in orbit or add wheels below and move 'em around. The idea is indeed that the docking ports need to be at the same height especially if you choose docking on the ground.

Tips for precision landing: it's like a rendez-vous (meaning, you set the target and align the retro with the anti-target vectors) but you have to keep in mind that the Mun has some gravity that impacts you, so you have to burn slightly more towards the radial out (straight up) direction than an orbital rendez-vous. Ultimately you can probably cut the horizontal velocity around 100m and do a gentle landing if you want.

 

Another thing to solve that stability problem: you can start with a main base core and then only extend it symmetrically. Say you wanna add 16 more kerbal capacity. You can then build 2 side cores of 8 kerbal capacity (or 4 of 4, as you wish) and attach them separately to the main core. Usually it also looks cooler if it's symmetrical.

Edited February 10, 2017 by George van Doorn
additional details

[ottothesilent]

At least until you've acquired the necessary landing (and rocket building) experience to make a large base feasible, go small. You can even set challenges, like "smallest base with Kerbal capacity and every science experiment". Just making, launching, and landing those will build your skill set.

[Sharpy]

Step 1. Scratch Mun base.

Step 2. Build Minmus base.

There, a solution to 90% of your woes.

[MinimalMinmus]

Have you considered building a mobile base? It comes with several perks, most notably you can literally sweep every biomes on the Mun, and provided you use only one standard for your wheels height you should have no problem.

Also, sharpy has a point, mun bases are generally not as good as Minmus bases, except if you spot a few ore hotspots on the Mun while Minmus is dirt poor -and you can guess this exact thing happened to me-

[Snark]

Yep, Minmus is friendlier in a lot of ways.  Much lower gravity, plenty of big flat spots.

Precision landing is an excellent skill to develop, it's worth practicing.  When you get the hang of it, it's easy.  In my experience, the tricky bit isn't "training your eye" or practicing your reflexes-- it's figuring out what to do.  In other words:

• if you're not doing it right, it's really hard
• if you're doing it right, it's really easy
• "the right way" can be pretty un-obvious if you haven't done it before

But "How can I do precision landing" is a separate topic-- a good one for Gameplay Questions, if you're interested in pursuing it.    Here's some advice on technique, FWIW.  The advice was given in the context of "what if you've got BetterBurnTime installed", but the steering techniques described will work even in stock.

I don't usually build bases myself, mainly because there's not much "percentage" in it-- they're a hassle to assemble, and they tend to bog the computer down (I assume because of heavy physics calculations going on with interactions with the ground).  Usually, the only time I make a habit of base-building on the surface is if I'm playing with Extraplanetary Launchpads, in which case the value of having a continuous, infinite supply of resources outweighs the inconvenience of constructing and maintaining a surface base.

More often, what I'll do is just have a big space station in orbit instead of a surface base, then I'll have a miner/refiner ship with drills, ISRU, and a big fuel tank.  The miner goes down to the surface to load up whenever the station gets low on supplies.

When I do build a surface base, I always use Kerbal Attachment System (KAS), because I refuse to use the Klaw, and I find trying to dock things on the surface to be an infuriatingly tedious and error-prone hassle that sucks all the joy out of the game and constrains my design options in un-fun ways.  KAS has a super elegant solution to that:  it includes a little "connector port" part, which is a small, radially attachable gizmo that you can stick on a ship pretty much anywhere.  The way it works is, you just land the two ships you want to connect within a couple of dozen meters of each other.  Send out a kerbal on EVA.  Walk over to a port on ship A, right-click, choose "Link".  Walk over to a port on ship B, right-click, choose "Link".  Presto, the two ships are now connected by a "pipe", and are now treated as one vessel, the same as if they were docked.  Easy to use, looks nice, elegantly solves the surface-connecting problem.  If I want to disconnect them, that's easy, too:  EVA, right-click on port, choose "Unlink", done.

 

[Acolyte]

I built my first Mun base a couple of weeks ago, and its basically a big lander. One science lab, a couple of crew quarters on either side, and a command pod gave a total of 7 Kerbal capacity. A couple of science juniors and side mounted engines and it was no harder to land than any other lander.

So, a base is just a lander that doesn't need to take off again.

You can make it more fancy later if you add a couple of clamp-o-trons when you first build it.

[KerikBalm]

Precision landings on Mun are a lot easier than bodies like Duna, where the atmosphere is enough that you can't ignore it, but not enough that you can really turn well in it (unlike Tekto from OPM, for example).

So.. yea, as others said: learn to practive precision landings - knowing how to set a target, and read the navball also helps immensely.

However, I have to ask, what is the purpose of your base? If its just to mine ore and make fuel, then just make one big mining ship:

Spoiler

 

Also... use rover wheels, and check the connection height on kerbin. This is a lot easier than trying to connet nodes while hovering using rocket thrust. Once you have some wheeled base modules, you can use them over and over again to make surface bases, just with different delivery methods

Spoiler

Or maybe you're using mods... I recently installed TAC-life support, so now the surface operations aren't just to supply fuel for ships, but also to restock life support/indefinitely support kerbals.

I really like the retractable motorized wheels from Kerbal Planetary Base systems, but as my previous spoilerbox shows, you can do surface bases just fine with the stock wheels.

Spoiler

This munbase was built using a "skycrane" which is still docked to one of the modules

It lowers the module to the surface, then I carefully drive the module to the base with the skycrane still attached (its about a 200m or less drive for me) - dock it, refuel the "skycrane", and send the skycrane up for another module. The center core has its own engines. This base is in theory able to be repositioned, but this requires the skycrane to hover and dock with a landed module...

I prefer a mk3 cargobay+ rover delivery method. I even made a rover system using those extendable motorized wheels to allow me to place modules without adding wheels to every module (saves part count)

here are some pics of testing on kerbin:

That was the first version, with a rover that detaches from the back, but each module had a pair of front wheels.

Then I changed the configuration to be like this:

I can reconfigure it to this:

And the wheels can slide the module across the ground (despite no front wheels) well enough to get the docking connection

I can then just drive modules on and off a mk3 cargoramp, rather than trying to pick up modules with a sky crane

 

[matthomas7]

I built my 133 ton minmus base with mining capabilities on kerbin and launched it with my heavy lifter in a completed state. KSP Version 1.1. So that's an option.

Initially i had planned to piece it together in orbit, but i had just built my space station and needed a break from that.

It's a simple design with a core pillar surrounded by 4 radial pillars. Each one about 3 modules in height. 

[Jestersage]

On 2/10/2017 at 0:21 AM, Freshmeat said:

The disheartening answer is "practice precision landings". I am building a modular base myself these days for the first time, and there is really nothing to do but quicksave and retry, over and over again. If mods are your thing, Waypoint Manager comes handy, as it lets you make a waypoint at your base. With practice, you can hover a few tens of meters to get closer to other parts, but reloads will happen.

How is waypoint manager different from Trajectory mod?

[Freshmeat]

@Jestersage They are two completely different mods, the only thing Waypoint Manager does is giving you the distance and bearing to a waypoint, either one you set yourself, or one from a contract. I have it installed for contracts, but in this case the distance helps me knowing when to fire my thrusters. I have not tried the Trajectory mod, but I think it gives an accurate trajectory in an atmosphere, something I do not need on Minmus.

[cratercracker]

It is easy to build a moon base ,especially if you pick noticeble and common spot for it!

And yes, it really helps when you know that your base is at a certain place! Try to find a big crater or some sort of valley(i've chosen eastern crater)

Next step is design! Try to draw it as a concept! Then you need to check 3 things- electricty,propulsion,and what do you need your base for.

And now after we went to the VAB and built all whacky things you kept in mind, try putting wheels on your modules. Even if you landed 12km away,you can still rove.

Keep in mind that your base need a reason to exist. It could be mining/refueling outpost nor a science/training facility.

 

 

[TrooperCooper]

 

 

 

 

 

[CompletedPi]

I remember I made a minmus base once, and the way I connected it was by having wheels on decouplers (as I don't like having wheels on ground bases) and docking them together. I think it is simpler, as you just have to drive to the base, dock, and decouple. Though for the wheels, you could use KAS to move them somewhere else. Another idea is to use rovers with docking ports to move the modules together.