Jump to content

Kerbin Collaborative Space Station

Ultimate Steve
 Share

Recommended Posts

swjr-swis

swjr-swis

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Johnster_Space_Program said:

ok, so we need to make some changes, i agree. But how? Anybody got any ideas?

A few things to consider:

  • Take a critical look at the price and weight of parts you decide to include in your module. Some parts, while very pretty, carry a heavy cost in funds and mass. It is worthwhile to 'shop around' and see what alternatives there are and how much can be saved.
    • example 1: the Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer looks very nice as a greeble for an EVA or airlock module. At :funds:6500 a piece, that's an expensive greeble though. Replace it with a Surface Scanning Module, admittedly a little less impressive looking... but you save a lot of money that can be put towards another module, a bigger lift vehicle, or the development fee for a Sky IIIA if we really need to.
    • example 2: Do we really need a heavy and expensive Mk1-3 pod / lander can combination (with lots of fuel and engines) for an emergency evacuation from a relatively low orbit? Requiring us to send it up with a very expensive large lifter. Or can we suffice with a solution using cheap and light Mk1 crew cabins with just sufficient fuel to deorbit, a heat shield, and a few chutes... and allowing us to lift it on a much more economic vehicle?
  • Also, I see almost every proposed module including a relatively huge tank of fuel and LFO engines. Why? Other than a small tug for orbital assembly and a station-keeping module with limited fuel/thrust capacity, a station does not require engines at all. The modules should be rendevouzed near enough to the station to suffice with RCS for docking, or be within range of the one station tug to fetch.
  • Consider using 2.5m fairings for the main truss functions. Fairings offer a lot of benefits for station constructs: they can be of almost arbitrary length, can vary seamlessly in diameter as required, and provide multiple attachment nodes to firmly attach docking ports, all within a single and relatively cheap/light part.
  • Consider grouping functions into a single module. You seem to be thinking of modules in terms of separate functions, but the rules do not forbid to combine functions in one 'module'. A module should be defined in terms of what can be made to fit on a single launch (mass and size-wise). So if the core module can already fit a few seats, some basic comms, an airlock and an initial docking pier... why make those all separate payloads?
  • Alternatively, when you think of launching payloads, think of how to make best use of the payload capacity of a vehicle. If one module pushes us slightly over mass budget and we have to use the next bigger lifter, what other module can we add into that launch to use the remaining payload budget?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rover 6428

Rover 6428

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

Also, I see almost every proposed module including a relatively huge tank of fuel and LFO engines. Why? Other than a small tug for orbital assembly and a station-keeping module with limited fuel/thrust capacity, a station does not require engines at all. The modules should be rendezvoused near enough to the station to suffice with RCS for docking, or be within range of the one station tug to fetch.

I agree. I intended to have my tug stay with the station for a while only because it has solar panels (and for slight orbital maneuvering.)

I made a logo for the challenge. It can also be used on the signature!

 wAIYTgv.png?1

Edited by Rover 6428
Link to comment
Share on other sites
VA7NFH

VA7NFH

Posted
Posted
On 3/20/2019 at 1:09 AM, Rover 6428 said:

I think it would be nice if you expanded on the crew capacity. It looks so small right now. It also doesn't have a small and a tiny docking port! (It would be bes if you added multiple dps on it as it will probably serve as a core module)

That's fine with me but @Rover 6428 wants some

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Johnster_Space_Program

Johnster_Space_Program

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Rover 6428 said:

I agree. I intended to have my tug stay with the station for a while only because it has solar panels (and for slight orbital maneuvering.)

I made a logo for the challenge. It can also be used on the signature!

 wAIYTgv.png?1

I think it looks good!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rover 6428

Rover 6428

Posted
Posted (edited)
22 hours ago, VA7NFH said:

Also, should we have some standard for action groups?

Yeah! 1 could be for total deployment of systems, 2  for engines, 3 to undock (for the crew/cargo ships)

Edited by Rover 6428
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

Posted
  • Author
Posted

List of craft not in the KerbalX hangar (I can't add them myself because of reposting rules but some have links):

If your craft is in this list, it would be appreciated if you could add it to the hangar, but it's not completely necessary. Also I may have missed a few.

And in the KerbalX hangar (https://kerbalx.com/hangars/60757):

 

I'm going to do a test build of the station if I can, but there is one ting I'm noticing. Rover 6428, you have the science modules (2 of them IIRC) on the launch manifest as your design, but IIRC you are not back from your trip yet and the science modules aren't designed. This is probably one of the last things required for the design phase to be complete, without it the station doesn't fulfill its requirements.

There are a few other requirements I'm concerned about, though:

 

  1. Be able to generate significant amounts of power

I haven't assembled the station yet and I may be wrong but I don't recall seeing many solar panels. I'll look through it, though. Those could either be mounted to an existing module or perhaps on the upcoming science modules if nothing has them yet.

  1. Be able to change its orbit a bit

I suppose RCS would be alright, and I suppose making the station mostly balanced and docking a fuel tug to the back would also work.

  • Have the materials bay, goo, thermometer, barometer, gravioli detector, seismometer, surface scanner, atmosphere sensor, sentinel telescope, and narrow band scanner on board.

The cheap science module has the goo, thermometer, barometer, and materials bay. That leaves the gravioli detector, surface scanner, atmosphere sensor, seismometer, sentinel telescope, and narrow band scanner, which are somewhat expensive pieces of equipment that are necessary. I would suggest modification of the science package.

 

I said I wouldn't help much, but I'll do an assembly of the station and an initial price calculation to speed things along. I would much rather help a bit to prevent loss of interest than see the challenge die out.

 

All these critiques aside, you're all doing great, and now all the crafts are in one place! OP has been updated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Barzon

Barzon

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I haven't assembled the station yet and I may be wrong but I don't recall seeing many solar panels. I'll look through it, though. Those could either be mounted to an existing module or perhaps on the upcoming science modules if nothing has them yet.

There are more than enough solar panels, but FYI the best design I came up with to allow lots of 2.5m required 4 (i think) of @Alienwall's docking piers. If you are able to find a way around that, that would be good, because I don't know if the rules allow multiple docking piers to be launched.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...