Space station are useless in career mode?

[Markhoz]

So, I noticed that docking ports are unlocked later in the game, and actually they are useless, by the fact that i already send some probes to gather science from space near kerbin, the Mun and Minmus, and the various biome.

So what's the point to send some kerbals in a space station? Just for fun or what?

[Geschosskopf]

Well, space stations are quite useful at places with lots of biomes, such as Mun and Mnmus. The station consists of a collection of fuel tanks. It has a dedicated SSTO science lander assigned to it that can go down to the surface and come back to the station to refuel without dropping any boosters. And it has a place for some Kerbals to live.

To this assembly you dock a Mobile Lab that's got its own probe core, power, and parachutes. The lander goes down to a biome on the moon and comes back with Science! You load the Science! in the Mobile Lab and use the Mobile Lab to rearm the lander's Goos and Materials. Then you refuel the lander and send it down to another biome. Repeat until you've totally pillaged the moon, then bring the Mobile Lab back to land on Kerbin.

[Starstrider42]

Stations are useful as refueling bases, or as places to store Kerbals from large ships (I'm currently doing a 5-kerbal mission with only one reentry-capable capsule, so I'll be stopping by a station on my way home).

Some mods also add new space station capabilities, such as long-term research or orbital construction.

[Markhoz]

Ok ty all for explaining, totally forgot the refueling thing

The science lab so is used to store lot of science and then sending it on kerbin?

[biohazard15]

There is a mod called Station Science that adds a huge meaning to space station construction. Basically, you have to build station, then bring experiment pods to it, conduct experiments and return said pods back to Kerbin.

Also, don't miss Fuel Science expansion - it adds three additional experiments.

For more immersive gameplay, use Kerbin Shuttle Orbiter to haul experiment pods.

[thegamingscientist]

The science lab is used for processing the science from the lander. It is also used for making the lander reusable by cleaning the experiments. Sorry if i said something wrong idk much about it myself

[Starstrider42]

The science lab is used for processing the science from the lander. It is also used for making the lander reusable by cleaning the experiments. Sorry if i said something wrong idk much about it myself

Mostly correct. The "processing" is actually its least useful feature, because it only boosts transmission efficiency -- if you return the science to Kerbin, you get the same number of science points whether or not you processed it.

The science lab is also the only crew space (AFAIK) that can store multiple copies of the same experiment from the same situation in the same biome. Useful if you want to spam multiple experiments to get that remaining 10% of the science limit.

[mellojoe]

Also, assembling space stations is just plain fun. Set a limit on the size of the payload you can launch at a single time, and then build something really cool in orbit.

[Vanamonde]

Docking ports have uses other than base construction. It's also handy to build motherships which can deploy sub-ships, and to build re-useable cargo ships to which different cargoes can be docked. I just happen to have some examples here.

[EtherDragon]

The Science Lab is very useful in the right cases. For instance, today, I just finished a Minmas run that netted more than 2000 Science.

My ship had (from top to bottom):

- A Minmas Lander - to use to make landing runs on various Minmas biomes

- A Command Module - to store and return to Kerbin with all the experiments I want to bring back (e.g. surface samples, goo, materials bay)

- A Science Lab - to process experiments I wanted to transmit (e.g. temperature and seismic)

- An asparagus lifter capable of pushing everything to a Minmas encounter.

My mission went like this:

Ascent stages - Ascend through asparagus.

Transfer stage - get a minmas encounter, and plot for direct impact.

Mission stage prep - decouple from transfer rocket and reconfigure (re-arrange things by decoupling and docking things)

Mission stage mcc / insertion - change course from collision to fly-by at 30km, and insert into Minmas orbit

Mission stage landings

- lots of EVA reports to identify some biomes, then send the lander down a few times.

- Each landing returned to the station with a Materials Bay, 2 Goos, Surface Sample, Crew Report, Eva Report, Temp Reading, Seismic Reading.

I landed in four different biomes, before "calling it quits." I processed some experiments for transmission, and grabbed the rest to pack into the command pod.

The command pod returned with all experiments on board, and safely touched down. Between what I transmitted and brought back, thanks to the Science Bay being able to reset my goo and materials bay as well as improve the return on the temp and seismic runs, I netted more than 2000 science.

[Teza]

I did a similar thing with my mun mission, I had a command ship with a lander docked to the front of it. This pushed the lander to where it needed to land, detached then refuelled at the mun space station. The lander had landed, scooped up all the science and was waiting for the command ship to reconnect, share science and the quest went on it's much more fun to set up a reusable mission like this because you are constantly thinking of what happens next. If you add mods like KAS, Kethane and the excellent TAC Life Support, you end up with some highly complex and entertaining missions!