michal.don

So, I decided to make a little update for those curious about this, or even those thinking about building something similar. I placed my refueling station in 85x83 km orbit, built a nuclear-powered tug for moving the refined fuel from low minimus orbit to the station and sent the first round of fuel from surface of minimus to orbit to meet the tug. The ships docked and I managed to do the transfer burn from Minimus to Kerbin orbit with periapsis about 60 km for aerobraking just for about 250 m/s of delta-V. So far, everything went great. What I didn't expect was the ineffectiveness of aerobraking. I couldn't go too low with the periapsis so my ship didn't burn, so it took tremendous amount of time to slow down to a reasonable speed. As a matter of fact, I'm still not done - after about 15 orbits through Kerbin atmosphere my apoapsis is still above 2000 kms, and I lost one of my solar panels to heat because I got a little unpatient I know that this is probably the most efficient way of getting fuel to Kerbin orbit, but it's just too time-consuming. Considering the fact that I would have to do four trips like this one to fill my refueling station, I give up on this approach and will probably do it the expensive way and build a monstrous rocket and get the refueling station to orbit already filled. Anyway, thanks again for your advice, michal.don

I've heard about the Oberth effect, but I still don't know how important that is - does it save 1, 10, 100 or 500 delta-V on a journey to Duna? But a good point with the aerobraking - I didn't think of that, and I believe that it helps save lots of fuel. So it looks like my refueling station will float in a LKO, thanks guys, you've been really helpful, michal.don

That's the altitude that I prefer for my space stations as well - mine are at 125 and 150 km orbits. And I'm aware of the advantages of these orbits when it comes to rendezvous and docking. The thing I'm concerned about is the fuel transfering and transfer burns (when leaving Kerbin SOI) efficiency, that aren't involved whed building a space station.

Hi guys, I would appreciate your opinions on my problem. I'm currently building a refueling system for my ships and SSTOs on Kerbin orbit. The refueling ship is quite huge - about 100k capacity of LF + Ox. The fuel itself will be delivered to the ship from my mining and refining operation on Minimus, that is already operating. I have also already figured out the way to deliver the fuel to my "gas station" from Minimus. The thing that remains uncetain to me is the ideal location of the refueling ship. How high/low should the orbit be? I've figured out some of the pros and cons of hing and low orbit: LKO - pros: simplier rockets and SSTOs can reach the refueling station from surface of Kerbin, lower wastes of fuel when heading out of Kerbin SOI cons: grater distance and fuel waste when transporting the fuel from Minimus to refueling ship. I can't really decide which of the reasons above is the most important, so I have no idea whether to place the refueling ship at 75x75 orbit, or somewhere far out, for example higher than Mun. What do you guys suggest? Thanks, michal.don

Hi, is it possible to try this challenge in 1.04, or is it limited to 1.02 because of some changes in aerodynamics that happened in later versions, which make the challenge easier now? thanks, michal.don

Well, it's not much, but it's my first "share-able" base - mining and fuel refining colony located at Minimus flats. Put together on the site by two small moving rovers (you can see them attached to the monopropellant tanks on the left). Next step is building a refueling station in high Kerbin orbit, and a tanker capable of delivering fuel there. And maybe a lab or more living quarters, who knows. What do you think? http://imgur.com/yonBv1h

Ok, thanks for your advise, I'll see what I can do michal.don

Ok, I'm starting to accept that I won't do it all in one go But I don't really know in which ways the planes should be different for each of those missions. More/less wings? Thrust?

Well, that's some bad news.... I figured out the oxygen thing, it should be covered by RAPIERs in closed cycle mode. But I would like to solve it without the hyperedit mod, I just don't like the idea of "cheating" this way.... Anyway, thanks for your advice, michal.don

Hi guys, I started trying various designs of spaceplanes and SSTOs recently, and became quite comfortable with my ability to get something to LKO and something else back to the spacecentre in one flight. The next logical step is building a plane capable of refueling and going to other planets. However, I have no idea how planes behave in other environments - Duna has lower gravity, but very thin atmosphere, which I suppose will make flying much more difficult, and Eve the other way around - lots of gravity, but a thick atmosphere which could produce much more lift. What is your experience? Does the design have to be much different, and if so, how? More/less fuel to get to orbit, more/less wings needed to fly and land, more/less thrust to takeoff? Thanks, michal.don

Thanks for the offer, but the thing is that I'm pretty much capable to build a ship that gets me where I want to go (it's not that far usually, I'm still a beginner), but unlike the ones displayed on the forum here, mine are much worse looking But if I stumble across a problem I'm not able to solve, I'll ask here, thanks

Hi guys, I've been playing KSP for several weeks now, and discovered this forum last week. Since then I've been looking especially at the crafts and bases you guys built and the challenges section. So I decided to join and maybe try some of the challenges, and maybe share some of my desingns (if I manage to build something worth sharing reeeeealy far in the future ). Until then, looking forward to seeing your designs and hearing about your space adventures, Michal.don