Asteroids, the one stop portable gas stations of KSP 1.0

[Rocket Farmer]

Anybody else find this update very intriguing due to asteroids becoming mineable? Instead of the hey look I put s big rock in orbit, ummm now what we will have large gas stations anywhere we want. It looks like this will become a essential component of anybody wanting to do lots of deep space work.

Mining minmas, pol, fully etc will be useful but they are all a fair ways from my regular flying routes but with a handy asteroid in Kerbin orbit refuelling is simple and right where you need it. I guess I will have to brush up on asteroid moving but that ought to be much easier with large stockpiles of fuel right there too.

I for one applaud squad for taking an existing feature and giving it a great refresh.

[Yukon0009]

Orbiting gas stations. All you have to do is slap a Shell logo onto it.

[LABHOUSE]

Good idea, I will do that if I am reminded when the update comes out.

[Norcalplanner]

I think it's a great idea. Now there's a good in-game reason to do ARM contracts, which I only did a few of before I moved on and never did any ever again.

[BagelRabbit]

Hoorah! My asteroid-grappling skills are actually going to come in handy!

Right now, the only thing I can use them for is causing miniature extinction events and using them as billboards for Hype.

But why stop at mere 'fuel depots?' I'm going to mount an engine on an asteroid and drain it dry flying about the solar system! Once the asteroid is almost empty, I can just ditch it and find another. It will be enormously impractical but tons of fun!

-Upsilon

[The Yellow Dart]

Once important question about mining asteroids: will they get lighter as you mine them? If so, all you need for a long range interplanetary ship is an asteroid, an engine, and mining equipment. You can go very far with a single, small, light launch. You can just burn it as you mine it without adding any big tanks, just one small one. But if they don't decrease in mass as you mine them (as they should) then you'll want to build a proper ship and just use the roids as a gas station. Just depends on if they made sure to include this aspect in the game.

[magnemoe]

Hoorah! My asteroid-grappling skills are actually going to come in handy!

Right now, the only thing I can use them for is causing miniature extinction events and using them as billboards for Hype.

http://i.imgur.com/pfK7P4Z.jpg

But why stop at mere 'fuel depots?' I'm going to mount an engine on an asteroid and drain it dry flying about the solar system! Once the asteroid is almost empty, I can just ditch it and find another. It will be enormously impractical but tons of fun!

-Upsilon

Might be practical at least to put up an fuel station in needed places, Moho is one location, the gravity is so strong its pretty impractical to haul fuel up from and its the most expensive place to reach.

So you simply make an ship with lots of LV-N, gear for mining and making fuel, dock with an astroide aim for Moho, once in orbit the rest of the fuel is free, you return the engines for next go.

Spaceships out of astroids is an old sci-fi idea.

- - - Updated - - -

Once important question about mining asteroids: will they get lighter as you mine them? If so, all you need for a long range interplanetary ship is an asteroid, an engine, and mining equipment. You can go very far with a single, small, light launch. You can just burn it as you mine it without adding any big tanks, just one small one. But if they don't decrease in mass as you mine them (as they should) then you'll want to build a proper ship and just use the roids as a gas station. Just depends on if they made sure to include this aspect in the game.

Good question, I think they go lighter, at least they run out of ore or you could use an A class as an obvious cheat.

[dryer_lint]

I'm kind of wondering now... since asteroids don't explode, could you land one and use it as a fuel station?

Enormously impractical but heeeyyy

[Bill Phil]

Time for some KP stations...

Kerbal Propellium

[Rithsom]

I really hope asteroids lose mass when Ore is mined from them. If they do, then only a certain percentage if their mass should be extractable Ore (20-30% seems about right), to prevent the entire asteroid from becoming massless when completely mined out.

I also hope that the ship mining the Ore gains just as much mass as the asteroid is losing.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Rthsom

[Alshain]

Yeah, the Asteroid mining is the only redeeming quality of the resource system. Had it been just mining planets, I would have deleted all associated parts and gone back to Kethane. Plus, it gives me a reason to capture an asteroid... I've never done that, because... why?

So, after seeing that, I'm quite a bit more interested in this new resource system.

[mattinoz]

If they lose mass while being mined will they also burn off mass if you use them as an aerobraking heat shield?

[Guest]

Fun with asteroids

Portable heat shield and fuel source.

On serious note, asteroid cannot have enough useful resources to make mining profitable at any rate. One exception is mithril or adamantium asteroids

[nightingale]

I donno, am I the only one that think being able to get tons and tons of fuel out of asteroids just removes their challenge? I mean, yes, you still need to rendezvous, but once you're there, all you need is a drill and a big engine and you're done. Class E asteroids are almost easier than a Class A because they have more fuel. Unless the return rate of mining an asteroid is such that you wouldn't be able to budge it significantly with normal ISP engines.

[panzer1b]

Im almost positive we will see alot of self-sustaining interplanetary ships dragging and or pushing these asteroids around and being for all intents and purposes infinite fuel. Even the smaller ones would most likely give a nuke powered ship like 20K dV.

Im still going to stick to old fashioned no refueling ships though, as i feel that resources will remove one major aspect of the game, teh challenge of pulling insane amounts of dV out of craft. While i will defenetely use the new minimg, i aint planning on relying on it to fuel every ship i make, most will still rely on the good old fashioned method of dragging a lot of fuel with them (or be ion craft, in which case dV is always insanely high).

[Brotoro]

I don't know that it would be worth dragging the asteroid around (depending on what fraction of its mass is magic pixie dust that can be turned into fuel). I think I'll send out a ship with lots of big, empty tanks and the alchemy equipment, fill up all those tanks, and then head off to somewhere the fuel will be useful.

[Tex_NL]

Orbiting gas stations. All you have to do is slap a Shell logo onto it.

Shell??? No way my friend. KerbOil!

I've been using my KerbOil flag since ... well, since it was possible to plant flags to be honest.

[Dizzle]

I don't think it'll be as OP as people think. In order to mine an asteroid, you have to:

1. Have mining and processing equipment on board.

2. Rendezvous with the asteroid.

And remember, you can only carry as much fuel as you have room on board for, so it's not like you'll be getting more fuel than you had before unless you take it with you. Given the huge amounts of dV it takes to rendezvous, most of the time it would be better to just do the original maneuver. It might be a good option for very large craft to use as an external fuel tank, but it's not exactly a "one stop gas station."

[InterCity]

I don't think it'll be as OP as people think. In order to mine an asteroid, you have to:

1. Have mining and processing equipment on board.

2. Rendezvous with the asteroid.

And remember, you can only carry as much fuel as you have room on board for, so it's not like you'll be getting more fuel than you had before unless you take it with you. Given the huge amounts of dV it takes to rendezvous, most of the time it would be better to just do the original maneuver. It might be a good option for very large craft to use as an external fuel tank, but it's not exactly a "one stop gas station."

However, if you can get the asteroid to some nice orbit, say, LKO, and have enough rendezvous and dock skills, you can launch with your tanks half-empty and fill for more dV once you're there. Also, it makes for a nice business plan for my kerbal megacorporation:

Step 1: Launch a rocket to an asteroid

Step 2: Get it somewhere nice

Step 3: Dock a nice ad banner with it

Step 4: ???

Step 5: PROFIT!

[Dizzle]

I hadn't thought of launching with low fuel and mining the rest. That's a really good idea.

[Warzouz]

I think the new way to explore the system would be

- Grap an asteriod, get it to orbit Kerbin

- Build a refueling space station

- when launching stuff, stop by the space station to refuel

But this way to go maybe have no meaning it can only be done in late game, when most of the system is already explored.

[Daid]

I donno, am I the only one that think being able to get tons and tons of fuel out of asteroids just removes their challenge? I mean, yes, you still need to rendezvous, but once you're there, all you need is a drill and a big engine and you're done. Class E asteroids are almost easier than a Class A because they have more fuel. Unless the return rate of mining an asteroid is such that you wouldn't be able to budge it significantly with normal ISP engines.

I think you're quite wrong on this aspect. You can just see the asteroids as floating fuel tanks. Yes. But, look at the stats, even if 20% of the mass is fuel (which I think is way too much) the wet-vs-dry mass is quite horrible. So if you drag the asteroid along you bring a lot of dry-mass, which our basic rocket equation tells us is a bad thing for your dV. Mining into normal tanks and use those tanks is way more efficient.

[Tex_NL]

...

But this way to go maybe have no meaning it can only be done in late game, when most of the system is already explored.

How late is 'late'. I am long past completing the tech-tree but I've barely explored the system.

I am about to return my Duna-Ike mission (Which is very basic. It had only enough fuel to make a single landing on Duna and Ike). And am waiting for a window to return Eve-Gilly (Maxed out Gilly but only landed two probes on Eve). That's about it apart from a few pathfinder probes (SCANsat).

If I could have captured a fuel asteroid into Kerbin orbit I would have definitely done that. Now I am stuck with running fuel between Minmus and my Joolian mother ship waiting in LKO.

[mattinoz]

I don't think it'll be as OP as people think. In order to mine an asteroid, you have to:

1. Have mining and processing equipment on board.

2. Rendezvous with the asteroid.

And remember, you can only carry as much fuel as you have room on board for, so it's not like you'll be getting more fuel than you had before unless you take it with you. Given the huge amounts of dV it takes to rendezvous, most of the time it would be better to just do the original maneuver. It might be a good option for very large craft to use as an external fuel tank, but it's not exactly a "one stop gas station."

I'm thinking the drill part is only going to be able to extract k'ore only within a certain radius and depth.

So even after you caught the asteroid you'd have the move the drill every few days to keep feeding your fuel tank station.

[FlyingPete]

Time to stick some crew cabins and an engine to a rock and go exploring