Need advice on setting up a mobile drilling station with ferry capability to orbiting fuel station

[SignalCorps]

So I figure I land a driller to do the digging with a holding tank, and also land a mobile or non mobile (is mobile a good idea?) storage/processing facility. I imagine I'd have a docking port on the driller and a side mounted docking port on the storage facility (though I figure I'd have be very careful to have them at the same height once they are landed, otherwise there would be some distraught Kerbals standing around the digger looking at a docking port that is 1 meter higher than the digger, wondering what to do next). I assume docking port jr is good enough for ore transfer?

I think I am okay so far (please tell me if I am not). But how to interface the shuttle vehicle to the processing facility? Do I have a docking port on top of the facility and a lander with a docking port underneath with thrusters ringing the outside? I'll be using Mechjeb (for now anyways. Once I get the hang of this I'll try and do more manual stuff). Is it possible to do vertical docks in low or even normal gravity? Because once I go into docking mode, I am now using RCS thrusters, and I fear they simple will not be strong enough to keep me from crashing. Especially on a normal gravity world.

Or do I have a lander with also a side mounted docking port, and wheels so that I land as normal and then scoot over to the processing facility to load up?

[Alshain]

If you are landing the converter facility, don't bother making it mobile. Either leave it in orbit or land it on the surface, but don't carry all that mass back and forth. Rather than a docking port, just make the converter and the drill part of the same assembly. The only docking you will need is to haul fuel. Without mods, this however is incredibly annoying, but does have the advantage of being able to refuel your hauler on the surface. That in turn means you don't have to carry enough fuel to go back.

Orbital conversion is pretty much the same but you are in fact carrying the drill up and down again along with the ore. The advantage is you don't have to mess with stupid docking on the ground, but it is a little more costly since you have to both carry the drill, as well as carry enough fuel to return to orbit.

The only other combination I can think of is leaving the converter in orbit and the drill on the ground and docking with both, but this would be the least beneficial method. If you wanted to do this, just convert on the ground.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Alshain