Construction of my orbital space station.

[Rfmeijboom]

I'm not quite sure yet.

Time to work on the station is limited.

At the moment I am working on serveral things:

- Cargo bays to add to the station. (nearly done)

- A miner to get Ore to the station

- A good way to build 2 more stations like this around Eeloo and Dres. (either build in orbit and move the station or transfer each module and build it in orbit around the target planet)

- A crew transfer vehicle that can take 48 kerbals to the other stations. (nearly done)

At this point i am considering to replace the Xenon storage with the cargo bays to maintain an acceptable part count and allow for more modules.

I am open to suggestions for other modules to add.

[lajoswinkler]

Amazing station! Functionalism at its best.

[Rfmeijboom]

Stage 7 - Cargo Bays:

The only thing missing on the station to me was a cargo bay.

It was also decided that the station should be part of a fully independent ecosystem that would allow kerbals to explore the solar system without any help from Kerbin.

This basically meant that ion powered craft would be a no-go because xenon can not be mined or acquired other than from kerbin.

So a cargo bay was build, and the xenon storage was removed from the station, this had the added benefit of reducing the stations part count.

Launching the cargo bay module.

Booster separation at 31km.

Circularizing at 200km.

Decoupling the payload.

Approaching the station.

Cancelled relative velocity, oriented to line up with the station.

Now holding position 200m from the station.

Decoupling the lounge from the station, using RCS to slowly move it down.

Decoupling the Xenon storage (after emptying it's LFO tank).

Using RCS to move the module out of the way while the lounge slowly drifts down.

Docked! The cargo bay is now attached to the station.

Docked! The lounge was reconnected to the station.

Closeup of the cargo bay module.

Opened the bay doors. The large docking ports can be seen on the top of the cargo bay.

The bottom of the cargo bay has a small docking port.

This station is now 107,1m long and is only 398 parts.

Edited June 4, 2015 by Rfmeijboom

[Rfmeijboom]

Crew Transfer Vehicle:

With a station that has a crew capacity of 448 we need a BIG transfer vehicle to carry many kerbals from Kerbin to the station or from the station to other stations (to be build).

To meet this requirement the CTV-48 was created.

It can carry 48 kerbals and has over 6km/s Delta-V.

With a shielded docking port in the front and a large docking port at the back, it is a very versatile ship.

It can carry a 48 kerbals from LKO to a station around Eeloo or haul 100t of cargo from Mun of minmus orbit to LKO.

The CTV-48 is 74 parts and weighs 128,1t fully fueled.

The ship will absorb and dissipate enough heat to keep the nukes from overheating even at well over half an hour of full throttle burning.

Liftoff!

Drop first stage.

Cruise to apoapsis.

Burn to circularize, keeping PE just within the atmosphere, so it will burn up later.

Drop the launch stage and continue on the CTV's main engines.

Approaching the station.

Docked!

Side view.

Front view.

Aft view.

[Ferdoni]

Awesome!!!

Are you gonna develop a bay where you can stack rovers or/and interplanetary crafts?

[Rfmeijboom]

Awesome!!!

Are you gonna develop a bay where you can stack rovers or/and interplanetary crafts?

The Cargo bays that are now empty will be filled with:

- Ore miner.

- Ore scan satellite.

- Communications satellite.

- Manned lander.

I might include a rover with the lander as well, but I am not sure yet.

[Ferdoni]

The Cargo bays that are now empty will be filled with:

- Ore miner.

- Ore scan satellite.

- Communications satellite.

- Manned lander.

I might include a rover with the lander as well, but I am not sure yet.

Why a communications satellite? For contracts you have to launch them after you accept it

[Rfmeijboom]

Why a communications satellite? For contracts you have to launch them after you accept it

Since this is a sandbox game, the contracts don't matter.

Just like the science module I added which has no real function in sandbox I feel the station is incomplete without it.

I feel that a good space station should be self sufficient, and a way to set up a communications link around a planet or moon is one part of that.

Basically it s just a role-playing function.

[CrashTestDanny]

Crew Transfer Vehicle:

With a station that has a crew capacity of 448 we need a BIG transfer vehicle to carry many kerbals from Kerbin to the station or from the station to other stations (to be build).

To meet this requirement the CTV-48 was created.

It can carry 48 kerbals and has over 6km/s Delta-V.

With a shielded docking port in the front and a large docking port at the back, it is a very versatile ship.

It can carry a 48 kerbals from LKO to a station around Eeloo or haul 100t of cargo from Mun of minmus orbit to LKO.

The CTV-48 is 74 parts and weighs 128,1t fully fueled.

The ship will absorb and dissipate enough heat to keep the nukes from overheating even at well over half an hour of full throttle burning.

Dude - I'm totally stealing this ship!

Danny

- - - Updated - - -

Quick question though - does it have a cargo bay that I'm missing or do you reconfigure it to haul 100t cargo?

[Rfmeijboom]

There is no cargobay on the CTV-48.

To haul cargo you can connect the cargo to the front regular docking port and/or the aft senior docking port.

[CrashTestDanny]

cool - thanks!

[Trios]

My only suggestion would be to move the lounge to a docking port on the main station structure. I know if I were a kerbonaut, I wouldn't want to have to climb through 100m of tunnels through cargo bays and fuel tanks to get to the lounge; it should be as close as possible to the habitat ring.