Space Station and Colonization type mods.

[HappyAngryCatfish]

Was looking to get one. Wanted some recommendations on which one to get.

[theJesuit]

You'll want to get a couple, parts and life support.

In terms of parts I can thoroughly recommend the new Kerbal Planetary Base Systems. It is still a work in progress, but Nils277 is making very rapid progress on it and is opne to further suggestions.

In life support you have several different flavours depending on what you are looking for. TAC-LS or USI are popular.

Just browse the addon releases and development forums and you'll find ones to try!

Peace.

[RoverDude]

Was looking to get one. Wanted some recommendations on which one to get.

MKS/OKS since that's pretty much what it does, and has been doing for over a year Includes both station and surface versions.

Also if you want LS, that's bundled in - so you have colonization/station and life support built to work with eachother like peanut butter and jelly.

(Links on the USI page in my sig block).

[cxg2827]

Besides Roverdude's mod there really isn't another good colonization mod out there. Nils277 planetary base parts are very cool looking with great IVAs.

For strictly station parts, there are a few out there.

Tantares Stockalike

Lack's Stock Extension

Nertea's Stockalike Station Parts

FusTek

And I'm working on one myself (link in sig below)

[tater]

Rover dude's parts are cool, as are Nils277's (the latter being stock in terms of dependancies), but none really scream "colonization" to me. Perhaps OP just means "long term habitation," in which case they work. If the goal were really a permanent settlement, I think that an entirely new paradigm would need to apply, that I'm not sure is in scope for KSP and I don't want to derail the thread with a new mod idea.

[RoverDude]

Really depends on your thoughts as to what colonization is.

For example, you do have the CivPop mod which has some very large nifty ones that fit late-game stuff (and there are similar MKS ones on the books in the 5m/10m form factor). Whereas MKS (through it's different internal options) takes you from flags and footprints all the way to self sufficiency (and side note, if you're not using life support, also has no other dependencies other than stock).

[tater]

I'd think "colonization" would be in-situ construction, at least assembly. Likely covered with soil. BIG structures. 10m? Way bigger. Sleeps 100 kerbals 2-3 to an apartment or something, where each apt is maybe 40 m^2 in KSP. That's a 10m part for every other kerbal, just for habitation

Concrete (lunar and martian) have both been tested using simulants (I've worked with some of the guys doing that at Los Alamos in the past). Guys are messing with 3d printing (basically stabilizing soils with built in place retainers).

The nice thing about such structures in KSP is that they would be covered with soils, and pretty easy to model---only a few places with a view need to be modeled as IVAs (assuming you want IVAs). Another possibility would to be able to have variant KSCs, where each is unique to the others (in terms of capabilities).

I imagine putting out a building/facility using a huge "construction" rover part in a way similar to taking a part out of KIS. You drag it to the surface, and slide it around. Maybe it looks for "flat" under the template, then turns green. You rotate it with q/e as you'd expect, and maybe another key swaps between available designs (for variability in appearance). Place it like KIS/KAS with X, and it starts building.

(edit) to be clear, you'd first need to land XXXX tons of "construction supplies" and perhaps have local ISRU in place at some level, etc, etc. to unlock this capability, and what size things you can place would depend on the available resources.

Edited July 29, 2015 by tater

[tater]

Really depends on your thoughts as to what colonization is.

For example, you do have the CivPop mod which has some very large nifty ones that fit late-game stuff (and there are similar MKS ones on the books in the 5m/10m form factor). Whereas MKS (through it's different internal options) takes you from flags and footprints all the way to self sufficiency (and side note, if you're not using life support, also has no other dependencies other than stock).

I checked out that mod, had missed it before.

Cute, but not what I consider colonization. If the KSC looked like the sort of place where kerbals lived like ants in a hive, then it might make sense. They seem to build stuff that looks rather a lot like we have on Earth, so I'd expect real colonies to have to have apartments for kerbals. The greenhouses could also be parks for them to have common areas to walk around. Obviously things would always start small, then grown, but a small colony (vs a base) in my mind would be as big as KSC.

A colony is people/kerbals being born, and living their entire lives there. I see anything meeting that standard as being akin to an O'Neil colony (landed or not).

I think it's beyond the scope of KSP 1.X, but I think it would be awesome for KSP 2.X (which I would pay for).

[RoverDude]

Well I meant more in the context of what mods were available, and what the OP was looking for.

[tater]

Well I meant more in the context of what mods were available, and what the OP was looking for.

Yeah, I was way off topic. For mods, we have to be content with large bases. I'm commenting partially on the semantics of "colonization," which implies more than a cool base to me. KSP really offers just a smidgen more than what the RL ISS is.

[RoverDude]

I dunno. Look at all of the NASA concept art for bases... I'd say MKS comes pretty close

[tater]

I have looked. I like your stuff for bases a lot, I'm just not wanting the entire suite of other stuff, and I'm trying to keep memory use low (I'm on a Mac) for stability (fingers crossed for U5). Again, cool for bases.

That said, I'm not happy with 2.5m parts for longer term bases, I want more elbow room Also, inflatables are cool, but they need to get covered with a couple meters of regolith