Kerbin Space Stations

[LordFerret]

I just posted this one the other day in the 'What did you do in KSP today?' thread... my Kerbin orbit station, the 'KSS'...

[Goomblah]

That...

is a LOT of monopropellant.

[yorshee]

If I have enough fuel left over, I like to rendezvous with my Kerbin Space Station after a mission to another planet and transfer all the Science into it to be processed.

[LordFerret]

That...

is a LOT of monopropellant.

Yes, it is, but it's there for things with 'Puff' engines, and good for topping off RCS tanks after all that docking maneuvering.

[panzer1b]

I have made some stations although more recently stopped building or leaving anything in kerbin orbit for any more then the time it takes for a transfer window (assuming its not sent to mun/minmus which is easier and faster).

Given that i tend to overengineer stuff and make lucridious launchers for everything such as my last capital ship that came out to ~60 tons was sent into LKO with a launch stage that (provided i calculated it right) had in excess of 20,000dV left, essentially launched it up there on something that was intended for use with payloads in excess of 500 tons!

Essentially the main thing i used to use LKO stations for, refueling, is pointless with the sheer overkill launchers i have on almost all my craft (i even once launched a 10 ton payload with a 5kT launcher although that was so pointlessly overkill i swapped it for a smaller launcher).

Most current space stations/refueling stations are essentially faction headquarters and are placed around stretegic planets to help keep the fleet in operation, and carry plenty of missiles and ordinance to maintain all the ships topped up in ammo, alongside the usual fuel can attached somewhere.

[PB666]

I like space stations, I build them a lot. I use them to explore bodies. After sending satelites, it's usually the first ship I send.

I also have one around Kerbin ; it's the biggest one I have, but I never really used it. One time I used to refuel my SSTO so it could go in high orbit to recover 8 kerbals from 2 missions (Jool and Dres) that didn't had a return vehicle capable of atmo reentry, but I could have done it more easily with a very simple rocket.

I thought one time I could go to space easier by sending empty ships and refuel them at a station. But I discovered I would lost a lot of time and need to add a lot of RCS components just to do that. Further more, some big mission would need most of the station fuel so I would have to refuel it often.

If fuel comes from Kerbin, I would not gain anything. That would even cost me much more

- Cost per ton reduces with mass increase (especially with big engines)

- You have to expend fuel to rendez-vous with the station

- You need more parts to drive refuellers to the station (probes, RCS, tanks...)

The only way it would cost less is by refueling from Minmus or docking the station with an asteroid. But those options take a lot of time.

Still I like my Kerbin Space Station. I use it to punish Kerbals : I need one to transmit a crew report when I get a "Recover or transmit science in space around Kerbin" (I forgot to add science equipement aboard). Let's say it's kind of RP

Do you use Kerbin Space stations ? Why ?

Yes, because it makes sci easier for mun and minmus.

[Randazzo]

Fuel station over Kerbin where crew transfers take place. Kerbals come up, transfer to the Mun/Minmus shuttle, and head off to their destination.

[Norcalplanner]

With all this station goodness, I need to put in a plug for my challenge - the Grand Orbital Space Station Challenge. Hot links to all the entries are contained in the OP. Here's the biggest one I did, the Mega(useless) station with room for 1,000 Kerbals in orbit around Laythe. 2 fps.

[insert_name]

I had a station that used a mobile processing lab to do science in orbit of kerbin

[March Unto Torment]

This beast is probably my favourite thus far.

1,000 tonnes, give or take. It's got about 100,000 units of LFO and about four million units of LH2 (courtesy of Near Future Tech). Room for ~100 Kerbals, although I usually only have around forty on there at any given time. It has extensive science facilities, as well as refuelling functions. It's even got a nuclear reactor in case the solar panels glitch, as they're prone to do. FPS is abysmal, but once I move this save across to my desktop, it should improve. No idea what part count is, but I'd expect somewhere around the 500 mark at minimum.

For those wondering how I built it, I created that core truss you see in the middle there first, then attached the two fuel modules, then the large external solar arrays. From there, I've mounted a science module, two habitation modules and what I call the 'Orbital Party Bus', which has passenger capacity for 25 Kerbals and about 3,000m/s of dV - more than enough for any orbital manoeuvring I might have to do. I'm currently putting together an Xenon refuelling unit which includes ore storage and processing, and an Argon/RCS refuelling block. After that, she'll be about done.

It's a thing of beauty, and easily my crowning achievement in KSP thus far. A lot of work went into putting this thing together, even though it's not immensely useful.

Someday, I'll move it to Jool or something (there are docking ports at each longitudinal end, allowing for even thrust were I to attach a thruster module) and use it as basically an orbital colony. Not yet, though.

[mythic_fci]

I used to think Kerbin stations were useless and just cosmetic, until I abandoned one of my Jool missions due to lack of interest. I sent the engines, command module, landers, and retractable heat shield back to Kerbin, while keeping the huge fuel module, the docking port adaptor, and the hab module as the backbone of the station. I soon added more docking ports and hab modules, as well as large solar arrays to fulfill the power requirements of the probe cores and experiments onboard. Now that's my main Kerbin station, meant to refuel ships, rotate crews on interplanetary missions and assist in construction of ships (modules sent up from Kerbin and docked to the station temporarily, then assembled and undocked as an interplanetary ship).

[RandomRyan]

This beast is probably my favourite thus far.

Oh.My.Lag. How do you get the thing to stay together, not let physics make it crumble and not ---------

*crash

[Scotius]

This is my Athena Science Station. Her sisters orbit Kerbin and Mun. Another one is waiting in orbit for transfer window to Duna. Besides Mobile Lab, those stations contain fuel and monopropellant reserves for landers. And since i use Antenna Range mod, each station serves as a communications hub for their respective areas of space.

[Goddess Bhavani]

This is my station. It uses tech level 1 parts, because I spent all the 902k on space tuna and the latest fashion from Laythe.

[Warzouz]

All those space stations are very nice. but th point was to discuss about Kerbin Space Station usage and gain.

[March Unto Torment]

Oh.My.Lag. How do you get the thing to stay together, not let physics make it crumble and not ---------

*crash

The joys of Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, my friend.

That said, it's ripe for a Kraken attack right about now. I don't expect it to last.

[FlyingPete]

I find them useful as a place to collect various transfer ships for going between Kerbin, Minmus and the Mun. Rather than leaving the transfer ship scattered around in Kerbin orbit, you have a place where the Kerbals can hang around until the ship/spaceplane arrives to bring them home. Handy to have a bit of a fuel supply there too. Refuelling craft individually is probably slightly more efficient, but this way is just neater.

[Life on Europa]

i build this thing in 0.90 this oks station was a "fps destroyer"

[Scotius]

All those space stations are very nice. but th point was to discuss about Kerbin Space Station usage and gain.

Well...you do not technically need a space station. Whole system can be explored without building one. But they certainly have their advantages. For example: space station in low orbit allows for specialisation of vessels you launch. Whole Mun can be explored by re-using a single lander, that never returns to Kerbin. Refuelling and crew rotation can be done with a cheap, efficient shuttle powered by a nuclear engine. Crew can be carried to LKO by a simple SSTO or spaceplane with barely enough dV to reach orbit and dock with the station.

Later in game, stations with Science Lab become first Science, then money cows. Also, contracts for placing the station somewhere can be quite lucrative (and can be exploited if you know how .

[MrWalrus123]

The Explorer (a Dreamchaser replica) docking with the Walrus station, a testing "ground" for crafts such as this or a MOOSE (Man out of space event) clone

[March Unto Torment]

All those space stations are very nice. but th point was to discuss about Kerbin Space Station usage and gain.

Well, see above. Does 4,000,000 units of Hydrogen fuel and 100,000 units of LFO sound like enough usage?

EDIT: And yeah, it's practical. For starters, it allows me to get several hundred tonne interplanetary ships to orbit unfuelled, then fuel them up and send them on their merry way.

[Korizan]

My Standard Station I have one around Mun & Kerbin & Minmus...

Why simply because I could.

The station was launched fully fueled so well options...

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[MrWalrus123]

All those space stations are very nice. but th point was to discuss about Kerbin Space Station usage and gain.

My station is used for an orbital testing ground

[Jett_Quasar]

I used to build stations for fun and to get experience in design and space construction but now I have stations for navigation and refueling. Here are a couple that I had put in orbit but I'm working on updated designs.

Mytos station in orbit of Dres is simply a design exercise. Armenia station in orbit of Eve was a test of construction techniques for large projects.

All KSP images have been moved here.

JR

Edited September 28, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[PKing Zombie Spy]

All those space stations are very nice. but th point was to discuss about Kerbin Space Station usage and gain.

In terms of gain: An orbital refueling station means many missions must concern themselves only with how to get to and from LKO, rather than factor in all the subcomponents of their mission. Through my so-called "Nuketug" fleet (dockable nuclear engines captures the idea), I have to think very little about how to get any given payload to any given point in the Kerbol system, assuming I can get it to LKO. So this simplifies my thinking and mission planning.

Also, when considering a contract: those ridiculous contracts for measuring temperature or whatever here and there look a lot more reasonable if you have a fully capable reusable science lander already in orbit of the relevant body. Temperature on Gilly with no station meant reject, since it'll take me years to even get there from Kerbin; but with a station, assuming of course I have one of my trusty re-usable "Runabout" science landers, I'll accept in a heartbeat. And, if it's something like a rescue contract, I know I can do whatever it asks even without designing and launching a special mission, since I presumably have something capable of intercepting whatever it is, close enough to wherever it is. On too many contracts to count now, I've made many millions of credits in Kerbal hours for which, without the station, I'd have had to wait Kerbal years to earn.

On the other hand, some things become more complicated: I think a lot more when designing a mission about how to break it down into things that can be used for future missions. plus of course the basic idea of how to dock. My fleet of the aforementioned Nuketugs and reusable craft/landers are in fact artifacts of previous missions. I designed them differently and with some more complexity than if I had expected to just throw them away.

With stations, KSP becomes a different game, a real sense. Even if I wasn't exploiting opportunities with these guys that would be troublesome to exploit with no station, that would be worth it: frankly after grinding career to the point where I could consider putting one of these babies into orbit, I was really, really ready for a different game.

Also it's fun designing a station for a change: a space vessel, you think a lot about the stuff you can toss out, so they become spartan. Space stations you just have to get somewhere, then you intend to leave them alone, so you're a lot more free to indulge in frills an inessential designs without suffering from a persistent inefficiency, so you can go pretty wild with these guys. Look at this thread: people are very excited about designing something like this!

Also, because this became a sharing thread, despite your intent : here is my LKO station. (You see, in addition to the station, re-usable landers, as well as a single spaceplane.) Look at that ridiculous spaceplane fin on the gibs, you'd never see that in anything not meant purely for flair:

Mun/Minmus station (both identical):