Mining

[Scarecrow88]

Has anyone got an example of their mining setup they can share so I can work out the components required to successfully produce fuel.

I'm currently setting up a Mun Tour business, where the first stage is by SSTO to an orbiting Kerbin station followed by a transfer to a Mun station and finally a trip to the Mun surface. I originally planned to have transfer tanker for ferrying fuel from Kerbin Station to Mun Station for use in the Mun lander but then thought a mining operation on the Mun surface to provide fuel for the lander might be a better opinion, but I have no idea how to set up such an operation having never used any of the mining related bits up till now.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Scarecrow88

[FancyMouse]

There was a thread about it.

[KerikBalm]

you need a mining drill, an ore tank, an ISRU convertor, a power source, and of course empty tanks to fill.

You need to land in a spot with ore, so you should use the various scanning things to find those spots, or you can try randomly (quick save).

Once you've mapped it... there's no more need for scanning equipment. And of course, the scanner doens't need to be on your mining ship.

Here's an image of my Mun miner... the first generation miner is in the background... then as I started hauling bigger things to orbit, I started needing more fuel, and of course hauled bigger mining operations to fuel them:

[Scarecrow88]

Thanks guys.

[Warzouz]

Here is the Salamander Exploration Space Station. There are quite a lot of charts...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/132464

[AeroGav]

I did it in my first sandbox game (well, a refuelling point on Minmus for my spaceplanes to be exact).

I was concerned about how long it takes to mine and convert, but actually, the mining and conversion continues when you're flying another spacecraft, so long as you're not in time acceleration mode. This meant that whenever i switched back to the thing i'd invariably find either the ore storage or fuel storage to be full. Huzzah.

But, I really grew to hate all the docking operations. The Minmus fuel truck only carried 800 fuel at a time from the surface to orbit, which meant at least 5 trips and 10 docking operations (one on surface, one in orbit) to refuel one mk2 spaceplane. In my current career game, I'm planning another refuelling base but I need to use a larger tanker, which is still easy to dock.

Or , shall I just build a mk3 spaceplane and have it carry it's own IRSU and drill bit out to Leythe or wherever and just refuel itself, like in the 8 bit version of Elite?

Go fly another plane while one is refuelling/waiting for the launch window to come back to Kerbin and be done with it.

[ShadowZone]

But as it turned out, that was very tedious. And for missions where I needed refueling, it was never close enough to be efficient.

Yep. Land a 200 ton ship on Minmus or other smaller planets/moons to get ore and then produce the fuel yourself. This adds about 5,5 tons to your vehicle (ISRU + 1 drill + small tank as "cache" since you can't convert directly from the drill). I am currently looking into a similar setup to use as my Grand Tour vehicle.

[Scarecrow88]

What's the best way to get the fuel from the mining rig to a station in orbit? Launch the entire rig and dock, or is there a way to transfer the fuel to a dedicated fuel transporting ship on the surface which is then used to move the fuel to the station? If the latter method is better, how do you dock on the surface? I consider myself to be a reasonably competent pilot but I am not sure I could manage docking to that level of precision while trying to fight gravity.

[Tex_NL]

Obviously heavily modded but it still has all the standard components: power, drills, refinery and storage for ore and fuel.

[ShadowZone]

What's the best way to get the fuel from the mining rig to a station in orbit? Launch the entire rig and dock, or is there a way to transfer the fuel to a dedicated fuel transporting ship on the surface which is then used to move the fuel to the station? If the latter method is better, how do you dock on the surface? I consider myself to be a reasonably competent pilot but I am not sure I could manage docking to that level of precision while trying to fight gravity.

If you watch my video in the first "Spoiler" link, I have constructed orbital cranes that deliver S3-7200 tanks outfitted with docking ports and landing legs. The crane leaves the tank, a cargo rover picks it up and docks it with the station on the ground. A bit complicated, but it worked.

You could also just use a claw to avoid tedious surface docking. Just get your vehicle close, connect it to the station and transfer the resources.

[Warzouz]

What's the best way to get the fuel from the mining rig to a station in orbit? Launch the entire rig and dock, or is there a way to transfer the fuel to a dedicated fuel transporting ship on the surface which is then used to move the fuel to the station? If the latter method is better, how do you dock on the surface? I consider myself to be a reasonably competent pilot but I am not sure I could manage docking to that level of precision while trying to fight gravity.

The link I gave you is quite well detailed.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/132464

Pitch :

The space station is plugged to a mining lander. This lander is also the engine of the station (so the station is movable for interplanetary travel). The lander only drills and bring back or to the station where it's refined. The station is designed to refuel science landers the fuel capacity is not huge (an orange tank). This allow multiple science missions to most bodies.

Jool station passing by Tylo / Jool Station orbiting Vall / Moho station in orbit

I may not be the most fuel efficient design, but it's simple and efficient for exploration.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Warzouz

[Thegamer211]

There was a thread about it.

Yeah, but that one is only for Minmus minning.

No mun/interplanetary?

[Skorpychan]

Yeah, but that one is only for Minmus minning.

No mun/interplanetary?

The Mun is a little high-gravity to be viable for flying fuel up from. It's right up at the upper limit for viablity.

On actual planets, you'll probably only be mining if you want to make your ascent fuel on the spot. Retrieving fuel should be done from smaller muns.

You can also refine fuel from asteroids. They deplete, but they can carry a LOT of fuel, and get lighter as you extract it. As long as you have an ISRU setup, they're like big fuel tanks.

[AeroGav]

What's the best way to get the fuel from the mining rig to a station in orbit? Launch the entire rig and dock, or is there a way to transfer the fuel to a dedicated fuel transporting ship on the surface which is then used to move the fuel to the station? If the latter method is better, how do you dock on the surface? I consider myself to be a reasonably competent pilot but I am not sure I could manage docking to that level of precision while trying to fight gravity.

My setup consisted of quite a few items jettisoned from the nose or tail of my spaceplanes. Took a lot of docking to put together.

The mining section consisted of a drill bit, a small ore storage tank, and the IRSU converter. This always stays on the surface. The bit that flies, is a mk2 cockpit, mk 2 fuselage (the fuel tank) and nuclear engine. Docking on the surface is easy. Rendez-vous in orbit is a little tedious to do 5 times over. Worse, I flew a load of empty fuel tanks up to orbit, the idea being i could have a massive fuel depot ready for a customer, and fly a mk2 fuselage worth of fuel up to it every time the IRSU converter got it filled up.

The problem is , the orbital fuel depot was too long and this, and wobbled and spun like crazy. This made docking with it even more of a chore.

Another option, if I don't want to go the Elite route of simply having my deep space exploration vehicles carry their own drill bit and IRSU converter (why not, it's still lighter than fuel for the return leg, i;d bet) would be to simply land all my deep space vehicles on minmus and taxy up to the mining station for fuelling. Put a big load of fuel tanks there and fill in one go. Minmus has very low gravity, i hear space planes can simply land on the flatter section horizontally like a runway. Make a deorbit burn so you'll come slowly down onto the flat bit, then rotate to a landing attitude and the sturdy landing gear will take care of the rest.

[magnemoe]

The Mun is a little high-gravity to be viable for flying fuel up from. It's right up at the upper limit for viablity.

On actual planets, you'll probably only be mining if you want to make your ascent fuel on the spot. Retrieving fuel should be done from smaller muns.

You can also refine fuel from asteroids. They deplete, but they can carry a LOT of fuel, and get lighter as you extract it. As long as you have an ISRU setup, they're like big fuel tanks.

Yes, Mun mining is more to support Mun operations not for export.

Duna and Ike and all other places I prefer to combine mining rig with tug who also is the first base.

Base get extended with an second base later with lab and more crew quarters.

mining tug is an spaceship itself with LV-N often some chemical to so you can land on Duna or other medium gravity places.

So then establish base extensions you will refuel the second base in orbit from tug and land it.

Minmus is special as you want to send fuel down to LKO.

I use KAS so I land an tanker on Minmus, connect to miner and fill it, without KAS, its easiest to take base to low orbit and refuel tanker.

Even simpler to take base to LKO, this is less efficient as you have to drag the mining setup and crew quarter all the way.

This is my setup. Tanker is three long MK3 tanks. miner is 4 medium length 3.75 meter tanks. I use an rover to connect the tanker and base as its more than 50 meter from base.

I use old 3.75 meter core stages as fuel depots in LKO, they are set up with probe, power, reaction wheels, docking ports and KAS, one also has an small station for LKO services.

If you have issues with how much oxidiser versus fuel you use it might be practical to take some ore down to LKO and have an refinery in orbit.

I simply make sure I store enough and then adjust the next shipment.

[Scarecrow88]

Seems to me the best solution would be to create a mining operation near the tourist Mun base (that I haven't built yet) and refuel the lander, which shouldn't need much.

[magnemoe]

Seems to me the best solution would be to create a mining operation near the tourist Mun base (that I haven't built yet) and refuel the lander, which shouldn't need much.

You problem is the ground refueling, KAS is perfect here but still require that you land 50 or closer from miner. 100 with an extender.

Without KAS you will need an fuel truck with the claw.

But yes this is an decent plan for an repeated opperation. My standard qualification run for new kerbals is, usualy pickup in LKO around the mun or minmus. Orbit around Mun then of to Minmus to land and refuel, outside of kerbin SOI, then back to LKO. I might take an Mun flyby if I have kerbals from Minmus. deliver kerbals to shuttle, refuel taxi and repeat.

[Scarecrow88]

Yep, in a previous incarnation of KSP I set up a Mun exploration adventure. I used a vehicle similar in operation to the Eagle from Space 1999 to get around, and set up a lot of fuel dumps as waypoints. The method of refuelling the Mun Hopper was to land near a fuel dump, and use a rover fitted with a tank and a claw to ferry fuel from the tanks in the dump to the Hopper.