Setting up an base for future missions near Duna

[Gooru]

This is my first take on kerbalised missions to other planets.

I´d like to set up a station as a base for futur missions on Duna and Ike first.

Of course it needs a lab for processing the science.

Then it should supply the landers with fuel, so in need ISRU.

I don´t want to set up a big surface mining base with drilling trucks, surface refinery and so one. (perhaps i´ll do that when it comes to the jool system)

A "simple" mining lander should do.

Is it better to have the ISRU with the lander or onboard the station?

Ore is more compact and the ISRU is heavy, so i tend to do the convertion in the station.

Next question is where to place the station.

Mining Ike is easier than mining Duna.

So would it be wise to place the station in an orbit around Ike and start my missions from there?

Or is preferable to have it near Duna?

And finaly, what is the one important thing i forget to add to my station?

[FlyingPete]

I'd leave the heavy ISRU converter on the station, so you're not burning fuel needlessly to bring it up and down from the surface. I'd put the station at a fairly low altitude around Duna- you can use aerobraking to help when bringing the mining lander from Ike to the station, and Ike's relatively large SOI combined with the empty mining ship will limit the fuel used in getting back to Ike. A low orbit also reduces the dV needed by landers headed for Duna's surface.

Things I tend to forget: Batteries, power generation, monopropellant storage, antenna. Also useful if you're using more than one type of docking port is to bring along a couple of docking adapters. They don't really weigh anything significant and allow you to convert one type of docking port to the other.

[mabarry3]

Also useful if you're using more than one type of docking port is to bring along a couple of docking adapters. They don't really weigh anything significant and allow you to convert one type of docking port to the other.

Wait, what? What are these things you speak of they sound useful for me

[KerikBalm]

You have to make the adaptors yourself by combining parts.

ie a 1.25m docking port on a 1.25m to 2.5m adaptor, and then a 2.5m docking port.

Optionally: put a probe core on it + RCS and monoprop and som OX-stats so it can fly around and dock where its needed without having to use another ship to dock with it and move it.

Also, take the ISRU with you on your lander.

I consider this very bad advice:

"I'd leave the heavy ISRU converter on the station, so you're not burning fuel needlessly to bring it up and down from the surface."

Its only 4.3 tons....

Especially for duna, if you take an ISRU down, you don't need to take fuel to get back up.

Would you spend more than 4 tons of fuel to get back up? yea... you would.

If you don't take an ISRU, then you need to reserve a portion of the fuel you take up to be set aside for the next trip. You would lift multiple tons of fuel, that will just be tken down the to surface, and used to lift the ore payload of the next mission... fuel you don't need to take down if you have an ISRU, because it will make the fuel for the ascent on the surface.

You could take up 8 tones (for example) of fuel and set it aside for the next trip, or you could take up 4 tons of your ISRU, and fill both your ore tanks and fuel tanks before departing.

Especially when your landers get bigger and bigger.

The added mass of the ISRU on this is negligible... the savings of not having to lift fuel needed for the next ascent is massive:

Also, its not the best example, and the top is cut off, but I have a "docking adaptor" above the 2.5m lander can.

If I need to dock and refill something with a 2.5m docking port, I detache the top, and dock the rest, then fly the top back on (it also doubles as a little mini-tug for moving station modules and such), otherwise, its a 1.25m docking port (that sticks out more if the others aren't available or a particular craft wont fit... although so far I've only had 2 things docked to that ISRU craft in orbit at once... 5x 1.25m docking ports is a bit wasteful)

Edited November 9, 2015 by KerikBalm

[FlyingPete]

You have to make the adaptors yourself by combining parts.

ie a 1.25m docking port on a 1.25m to 2.5m adaptor, and then a 2.5m docking port.

Optionally: put a probe core on it + RCS and monoprop and som OX-stats so it can fly around and dock where its needed without having to use another ship to dock with it and move it.

That's basically it. I tend to use either the flat 'trashcan lid' with differently-sized ports on either side, or the rockomax adapter with two types of docking port for when more clearance is needed. I usually build stations using the larger 2.5m ports to connect modules, and the small ports for docking spacecraft, so the adapters are useful for when you only have the 'wrong' size available. My big stations to date have had a little RCS-powered minitug present for moving parts around, so no real need to give them their own thrusters and probe core.