Minig ore for credits

[seaces]

Can soembody tell me if it is possible to mine ore and earn some profit on it? I am planing on mining ore on Minmus, moving the mined ore to kerbin station to convert it to fuel and then with SSTO land that fuel on Kerbin for credits. I tried with big orange tank and in VAB I saw that is roughly 2900 credits in fuel. My SSSTO that is capable to get to LKO take such a huge load and land takes roughly 4000 credits on fuel. Those 4000 are worst case scenarion landing it with 0 fuel in all tanks but still I believe it would cost me 2000-3000 fuel leaving me with very low margin yet big time investment in setting up infrastructure and to do a one pick up flight with SSTO.

Edited April 15, 2016 by seaces

[ForScience6686]

Not worth it, and some argue a fuel station in lko is not worth it either.  But I would recommend leaving it in lko for future missions and lower launch weights.

[Snark]

Yah, there's little economic point in mining ore in Kerbin system.  That's not to say you can't make any cash out of it... but the amounts involved are small enough, and require so much of your time, that you might as well skip it and spend that time instead completing a well-chosen contract.  Lots more cash for much less of your time.

Where ISRU makes a lot more sense is at other planets; if you can design a ship to arrive at the destination empty, and then refuel its tanks there, you can make the amount of payload you have to lift off Kerbin much smaller, which seriously saves cash.

[Warzouz]

35 minutes ago, ForScience6686 said:

Not worth it, and some argue a fuel station in lko is not worth it either.  But I would recommend leaving it in lko for future missions and lower launch weights.

I agree.

I use a lot of space stations (check my sig.) but thos space stations are to be set anywhere but LKO. Lifting heavy payload os very easy in KSP, especially if you've got a cost efficient launch system (check sig. links again).

Finally, mining parts are end game. At that time, funds shouldn't be an issue any more.

LKO space stations can be needed if you want to do some Von Braun exploration where interplanetary ships don't dip into Kerbin but circularize to reach a space station to be refuelled to depart again from LKO. Crew rotations are managed with SSTO space planes. This is a neat role play theme. Even though lifting fuel from Kerbin with heavy space plane might be quicker than bringing stuff from Minmus.

[ForScience6686]

My lko fuel station will serve to fuel my Ssto to make the trip to duna carrying all crew for the mission.  My current tech level limits my Ssto range, but the duna flyer carries its own mining gear for planet side refueling, then will need topped off once back off the surface for the return trip.  So there are some benefits of a lko fuel station.   I can also top off interplanetary ships to reduce launch weights which helps cash savings and reduced ship sizes.

[seaces]

aha and what about Karbonite mod and its resource?

IS that mod wort or it is too similar to stock system? Is karbonite more valuable?

[mrclucks]

The most profitable way to get cash for ore would be to mine it on kerbins surface, but you still get pennies for your investment and it takes a lot of time

[ForScience6686]

I have used a miner at the island airbase for my reusable space planes.  But fueling logistics made lag am issue.  However, Space-K did turn a profit.  With that operation, all lko rescues and crew transfers were free to execute.

[Nich]

Think of it this way. How much is one orange tank worth on kerbin? How much is it worth in LKO? Depending on your lifter about 5-100 times more. At minimus probably doubles in value. By Moho or joul it probably doubles again

the only time you want to return fuel to kerbin is when a challenge is cost based and dividing by 0 gives you infinity points

Edited April 16, 2016 by Nich

[Loren Pechtel]

On 4/15/2016 at 7:45 AM, Snark said:

Yah, there's little economic point in mining ore in Kerbin system.  That's not to say you can't make any cash out of it... but the amounts involved are small enough, and require so much of your time, that you might as well skip it and spend that time instead completing a well-chosen contract.  Lots more cash for much less of your time.

I find myself disagreeing with this.

1)  Tourist contracts.  If your tourists want to land on both Mun and Minmus it takes quite a bit of oomph.  I'm currently experimenting on Minmus and then will build a base on the Mun.  The Mun base will have the sole purpose of refueling a hopper that brings tourists down, refuels and takes them back to a ship in orbit.

2)  The Minmus base will have a bigger purpose--fueling interplanetary missions.  Send them up with empty tanks and fuel in space.  I also think a tourist vessel that goes from Minmus orbit to LKO to Mun orbit and back to Minmus orbit will be cheaper than bringing stuff up from Kerbin.  Combine all these ideas and I think I can haul tourists around the Kerbin for nothing more than the spaceplane fuel--and tourists are about the best source of cash for doing everything else.

I'm also intending to put mining bases in every system I go to to return craft to Kerbin.  Other than things like Eve I think it should be possible to get around the system without discarding anything.

[Snark]

57 minutes ago, Loren Pechtel said:

I find myself disagreeing with this.

1)  Tourist contracts.  If your tourists want to land on both Mun and Minmus it takes quite a bit of oomph.  I'm currently experimenting on Minmus and then will build a base on the Mun.  The Mun base will have the sole purpose of refueling a hopper that brings tourists down, refuels and takes them back to a ship in orbit.

2)  The Minmus base will have a bigger purpose--fueling interplanetary missions.  Send them up with empty tanks and fuel in space.  I also think a tourist vessel that goes from Minmus orbit to LKO to Mun orbit and back to Minmus orbit will be cheaper than bringing stuff up from Kerbin.  Combine all these ideas and I think I can haul tourists around the Kerbin for nothing more than the spaceplane fuel--and tourists are about the best source of cash for doing everything else.

Oh, certainly it has its uses.  And it can be fun to do, to.  It's just that from a purely economic standpoint, the numbers don't work out much.  I can get a "put a station on a solar orbit" contract that pays 600K funds or more, which takes me only a few minutes to slap together and launch.  It would take me far longer than that to save 600K funds by mining fuel on Mun or Minmus rather than shipping it up from Kerbin.

So if you're measuring things in "funds per hour of play time", no, there's no economic point in mining Mun or Minmus.  (If that's not what you're optimizing for-- e.g. if you enjoy the process of mining, shipping, docking, transferring, etc.-- then it would be a different story.)

When it comes to mining other planets (or there moons)-- then it really makes a lot more sense.

[Loren Pechtel]

2 minutes ago, Snark said:

Oh, certainly it has its uses.  And it can be fun to do, to.  It's just that from a purely economic standpoint, the numbers don't work out much.  I can get a "put a station on a solar orbit" contract that pays 600K funds or more, which takes me only a few minutes to slap together and launch.  It would take me far longer than that to save 600K funds by mining fuel on Mun or Minmus rather than shipping it up from Kerbin.

So if you're measuring things in "funds per hour of play time", no, there's no economic point in mining Mun or Minmus.  (If that's not what you're optimizing for-- e.g. if you enjoy the process of mining, shipping, docking, transferring, etc.-- then it would be a different story.)

When it comes to mining other planets (or there moons)-- then it really makes a lot more sense.

It's a matter of saving all the hardware that brings the fuel, not the fuel itself.  Kerbin -> Mun Surface -> Minmus Surface -> Kerbin is a pretty expensive rocket.

[Snark]

30 minutes ago, Loren Pechtel said:

It's a matter of saving all the hardware that brings the fuel, not the fuel itself.  Kerbin -> Mun Surface -> Minmus Surface -> Kerbin is a pretty expensive rocket.

Not really... certainly a whole lot cheaper than the contract.  Besides, you don't have to dispose of the rocket, you can just shuttle from LKO to where you need it and refuel in LKO, if you like.