Drills, how to properly mount them

[Loren Pechtel]

I finally got the initial pieces of my mining base to Minmus.  Engineer's hut (serves as the hub), a drill/ore tank/ISRU/cooling assembly and a fuel/solar cell/fuel cell assembly.  (Monoprop and Xenon storage to follow.)

Link them up, deploy the drills--what's this, the drill just lifted the whole tower it's part of into the sky?  It also lifted the hub into the sky, although the fuel tank was heavy enough it stayed put.

That just sounds like it's asking for the Kracken to pay a visit.

[Kyrt Malthorn]

Maybe this will help?

 

The upper section of the extended drill's telescopic (extending) pole is considered a "solid" object.  The lower half (and the drill head) are visual only and can clip into the dirt.  The seperation between these sections is a visible downsize in the pole's diameter.

You can right click on drills in the VAB and view them extended, and plan their placement based on your landing gear height.

 

Edited August 11, 2016 by Kyrt Malthorn

[Loren Pechtel]

1 hour ago, Kyrt Malthorn said:

Maybe this will help?

 

The upper section of the extended drill's telescopic (extending) pole is considered a "solid" object.  The lower half (and the drill head) are visual only and can clip into the dirt.  The seperation between these sections is a visible downsize in the pole's diameter.

You can right click on drills in the VAB and view them extended, and plan their placement based on your landing gear height.

 

Thank you very much!  That's a crazy design, it should be acceptable to mount them flush with the bottom of the craft.

[Kyrt Malthorn]

3 hours ago, Loren Pechtel said:

Thank you very much!  That's a crazy design, it should be acceptable to mount them flush with the bottom of the craft.

Found the pic with Google, looks like someone else was trying to figure out where the 'bottom' of the drill was, too.

[StrandedonEarth]

If you have KIS/KAS, you can get your engineer to remount them. I had to do that myself once when I mounted the drills too low.

[Loren Pechtel]

15 minutes ago, Kyrt Malthorn said:

Found the pic with Google, looks like someone else was trying to figure out where the 'bottom' of the drill was, too.

There were enough things messed up I finally reverted to the save I made before embarking on building a mining base.  I stupidly put my EVA resource pipes in inventory, not realizing they had to be on the rocket.  You can't mount the first end of them.

[Blaarkies]

10 hours ago, Loren Pechtel said:

I finally got the initial pieces of my mining base to Minmus.  Engineer's hut (serves as the hub), a drill/ore tank/ISRU/cooling assembly and a fuel/solar cell/fuel cell assembly.  (Monoprop and Xenon storage to follow.)

Link them up, deploy the drills--what's this, the drill just lifted the whole tower it's part of into the sky?  It also lifted the hub into the sky, although the fuel tank was heavy enough it stayed put.

That just sounds like it's asking for the Kracken to pay a visit.

FALSE! Minmus has no "sky" !
just kidding

About the Xenon storage...are you playing with some mods? In Stock/vanilla KSP there is no mining/converting to Xenon...the only place to get Xenon gas is at the VAB or SPH, nowhere else

...but, you could get edit your ISRU's "part.cfg" file. Just add the ability to convert ore to xenon ("ModuleManager" mod is great for this)

[Loren Pechtel]

8 hours ago, Blaarkies said:

FALSE! Minmus has no "sky" !
just kidding

About the Xenon storage...are you playing with some mods? In Stock/vanilla KSP there is no mining/converting to Xenon...the only place to get Xenon gas is at the VAB or SPH, nowhere else

...but, you could get edit your ISRU's "part.cfg" file. Just add the ability to convert ore to xenon ("ModuleManager" mod is great for this)

There isn't?  Ok, no need for xenon storage.  I haven't ever played with the ion drive, I hadn't noticed it couldn't be refined.  I'm not sure I even care, I'm looking at putting mining bases on the smallest body of every system, I can afford to burn harder.

[Blaarkies]

On 8/12/2016 at 4:33 PM, Loren Pechtel said:

There isn't?  Ok, no need for xenon storage.  I haven't ever played with the ion drive, I hadn't noticed it couldn't be refined.  I'm not sure I even care, I'm looking at putting mining bases on the smallest body of every system, I can afford to burn harder.

Ion drives really only suits a small portion of the player base...try sending a tiny ion powered probe to some interplanetary destination. If that didn't frustrate you, then you might start building ion tug-boatships

Once you have a refinery on Minmus, nuclear tugs become really, really cheap(maybe almost free?). As long as you go big, there is no way that Xenon power can compete.
*

big

ba-eeg-!/

noun(as used here)

 

1. 1.

   multiple Mk3_Liquid_Fuel_Fuselage_Long tanks filled with many, many liquid fuels filled up to the brim, loaded on top of some lander contraption hoisted by multiple NER Atomic_Rocket_Motors.
    

   See also: Docking via "The Klaw", EVA-Transfer pipes, dmagics-modlets

Edited August 15, 2016 by Blaarkies

[Loren Pechtel]

8 hours ago, Blaarkies said:

Ion drives really only suits a small portion of the player base...try sending a tiny ion powered probe to some interplanetary destination. If that didn't frustrate you, then you might start building ion tug-boatships

Once you have a refinery on Minmus, nuclear tugs become really, really cheap(maybe almost free?). As long as you go big, there is no way that Xenon power can compete.
*

big

ba-eeg-!/

noun(as used here)

 

1. 1.

   multiple Mk3_Liquid_Fuel_Fuselage_Long tanks filled with many, many liquid fuels filled up to the brim, loaded on top of some lander contraption hoisted by multiple NER Atomic_Rocket_Motors.
    

   See also: Docking via "The Klaw", EVA-Transfer pipes, dmagics-modlets

As long as Mechjeb can do the burn I don't think I would find the long burn times of ion a problem--I would set the burn and go do something else.  With MechJeb assistance I'm often doing something else while playing KSP as it is.