Tips for making a space station?

[Mr. Quark]

Does anyone have any tips for making a space station? I'm planning a Space Station called the "Mike's Plan to Kill Soviets With Missiles That Have Plutonium And Neutrons To create a Nuclear Reaction And Send It Into A Sub-Orbital Trajectory And Hit Soviet Kerbals That Also Have Some Missiles That They Might Shoot At Us And That's Why We Are Bombing Them With the Aforementioned Missile(s) We Talked About A Bunch Of Words Ago Do You Like This Joke?" Or (MPKSWMTHPANTCANRASIIASOTAHSKTAHSMTTMSAUATWWABTWTAM(S)WTAABOWADYLTJ?) For short! TLDR: Do you have any tips for killing the sovie- Making a space station?

^{I don't think I have to say this but the soviets thing is a joke.}

Did anyone else get remind with Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs with the long text for the short version?

[Andem]

Wait until the space station is overhead for launch, pack extra fuel, be extremely aggressive, quicksave every few minutes or so.

[Mr. Quark]

5 minutes ago, Andem said:

Wait until the space station is overhead for launch, pack extra fuel, be extremely aggressive, quicksave every few minutes or so.

I actually meant to create a space station.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Mr. Quark

[eddiew]

Pack as much delta-v as you will have orbital velocity, and as much TWR as you can handle. When you're over your target, aim retrograde and fire the engines   ~2300m/s would do nicely, but beware the burn time. You may want the Trajectories mod to help ensure an accurate landing.

Unless the whole bombing concept (soviets aside) was also a joke   In that case, just make sure your docking ports are on reasonably long arms to allow approaching ships to have things like tail fins without bashing off your solar panels. And keep the part count sensible. Consider using the welding mod for the main structure.

[Superfluous J]

Wait until 1.2 comes out, as you'll be able to enable auto-strutting in some of your parts. From what I've read, this will work when you dock two things together as well so your space station should be far less flimsy in that version.

Edited September 1, 2016 by 5thHorseman
I called "1.2" "1.1.4" :)

[Xyphos]

a space station is very simple, it's actually a group of modular parts docked together.
modules include: liviing areas, science lab(s), solar power, arrays, and whatever else you want to add, such as extra fuel pods or asteroid mining equipment for refueling stations and future missions.

happy landings!

[Norcalplanner]

For a simple station, think Skylab without the solar telescope, but keep an engine on the bottom to allow repositioning the station.  One hitchhiker, one science lab, fuel tank and vacuum rocket engine on the bottom, probe core and reaction wheel, batteries and antenna, handful of docking ports on top, two or three deployable solar panels down near the engine, and you're good to go.

[Corona688]

Aim the nose towards space.

Include more power than you think you'll need.  I ended up with about 5,000 battery and eight 1x6 solar arrays to power a lab 24/7.

Put docking ports on the ends and aim it north-south for easy lining up with things.

Other than that -- anything goes.

[moritree]

1. Learn to dock.
2. Dock lots of things.
3. Profit.

Do it enough and you might actually get one that looks good as well...

[Deddly]

7 minutes ago, inuzupunupi said:

1. Learn to dock.
2. Dock lots of things.
3. Profit.

4. Move thread to Gameplay Questions

[ForScience6686]

Don't spam lights!  They glitch.  Know what you want, if you plan on moving it, be careful of how many joints you have and move slowly.  Stations can oscillate themselves into oblivion, so be careful with reaction wheels as well.

Good luck!

[capi3101]

So, hang on a second - I didn't quite catch the joke for the multitude of words; are you wanting to build a Soviet space station, or blow up the Soviets with a space station?

If it's building a Soviet space station you want, try the Salyut programme tutorial on the wiki; can't get much more Soviet space station than that. It's a few versions old but you can probably figure out what adjustments you need to make it all work, and you can wind up with a reasonable Mir facsimile if you decide to take it that far. I've done that one my own self a couple of times.

NavyFish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator mod is a godsend when doing space-station projects like this, or really any time you want to perform docking maneuvers. Just saying.

Now, as to blowing up Soviets with a space station...you'll probably need mods. Possibly therapy. Maybe cake and grief counseling...

[Mr. Quark]

On ‎8‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 10:15 AM, capi3101 said:

are you wanting to build a Soviet space station, or blow up the Soviets with a space station?

Trying to Blow up the Soviets With A space station!

[capi3101]

13 hours ago, Mr. Quark said:

Trying to Blow up the Soviets With A space station!

Ah - okay. Thanks for the clarification. Maybe still go with Mir then; if you're going to blow up Soviets with a space station, might as well use one of theirs, right? Kinda like cutting off a guy's leg and then beating him over the head with it...