Best place to put my space station

[labarca123]

Hi, yes i know the best place is in space xD.. ok now to sirius bussines

Whats the best orbit to put my space station so my other crafts can intercept it more easy/fast

Im trying to expand my presence in kerbol, right now im only in minmus and moon, so i want to start mining ore in duna, and i want a fuel station in there. 

whats the best place to put it?.. 250km circularized orbit of duna?? 300km?? 100km?? maybe ike?

im playing 1.1.2 with just a few mods ( no parts added )

[Plusck]

For the Duna system, I use Ike to park all my craft.

My reasoning?
- Mining on Ike involves far less loss on returning fuel or ore to orbit, and cheaper and easier landing wherever the ore is.
- A low-ish orbit around Ike allows faster warping; you need a higher orbit around Duna for the same warp speed.
- Going interplanetary from low Ike orbit is cheap enough, with no benefit to going back to low Duna orbit.
- Getting to Ike from an interplanetary transfer is easy and cheap enough if planned well, with only a couple of maneuvres. Duna orbit may be simpler, but either (a) you insert into a too-high orbit to benefit from aerobraking or the Oberth effect, or (b) you brake low then have to raise your Pe, which is wasteful.
 

[Aegolius13]

Depends largely on what you're planning to do in system.  If you're hopping back and forth to Duna for science or tourists trips, low Duna orbit might be easier.  But if it's more of an interplanetary waystation, higher orbit or Ike seems like a good idea.  Fortunately it's pretty cheap to get around the Duna system.  ?

I was actually wondering the same thing for Eve.  My station is currently about 250km but I think that's to low.  It's really expensive to get fuel down from Gilly mining, and I'm probably well below the gate orbit.  Plus trips to the surface are so rare, they're but really worth planning an Eve station around.  

Anyone know the gate orbit to return to Kerbin from Duna and/or Eve?

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

75k is a good compromise.

[panzer1b]

If you are looking at duna there are 2 major options (from my experience) that make the most sense.  The 2 practical ways to get into orbit around duna is either a grav assist from Ike or a aerobrake maneuver, so the 2 best spots for a station are either around Ike, or in a fairly low orbit around Duna itself (where craft can go to right after aerobraking).  I myself prefer the Ike solution as 90% of everything i send to Duna has over 2000dV after reaching LKO and thus has no issues reaching Ike regardless of how i choose to go about getting there.  Also, it may be worth mentioning that Ike has less gravity making any sort of landing operations (Ike is almost always a better bet for IRSU if you are into that) far easier and its relatively easy to get from Duna to Ike and vice versa (fairly low fuel requirements across the board with the notable exception of taking off from Duna which requires at least some thought into fuel requirements).  That said, if you arent interested in Ike at all set up in low Duna orbit (100-200km) because your craft can aerobrake directly into a similar orbit and then intercept without needing to use any real fuel

That said, given that the entire Duna system is relatively low on fuel requirements once you actually get there from Kerbin, basically any spot will work fine provided its not in the atmosphere (makes rendezvous kinda hard), or on a trajectory that could result in smashing into Ike or being shot out of the system after passing by it.

[Plusck]

2 hours ago, Aegolius13 said:

Anyone know the gate orbit to return to Kerbin from Duna and/or Eve?

According to my calculations, the gate orbit from Eve to Kerbin is between 20,800 km and 23,640 km, depending on where Eve is in its orbit around Kerbol (i.e you need a lower gate orbit if Eve is at Aphelion) when you leave.

However, my calculations don't take Eve's inclination into account, or the SOI cutoff. Given that inclination means you will need slightly more V_inf to get from Eve to Kerbin, but SOI cutoff will mean you need slightly less, I'd aim for the lower of those orbits.

At Duna, the gate orbit is again variable, between 370 and 860 km. From Ike, the gate orbit is under the ground.
However, from a 20km orbit around Ike, the burn to return to Kerbin is still about 40-50m/s less than you would get from Duna's gate orbit.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Plusck