Mining vessel

[Noel32]

Here's my mining vessel test vehicle for mining ore and converting it in fuel and metal.

 

It has room for one engineer. Is that enough?

 

Suggestions welcome.

 

sef

[simonh]

It'll be difficult to fly without a Pilot (maybe add a probe core?), but you only need one Engineer.

Pick your most experienced one, they give a multiplier on the production rate.

Simon Hibbs

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

3 hours ago, Noel32 said:

It has room for one engineer. Is that enough?

That's plenty.  You never need more than one engineer.  All that matters is "what's the skill level of the highest-level engineer aboard?"

3 hours ago, Noel32 said:

Suggestions welcome.

You should seriously consider getting rid of the mini ISRUs and using a single big one instead.  The mini ISRU is truly horrible:  it's so inefficient that it throws away 80% of the ore, and it's guaranteed to overheat in continuous operation, regardless of how many radiators you have.

The mini ISRU is so awful that I've never used it myself, ever, except just once when I discovered how awful it is.  I know that other folks have used it for their own purposes... but generally the only justification is if you have a really small ship, and the big ISRU is just a showstopper for being so big.  But in your case, you've got a big ship anyway, and you're using multiple of the small ISRU, which means you really, really don't want that.

Scrap them all and put a single big one on.  It can easily keep up with the output of the drills, it'll give you five times more fuel, and it won't overheat so badly.

3 hours ago, simonh said:

It'll be difficult to fly without a Pilot (maybe add a probe core?)

Look carefully at the screenshot-- he's already got a probe core on there (a HECS, sitting atop the command pod). 

[Palaceviking]

Make sure you've got comms back to ksc or a pilot ship or the probe core won't mean jack. 

Depending on your difficulty settings. 

[Noel32]

I've done it, she can work nonstop mining and converting Ore into metal.

 

My masterpiece of the day.

 

 

[Snark]

5 hours ago, Palaceviking said:

Make sure you've got comms back to ksc or a pilot ship or the probe core won't mean jack.

Not so.  Lack of comms would prevent making a maneuver node, but it does still work for SAS, which is the main reason to want the core.

As long as you've got crew (any crew, of any type) on board the ship, then "can't make a maneuver node without a pilot" is the only inconvenience if you don't have comms.

3 hours ago, Noel32 said:

My masterpiece of the day.

Nice!    Glad it worked out.

Out of curiosity... do you actually need so many of the big ISRU?  My experience (at least in stock) is that one large ISRU can easily keep up with half a dozen of the big drills.  Would a single ISRU suffice?

[Palaceviking]

Like i said,  depending on difficulty settings, namely "requireSignalForControl" 

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Palaceviking said:

Like i said,  depending on difficulty settings, namely "requireSignalForControl" 

Right, and what I'm saying is, that's not the case.  It doesn't depend on difficulty settings.  (Well, unless you've got CommNet turned off entirely, in which case there's no such thing as "signal" in the first place.)

Even on the hardest comm settings (i.e. "require signal for control" is turned on), a probe core will still give SAS functionality to a ship, even if there's no signal at all-- as long as you have a crewmember aboard (doesn't have to be a pilot).

The only inconvenience that lack of signal ever causes a crewed ship with a probe core is "can't use maneuver nodes without a pilot".

[Palaceviking]

I stand corrected.

[Raphaello]

4 hours ago, Noel32 said:

I've done it, she can work nonstop mining and converting Ore into metal.

 

My masterpiece of the day.

You're using some modded parts but so I might be wrongbut there are some improveemnts possible still. As Snark suggested - one ISRU is enough for this setup.

You also don't need so many batteries. It is possible to start mining and processing during a day and then switch to tracking station. Both mining and processing will continue even during the ship's night if you timewarp from tracking station or other vessel. This trick is very useful as I found that if you run out of power during night then mining and processing does not restart in the morning which makes drilling unpractical.

I can't see any ore storage in your ship - ISRU will not start without at least a minimum storage capacity.

You might also check amount of electricity generated to ensure panels generate enough to run all of the equipment.

 

[Noel32]

9 hours ago, Snark said:

Not so.  Lack of comms would prevent making a maneuver node, but it does still work for SAS, which is the main reason to want the core.

As long as you've got crew (any crew, of any type) on board the ship, then "can't make a maneuver node without a pilot" is the only inconvenience if you don't have comms.

Nice!    Glad it worked out.

Out of curiosity... do you actually need so many of the big ISRU?  My experience (at least in stock) is that one large ISRU can easily keep up with half a dozen of the big drills.  Would a single ISRU suffice?

I'm imagining my main use for it is going to be converting ore to metal so I can build in situ using the Ground Construction mod. In my tests at the launchpad the ore filled first after a number of weeks and the metal was still coming in

7 hours ago, Raphaello said:

You're using some modded parts but so I might be wrongbut there are some improveemnts possible still. As Snark suggested - one ISRU is enough for this setup.

You also don't need so many batteries. It is possible to start mining and processing during a day and then switch to tracking station. Both mining and processing will continue even during the ship's night if you timewarp from tracking station or other vessel. This trick is very useful as I found that if you run out of power during night then mining and processing does not restart in the morning which makes drilling unpractical.

I can't see any ore storage in your ship - ISRU will not start without at least a minimum storage capacity.

You might also check amount of electricity generated to ensure panels generate enough to run all of the equipment.

 

Didn't realise that electricity use was incorrectly calculated when not using the vessel. The fuel tanks I'm using are from the Pathfinder mod and can be converted in situ to store any resource.

Quite handy.

[Aegolius13]

1) This is a personal preference thing, but you might consider using static radiators.  They only cool two parts away, but it looks like your gold tanks are in contact with both the ISRU and the drills, so the range limitation would not apply if you plop the radiators on those tanks.  2 large panels will cool one big ISRU under normal conditions, and one large panel will cool two large drills.  

I like 'em primarily because they're less likely to break when landing or aerobraking.  It's also nice that they're less likely to block your solar panels, though you can often avoid this anyway by putting the solar panels higher on the ship (as you appear to have done).  I believe the static radiators are also slightly more efficient in terms of mass and electricity consumption versus cooling.  

If you do use them, note that you have to turn them on and off by right clicking or with an action group (without the big visual clue you get when the folding ones are extended).  You could leave them on all the time, but they use electricity even if they're not cooling much.

 

2) Do you have a docking port on that thing?  Or are you, for example, planning to have a fuel tanker with a Klaw to get the fuel off?

 

3) Twitches are very inefficient engines, so you might want to avoid them if possible.  How much thrust you'll need depends on where you're going, so can't say exactly what engines you'd want. But while the Terriers are pretty good, note the one Poodle is better than four Terriers in pretty much every way (more thrust, lower mass, better ISP).  And a Poodle can find under a properly-located large landing leg.  So you could look at, for example, putting one Poodle under the center, or maybe two Poodles (i.e., below two of the four side-tanks).  A couple Aerospikes might work too, but I would probably go Poodle instead.