Question about surface ore %

[Guest]

Hi guys, I’ve used an orbital scanner to find high concentration ore places on the Mun and sent a mission there. I’ve also got a couple of rovers and have been driving around the location with a surface scanning module on.

The question is, it says the ore[surf]: is around 14%-15% this doesn’t seem too high. Can I expect a higher percent somewhere or is 14% good?

[MiscelanousItem]

Now in my experience 14% is good if not great, but thats just my pinch of salt 

[FleshJeb]

I didn’t know 14% was even possible. I thought 10% was the max. I usually end up with 3% or so.

[fourfa]

On a planetary surface, 10% is good and 14% is outstanding. Asteroids are more like 80-90%, though their resource is finite while planets are infinite. 

Don’t obsess about ore percentage though - it mainly comes down to whether you stay in timewarp while drilling for a very long time, or a very very long time. 

[ajburges]

On 6/15/2019 at 11:06 AM, fourfa said:

On a planetary surface, 10% is good and 14% is outstanding. Asteroids are more like 80-90%, though their resource is finite while planets are infinite. 

Don’t obsess about ore percentage though - it mainly comes down to whether you stay in timewarp while drilling for a very long time, or a very very long time. 

Correction: you need a certain ore percentage (depending on engineer level) to break even using full cells as your electricity source.

[Geschosskopf]

On 6/15/2019 at 10:35 AM, Dale Christopher said:

Hi guys, I’ve used an orbital scanner to find high concentration ore places on the Mun and sent a mission there. I’ve also got a couple of rovers and have been driving around the location with a surface scanning module on.

The question is, it says the ore[surf]: is around 14%-15% this doesn’t seem too high. Can I expect a higher percent somewhere or is 14% good?

Yeah, 14-15% is the max possible on any planet/moon and there are only a couple places in the solar system where that much is also on reasonably flat, reasonably equatorial terrain.  The main such place is Minmus but, as it's never worth building a fuel system in the Kerbin system, you can forget that one.  Mostly, you'll be lucky to get 6-8% at other planets.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

The main such place is Minmus but, as it's never worth building a fuel system in the Kerbin system, you can forget that one. 

I’m sort of playing out realistic near future moon activities so I can get a better idea of the pros and cons of different courses of action. So I’m currently setting up a ISRU fuel base in a south polar crater on the mun. ( this was my first real attempt to repeatedly hit a precise landing zone on a pole so it’s been a cool experience so far!) 

The last mission was to deliver a remotely landed rover to the LZ capable of housing a couple of Kerbals so I have good capabilities ready onsite for science, transportation, exploration etc... ( I ended up using a expendable sky crane after exploring the best way to get it there)

Now missions have stalled in the development stages... I’m trying to figure out a good solution for assembly of a modular base onsite and my experiments in designing a realistic crane have failed so far due to robotic floppieness.

Edited June 21, 2019 by Guest

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, Dale Christopher said:

I’m sort of playing out realistic near future moon activities so I can get a better idea of the pros and cons of different courses of action. So I’m currently setting up a ISRU fuel base in a south polar crater on the mun. ( this was my first real attempt to repeatedly hit a precise landing zone on a pole so it’s been a cool experience so far!) 

Learning to land manually next to something already there is an essential skill.  This Scott Manley tutorial is an oldie but still a goodie

https://youtu.be/38IYZUizX3E

 

2 hours ago, Dale Christopher said:

The last mission was to deliver a remotely landed rover to the LZ capable of housing a couple of Kerbals so I have good capabilities ready onsite for science, transportation, exploration etc... ( I ended up using a expendable sky crane after exploring the best way to get it there)

I hope you already had a deployed seismograph thingy when the skycrane crashed

 

2 hours ago, Dale Christopher said:

Now missions have stalled in the development stages... I’m trying to figure out a good solution for assembly of a modular base onsite and my experiments in designing a realistic crane have failed so far due to robotic floppieness.

The BEST solution, BY FAR, is to NOT assemble the base but use some mod, such as Pathfinder, which allows "wireless" resource transfer between modules.  Connected ground bases are ALWAYS Kraken-bait everywhere in the solar system except the various Minmus Flats and the immediate surroundings of KSC.  If a connected base is on any slope at all or, worse, yet, straddles some slight, almost imperceptible crest or valley in local slopes, it WILL eventually be eaten by the Kraken due to the build-up of phantom forces each time you load physics on it.  The best base is a "wireless" network of separate modules, each of which is free to slide individually, and they will.

 

 

 

[merlinux]

2 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

The BEST solution, BY FAR, is to NOT assemble the base but use some mod, such as Pathfinder, which allows "wireless" resource transfer between modules.  Connected ground bases are ALWAYS Kraken-bait everywhere in the solar system except the various Minmus Flats and the immediate surroundings of KSC.  If a connected base is on any slope at all or, worse, yet, straddles some slight, almost imperceptible crest or valley in local slopes, it WILL eventually be eaten by the Kraken due to the build-up of phantom forces each time you load physics on it.  The best base is a "wireless" network of separate modules, each of which is free to slide individually, and they will.

 

 

 

I still have connected bases using USI MKS. Still one of the reason I have never left the USI bandwagon is the wonderful 'toggle ground tether' option on bases.

After years of using it it has proven itself to be Kraken proof! You can also have disconnected bases (which I also use)

Also I find the best way of constructing bases is using both KIS and Konstruction mods. Just send a konstruction crane near your kerbal on EVA and he can now move an extra 6t using KIS.....

[Geschosskopf]

6 hours ago, merlinux said:

I still have connected bases using USI MKS. Still one of the reason I have never left the USI bandwagon is the wonderful 'toggle ground tether' option on bases.

After years of using it it has proven itself to be Kraken proof! You can also have disconnected bases (which I also use)

My mileage with connected based of any species--stock, MKS, KBS, and PF, but ESPECIALLY with KAS-based systems--has varied considerably from yours.  For me, the only place connected bases have long-term stability is on the Minmus flats.  Everywhere else, and no matter how made, they eventually go crazy due to the buildup of phantom forces caused by the modules shifting every so slightly on uneven terrain every time physics loads.

[Guest]

@merlinux

I wanna keep it stock

@Geschosskopf

After making MOAR cranes... I’ve come to the thinking that maybe a stand alone habitat module that has an airlock and that the rover can dock with might be an easier option than trying to get a crane to the mun and then moving a bunch of habitats around... it’s a recipe for someone to puncture a hab! So redesigning a bit