Tips For Building and Launching a Moon Base?

[jetmistro]

Hi, recently i've been trying to build a base on the moon but i'm having trouble with fuel and, well, to be honest I don't find the ksp spaceship builder tall enough :/ any tips for ship design and base designs that can launch easily but are not too tall and have enough room for docking extensions and buggy docks? Thanks a heap

[Hacktech]

Hehe, I got the same problems here. My Mun base usually never leaves orbit. A good tip is to send everything up in orbit in modules. That way you don't have to build a huge monster rocket.

[bsalis]

What do you mean by trouble with fuel?

[bulletrhli]

Try to launch everything to the mun in small parts at a time, so, for example, a habitation module, then send a power module, a orbital and land rover/plane fueling station etc. Do not, and I repeat, do not try to send an ENTIRE base to the mun.

You say you are finding you don't have enough space to build? Check out editor tools, you will LOVE it.

[Heads up] It seems the Editor tools thread was lost in the forum when it went down, I will ask the OP to bring the thread back.

I HADDD the link for it bookmarked, but it seemed to be removed off dropbox, I was so happy to find the link until I saw it was gone BUT THEN I REMEMBERED I HAVE THE MOD LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Here you go! http://www.sendspace.com/file/sbk1ff

[SgtElis]

Im currently working on a mun re-fuel base using the Kethane mod!

I've succesfully landed 2 fuel tanks on the Mun that I can control!

It is a pretty big rocket though that is taking it up in orbit but its not that big when you acctually are going to the mun, a pretty light weight ship that is using nuclear engines so you almost never run out of fuel! xD

You also have to do some re-docking in space though so you can land correctly.. (And some moving of fuel before detatching the big rockets unless you used up all that fuel )

[Asheron04]

I just landed my 'mobile mun base' last night. It took a few launches to get it down but was worth it. I made the base of the 'base' a rover to make it easier to dock to and move about the mun. I used asparagus technique with the launch rockets to save fuel for the trip as the base is pretty heavy. Once landed I use landing legs to make the base stationary and I know exactly how high I need my ports for docking.

I made the mistake of trying to send a massive base the first time and it just doesnt work out. Asparagus staging works wonders, you can youtube it for an idea on how to work it out. Also check out tworocketguys channel and view their munbase series of vids. Helped me tremendously. Good luck!

Edited April 24, 2013 by Asheron04

[jetmistro]

a couple of questions, 1. How do you get the different components to line up so perfectly when landing? 2. what kind of designs are best used?

p.s. i'm not really as interested in the flying there bit as actually getting something that IVE built there so i use mechjeb^-^

[Asheron04]

To answer your first question, you can use the 2x 4x 6x symmetry to get your tanks lined up easier. Also I almost always leave angle snap on, there are only a few cases that this isnt useful. Also if you are having trouble placing something that you know will fit, put the part anywhere it will stick. There is a bug that messes with part placement so if you place it in a random spot, it resets. Then just take it off and place it where you want it. You can make fine tune adjustments to your parts by holding down shift and pressing w, a, s, d, q, or e depending on which way you want to tilt your parts. I use this most for getting my lights at just the right angle.

Your second question is not as easy to answer. Do some research and maybe find a design you like and modify it to your purposes. Or since you like sending up something that is your own design, just keep testing your designs and making corrections. Ksp is a whole lot of trial and even more error. But hey thats the fun of it all! Hope I could help. Happy launching!

Edited April 24, 2013 by Asheron04

[jetmistro]

What about rovers? and how do you get the different parts of the base to line up so they can dock on landing? p.s. thanks everyone for the help ^-^

[Asheron04]

There are different ways to do it. For my design that I posted earlier I used the landing struts to make the rover base stationary and to gauge how high my docking port needs to be. For fine tuning I launched my rover base and drove it off to the side of the launch pad. Then after I designed an addition I moved it to where the base was and made sure it could dock before sending it to the mun. Like I said before, trial and error.

[Alinor]

Hi, recently i've been trying to build a base on the moon but i'm having trouble with fuel and, well, to be honest I don't find the ksp spaceship builder tall enough :/ any tips for ship design and base designs that can launch easily but are not too tall and have enough room for docking extensions and buggy docks? Thanks a heap

I think at some point everyone faces the dilema and what you need to decide is will you make this more realistic and brin small peaces in to orbit or you just need to bring allot of stuff in to orbit. If you just want a **** load of stuff in the orbit then what you need is to get yourself a big rocket.

I built delivery platform that brings up to 90 tons of payload in to 100km orbit and can reach stuff within 700km orbit and drop off the payload then return and power land on Kerbin all without using any of the payloads fulel. Rocket is stable and uses normal trajectory during Assent so Autopilots addons will put it in to orbit without a hitch. If you want the rocket let me know I will post it. It is large 1000 tons 420 parts but hopefully sometime in the future I can improve it and bring it in to 350 part count.

The design is you have a platform with delivery system below and payload on top 4 largest tanks can fit on the payload platform but only 2 can be carried in to orbit due to weight, so any rovers or big station parts easily fits. But you will need to put them together in orbit.

If you have 2 largest tanks(36 ton ones) in orbit you can easily deliver one 1 and change to Muns orbit drop it there and come back.

The problem though is that once you connect more than 6 modules in this game and call it a "space station" you realized how the game lacks optimization. My computer with 2way SLI 680 cards, 32gigs of ram and best intel core i7 cpu you can buy overclocked to 4.4Ghz, starts laggin as if I am playing latest visual marvel with stunning visuals at maximum graphics. All while both GPUs are falling sleep at 10-15% load CPU running at whooping 15% and ram use for entire system is 7gigs. It just goes to show that it's not the computer that matters as many think, the game is not optimized and that is sad. So be prepared to face increasing crippling lag as you put your dream station together and enjoy the **** load of fuel you delivered there.

[SDIR]

To address the problem about fuel, if you are willing to install some mods, refuelling will be easy.

First install the Kethane mod to start mining for resources. Then install the KAS mod for easy refuelling (only needs to attach a cable to refuel). That's my current system so far.