I want to learn how to build a space station

[sadron]

Can anyone recommend anything to me? I've seen stations created by some people which are pretty good. One guy managed to send a gigantic space station up into orbit with one whole piece, while others did it part by part.

So yeah what I'm asking about is any tutorials or mods which would help me achieve my dream, or indeed using vanilla parts. Cheers.~

[JSD]

My brother and me just cheated the hell out of it last week. Infinite fuel and RCS, Mechjob and above all; ORDA for auto-docking (5 modules, 4 fails. So 4 manually docks in the end.) But still, we had a lot of fun. We learned a lot. Our first time introduction to docking ever. I wouldn't say you have to start that way, but it's a option to learn more about the progress itself. Where to look for, what you need. Etc etc.

[PDCWolf]

I guess you already know the basics, so now you need to know how to:

Rendezvous and dock -

(By scott manley)

once you know that, the only thing you need is keep docking modules till you build your station.

[ComradeGoat]

Pretty much what others have said. Learn to dock (hard learning curve, but one of the most useful skills in the game), send stuff up, dock something to it, dock more to it, behold space station!

[Dr. Muttonstache]

The trick about docking is getting an encounter (aunching at the right time ect.). From there its really easy.

[CalculusWarrior]

I always forget to wait for a rendezvous, so I make a larger orbit and mess around with maneuver nodes to get an encounter.

[AceGamer]

I am also new to docking and wold like to know some tips. I've been trying to build a space station for a while now!

[Loocas]

To me, the most difficult part is the rendezvous (especially if you want to save as much fuel as possible). Docking isn't that hard. I only had to get used to the keybindings.

[sadron]

Once I get docking down, how would I go about building the thing? Like what parts should I use?

Edited April 29, 2013 by sadron

[ROFLCopter64bit]

Well, you build them with each dock. More ships docked = bigger the station.

[Loocas]

Like what parts should I use?

Well, that depends on what will be the purpose of your station. I believe the only practical purpose of a station (in the current version) would be to refuel other crafts. In this case, try sending fuel tanks (including RCS). If you use addons like Mapsat or Kethane there could be more use to your station(s).

[sadron]

In a sense I wish to make a sort of Kerbal version of the ISS, and then go from there. Sort of pretend my Kerbals are conducting SCIENCE! while aboard.

Are there any recommended pieces?

[vencaslac]

really depends on what you want to achieve with it... i have a couple of fuel stations... 3 large orange tanks (i find any more than that redundant) some hab modules and a docking arm for on orbit construction of interplanetary or indeed munar missions... don't forget the pretty solar panels

[Spatzimaus]

This also depends on whether you actually WANT your station to be assembled from lots of smaller parts. Me, I just design a huge station as a single unit, and then launch it with a really big heavy-lift vehicle; my standard stations mass about 300 tons. The big advantage of this method is stability; you can use plenty of struts to keep your construction stable, without having to rely on large numbers of docking ports or quantum struts. Right now there's little downside to just using a larger launch vehicle, so it's not much of a problem to get a big station into orbit.

The thing is, right now there isn't much of a use for stations. All they're really used for is as fuel depots, and you don't need a station for that when you can just launch a couple orange tanks with docking ports into orbit. But once 0.20 comes out, with the new resource system, all of that will change, for two reasons:

1> There will be more fuel types, like Nuclear Fuel. That means more types of fuel tanks, which makes a small refueling ship a bit less useful. Right now it's not really a big deal to launch a ship that has fuel and xenon and monoprop, since only the basic fuel/oxidizer take up much space, but add a couple more fuel types and it gets prohibitive.

2> There will be refining. Right now, players who use the Kethane mod have little reason to haul raw Kethane back to orbit, when they can just refine it into fuel on-site. But this new resource system is more differentiated, so it'll be unlikely that any one location can provide all of the ingredients for any fuel type. That is, extracting Blutonium will be all well and good, but without some other material you won't be able to convert it into Nuclear Fuel. So, your Blutonium mining vessel won't refine the fuel; instead, it'll carry it back to some central refinery that can store all of the necessary raw materials, a refinery that'll then store the final fuel and/or ship it off to some other repository. Space stations are ideal for that role.

Also, we don't know the sizes involved. Kethane refineries are small (with the largest being only 4 tons), but if the refinery modules needed for the 0.20 system are much heavier than that, then it won't really be possible to carry one on your extractors; you'll ONLY refine fuel either in orbit or at large ground bases. And one weakness of the Kethane mod was that only the active vessel could refine; if refining is a very slow process, but one that can be performed by ships we're not actively controlling, then space stations would be the perfect place to do the job.

Now, maybe this'll mean that you design a generic space station core and then attach resource-specific refining modules to it once it's in orbit. But I'll probably just end up designing a variant of my standard station specific to each planet, so that the Jool station will have tanks for all of the resources common to Jool's moons.

[sadron]

Well for the guys who make the station all at once, how do you get that giant hunk of stuff up into the atmosphere? It's gotta be heavy as hell.

[ComradeGoat]

Well for the guys who make the station all at once, how do you get that giant hunk of stuff up into the atmosphere? It's gotta be heavy as hell.

This is a smallish station, but I do launch it all in one go. Sometimes I'll carry the latter stages empty to orbit so it can be refuelled and used as a staged craft to deliver a fuel depot to Jool, or Duna, or elsewhere:

[sadron]

Another question, where do the Kerbals live in the station? Besides the command pods, are there compartment pieces that you can put on it? Or any mods that add such?

[ComradeGoat]

Another question, where do the Kerbals live in the station? Besides the command pods, are there compartment pieces that you can put on it? Or any mods that add such?

Hitchhiker storage container. Holds 4 kerbals. There's one at the top of my station in the above picture.

My mightiest (non station) rocket takes off with a crew of 2, but actually has space for 10!

[sadron]

What about other things, like living areas? Any mods that add space station stuff?

[Spatzimaus]

Well for the guys who make the station all at once, how do you get that giant hunk of stuff up into the atmosphere? It's gotta be heavy as hell.

Like this:

Those are thirteen KW Rocketry 3.75m rocket stacks. The outer sets separate at the point shown, and the last stack is used to circularize the orbit. It has enough extra fuel that I can put the station in a 200km circular orbit, top off the station's tanks, and then de-orbit the booster. There are a couple specific points where the launch is difficult, if only because of SAS's inability to maintain stability for something that large outside the atmosphere, but vectorable thrust is generally enough.

Deployed, it looks like this:

It's a 300-ton station, but uses only my second-largest booster. My biggest is for my 450-ton mobile fuel refineries...

[sadron]

I'm assuming you're using some mod parts? Which ones? Do you have any recommendations?

[Spatzimaus]

I'm assuming you're using some mod parts?

Yes. Here are the ones I remember using:

> KW Rocketry: not really critical for the station itself, but those 3.75m rocket stacks are essential for the booster, and it includes some other useful stuff, like stronger (but heavier) struts and larger solar panels/RTGs.

> FusTek's Common Berthing Mechanisms mod, for the improved docking ports (the white ones visible along the sides and top). This mod adds 2.5m and 3.75m ports, and also has a much higher bonding strength than a normal port, which is great when you're trying to dock vessels that'll hold together under thrust. To compensate, the ports are a bit more massive than normal ones, and also are a bit pickier on docking (each has a "passive" half and an "active" half, and you generally want the vessel doing the docking to have the active version).

> The Ion Engine mod. Besides just adding large Xenon tanks (critical if you want to use your station as a fuel depot for Ion-using vessels) and 2.5m batteries, it adds Hybrid Ion engines, which are a nice alternative to using LV-Ns on your station for orbital changes. I've got four of the 2.5m hybrids on the station, although they're almost never used.

> BOMP, a mod providing larger unmanned probe controllers. This lets you control the station while it's unmanned, and look better than the normal tiny probe heads. The original version just used one of the stock parts, hidden underneath the HOME module (see below).

> HOME, for the habitation module (the inflatable one with the trees). It's basically just aesthetic, but I didn't want a station that didn't have something like this. It acts as a fuel tank, so it's not completely useless, but it's still not very imporant.

> The Jool V mod. Not important, but it's got that nice 3.75m-2.5m adapter you see at the top of my design.

Beyond that, it's all stock.

[sadron]

Another thing I want to ask rather than just making a new thread for the sole purpose of asking it: What plugin allows me to redesignate ships such as from a lander to probe or whatever (it was something a Let's Player that I watch used to redesignate a satellite's designation or something) as well what plugin allows me to rename objects in space? Such as a space station I might build in the future or the satellite I have in orbit now.

[eskimo]

allows me to redesignate ships such as from a lander to probe or whatever

You don't need any plugins, just right click your command pod (or probe) and hit rename vehicle or vessel, let's you rename it and give it the desired icon.

[sadron]

Oh, derp. Another question, I kinda want my satellite to constantly point towards Kerbin as it orbits, is it possible to do this? That's how they'd "receive" its signals and all that.