The Idea Space Naval Ship Yards

[Locklear308]

One thing that has always sparked my curiosity the most, is the idea of building ships, IN space, via player constructed Naval ship yards. Any and ALL supplies used for construction would have to be brought up from the planet.

Why?

Well, I often imagine the idea of...after many, many many weeks of work. Finally having a semi finished Naval Yard Frame in orbit. From which I could create actual space vessels. Such as light Frigates and the like. Obliviously small. But even thinking about it just makes me giddy with delight.

Will this be possible someday? I doubt it...

But it would be nice to build ships from player made Construction Platforms that had to be built and assembled in space.

(Obviously it wouldn't be this big...at least, not unless you were pro.)

One can dream.

[Temstar]

You can construction multi-part ships in space currently, in the sense that you can build each section of the ship on the ground and launch them, then join them up in orbit. This however doesn't really require an orbital shipyard.

You're suggesting building of an entire ship from raw materials on a orbital facility. In the sense that the sections are not joined by docking port but regular part to part connection with struts and everything. This isn't possible in the game yet though I have seen one rather buggy orbital construction mod that simulates this by teleporting a ship directly from the launch pad into orbit and deducts the parts needed in it's construction out of a parts cache in orbit.

[Locklear308]

You can construction multi-part ships in space currently, in the sense that you can build each section of the ship on the ground and launch them, then join them up in orbit. This however doesn't really require an orbital shipyard.

You're suggesting building of an entire ship from raw materials on a orbital facility. In the sense that the sections are not joined by docking port but regular part to part connection with struts and everything. This isn't possible in the game yet though I have seen one rather buggy orbital construction mod that simulates this by teleporting a ship directly from the launch pad into orbit and deducts the parts needed in it's construction out of a parts cache in orbit.

Yeah basically that. Like a VAB In space, the Orbital VAB. (OVAB)

Ahhh, that would be sweet. Ground ships would still need to be used and improved to send up supplies, fuel, and the like. ^-^

Ahhh... Giddy...

[Fel]

*Quick joke about you saying "Naval Ship Yard, In Space"

Well, I'd first say that you'd need to fully colonize a celestial body. While it is possible to have rockets bring up preassembled parts, you REALLY want to establish a space-industry where the majority of the fabrication occurs in a low gravity environment... otherwise you're just wasting fuel bringing up the 'large parts'. But with an INDUSTRY established where the only issue is raw materials (**or mining**) you can make it very efficient to produce ships in space rather than launch them into orbit.

And then, you can launch really crazy ships without having to have excessive strutting (or other exploits) just to survive the atmosphere.

[Van Disaster]

This is approaching meme levels, but there is a mod which does something like this; you "fuel" the dockyard with materials, and then it will teleport a ship from the launchpad to itself and eat the materials in return. Having the thing pop up in a dockyard model would be rather fun.

[Tw1]

I read the thread name and got the impression this was one of those threads requesting ships, as in water ships, being constructed in space.

Terms like navy don't really work well in a space context. We need new words, I reckon, for a new type of travel.

[dr_jt]

Consider Kerbals

Edited June 6, 2013 by dr_jt

[Pinbacker]

This is approaching meme levels, but there is a mod which does something like this; you "fuel" the dockyard with materials, and then it will teleport a ship from the launchpad to itself and eat the materials in return. Having the thing pop up in a dockyard model would be rather fun.

Knew i'd seen it somewhere..

Orbital Construction Mod

Stopped working a few updates ago but shows the possibility, maybe the idea could be resurrected by people smarter than me

[Xeo]

Knew i'd seen it somewhere..

Orbital Construction Mod

Stopped working a few updates ago but shows the possibility, maybe the idea could be resurrected by people smarter than me

It already has been

Orbital construction redux

[Wait- Was That Important?]

I really like this idea- I've fooled around with the mod before, but wish there was a stock way of doing it.

Realism can only take KSP so far. We already have the semi-fictitious NERVA engines that exist but have never actually been used. Orbital Construction would be a great addition along those lines of plausibility.

[Tada]

Good ideas, should work like that - you have to lift what ever parts you would like to do to a "shipyard" and do a build there.

[magnemoe]

This is an KSP shipyard.

The huge bay is just to make it look like an dock, this has the capability to build over 300 tons ships, dry weight if I fuel them in orbit who I would do for anything larger. Huge engines as it weight over 600 ton filled with spare parts, if empty I can send it to Jool.

[EndlessWaves]

An orbital shipyard is a silly idea, there are no materials up there so there's no good reason to build ships from scratch. The current system of welding ships together in orbit to make a bigger one is the sensible way to go about it.

Low gravity shipyards on the other hand are much more likely to happen once we get mining.

[Blackstar]

I think recent versions of Romfarer's Lazor mod have an experimental 'welding' feature that can join parts in orbit without docking ports. I haven't tried it myself but remember reading about it.

[magnemoe]

I think recent versions of Romfarer's Lazor mod have an experimental 'welding' feature that can join parts in orbit without docking ports. I haven't tried it myself but remember reading about it.

Nice, main benefit of building ships from scratch is that you don't have to launch them, just launch standard 100 ton loads of spare parts.

[Xeo]

In fact there is a good reason why one might want to build ships from scratch in space instead of docking multiple parts together (in KSP) : getting rid of this annoying wobble induced by docking ports.

[Pinbacker]

It already has been

Orbital construction redux

thank goodness for people smarter than me

[Locklear308]

Goodness, I'm surprised to see everyone having fun and talking about the idea.

Oh...The thought of mining asteroids for materials also makes me giddy. Making some kind of cargo ship that can tow it back to Mun orbit.

AHHHH....Giddyness.

[Vanamonde]

An orbital shipyard is a silly idea

It is in the current version of the game because our construction crews never need to take a break, take their suits off, or set their tools down, but it's not an inherently bad idea. However, I started off building ships this way, but found that the lag got nasty when the part count of the ship was added to the part count of the station, so I don't do it anymore.

[Van Disaster]

And of course if you construct ships using docking ports instead of welding the parts together, you've added another bunch of extra parts just doing that.

[23278]

I'd be just as happy with a Mun surface assembly station. Mine for materials to build ships from there. More "realistic" imo.

[Frederf]

I've greatly been considering an orbital assembly station, not a resource-warp-done kind but a genuine place to build ships in orbit.

Proposed features:

1. Extensive gantry structure

2. Lighting arrays

3. "Walking" type articulated arm(s) to place components

4. Space tug to capture incoming parts and handle anything the arms can't reach

5. Storage nodes to inventory components outside of the assembly area

6. RCS fuel, xenon, etc. small servicing resources

7. Support equipment for above

Basically a component is launched on an intercept with the station within the Remotech 2.5km range so a tug remotely commanded can catch it and dock it to a storage node. As the parts are needed arms place them into their final position in the lighted assembly area. Finally fuels are topped off and it's launched.

[Sbowyer28]

That looks like Anchor Nine componants, are those models from Reach or Inspired by Reach?

[Sigma117]

I really like the idea behind the orbital construction mod. Seems well balanced in that you need to ship the parts there in the first place.