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Space Station / Colonies Tips


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Im Looking at starting a grand adventure involving many stations and hopefully culminating in a large colony on each planet.

The stations i have built previously always seem 'unstable' when over a certain size AND getting them created in orbit is always difficult as i cant seem to create a craft large enough to push up anything bigger than a simple engine and fuel tank.

So does anyone have any tips on creating stable space stations and launchers?

And any tips on landing large stations (or colonies) ?

Thanks.

p.s. I will document this, im hoping to make a story or at least something interesting :)

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Only a beginner myself. I can only share some early observations.

There appears to be a happy medium between too long and too short. Or perhaps, overpowered and too short. :) In addition, clustered tanks and engines appear to me to be the way to heavy lift with rockets. That's going to mean some playing around with a few parameters;

If the craft tumbles, you need fins. If it can't make it far enough, you need more power. If it wobbles you can probably deal with it using struts.

Struts are quite important for large builds with clustered engines.

Don't be afraid to load up stock items to see how it's done. Have a look at the stock Kerbal X.

EDIT: I just thought of one more thing. Don't try to attach the largest engine directly to the big orange tank as it will overheat. Instead, add the smallest available tank of the same diameter to the bottom of the orange tank, then put on that big mother of an engine.

Edited by Scrogdog
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Temstar's design is pretty solid. He's also got a whole line of heavy booster modules for varying payloads; his largest will do a little over a hundred tonnes. I have one myself that will do 130.

The trick, of course, is to keep the stack from telescoping in on itself during the launch. For that, you're going to need MOAR STRUTS.

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One possible solution: Make your space tug modular. Instead of hefting the whole thing up in one go, put up a small core with a hub of docking ports, then dock small components to that core one at a time. Put the drive component on last.

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EDIT: I just thought of one more thing. Don't try to attach the largest engine directly to the big orange tank as it will overheat. Instead, add the smallest available tank of the same diameter to the bottom of the orange tank, then put on that big mother of an engine.

Hmm, that's very interesting. Why would adding a small tank between the orange and the mainsail prevent the engine from overheating? Is this a bug?

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So does anyone have any tips on creating stable space stations and launchers?

Particularly when constructing a modular station, Fusty's FusTek Common Berthing Mechanisms are your best friend:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/common-berthing-mechanisms-2-5m-docking-ports-2/

While modular stations are good fun, I like the challenge of launching stations in one shot.

While I still try to convince myself that these single-launch behemoths save time, the sad reality is that fine-tuning a massive beast of a launcher often takes ten times longer than launching and docking a few modules.

That said, you get quite a sense of accomplishment when they are successful, and a stunning debris cloud when they aren't. A win-win.

For one-shot absurdities, devo's station ring is a must-have, for any number of uses or reasons.

I will leave the rest to your imagination. =)

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Thanks guys. Lots of useful stuff here.

I probably should have mentioned, i am without internet at home (currently at work ;) ) so i cant update or get any mods. So im working from stock parts in 0.19

I have actually managed to create a fairly stable launcher system core and im experimenting with how many "boosters" (a copy of the core engines and fuel tank) i can add before the ship is either uncontrollable or just explodes.

At the moment it can lift the equiv. of 2 orange tanks i think (core + 2 boosters) and still achieve orbit.

Thats probably all i need really as i can then use that as a refueller as well as a launcher.

Im also trying to make this re-usable so any parts that are jettisoned im trying to make them recoverable Or make it able to carry its own weight to the station.

There is another reasons for carrying its own weight.

My plan is to create a station orbiting each planet so the tug/lifter/refueler, im hoping, will be able to travel between the stations (refueling at each one).

So far the Kerbal Kill Count is 12 after some mistakes in fuel pumps (yes, i forgot the arrows, all the fuel pumped to the right side of my craft and then it turned in to a very expensive and deadly Catherine Wheel!)

When i have something significant completed (maybe some video and more screenshots) ill create a story in the story thread.

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Hmm, that's very interesting. Why would adding a small tank between the orange and the mainsail prevent the engine from overheating? Is this a bug?

It's not so much a bug as it's just how the game works and that combination of parts was overlooked. The engines use the mass of parts near them to bleed off excess heat, so if there is nothing close by they can't do that. That measurement is made from the COM of the part, and as it happens the jumbo tank's COM is outside the range the engine looks at, so the engine doesn't see it as a heatsink (even though it ought to be about the best part for that purpose). There is a mod out there that adds heatsink parts, but since adding small tanks works fine (even the smallest 2m tank will let you run your mainsails at 95% without blowing up) I don't use them.

That's how I understand the problem anyway, if that's wrong please let me know.

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