What are the best locations for space stations?

[DaveSteadman]

I've just launched a big ship to Duna, and it sucks. Its stuck in a dumb orbit and spent 3 of 5 orange tanks of fuel to get there. Which has me thinking: What are the best places for space stations, specifically those for storing up fuel for subsequent stages?

One in a low-ish 150km orbit is an easy option, but what about one outside Minimus, right on the edge of the planet's influence?

Or am thinking about it wrong and should just go in a straight line from the launch pad? What have other people done?

Cheers.

[Atanar]

Since getting fuel to minmus in the first place is pretty darn costly, I suggest a 100-kilometer Kerbin orbit. if you match inclination with the Mun very close it will be easier for the next ship to have the same inclination since you can simply aim for the Mun inclination again.

Starting with full fuel from Minmus orbit would technically let you reach further though.

Edited May 30, 2013 by Atanar

[Rosarium]

Minmus is the best place for a refuel.... The orbit is slow with a cheap intercept. Mine is there and has been made to refuel the SSTOs to laythe. If you want some tips on station do not add useless parts, they are gonna weight. Do not use many nervas! For a 10k oxidier station 4 are enought, i mean youll take more time to get there but once the you wont move for an ethernity.

[Sma]

I'm rather new to the game my self, but the few times I've left Kerbin's SOI it wasn't exactly anywhere near Minmus. I'd think it'd be hard to get to a fuel station unless you could some how have it somewhere along the path on the way to Duna. Then of course you'd have to hope the station would be located at the same place at the same time as your orbit path to Duna. I'm planning on just having a fueling station around Kerbin to refuel whatever was used to get to orbit. Then maybe another station at the target planet/mun.

However unless you have the kethane mod, having a full fuel station in orbit around other planets/muns may be kind of hard. Currently since I don't have any mods I'm planning for my Kerbin fuel station to get fueled by what little left over fuel launches from Kerbin have left over in their ascent stage before sending them back for deorbit and having their payload continue on.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, I bet someone with more experience will have a better answer

[Motokid600]

My station sits at 90km. Very easy to get too. Only downer is being under 120km for timewarp. If I forget to launch as my station rises in the east it takes too long to for them to meet at 50x. As for the station on the edge of Kerbins SoI....idk. id like someone else to chime in on that. It could be practical for interplanetary missions, but id imagine the fuel wasted to meet with a station that far out wouldn't be worth it. It take a huge amount of to circularize an orbit that large... I think. : /

Edited May 30, 2013 by Motokid600

[Landge]

My stations orbit roughly depends of the size of the planet +-. My Kerbin Station is 250km, Mun Station is 150km, Duna Station is somewhere between 200 to 250km. Kerbin's was set at 250 so that I could timewarp x 1000. It's really all a matter of choice. My interplanetary ships I park in a 500km Kerbin orbit before the mission but I don't know if that's effective than being farther out or not.

For my interplanetary flights I send fuel tanker ships, unmanned, 3 to 5 days ahead of the main ship so that once the main ship arrives fuel is already there to rendezveous and fill up.

Edited May 30, 2013 by Landge

[Scotius]

Unfortunately maintaining fuel industry in space is not cheap nor simple. Usually i have refuelling station in LKO (about 80-90 km), which is a hub of my activities in Kerbin system. "When you are in orbit, you are half-way to everywhere." - following this rule i refuel my ships there when needed. I'm also sending unkerballed tankers to destination points of my interplanetary missions. Those around Duna and Jool usually become cores of local fuel depots. Since they are too far to be efficiently supplied from Kerbin, i'm striving to set up kethane mining operations as soon as possible.

[georgTF]

In my opinion: Stick a fuel depot in a 250-400km orbit around Kerbin. It's high enough so it's easy to intercept by going over or under, and you're not limited when timewarping. It also doesn't take too much fuel to reach and refuel the depot.

As someone who has a fuel depot orbiting Minmus i can tell you that it does help escape Kerbin SOI with almost full tanks, BUT that is only ever usefull if you're sending a fuel tanker to another planet. Reaching Minmus requires ~1000 dV and that goes for every ship delivering fuel there as well (unless you mine Kethane). For most interplanetary travel it would be simpler to embark from a Kerbin station rather than a Minmus one.

[Oddbin]

What would be the best compromise in height for a Mun fuel/crew station? I want to put a fuel station in orbit that can also have crew stationed so that I can build a lander and return vehicle for trips down to and back from the mun whilst also being able to replace and swap crew or stock up crew and head to Minimus etc.

I have tried from 10km up to 150km. Some are easier than others, some have a nightmare for rendezvous and some burns a load of fuel to get to.

[jordanjay29]

I have a station at Minmus, but that's where the hub of my Kethane mining operations are. It's pretty easy to get to in just about any orbit-able ship, the hardest part is the Hoffman transfer to Minmus which can be a long burn (1-2 minutes seems to be the average, depending on my engines). After that, the course corrections, orbit and rendezvous in Minmus orbit are simple burns.

Edit: I forgot to add, my Minmus refueling station is at 105km around Minmus. Seems to be a decent orbit for rendezvous.

[triffid_hunter]

have a refuelling station BOTH at kerbin LKO (100-200km) AND at minmus.

kethane makes it a LOT easier, hoisting kethane or processed fuel from minmus's surface is very cheap

[Eric S]

I like having a fuel depot in Minmus orbit, but it only makes sense if it's either supporting Minmus operations, or you're using the Kethane mod to create the fuel at Minmus. Once you're mining kethane on Minmus, that becomes the most efficient way in terms of delta-V to supply fuel for an LKO fuel base.