Show off your Kethane Mining Designs!!

[Amphiprion]

So I thought I'd show you my Kethane Mining station design's.

The "tug" picks up the filled tankers which are completely mobile, and takes them up to the orbiting fuel station to fill up tanks. then returns rinse repeat.

each tanker is very mobile, has omni wheels on it, so it can winch itself up and down, also they can turn 360 on the spot, and move sideways.

The tug has a magic lift ram, so it can also adjust its height. each tanker docks with the tug via a docking port ontop of them.

getting some air as I relocate the drill section on the surface.

up at the station sorting some stuff out.

And finally a shot of the Kethane tug. you deorbit with the atomic engines, then when in atmosphere, rotate 180 degrees and use the keth turbines. opposite obv for ascent.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.. let me know what you think

Please post some of your mining techniques. I can't wait for resources to come out..

Edited July 5, 2013 by Amphiprion

[nhnifong]

Looks like a pretty cool machine!

what is a magic lift ram?

[The Tempest]

This looks great, and I've been thinking of making a similar setup, but am stuck thinking how the docking will work without the lifting arms.

[jordanjay29]

I just used dropships for my operations, as I couldn't get a wheeled vehicle to land or drive properly on Minmus. I suppose I could have surveyed the Mun, but I thought Minmus was more fun. In retrospect, though, I've made my station's kethane tank too small, my newest dropship can hold twice as much as the station itself, making it somewhat redundant.

The my newest dropship. Those are using the 2.5m parts.

This is my refueling station:

That's basically it for me, I didn't get quite as fancy with trucks, rovers or tugs. I haven't used Kethane in any engines yet, perhaps I'll fix some to an interplanetary craft once I get accustomed to travel outside of Kerbin SOI.

[Amphiprion]

Looks like a pretty cool machine!

what is a magic lift ram?

The magic lift ram's are those white stick looking objects near the atomic engines, almost on the opposite side of the landing gear. once landed, you can unlock these and lift the entire ship up or down to assist in the tanker docking.

The Tempest : if you didn't have lifting arms it would be difficult. I use the omni wheels on the tankers to lift them in combination with the rams to get docking to occur.

Jordanjay: I quite like your idea, its less complicated, and I suppose you do all the conversions at your station?

[LordVaderXIII]

So I thought I'd show you my Kethane Mining station design's.

The "tug" picks up the filled tankers which are completely mobile, and takes them up to the orbiting fuel station to fill up tanks. then returns rinse repeat.

each tanker is very mobile, has omni wheels on it, so it can winch itself up and down, also they can turn 360 on the spot, and move sideways.

The tug has a magic lift ram, so it can also adjust its height. each tanker docks with the tug via a docking port ontop of them.

getting some air as I relocate the drill section on the surface.

up at the station sorting some stuff out.

And finally a shot of the Kethane tug. you deorbit with the atomic engines, then when in atmosphere, rotate 180 degrees and use the keth turbines. opposite obv for ascent.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.. let me know what you think

Please post some of your mining techniques. I can't wait for resources to come out..

Probably one of the best efforts I have seen. Taking notes, stealing ideas.

[Amphiprion]

I think In my revised version, I will only have Kethane Tankers and do all conversions on the station. makes more sense

[soranno]

given the rate of conversion it would seem to make infinitely more sense to do all the conversions at source on the planet/moon surface, and only lift the final fuel products back into orbit..

doing it the other way for design or entertainment purposes I understand though, but not for reasons of sense or efficiency

[Amphiprion]

given the rate of conversion it would seem to make infinitely more sense to do all the conversions at source on the planet/moon surface, and only lift the final fuel products back into orbit..

doing it the other way for design or entertainment purposes I understand though, but not for reasons of sense or efficiency

yessss i forgot about the keth to final product conversion ratio. ! thanks

[togfox]

The magic lift ram's are those white stick looking objects near the atomic engines, almost on the opposite side of the landing gear. once landed, you can unlock these and lift the entire ship up or down to assist in the tanker docking.

Yes, but what IS the magic lift ram? The only part i can think of that does that is robotic mods that have "hydrolic" parts.

[Amphiprion]

Yes, but what IS the magic lift ram? The only part i can think of that does that is robotic mods that have "hydrolic" parts.

the magic lift rams are what i described in my answer to you, but the MOD that they are from :

Modular Multi Wheels.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/modular-multiwheels-and-omniwheels/

not sure if its working for .20.1 yet, I did just try it out and looks like it failed.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Amphiprion

[LordVaderXIII]

I probably shouldnt have quoted the whole post.

Those rams to what I think they do then there is always Damned Robotics hydraulic ones.

[Amphiprion]

KETHANE MINING ISSUE LOG : 43288

kethane mod fixed with 3rd party patch.

So, as soon as I undock one of these mining rigs on minimus now, the mining rig becomes completely inoperable. elec charge is fine.

if i simply undock the rover miner section, it doesnt want to drive in any direction, the panels wont extend, the drills wont deploy, the detectors wont activate..

any ideas?

Edited July 10, 2013 by Amphiprion

[Immashift]

So, as soon as I undock one of these mining rigs on minimus now, the mining rig becomes completely inoperable. elec charge is fine.

if i simply undock the rover miner section, it doesnt want to drive in any direction, the panels wont extend, the drills wont deploy,

I've had that a few times and it's usually solved by either switching to the VAB for a sec or another vessel, or in some cases relaunching KSP. I doubt it's Kethane causing the issue. Do you actually have a command module on there? Sorry for obvious questions, but every time I have this problem it's something really simple.

[TomSawyer1212]

Here is my Kethane processing rover filling my tanker. The advantage is that you can land the tanker anywhere in the kethane field and then drive the rovers up to it, Dock, drill/process, undock and you're good to go.

http://i1361.photobucket.com/albums/r661/TomSawyer1212/RoversMakingFuel_zps375f3a21.png

[Amphiprion]

I've had that a few times and it's usually solved by either switching to the VAB for a sec or another vessel, or in some cases relaunching KSP. I doubt it's Kethane causing the issue. Do you actually have a command module on there? Sorry for obvious questions, but every time I have this problem it's something really simple.

Facepalming myself right now.. no command module on the miner. Thank you

double facepalms himself.

[BJ Quest]

My first Kethane Mun mining operation: Version 1.9 been waiting for the update on Kethane and IAS work with version 2.0

I have mining operations on the Mun and Minmus. I have been thinking of using Minmus as a big space station and landing large spacecraft there for fuel refill before heading off for other planets. I have not tested this yet (waiting for some updates for some add on's to try in v2.0).

To accomplish refueling I align small docking parts and have fuel-trucks(rovers) with KAS winches on them to attach to ships. It has been working fine. As a note: This delivery ship was not able to refuel but later designs were. http://i.imgur.com/tgDHY63.png My Mun mining base with ships that have been refueled: http://i.imgur.com/OoEeTgZ.jpg

BJ Quest

Edited June 2, 2013 by BJ Quest

[Dortmunder]

This is my Kethane Drill / Rover.

Works good, just have to drive it around fairly slowly and save often

[Amphiprion]

Awesome awesome pics and design's guys wow

Here is my latest fuel launcher to ferry fuel from the surface of minimus to the orbital fuel depot. Its at the bottom with all the atomic engines..

and here it is landed, recieving a topup.

and back up at the fuel depot filling up.. 1 trip brings 3.7 orange tanks of fuel to the station.

please keep the pics of your designs flowing. loving it.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Amphiprion

[Amphiprion]

Soooo, I have redesigned my keth operations. I no longer use any rovers or tugs as they required alot more take-off's and landings. i know use the large refueling landing craft as a complete refueler for orbital fuel depot's

here is my most recent design of one of these on gilly, sucking up its juices.

[BJ Quest]

With the Kethane mining on the rocket itself....

Nicely done. I have been thinking of doing this. How well is this work? Is the 90% conversion unit worth using on smaller rockets used in similar configurations? Suggestions in design of such a rocket? Thanks - BJ Quest

[HoY]

This is the Hulk. Anyone that played EVE would get it

It mines into a kethane silo consisting of 15 of the largest sizes kethane tanks, connected to this rig with the KAS winches you can see on its ventral section.

I don't have pictures of the silo, or the orbital fuel depot made from 14 jumbo 64's, Nor of the tanker that brings up 4 full orange tanks from the surface of Vall to the tanker, but they are all visible in the recordings on twitch of my streams.. If anyone wants to see some of them I can run through them and get you the time stamps and episode numbers to see them in construction and transit to Vall.

[BJ Quest]

KE-2 "Prospector" and KSL-1 (Kethane Ship Large) Two ships that can travel to Minmus (and beyond). Locate fuel deposits, Land, Mine, Fuel up and move on to the next planet, etc. The KSL-1 is designed to locate, mine and fill up passing ships, Etc. Both have successfully been lanced and been mining on Minmus. I intend to take the KE2 "Prospector" to other planetary objects very soon and see how far I can get.

KE-2 Prospector

KSL-1 Launching from Kerbin

http://i.imgur.com/ACmLq13.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/47DDJ1Q.png

PS: Thanks for all the posts and good Idea's - I am enjoying all that has been shared in this thread. :-)

BJ Quest

[firegeek83]

Here's an updated version of my DSV: Kethane Platform. It's setup to travel to the destination first, drill & refuel while the manned mission is en route. After arrival, the manned craft links up with the DSV:KP, refuels and heads home. That's the plan, at least.

[John FX]

I recently blogged about getting taken over by the spirit of Jeb and, well, what happened was I went and decided to just land the 500T station on Minmus and refuel it stood on top of my mining craft...

Can you see the kerbals I put there to show scale?