Show off your Kethane Mining Designs!!

[Amphiprion]

I love the SSTO, are the wings on it also from the B9 pack?

Yes, the wings are in the new b-9 pack

[Eleven]

Here is one of my newer ones, with the new big drills, its self contained, the second pic is an older one that drops a rover and is very similar to OP's design:

[Amphiprion]

the second pic is an older one that drops a rover and is very similar to OP's design:

How is that similar to my design!!! ahha urs is craaazy!

[chrischambers]

mine is very basic, a all in one, pod with drills and rockets to take it back to the orbital.

[Amphiprion]

mine is very basic, a all in one, pod with drills and rockets to take it back to the orbital.

So lets have a look?

[Eleven]

How is that similar to my design!!! ahha urs is craaazy!

Well...the idea is the same!

[Amphiprion]

Here's my latest all in one Keth Refueler ship..

they are getting bigger.. I made this one with a two goals.

1. Contain as much fuel storage as possible

2. use under 200 parts for the finished ship.

The Spherical fuel tanks make up the bulk of the fuel storage and are launched from kerbin empty.

Taking it to minimus now for a refuel, will supply how many tons it weighs fully fuelled.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Amphiprion

[Bigred2989]

Here's my latest all in one Keth Refueler ship..

they are getting bigger.. I made this one with a two goals.

1. Contain as much fuel storage as possible

2. use under 200 parts for the finished ship.

Taking it to minimus now for a refuel, will supply how many tons it weighs fully fuelled.

Nice. How hard was it to get into orbit?

[Amphiprion]

1,950,000L of Kethane Later and the craft is full.

It weighs in at 3604.08 tons.

I hope I can take off ...

[HoY]

1,950,000L of Kethane Later and the craft is full.

It weighs in at 3604.08 tons.

I hope I can take off ...

All well and good, but I see no docking ports on it? No KAS winch? And no quantum fuel transfer nodes. How do you plan on using all this fuel?

[XbasmanX]

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..

Would you be willing to share the craft file?

[Amphiprion]

Bigred: It wasn't too difficult, I had to resize the b-9 sabre multimode engines to fit to 3.75m parts, the ratio increase from the b-9 2m part to 3.5m was echo'd in the parameters of the engine in mass, fuel consumption, etc etc.

It was able to get to minimus from launch at kerbin.

HOY : If you look at the picture where the SABRE engines are being jettisson'd you will see a docking port. as for KAS winches and quantum fuel, I don't need that if I can dock to the ship.

Here's a Laythe Lander docked to the underside:

If I need to turn the ship into a fuel depot, I can build a multi port docking sleeve/column that can come out its behind.

XbasmanX I sure can share the craft file for my old rover technique, PM me your email addy and I will send you all the rover designs. for the Ramtug you need a few mods I can list for you..

but FYI: much easier to build a ship to refuel that goes up and down.

[Climberfx]

[Amphiprion]

ClimberFx- nice one!

your ladder looks a hoot.

[Azazael]

My Kethane factory on Duna. Supplies my Duna base with 7000 LFO. Crane was used to drag base units to factory as it landed 200m from the rest of the hab units. Used SOJUZ151 super heavy refule ship - 280 tons to orbit to get it to Duna.

Uses : H.O.M.E & DEMV2&4 from Bobcat, Kethane, DRobotics, KAS

Edited June 26, 2013 by Azazael

[Amphiprion]

Azazael, I like your crane rovers, using the HOME+ Bobcat mod nicely there!

[Azazael]

Thanks Amphiprion Bobcats excellent mods make it so easy to colonise Duna. The DEMV MK2 can be configured for Tankers (RCS/LFO/Kethane) or towing vehicles or as cranes.

Everything was landed with Mechjeb and a stock lifter straight from Kerbin. Most stuff weighs around ~30tons except the refinery. Next stop Laythe.

[Nori]

Anyone have any large ships with the new large drills? Trying to make a nice one but having trouble launching it's bulk into space...

[Amphiprion]

Hi Nori, hows 3600tons fully loaded?

I give you the Kethstral.

1,950,000L+- of kethane to fill.

Uses 2x Large drills.

I launch from kerbin with its tanks empty, then it moon hops with Fatman Atomic Engines @ 600kn/800isp per engine.

at launch:

12X large SABRE engines +12 Thor GLobe SRB's

then those stage off and it uses 6x fatman atomics to scoot from moon to moon.

LOW G moons essential

Edited June 25, 2013 by Amphiprion

[chrischambers]

I just landed on the planted and I didn't read the mod Referance, so there I was sitting on the surface, and no way of being about to convert the Kethane, as I didn't install any addication tanks :-( Dooh, Back to the drawing board.

[Nori]

Dang that thing is ginormous! Cool design though. Slightly larger than I was thinking though. I'm just having a tough time getting my 100t into orbit.

[astroadrian99]

My Kethane factory on Duna. Supplies my Duna base with 7000 LFO. Crane was used to drag base units to factory as it landed 200m from the rest of the hab units. Used SOJUZ151 super heavy refule ship - 280 tons to orbit to get it to Duna.

Can you post the link to th mod for some reason can't find it for some reason.

[chrischambers]

This might be a a lot of cr** but do you need a GPS Unit to help you to mark the location of the Kathane deposits ? cos looking at the little scanning map, I am finding it hard to land on the right spot.

[Amphiprion]

Chris: what I do is, If its on a moon, get into a 50,000M orbit, then when I come across the deposit I use map view and centre my craft with the moon, noting wherebouts the deposit is that im flying directly over. Then retrograde burn till you go straight down , or if you have overshot, retrograde till you go backwards a bit.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Amphiprion

[Amphiprion]

Nori: try using Jet engines in your launch vehicle, They have great ISP.