Show off your Kethane Mining Designs!!

[Amphiprion]

[Yalin Hawk]

Did you get it to orbit? Always wondered about using KAS winches to create an orbital supply line...

[Amphiprion]

Hi Yalin,

No. I managed to escape the upper atmo @43km final altitude (duna) with the upper fuel tank stage. Then when I wanted to dock with the top empty spherical Fuel tank, I used a small rocket powered craft.When I landed this craft near the base, The KAS wire showed up on screen ascending into the heavens. I followed the wire up , using the nav ball to keep the base of the Miner directly underneath me. when target altitude was reached, (seeing the wire intermittently on ascent) I could not find the upper docking platform + my Orbital speed at that height was under 100m/s so gravity was pulling me back down to the base. I continued to search for the upper stage at target altittude for a couple more minutes, but could not find it..

Guess this has to do with the 2km render of KSP's engine, or something similar.

I thought if i could target the ascent stage, it would help locating it, So I put the only Command module (remote) on the top section. Alas, the only target-able part of the extended craft was the bottom landed section

Edited July 9, 2013 by Amphiprion

[SleepingDragon]

After updating my Kethane I found out that my mining rover is no longer in a kethane field. Moving it was not an option as it did not had any docking ports. So I decided to put a new harvester on the field. Bilton is really happy

[Amphiprion]

SleepinDragon, If your conscience allows, with that update you installed, there will be a kethane debugger that will generate deposits at your location.

Its more realistic tho IMHO because if you think of oil wells, they have billions of litres of Oil while the largest keth deposits are 450-500k.

[Majiir]

I've just discovered this thread, and I'm loving what I see. (In particular, the Kethane Combine idea has been thrown around a few times. It's awesome to see someone's done it!)

Keep 'em coming!

[Dem Wot Goz Ub]

This is a prospector vehicle, designed to roam planets in any gravity / terrain type, pinpoint deposits spotted from space, and mine (relatively) small amounts. Its perfectly balanced empty, enabling it to be slotted in as a stage in any rocket, though its current flight plan involves free-falling the last fifty meters or so and crushing its insertion stage under its massive weight to slow it down upon hitting the ground. Nuffin orkier'n brakin wiv explosions!

[Amphiprion]

T though its current flight plan involves free-falling the last fifty meters or so and crushing its insertion stage under its massive weight to slow it down upon hitting the ground. Nuffin orkier'n brakin wiv explosions!

Lol, would love to see a vid of that

[Amphiprion]

wops wrong thread

[orileybomb01]

im working on a massive kethane miner for kerbin at the moment using the rubber band track mod (the mk5 track) its only in development at the moment but when its done ill post pictures.

[Amphiprion]

SSTD ( single stage to Duna).

Made it to duna from the Kerbin Runway in one piece.

I built this nifty little arm that lowers down a keth drill so I can fill up and carry on.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Amphiprion

[dave4002000]

Amphiprion, i stole your idea for the tankers/tug so i figured i would share I made them slightly more "truck-ish" though. Took a lot of trial and error to get them to balance nicely under the tug, however.

Fuel tanker and Keth tanker docked together with a KAS winch going to the drill rig

Slightly modified and enlarged tug to fit the bigger tankers

Installed the spherical tank mod and pretty much ditched the unstable tanker design

Keth and Ore drills, on Duna, awaiting delivery of an extra-planetary launchpad

Orbital processing plant and fuel depot. Currently in testing around Minmus but it will, probably, end up somewhere else

Edited July 16, 2013 by dave4002000

[Amphiprion]

Very Cool Dave, Thanks for sharing.

Love the spherical Tank useage

[Jeb Junior]

Scanning for kethane!

Landing miner and getting to work.

Establishing kethane space station with docking ports for interchanging fuel.

[Loabstas]

I figured "hey before I explore the solar system and mine for kethane, why not mine on Kerbin"

so I figured why not

Also I wanted to make the game a little bit harder for myself, since I have already been pretty much every where else, I wanted to play it a little more realistically, I want to fuel up my rockets before I take off, Instead of them being pre fueled from the VAB

[Apollo_A]

this is my Kethane Mun base. thing is already lagging my laptop so i cant put much on it.

i use flags for MechJeb to land at, so it doesnt land ontop of a somthing it should'nt, had this happen a few times before i thought of using the flags to mark landing points. the drill just sits there, a KAS Rover with a keth Gen for power making, a Fuel tug comes down and loads up on the fuel then takes it back to a orbiting space station where it is stored to be taken to my station orbiting kerbin.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Apollo_A

[Amphiprion]

@Loabstas what a mission! sho...

@Jeb junior, are you refining on the planet/moon and then bringing up the refined fuel? or bringing up the raw keth?

@Apollo A- cool rover..

[elkar]

well, one thing is to design whatever monster you want and put it there, completely other thing is to actually figure out how to use get it to orbit and than land with it.

[Amphiprion]

which monster are you referring to elkar?

[Elmetian]

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The design of my Kethane Spherig is a little derivative, but what the hell, those spherical tanks are just too cool not to use! The rig is launched in one piece with most of the tanks empty. It needs refuelling before heading out to the Mun or Minmus, but after the initial investment this thing pays for itself. All told, it can bring back 4200 units of liquid fuel and 5100 units of oxidiser back from Minmus if you do the inclination changes at the right time and aerobrake around Kerbin.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Narcosis

[Amphiprion]

Wow narcosis, VERY cool looking rig.. How did you get those engines to meld into the spherical fuel tanks so beautifully?

attatchment edit?

[Elmetian]

Wow narcosis, VERY cool looking rig.. How did you get those engines to meld into the spherical fuel tanks so beautifully?

attatchment edit?

Tried the debug menu at first to clip the atomic rocket engines through the spherical tanks but it messed up the fuel flow. Eventually I just decided to use the octagonal strut and clipped it inside. I'm chuffed with the way it just pokes out the other end of the tank and looks almost like a single object

[Captain Sierra]

I wanted to get the first of my three main kethane bases on the Mun going but with .21 being a save breaker, I've not launched anything other than scanning probes. I should probably actually de-orbit my probes and the space dock I put up to build off of in hopes that I won't then lose my kethane maps as I got a really good setup with three major deposits right on the munar equator.

[EdwardKu]

My little Kethane mining base on the Mun

[dave4002000]

I never thought to attach the KAS radial port to a landing strut..haha! I always put it up on the body of the rig and then have to use a ladder or the jetpack to get to it.

And how does that little cart with the big keth drill not continuously fall over??