Show off your Kethane Mining Designs!!

[shin234]

Amphiprion

any chance we can get the craft of that and modlist? would love to play around with that

[Amphiprion]

@Imma- Hehe, I'm downloading it and I did check out the eagle, very cool looking ship.

I had issues with loading the Kart onto the B9 cargo fuselage like you did, could be the collision mesh on the cargo bay floor?

If I docked the kart with the kas connector, it would go straight through the floor, So I positioned the keth kart in the exact right place, switched quantum struts on from the VTOL and then when Connected, the struts held it exactly where It needed to be.

This is after all the weird backwards is forwards control switching on the kart and just general wierd stuff/ice-skating happening when trying to load. Meh, that's why I play this game, love solving problems.

Kerbals also fall over unexpectedly when traversing this strange surface.

Struts holding cart in place.

[Rassa Farlander]

Hey peeps! Anyone around here got a nice family of some drill rigs/refiners and what-not craft files to get my mining started? Im just not so sure where to start with Kethane and am a little overwhelmed lol Some of the pics have helped a bit

[Amphiprion]

Hey peeps! Anyone around here got a nice family of some drill rigs/refiners and what-not craft files to get my mining started? Im just not so sure where to start with Kethane and am a little overwhelmed lol Some of the pics have helped a bit

Hey Rassa, have you got the kethane mod installed? its quite easy to use and implement in designs

Edited August 13, 2013 by Amphiprion

[Jcewazhere]

Here is my 40ton beauty. It has some problems, but overall I'm quite happy with it. The worst is when I get within range of my tanker my frame rate drops to about 3 because of the excessive number of parts and my sad CPU.

I've been experimenting with blimps for longer range mining but balancing storage capacity and maneuverability is difficult. Any spiffy ones people want to show off?

[Rassa Farlander]

Hey Rassa, have you got the kethane mod installed? its quite easy to use and implement in designs

Yup Ive got it Ive just been having trouble building landers that are big enough to be worth mining. For example like that 40ton beauty above, I cant figure out how to build a rover mining rig while having the tank going horizontal while keeping it balanced not to mention the decent stage for landing it some where. I can usually get big stuff to orbit and to the place I want, Im just missing something somewhere. Im having no trouble scanning things so at least I have that lol I figured since alot of peeps have this mod someone could throw me a craft file if they were willing to help me with some inspiration into this world of Kethane

[Jcewazhere]

Try building the rovers in the space plane hanger, then you can copy the .craft into the VAB (they should be automatically shared imo) and either load your favorite subassembly launch vehicle(nifty mod) or just build a launcher under it.

Getting that thing onto the Mun took some work, I had to launch it, get it into orbit around Mun. Then I built a sky-crane type lander, launched that and put it into Muner orbit. Then I had to dock the Rover with the skycrane and land (it took several attempts).

[Jcewazhere]

That 930 ton thing is what it took to get my rover onto the mun. The orange bottom part is my heavy launcher sub-assembly. The silver/white part at the top is the sky crane part of it, weighing in at almost 90 tons by itself I think I overdid it a bit.

Mechjeb, quantum struts and some welded tanks are the only non-stock parts in it.

[Captain Sierra]

Part of your weight problem: WAY too much fuel on the skycrane.

[Jcewazhere]

Yes probably more fuel than I needed, in one of my earlier iterations I ran out and pancaked hilariously. I tend to overcompensate. Until career mode comes out it doesn't matter too much though.

[Arbolus]

I built this:

The main ship has plenty of fuel storage, kethane conversion, and four nuclear engines for propulsion. The rear portion can land independently (with up to two Kerbals on board), fill up with kethane and recharge its own fuel tanks, then take off again and rendezvous with the main ship. It's not as complicated as some (it's not mobile once on the ground) but it does the job.

I've visited Duna, Ike and Dres so far on this voyage, and I've just arrived in low Laythe orbit with my tanks almost empty. Trouble is, I've realised that my lander, even when filled up, won't have enough delta-v to do a SSTO from Laythe's surface, and I don't have enough fuel to go to another moon instead. I guess it's time for my first interplanetary rescue mission. :/

Edited August 14, 2013 by Arbolus
fixed image

[Amphiprion]

Here's a proper IMGUR link so you don't have to click to see the above...

Arbolus's design

EDIT: he edited the above to now display properly.

Thats a whooooooole lot of keth detection you have there.. can you see keth in the next star system? ehhe

Edited August 14, 2013 by Amphiprion

[Arbolus]

I wish. Actually the reason I put so many detectors on was so I could make everything symmetric without having to have a single detector on the main stack (which would have messed with my port). Overkill maybe, but at least it looks good.

[rsd]

My basic idea is a giant, fixed mining base in one spot on Mun. I'll use a lander/rover combo + KAS to get the kethane off Mun and into orbit. That isn't built yet. I've just gotten the base landed:

This is what it took to get it there:

[Razor235]

I made this derrick because I was bored today. It can hold 28000L of green gold, and can transfer it via lazor to either nearby landed ships, or a transport truck I am currently designing. It has 4 of the larger drills, and 2 kethoelectric generators to power them.

It was ermh... constructed on Minmus's surface. (Hyperedit HOOO!) This is just one of an array of drilling and processing platforms I plan to have occupying Station Alpha, both small and large. While drilling, my fps takes a massive dive from the particles. I actually get an FPS gain from closing the resources tab.

It holds a crew of 6 Kerbals. The operations supervisor and the equipment supervisor are both in the lander can at the top, but the former usually wanders around the site keeping an eye on the drills themselves and making sure the other Kerbals aren't stealing snacks and naps. The bottom four cans under the drills house engineers that simply monitor the drill's progress and kethane flow rate, and act as another pair of eyes in case the ES misses something important, and vice-versa.

At the bottom left, you can see OS Luke Kerman meeting with the (out of frame) base overseer Jebediah Kerman.

As an unrelated note, how do I hide the HUD? Pressing F2 just freezes the game until I press it again.

[Loabstas]

[Kosmic Debris]

[Answered my own question - yes, the converter will find any accessible fuel tanks docked or KAS. BUT...apparently not through radial decouplers ]

Dumb design question: does the converter need to be attached *directly* to an output tank for fuel, or will it feed via KAS or a docking port?

I'm thinking about a Kethane tank + converter on the Mun, and then a KAS on the converter to attach to tankers to take the converted fuel to orbit.

THANKS!

Edited August 21, 2013 by Kosmic Debris

[Immashift]

Dumb design question: does the converter need to be attached *directly* to an output tank for fuel, or will it feed via KAS or a docking port?

I'm thinking about a Kethane tank + converter on the Mun, and then a KAS on the converter to attach to tankers to take the converted fuel to orbit.

THANKS!

Far as I know the converter needs to be in the same stack as a tank to fill it. You can also use fuel lines routed FROM the tank TO the converter. Yes you read that right. The converter works by using negative fuel, so lines need to go TO it.

Docking ports will allow fuel transfer from the converter. I doubt the KAS lines will do what you want though. I'd be safe and put a small tank on the converter anyway. Or you can separate the drill and Kethane storage by KAS lines, as like monoprop fuel, Kethane doesn't need to be routed.

The way I did it was I stuck a tiny oscarb tank on the converter and used the TAC fuel balancer mod to constantly pump fuel around so it would fill all the tanks through the KAS lines.

At this point I use TAC for ALL my fuel routing. I don't add lines to anything any more as it can give you spin or weird momentum when you don't want it (like transferring large amounts of fuel from one side of a giant station to another). TAC balances fuel at up to 10x normal piping speed, so unless you're running like a silly amount of mainsails in some extremely weird configuration TAC will balance as you fly.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Immashift

[Rune]

[Answered my own question - yes, the converter will find any accessible fuel tanks docked or KAS. BUT...apparently not through radial decouplers ]

Dumb design question: does the converter need to be attached *directly* to an output tank for fuel, or will it feed via KAS or a docking port?

I'm thinking about a Kethane tank + converter on the Mun, and then a KAS on the converter to attach to tankers to take the converted fuel to orbit.

THANKS!

I'd put a fuel tank in there, just in case. Monopropellant and xenon travel perfectly, but liquid fuel and oxidizer do weird things. I think they follow the reverse path the fuel going to the engines does, so similar restriction apply. But better to make sure, and not finding out the flaws in your design when it's sitting on Mun. I speak from experience, of course ^^'

[Immashift]

But better to make sure, and not finding out the flaws in your design when it's sitting on Mun. I speak from experience, of course ^^'

^. Designed grand tour ship... Took it to the Mun, landed Kethane lander.... on a deposit... extend drills.. no Kethane. Huh.. odd.

Apparently the drills got their colliders or something changed since I started designing that craft and they no longer actually connected with the surface, contrary to the visual effect.

So I got to redisign the whole lander to get them lower, drive it all the way to the mun, park it 30 feet from the other lander, and transfer crews, cause no way am I taking a grand tour WITHOUT Bill, Jeb and Bob.

So now I'm wondering what the SMALLEST tylo capable kethane lander I can design is. Like I want a 1man kethane lander with ~2.5k ÃŽâ€v using no bigger than LVT-30s. I have a mainsail one that's a single stage to orbit on Kerbin that works fine for it, but I wanna go smaller

[firegeek83]

Here's my newest mining op. After a series of "accidents" with manned vessels, I went back to an older design for a more reliable method of mining. After running trials on the Mun, I'm just about ready to send it to Ike.

The CMP3 (compact mining platform, 3rd version). Can work independently of the transporter/fuel transfer vessel, but cannot travel on its own.

Here is the CMP3 and the transporter/fuel transfer vessel together. Yes, the transporter can lift off and achieve orbit without tapping the main tank in low grav places.

After locating a mining site, we have kethane! The plan is to drop 2 or 3 large fuel storage depots nearby that are used for the manned landers/orbital fuel transfer vehicles. A fuel truck will ferry the fuel back and forth via KAS.

Edited August 21, 2013 by firegeek83

[Immashift]

After locating a mining site, we have kethane! The plan is to drop 2 or 3 large fuel storage depots nearby that are used for the manned landers/orbital fuel transfer vehicles. A fuel truck will ferry the fuel back and forth via KAS.

Nice setup!

I tried the separate vehicles for each purpose, then decided this was easier. Why do 3 different landers/parts with each doing one thing, when I can make a space tanker that can land and drill, as well as convert?

[firegeek83]

Nice setup!

I tried the separate vehicles for each purpose, then decided this was easier. Why do 3 different landers/parts with each doing one thing, when I can make a space tanker that can land and drill, as well as convert?

Thanks! I definitely hear you with just simplifying the whole mining process down to just one vessel that does it all. I tried to come up with something like that, but it ended horribly. Your design looks pretty solid though; would like to see it in action.

My driller was also to see how small I could get a mining rig in the hopes of getting it farther out there without a huge tug/transport. Have you gotten yours past the mun/minmus yet?

[Immashift]

Thanks! I definitely hear you with just simplifying the whole mining process down to just one vessel that does it all. I tried to come up with something like that, but it ended horribly. Your design looks pretty solid though; would like to see it in action.

My driller was also to see how small I could get a mining rig in the hopes of getting it farther out there without a huge tug/transport. Have you gotten yours past the mun/minmus yet?

The fun part about my ginormous lander is it doesn't actually need a huge tug or transport AT ALL. It is its own transportation.

The rig I screenshotted there is now orbiting minmus acting as a mass fuel depot. I equipped it with at least 2 of each docking port type so pretty much anything can draw fuel from it.

It's powered by I believe 5 (been a while since I've flown it) of the NovaPunch nuclear engines, each provides 300kN of thrust (a ton for a nuclear engine). I've landed it on the Mun, Minmus, and Ike. I also use it as a sort of cargo ferry for stuff going interplanetary. It has about 10k ÃŽâ€v on its own engines, and it's towed many stations and things out to various planets/moons, but the lander itself is restricted to stuff with Mun gravity or less.

It could probably do a bit heavier gravity, but it's sort of hard to land it on something big, simply because this thing has like a kiloton of mass when fully fueled. Landing it on Minmus/Mun is easy though. I made the landing base as wide as possible for that reason. Idea is to have it in orbit as a depot, run it down to bare minimum fuel to land, then refuel and take off to be a depot again. You spend a TINY amount of fuel getting off of minmus due to the low gravity, so that's why it's there right now.

It could do with a little refining.. the fuel lines are messy and I could have made it look a bit more interesting, but it works fine for what I designed it for. I specifically designed it for minmus as a Kerbin-SOI fuel stop, as I'm really big on reusable craft. Why send up a new mission when that ship that just went to Duna can pick up some fuel and fly off to Jool?

Speaking of reusables... here's my most recent grand tour design. Wasn't happy with how little fuel my last one had and how much the lander could store vs burned to ascend, so I redesigned the whole thing -

(click for full size)

I wanted something somewhat interesting to dock, cause I love IVA docking, so I recessed the port up quite a ways, and used the offset B9 port pair, so you have to kinda thread the needle

Aerobraking from Moho -> EVE orbit. This thing had SO MUCH fuel left I could have brute force burned my way into orbit and had enough left for Duna, but I like aerobraking Bear in mind my readout doesn't factor in the lander's fuel supply, which it doesn't need 90% of, so the ÃŽâ€v is off on it.

Landed the entire craft at Gilly - took like 20 min to actually get down to the surface @ x4 time accel...

Edited August 21, 2013 by Immashift

[firegeek83]

Finally have a working mining operation on the mun. I just have the one vehicle & one storage depot atm, but there are two others en route to set up a continual refueling depot for landers.

Here is the CMP3 and the transfer vehicle...

which after re-servicing, heads over to the storage depot...

and connects to the depot. Due to the depot's need to be placed in a flat area and proximity to the landing area, it was set about 1.1km away from the mining site. Plus some sort of safety rules enforced by that KOSHA agency says you can't store fuel near kethane deposits....go figure.

Edited August 23, 2013 by firegeek83