Show off your Kethane Mining Designs!!

[Hodo]

Not really a mining ship, but it is my Mun Base One mining operation transport ship. It hauls raw Kethane from the surface to the station in orbit for refining.

And its picture with its payload capacity.

oh and it is a VTOL on any non-atmospheric planet. Could work on Kerbin to if I refined the engine layout a bit more in the back.

[Yakuzi]

After Getting inspiration from this design: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/47232-Mosquito-Kethane-Drone?highlight=mosquitohttp:// I figured I'd make a drone that was an actual mosquito.

That's an amazing design huggy! Love the functional aesthetics, well done!!!

[Hodo]

Updated picture of my Kethane mining operation on the Mun, Mun Base One.

From left to right-Lozer Kermin, Elory Kermin and Mission Commander Tom Kermin

And an distance shot for scale. Not the biggest operation but it gets the job done.

[Thorbane]

Tylo Lander delivery.

There's two of them on that transfer stage, they're actually pretty light as Tylo landers go.

Here it is mining. I didn't get any shots of it landing, I was too busy thinking Mechjeb was going to lithobrake at several hundred m/s. Turns out that having an acceleration of 50-60 m/s^2 makes for a crazy suicide burn. One moment you're heading towards the ground at 200 m/s and a little over 3 seconds later mechjeb is setting the lander down at a nice .5 m/s.

Not sure It'll still work with the changes to the Kethane drill though, the drill is pretty far off the ground. It's delta-V margins are really thin, landing with about 50-30 left in the tanks.

[DMagic]

The Mun Arch Kethane Refinery.

[Kokanee]

The Mun Arch Kethane Refinery.

BRAVO!

That is one nice looking refinery, I dig it.

Here is mine so far, pretty basic setup I still need an admin bldg for crew and a few battery banks as well as a dedicated landing / refueling pad;

May I ask how did you build the spars?

[KFS]

I like setting up more permanent buildings

Mining facility

HQ + Conversion center, you cant really see the kethane converter and the area the trucks part to unload the fuel, but the tanks are there

Oh and the HQ holds about 120 kerbals

[DMagic]

May I ask how did you build the spars?

All of the components, there were eight in total, were landed with extendable wheels attached. I used Infernal Robotics to raise and lower the wheels to allow for easy docking to the core component. Then I separated the wheels and the landing rockets and fired them off to let them crash into the surface somewhere else.

[Wheapon]

Hi everyone

I take this opportunity to show my kethane setup.

1 - MGL Mk4 + KE MK8

Complete ship

2 - KE Mk8

Mining Module

3 - MGK Mk2

Mobile Mining Module, able to mine up to 4000 kethane (not much, but enough for me) - reach Mun orbit and transfer to minmus - dock to main ship and refuel, if necessary.

[Taki117]

If I might make a request does anyone have any ideas for a Kethane Refinery capable of landing on and returning to orbit around Vall?

[austinwelser]

My first kethane mining base of any sort. In hindsight I could have done with more kethane storage and more solars, or a reactor.

[Captain Sierra]

If I might make a request does anyone have any ideas for a Kethane Refinery capable of landing on and returning to orbit around Vall?

If it will do it on the Mun, add an extra 500m/s dV for padding, then take it to Vall.

Vall is deceptive in it's gravity but IIRC, a mun capable craft should be able to do Vall, or at least almost (warranting the extra 500m/s of delta V).

C:\Users\rac\Desktop\2014-02-07_00002.jpg

My first kethane mining base of any sort. In hindsight I could have done with more kethane storage and more solars, or a reactor.

Sorry, but we cannot see what is on your hard drive.

Upload it to an image hosting site. Imgur is really good but has a photo quota cap (you can only have 225 before it hides the oldest ones and you have to delete to see them again).

I personally have switched back to Flickr. It's a bit of a pain to embed from, but it has it's cap at 1TB of pics.

[Landge]

Those are really cool looking designs. Lots of inspiration to draw from guys.

Here's my current Mun mining base after recently incorporated KAS into my Fuel/Utility truck and Kethane mining rig. It was really a struggle getting the stock docking ports to dock on the ground. It takes a full crew of 6 to run though it can house more. (2) operators on the drilling rig, (1) truck driver, (1) Kerb-Kamp pilot, and (2) Lab Techs.

Starting on the left is my K2 Mining Rig. With a crew of 2 it is capable of returning to orbit and refuel orbiting spacecraft. Equipped with (2) KAS winches and (2) 40 capacity storage containers it can refuel landers. The rig also has a small 2 seat rover (just right of the rig) when the crew wants to do a little site seeing or joy riding.

In the center, just right of the 2 seat rover, is my Fuel/Utility Truck. Equipped with (1) vertical wench on the boom, (2) horizontal wenches (located on the front and rear), and (4) 80 capacity KAS containers. Though it is not capable of drilling or refining on it's own, it is VTOL capable and can make suborbital hops to deliver fuel to landers located on other parts of Mun.

Just above the truck is a 4 seat rover that tagged along with the Kerb-Kamp (top center). It provides long term housing for the mining crew. Also VTOL capable it can travel wherever the mining rig goes.

On the right, fresh from KSC is the new Mobile Kerb-Kamp. Nearly identical to the K2 Base but with additional (6) large rover wheels to provide greater mobility. She is just visiting to fill up, it is currently on a shakedown cruise and will be heading to Duna when the next transfer window arrives. That is if she passes the field trials here. The transfer stage is currently in a 30km Munar orbit.

Here are a couple closeups of my K2 Rig...

Drilling in progress...

My first Kethane rig, a smaller robotic K1 rig, can be seen in the background.

Edited February 9, 2014 by Landge

[Top8]

Those are really cool looking designs. Lots of inspiration to draw from guys.

Here's my current Mun mining base after recently incorporated KAS into my Fuel/Utility truck and Kethane mining rig. It was really a struggle getting the stock docking ports to dock on the ground. It takes a full crew of 6 to run though it can house more. (2) operators on the drilling rig, (1) truck driver, (1) Kerb-Kamp pilot, and (2) Lab Techs.

What a really nice industrial scene. I can almost imagine it in action on a work day - it really evokes a mining camp feel.

[austinwelser]

Sorry, but we cannot see what is on your hard drive.

Upload it to an image hosting site. Imgur is really good but has a photo quota cap (you can only have 225 before it hides the oldest ones and you have to delete to see them again).

I personally have switched back to Flickr. It's a bit of a pain to embed from, but it has it's cap at 1TB of pics.

thanks for the info. hopefully this image works

[Voculus]

Edited February 12, 2014 by Voculus

[BrianMcNett]

Frank Kerman, MunBase One, and Kethane Mining Rig #2 with Lighted Pylons.

I try for a more zen-like approach. Low part counts, not a whole lot of complexity. I marvel at some of the designs I see here. I hate landing in the dark so, I landed a bunch of lights in the mining zone, so that it's never dark there. Then I landed my munbase (unmanned). Then came the kethane mining rigs (automated). Then I put a station in orbit, and finally the kerbals land at their new, fully-operational mining base.

[stuya1]

First time I used this mod. This is my first miner/converter that I landed on Minmus after my KethSat picked up a deposit. This isn't the most efficient by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just messing around a bit and learning all the things. I accidentaly knocked out one of my panels with Jebediah, but I "fixed" it by sticking some RTG's. Additional mods are MechJeb and KWrocketry.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

PS. First time using the KAS, so that explains the boxes lying around and sticked on to the engines.

[patfree14094]

http://<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/XwLRb/embed"></iframe>This is my first lander, I have had limited success in making a kethane rover that could refuel a launch vehicle, so I just made an all in one lander as simple and efficient as possible. I designed it so on kerbel, it could just get off the ground and travel a little ways without use of the fuel in the main tank(while full). I figured correctly that'd be sufficient, sent it to minus, deployed the drills, filled the tanks, took off(to 75km orbit) and landed once, with more than enough fuel in the side mounted tanks to do that once more without using the main tank. The idea is the larger tank the lander is built around wont have to be used at all during take off, landing, and docking with a ship in orbit, thereby leaving a healthy amount of fuel for delivery to whatever ship I have in minus orbit. No kethane base would be complete however without toppled over landers filled with legions of kerbels. Stranded, doomed to randomly use their jetpacks to enter into minus orbit at the wims of myself, never to return to solid rock.

<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/XwLRb/embed"></iframe>

Edited March 17, 2014 by patfree14094

[JDCollie]

Frank Kerman, MunBase One, and Kethane Mining Rig #2 with Lighted Pylons.

I try for a more zen-like approach. Low part counts, not a whole lot of complexity. I marvel at some of the designs I see here. I hate landing in the dark so, I landed a bunch of lights in the mining zone, so that it's never dark there. Then I landed my munbase (unmanned). Then came the kethane mining rigs (automated). Then I put a station in orbit, and finally the kerbals land at their new, fully-operational mining base.

I too am a fan of the zen-like approach. Partially out of low-part count necessity, and partially because it is fun to see how much functionality I can pack into the smallest / lightest ship.

That being said, this vehicle departs from that design philosophy, at least in terms of size. (It's still actually very very low on parts count for what it can do.)

Javascript is disabled. View full album

In the next model of the Heavy Kethane Miner, I will remove the radial shielded docking ports, and replace the landing lights with some more powerful ones from the aerospace lighting mod or whatever it is called. I've also since unlocked better solar panels and upgraded my radiators, so I'll be able to reduce the number of both I use in the future.

[JDCollie]

This is my first lander, I have had limited success in making a kethane rover that could refuel a launch vehicle, so I just made an all in one lander as simple and efficient as possible. I designed it so on kerbel, it could just get off the ground and travel a little ways without use of the fuel in the main tank(while full). I figured correctly that'd be sufficient, sent it to minus, deployed the drills, filled the tanks, took off(to 75km orbit) and landed once, with more than enough fuel in the side mounted tanks to do that once more without using the main tank. The idea is the larger tank the lander is built around wont have to be used at all during take off, landing, and docking with a ship in orbit, thereby leaving a healthy amount of fuel for delivery to whatever ship I have in minus orbit. No kethane base would be complete however without toppled over landers filled with legions of kerbels. Stranded, doomed to randomly use their jetpacks to enter into minus orbit at the wims of myself, never to return to solid rock.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Fixed that for you

You don't need to use Imgur's embed code to post an album, patfree, just find the album id and then place it between [ imgur ] [/ imgur ] tags.

To find the album id, look at the embed code: <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/XwLRb/embed"></iframe>

I've bolded the album id for you there.

[patfree14094]

Ok thanks for the help there.

[mellojoe]

Here's my current modular layout. it incorporates three crafts in one. A small refinery, a 2-man lander-can, and a rover. I am of the mindset to drill and refine as needed, and not have giant storage tanks. This makes for a very compact kit.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Hachigoh]

Here's mine. It was discontinued after i realised it couldn't really get into Munar orbit with a profitable payoff (the lander). Also the command thingy didn't have fuel lines.

[Jouni]

This is my heavy kethane mining ship, intended for low-gravity moons such as Minmus, Pol, and Bop. The ship doesn't have enough power to operate all of its four drills for extended periods of time, but maximal efficiency isn't really that important in low-gravity environments.

The same ship can be used as an interplanetary transfer stage for moderate payloads. If I'm going to launch more of these, I'm probably going to add a scanner, so the ship can operate independently almost anywhere.