Brood Lord & Broodling Refueling stations

[WhiteWeasel]

This is my first station, so I hope it stacks up with everyone else. I'm also a fan of starcraft, but not that good at it.

Parts: 499

Total mass: 828.86t

Orbits

Kerbin: Duh

Minmus: Yes

Mun: Has not been tested, but based on this DV map, it has almost the same requiermants as minmus, 70 or so DV more

(lifter not shown) EDIT: A more updated pic, has more RCS now.

Fun fact: Avionics packages (.08t) are slightly lighter than the small nose cones (.1t), and it does not overlap your ASAS, so your ship could still look cool while still being light!

Brood Lord & Broodling in minmus orbit.

Brood Lord:

Parts: 151

Mass: 56.19t

Payload:

-3715 Electric charge

-2900 Liquid fuel (1 jumbo 64 + 2 small round O's)

-3444 Oxidizer

-1790 Monopropellant/Design update: 2510

-8400 Xenon Gas

Misc.

-Can dock

-1 normal docking port

-2 small docking ports

-Visible at night

-1 crew capacity

-ASAS: Yes

-SAS: Yes

-More power than you ever need, plus it's prepetual

-Can NOT change orbit once transfer stage is ditched (Well you could try with RCS)

-Open up solar panels and antenna for sweet IVA view

-Has ladders

Broodling: (Also transfer stage)

Parts: 64

Mass ~varies

Payload:

-220 Electric charge

-Liquid fuel ~ whatever is leftover from the transfer (In my case, about 1/3 of the tank)

Misc.

-Can NOT dock (itself)

-1 normal and large ports

-2 small ports

-No crew

-ASAS: Yes

-SAS: No

-No perpetual power, but reserves can keep though the night (on minmus, add at least another pair for the mun)

-Visible at night (barely, the little battery lights)

Getting it into orbit

Preflight checks

-ASAS: On

-Disable crossfeed for both docking port connections. (NOTE: This resets after quick loading/leaving flight)

-Lock gimbal for outer six engines

-Throttle up about 60% and change as needed

Flying:

-Drop stages accordingly

-Do gravity turn a 10 Km (NOTE: Lifter is heavy so it will oversteer, turn several degrees less than you normally would)

-Once final ascent stage is reached, undock the big ports and fire your engines

-The aerospikes are there for finalising orbit because the LV-N's do not have a good enough TWR for the job-EDIT, It can be done, the aerospikes are entirely optional now.

-When finished with the aerospikes, be sure transfer the extra fuel out and ditch them to reduce mass*

*However the injection burn for minmus is about ~10 min, you may want to keep them for a shorter burn time at the price of less leftover fuel

-Establish minmus orbit and undock transfer stage

-When finished you should have NOT used any of the fuel in the station itself and should have quite a bit leftover in the transfer stage, move the transfer stage to a lower/higher orbit and you have a mini-refueler!

Craft. file:

http://www./view/cnlyxcb2yr95qsf/Brood_Lord_Refueler.craft

Edited June 12, 2013 by WhiteWeasel

[WhiteWeasel]

Feedback? Like/dislike? Possible improvements?

[Mekan1k]

It looks good, but does not fit the name. I mean, I expected small RCS-powered unmanned 'broodlets', that dock to the broodmother.

[WhiteWeasel]

It looks good, but does not fit the name. I mean, I expected small RCS-powered unmanned 'broodlets', that dock to the broodmother.

That actually sounds like a great Idea for a new type of station! Any Rename suggestions for this? Kinda outta Ideas at the moment.

[Mekan1k]

Well, in my AAR, I have a series of entities called the 'SWARM', rogue AI's. So, maybe Hive? With scouts/carriers, etc, depending on function.

[WhiteWeasel]

I made a more 'fitting' version but it is experimental, and has two major downsides-carries slightly less fuel, substantially higher parts count- 620 something. It does have overall more RCS though.

I'm also having trouble deciding to have 8 small broodlings or 4 medium ones.

[SDIR]

I think it's very nice. It fits the theme well, although in terms of appearance it looks more like the old carrier with interceptors (sc1). The only thing you need now is a swarm host. Hope you're up for it!

[Mekan1k]

Any riders, the size will always depend on their function. So what functions do you want them to have? The more functions, the bigger.

[Rune]

Big tanks that need the broodlings to move them around! Build them without RCS, and dock them with broodlings (a couple at least symmetrically so the RCS is centered) to a multiple dock adapter at the bottom. Now you have a few more hours entertained, and the end result is a big ass fuel depot. It the broodlings had decent engines, you could even ship fuel somewhere else...

You could also make smaller broodlings: probe core (IE: octo), docking port junior, single small RCS tank on the front and 4 RCS ports and solar panels around the probe. Can't go smaller than that, and it feels like a kerbal on EVA, fun to move around. Like a portable RCS pod. Perhaps add a chair for extra fun and profit?

Rune. Turning a name into an idea.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Rune

[WhiteWeasel]

Here is the new redesigned version-even now it's still 400 ish parts. 350 ish without the ascent stage.

Edited June 12, 2013 by WhiteWeasel

[WhiteWeasel]

Finally got it in minmus orbit, look how convenient this will be in the future (Brood lords are stations, probes are the ascent stage-old broodlings) Orbits are at closest only about 3.2-4 km apart from one to another. The new broodlings will be able to transfer fuel in between them quite easily. Still WIP so I won't post the craft. file for this just yet. Plus who would want a 600 part rocket?

Edited June 12, 2013 by WhiteWeasel

[Francesco]

800 tons? really?

[WhiteWeasel]

800 tons? really?

Any way to get the same payload to to minimus while reducing weight?

[Francesco]

actually, to me it seems quite good already: the total weight of the station is 100-ish tons?

[WhiteWeasel]

actually, to me it seems quite good already: the total weight of the station is 100-ish tons?

Wow, lighter than we both thought, In that case I'm going to add a few more RCS spheres.

[WhiteWeasel]

Just curious, has anyone flown this yet?

[Francesco]

well if it's only 56 tons then, this could be a crude example of a transfer stage (with a dummy 56t payload on top):

just need to put those 86 tons into orbit. if you're aiming at efficiency, try to build a 550-600 tons lifter.

but then, I wouldn't stress on efficiency too much (not until career mode comes out ), so your 800t lifter is fine as well.

[WhiteWeasel]

well if it's only 56 tons then, this could be a crude example of a transfer stage (with a dummy 56t payload on top):

just need to put those 86 tons into orbit. if you're aiming at efficiency, try to build a 550-600 tons lifter.

but then, I wouldn't stress on efficiency too much (not until career mode comes out ), so your 800t lifter is fine as well.

Yeah, I'm not new to the game, but I know I don't have a firm understanding of how everything works yet. To make up for that I always give myself a little more than I "need".

Also about the variant with the actual broodlings, I'm not sure to post it, the parts count is maybe too high for what it does.

Edited June 13, 2013 by WhiteWeasel