Deep Space Station

[Synapse]

This was inspired by the planetary docking thread. I've decided that the next thing I'd like to do is make a station outside of Eeeloo orbit. Can anyone help me plan this? What kind of hardware do you need to establish such an orbit?

I know I'll need more solar panels to account for the distance from Kerbol.

[Tw1]

A lot of rocket to get the assembled station out there. And about 2x the panels you need around kerbin, if you needed them for anything really.

[stupid_chris]

Yup, a heck lot of panels. I know that at Jool you receive half the power, not sure past Eeloo how much you get, but above two times as much is a good estimate.

Although I'm curious of why you would want such a station.

[Skorpychan]

Yup, a heck lot of panels. I know that at Jool you receive half the power, not sure past Eeloo how much you get, but above two times as much is a good estimate.

Although I'm curious of why you would want such a station.

Why do we want anything in KSP? 'Because it's there', 'because it's hard', 'because it's cool', and 'just because' are perfectly valid reasons.

[Synapse]

Although I'm curious of why you would want such a station.

To listen to the space whales, away from the noisy environment of the planets. Important studies need to be done on them.

[stupid_chris]

Why do we want anything in KSP? 'Because it's there', 'because it's hard', 'because it's cool', and 'just because' are perfectly valid reasons.

Fine with me, but does that prevent me of being curious?

Edit:

To listen to the space whales, away from the noisy environment of the planets. Important studies need to be done on them.

Ah, make sure they don't fall on Eeloo along with a bowl of petunias for me will you?

[Shadoworgon]

That and you can have the right to call it "Deep Space 9"

and pretend you have interstellar traders coming and going lol

[Mr Shifty]

It'll take about 3700 m/s minimum to get out to, say 120Gm. (Eeloo's apoapsis is at about 113Gm.) Heliocentric rendezvous are notoriously glitchy (not to mention that your orbital period out there will be over a year = 5 minutes at max warp), so you probably want to send the whole thing at once, or maybe stage it in Eeloo orbit.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Mr Shifty

[Starwaster]

To listen to the space whales, away from the noisy environment of the planets. Important studies need to be done on them.

There are no space whales; the krakens hunted them to extinction.

That and you can have the right to call it "Deep Space 9"

and pretend you have interstellar traders coming and going lol

Keeping up with the Cardassians?

Edited July 18, 2013 by Starwaster

[Snooze]

Keeping up with the Cardassians?

/facepalm

There are just... no words.

[Benie]

and pretend you have interstellar traders coming and going lol

That's actually a cool idea. A giant station that can serve as a hub for other systems, which may or may not have their own space programs.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Benie

[AlteranEmpire]

I had the same idea to stick a station out there. My idea was to use the extraplanetary (think that's what it's called) on one of the outer moons/planets then launch from there.

[Starwaster]

That and you can have the right to call it "Deep Space 9"

and pretend you have interstellar traders coming and going lol

/facepalm

There are just... no words.

Smack me if it makes you feel better.

I deserve it!

[trippytripp]

I think the best option would be to pre-assemble a roughly symmetrical station in LKO, then boost it out past Eeloo.

[Staxed]

I think the best option would be to pre-assemble a roughly symmetrical station in LKO, then boost it out past Eeloo.

This is what I would do as well if it's a station of any decent size. Building a spacestation out that far piece by piece would take forever

[Zeph]

use a lot of RTGs as opposed to more solar panels. it would be more reliable as you just can't rely on solar that far out..

[zerotwo]

I would recommend the most efficient engine system possible, and a ton of patience.

A single LV-N engine attached to a ROCKOMAX-64 tank is going to supply a huge amount of ÃŽâ€v based on the % of vehicle mass that is fuel.

Build something that's about 50% fuel and you should have the ÃŽâ€v to get out to Eeloo, you'll just have 3-5(+) minute burns in the process.

Considering the weakness of light out there,any panels you add to the ship will be mostly cosmetic as the nuclear decay power supply become better electricity-to-weight as Kebin's light diminishes.

You could set up a system whereby the engine could detach from the fuel tank, to attach to a smaller command section, giving you a choice to bring your Kerbonauts home.