Seeking advice for my first space station.

[Moencino]

So I'd like to build a station in Munar orbit. I've seen some beautiful designs out there, but the part addons seem to be for previous versions of the game. Any suggestions as to which station parts are worth downloading? Any other advice or useful links for someone new to building a station would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Edited August 26, 2013 by Moencino

[technicalfool]

You can actually build some pretty neat station parts yourself just using stock bits and pieces! The very first station in a well-known 0.19 re entry compilation looks like it's been made entirely with stock parts, some rotated using the shift key to go in 5 degree increments rather than 90 degree.

Parts aside, I would recommend building a station in Kerbin orbit, and then using nuke engines to push it slowly out to Munar orbit. Try to make all of your parts link up linearly, front-to-back rather than having stuff sticking out the side, at least for your first station. Accelerating with stuff docked to the side can result in a highly wobbly space station that tears itself to bits. Nuke engines are weak enough to not destroy your construction, while at the same time being highly efficient.

Also the new, Senior docking port does seem a little more solid, and handy for docking Rockomax-size bits together.

[Keome]

These two have some wonderfully designed station parts (or Mun base parts, rocket parts, whatever, use your imagination!).

Fustek Station Parts

Fustek Station Parts Expansion

Some tips:

It's easier to make the base in separate modules that dock together, much like how real-life stations have been constructed. Go research the ISS and see how it was built piece by piece.

Watch your parts count. More parts = more lag. If a part serves no purpose, do not add it. Do not add too many lights. Do not attach battery packs everywhere when the 1k and 4k batteries provide the same capacity with fewer parts. Do not add lots of solar panels.

Do not add to many lights. Yes, I repeated that. Lights add to the CPU overhead and create lag. You only need enough lights to illuminate your docking ports. Fustek's parts include lights on some modules that you can use as markers for where your docking ports are. Use those instead off adding more lights ... more lights = more parts. For example, the habitat module has three round lights. The docking module I place on my stations next to it, closer to the command cupola. I only need the three lights on the habitat module to tell me exactly where the docking ports are. My stations have no extra lights beyond what the parts come with.

It is not necessary to add lots of docking ports for ships. Trust me. Parts count = lag, you're not going to want to try docking to something with a horrific parts count because you want to fill every docking port. NASA and the ESA have plans for a Moon base capable of supporting six spacecraft at once. The ISS I believe supports a total of four? (I should go look that up) spacecraft. Add what you need, not what you wish you had.

[Moencino]

Thanks very much to you both for taking the time to share your feedback. Tech, in that awesome video you linked are rotating rings like in 2001. Do you know which addon that is? Looks amazing, but Google isn't helping me track it down.

I've been given the distinct impression that part count is really important! I haven't had any lag issues yet, and know that would seriously detract from the game for me. I'll endeavour to keep part count to a minimum as suggested. And I agree that myriad docking ports seems unimportant: if I had 4, I'm sure that would be more than sufficient. While I could certainly put a station together with stock parts, some folk have put together such beautiful addon parts, that it would be a shame not to use those as well. Any other suggestions of handy addons for this project would be appreciated. Thanks again!

[technicalfool]

I'm not sure, but I think the rotating rings are Bobcat's inflatable habitat rings from the HOME modules.

See also here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-18-1-h-o-m-e-start-kit/

[M5000]

In my personal opinion, the best looking space station parts pack ever created will always be Kosmos Space Station Parts Pack, but be wary, the pack doesn't lend itself well to a game with many other mods. The pack is so well-done that it uses pretty high-res textures and is fairly large. (I think the textures are the issue, maybe the models too, but it takes up a bit of space). Obviously, if you have too many mods, it will crash the game, so be careful of that.

Here are some packs that are a bit more conservative, though not nearly as complete as the Kosmos SSPP:

Udk_Lethal_Dose's Large Structural Components. I really like this pack, as they all fit pretty well in a stock game, style-wise. They're really cool. It doesn't look like it's been updated since .20.2, but not to worry, I'm running them right now and they work just fine! No IVAs, but the windows all light up, and some parts consume electricity, like they should, as it takes electricity for life support.

As some other users have mentioned, Fustek Station Parts is a great place to start if you just want to add a bit of functionality to your station. The parts don't look perfectly stock, but they do fit in well with stock parts, and they're very well modeled, with a complete IVA. I personally love these parts. It also comes with a large static solar panel, which I find particularly useful for squeezing power generation out of those big empty walls of modules.

There's also the Fustek Parts Expansion which basically proves how good Fustek is. It actually.. Wait whoa, I haven't looked at the dev thread for this mod in a while and it looks like they added quite a bit more to it! I'll have to re-download! As you can see, everything is excellently modeled, however I dislike that the modules, last I checked, tend to use the IVA off of the Karmony (Fustek) 6-man module with the window, as they look different externally. Hrm. That's alright, it's still a great mod. Try it out!

Lastly, if you're doing any kind of large construction in space, check out another invention by Fustek, the Common Berthing Mechanism. This mod adds a number of "Berthing Ports" to the game. Don't worry, there's a size that's compatible with the stock docking ports! The mod comes with four sizes, and two styles of berthing mechanisms. You get, a passive and active version of the .625, 1.25, 2.5, and even 3.75m ports! So, they're pretty big if you need 'em big. Passive and active is JUST the style, it doesn't affect how they dock. But here's the best part of these parts: They're VERY rigid in space. They're much stronger than any stock docking ports, so they're ideal for station construction. I find these to be indispensable to any serious station building project.

So, with those suggestions in mind, why not try making a station?

Also, if you need a bit of help getting your modules into orbit, why not try my lifter, the Betelgeuse-1 Heavy Lifter. It's a monster of a rocket that can reliably loft up to 65 tons to LKO. I've been working on this rocket since before the big April maneuver, so it's been pretty well refined. It should lift just about any station module you can throw at it, with fuel to spare in the orbital insertion stage, that also contains a small supply of RCS fuel, so you can use that stage to rendezvous and dock your modules, and likely it will still have enough fuel to de-orbit after you dock, as the insertion stage also contains a probe core, so you don't even need to add a probe core to your modules! It really should be that easy, unless you're building a much higher orbit station. You will need KW rocketry to use it, but it should work pretty well, as it's the backbone of my space program. Let me know if you decide to try it, I've never heard any stories from anyone who uses it for station building in LKO other than myself.

-M5K

[HeadHunter67]

All good advice - I use stuff from most of these mods, but honestly, I have fun building stations completely out of stock parts too! The wiki has articles for building Mir or the beginnings of the ISS completely from stock:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Salyut_programme

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_ISS

[M5000]

Parts aside, I would recommend building a station in Kerbin orbit, and then using nuke engines to push it slowly out to Munar orbit. Try to make all of your parts link up linearly, front-to-back rather than having stuff sticking out the side, at least for your first station. Accelerating with stuff docked to the side can result in a highly wobbly space station that tears itself to bits. Nuke engines are weak enough to not destroy your construction, while at the same time being highly efficient.

I didn't see this before but I might add one thing, when you have very large structures, or things that are especially long, it may be advantageous to actually pull the module, not push. If you push, you are introducing the possibility for something to start bending, and you begin to be severely limited on the size you can move. If you, instead, pull the station, the mere fact that you are accelerating will keep the station nice and straight.

So, with that, maybe try to design your station to accept an orbital tug that will pull instead of push, as it's a generally accepted, but of course not mandatory "building code" for large ship building.

Also, technicalfool is correct in saying that it would be easier to build the station in LKO then transfer to LMO, rather than build it in LMO. I've built several stations before, and I have to say that it is FAR easier to build in LKO in terms of your rocket. I built a station in LMO one time, and it took me several days to get something about the size of Skylab. In contrast, I can construct a station as large as the ISS in one day when in LKO, with the modifier that I don't get bored from how tedious it can be.

Also also, he's pretty right in saying that it would be easier to keep the station in straight parts, as it tends to be less wobbly. Maybe build your station in several large sections that are all straight by themselves, transport those individually to LMO via some orbital tug, then dock them together there.

So yes, very sound advice, but I'd put your tug on the "front" and make it a puller, not a pusher.

-M5K

[DeathSpank]

Hi! I'll hijack this thread ,which gave me lots of new info in building my first station thanx, for two questions...

I'm looking for a mod that adds those greeny modules i saw on a pic, dont know if it exists but heres and image of them:

Anyone knows if it exists? Or what the name of the mod is?

My second question is about a module rocket launcher... Im having big problems building a rocket with suficiant fuel (or TWR ratio) to get my modules into Kerbin orbit. My first payload//module is about 26t so any tips regarding a payload//module delivering rocket would be nice

[boomerdog2000]

Bio-Fuels mod http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/renewable-bio-fuel-modules/