Fueling Station

[loonatik]

I am having a really hard time building a fueling station in orbit around kerbin. Does anyone know of a guide of how to construct and get one into orbit?

Edited September 11, 2013 by loonatik

[Sauron]

What kind of problems are you having? If you're struggling with docking, you probably want to look at tutorials for that before you start trying to dock the Big Orange Tanks. If your problem is with launch vehicles, the answer is (in general) struts and asparagus staging. If you're can be a bit more specific I'm happy to help with specifics.

[loonatik]

Overall its how to get the fuel into space. I was able to put the space station core (stock) into orbit just fine. But no matter what I try I cant get fuel tanks into space that I can attach to the station to make it a "refueling station".

I either use the fuel up or its unstable.

I am pretty new to the game but learning. So far I generally know how to launch a rocket into orbit and bring it back down to kerbin. I was able to get the stock station into a stable orbit. I have been able to leave orbit and get into orbit around the mun.

I am open to recommended reading or guides.

[DChurchill]

Yeah, a little more information would be helpful.

I'm building this in Munar orbit, but the principle is the same, just some added complexity and dV:

You can see a ****-ton of struts are necessary to get that much mass into orbit:

Docking all that inertia can be challenging.

[Van Disaster]

You need to know how to dock. Assuming you do...

You need fuel in orbit, so you need tanks to store it in. You need the fuel and the tanks in orbit together when you want to refuel something, but you *don't* need the fuel there when you're constructing the thing. It has docking ports - if it didn't you couldn't take any fuel out - so you can fill it up any time you like. That way you can spend launch mass on structural things rather than unburned fuel when you launch it, and you can refill it using several smaller, easier to launch tanks.

All you actually need for fuelling is a tank -optionally a RCS tank too - and a docking port ( and a probe core is probably a good idea ). If you want something more complicated, I'd launch a hub piece of some sort first, and then dock tanks to that.

[Dave Kerbin]

You need to know how to dock. Assuming you do...

You need fuel in orbit, so you need tanks to store it in. You need the fuel and the tanks in orbit together when you want to refuel something, but you *don't* need the fuel there when you're constructing the thing. It has docking ports - if it didn't you couldn't take any fuel out - so you can fill it up any time you like. That way you can spend launch mass on structural things rather than unburned fuel when you launch it, and you can refill it using several smaller, easier to launch tanks.

All you actually need for fuelling is a tank -optionally a RCS tank too - and a docking port ( and a probe core is probably a good idea ). If you want something more complicated, I'd launch a hub piece of some sort first, and then dock tanks to that.

This is important, you don't need to lift up full tanks. You can build a fueling ship to bring up fuel incrementally, you'll need this to top off the stations supply anyway.

Consider using the Skylab concept - carrying the tanks from your booster stage up. I don't really have a screenshot of my smaller, single tank modification that I used to setup my first station but here is a different one I did later. A 4 tank 'station' in orbit raised on a ship that didn't need much else.

[Caliber Sarn]

The way I did it, I sent up a habitation module first with the cubic docking ports on both ends, then I took each fuel tank up separately. I used very similar launch vehicles to get everything up into orbit.

Everything is jettisoned getting into orbit except the bottom-center tank and engine which is used to park the body of the station.

The center fuel tank is not used in ascent, it is docked to the station for refueling craft in space. Once in orbit, I undocked the big tank from the command module, flipped around and docked back up with it so that my maneuvering controls would be pointing in the right direction. In other words, the refueling tank rides into space on the bottom of the command module and then is moved to the top once in orbit. There is a T45 rocket motor between the two fuel tanks in the center section that is accessed by jettisoning the lower docking port after moving the refueling tank to the top of the command module.

A work in progress, but it already functions as an orbital refueling station.

[allmhuran]

Use your station tanks as fuel for the lift and then refuel it with multiple smaller launches? Sure, you could do that.

Alternatively, see sig.

[Danger2007]

I lift whole orange tanks with the big RCS tank on them as well and 4 nozzle clusters at each end. If you build a lifter that can lift the tank without using the fuel in the tank, you should have plenty of RCS to get the tank in.

Docking ports at each end of course.