I present to you the Farscape Launchpoint Space Station :)

[Arendey]

This also include interplanetary tugs/ Fuel delivery system.

This station is launchable to orbit fully assembled it will make it to an 80KM orbit with roughly 3 of its 4 tanks full. (For optional storage capacity, you may forgo the jettisoning of the last one or both last 2 stages, this will consume more fuel in the initial launch, but you end up with a 6 to 8 orange tank capacity).

The Station is modular, the 2 caps can serve as mini tugs with plenty of RCS fuel and with the help of 2 interplanetary tugs (files included, the Mk II is recommended for its extra engine clearance) it can reach any planetary body in the Kerbol system making it a great storage point for faraway places (hence its name and yes I love Farscape , hope you guys and gals enjoy it.

The caps are also automated, so no need for a crew to maneuver them.

The tugs can serve as a fuel delivery system, with no extra cargo attached they can deliver roughly 1 and a half orange tank of fuel to 80ish Km in LKO. It is also modular, allowing the manual dumping of the RCS tank, medium docking ports and engines to make a freight train as large or small as desired.

A bit of warning for the 6/8 tank configurations: Make sure to deactivate the engines and to LOCK STAGING (Alt+L) to prevent accidental loss of the extra tanks and/or changing orbit.

And a side note regarding the tugs, I did not put the engine/RCS tank/docking clamp dumping on action groups on purpose to avoid accidental jettisoning of those systems as it would kid of suck to split your ship in half or loose the engines or other pleasantries of the sort

To launch the station, make sure you set the thrust one tic above 2/3rd to avoid overheating (done on purpose because of weight issues and keeping the thrust at 2/3rd prevents random breakages).

To launch the tugs, make sure you set the thrust one tic above 2/3rd to avoid overheating ), then floor it when the last 2 of the external tanks are dumped.

Stats

292 parts (685 at launch) 209 Tons (fully fueled with the basic 4 tanks design, sadly I did not remember to check the tonnage with the 6 and 8 orange tank options)

Station Action Groups

1 - Main Solar Array 1

2 - Main Solar Array 2

3 - Lights: Station Caps

4 - Lights: Station Core

5 - Docking Clamp: Tips

6 - Docking Clamps: Mini Tug 1

7 - Docking Clamps: Mini Tug 2

0 - Solar Array: Mini Tugs (both)

Tug Action Groups

1: Solar Array

Here it is in orbit around Laythe with a transport docked.

Here is an early iteration, although I found the 4 triple tanks aesthetically pleasing, it has very inferior storage and higher parts count. Not to mention it is WOBBLY taking one of these to the moon was like seeing a 200 ton station dancing the rumba lol.

The station Ready to launch!

The station is surprisingly stable while in flight to orbit, also here we see the modular capacity in action, with the installation of an interplanetary tug between the core and one of the caps

Here is the Farscape Launchpoint station on an escape trajectory, bound for Laythe. Notice the 12 engines (6 per tugs) I decided to remove 2 and make the rest jettisonable for the sake of efficiency in the current iteration of the Mk II tug.

The station Aerobraking around Jool and Laythe, its final destination, by that point I had dumped one of the tugs to increase efficiency.

The Mk I Interplanetary Tug ready for launch.

The Mk I tug ready to deliver its payload, or to be assembled into a freight train.

The Mk II Tug has a bit more punch, and greater engine clearance, but the extra weight of the engines comes at the cost of a bit of efficiency.

Here we see the modular capacities of the tugs (both Mk I and II have the same capacities for reconfiguration): the medium docking clamps, the RCS tanks and the engines can all be jettisoned, those action are not bound to groups to prevent accidental separations... having a 5 tank freight train split in 2 or loose engines is bad but the only limit is really the wobblyness and the frame rate as can be seen in the bottom right image.

And finally here are the .craft files

The Station: http://www./view/pygerc2dnc8yxdc/Farscape_Launchpoint_Mk_II.craft

The Mk I Tug: http://www./view/4u44wig4uw7csx1/Interplanetary_Tug.craft

The Mk II Tug: http://www./view/odwd3r10lfa8t0d/Interplanetary_Tug_Mk_II.craft

Links to my other Shared Projects:

The Hydra Class Modular Tug: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/60542-A-fuel-freighter-tug-to-fit-any-need-the-Hydra-Class-Modular-Tug

The Minotaur X-Light Fuel Tanker: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51994-The-Minotaur-class-X-Light-fuel-launcher-%28with-tank-tug%29

The Tiny Titan Medium Tanker: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51117-The-Tiny-Titan-Medium-Tanker-%284-orange-tanks-to-LKO%29-%29

The Hercules 9 MkIIa and b Heavy Tankers: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50985-The-Hercules-9-Mk-IIa!-This-puppy-will-bring-about-9-2-orange-tanks-to-a-90KM-orbit!

The Desert Rose Duna Base: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50670-The-Desert-Rose-Duna-Base-D

The Agamemnon Exoplanetary Outpost Deployment System: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51494-The-Agamemnon-%28Exoplanetary-Outpost-Deployment-System%29-D?p=674546#post674546

Planceception: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/59489-Planceception!-A-plane-Within-a-plane-Thanks-Spootyman-for-your-awesome-video-of-it

Hope you guys and gals enjoyed the designs any constructive comments or suggestions are welcome.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Arendey

[Captain Sierra]

How lag inducing is this?

[Arendey]

The Launch can be laggy (setting the time spent on physics to 0.03 in settings on the "login" screen helps a lot) the station itself causes me no lag, like I said, it has 292 parts in the 4 red tank configuration.

[Arendey]

Interplanetary travel is also pretty much lag free/low lag even with the addition of the tugs, I usually go for the 4/6 tanks config for a quick Kerbin escape, 4 mainsails are great at that, but just the 2 MkII tugs will be enough, just need to use multiple passes near periapsis to get maximum benefit from the Oberth Effect. Ive taken one of these to the Mun, Laythe, One is all by ready to leave for Duna along with a base, a planetary ferry and a rover, and I plan to send other station of this model to a lot more Moons/planets.

[s1l3nt_c0y0t3]

"Moar Dakka" doesn't work well for space station design. You've seem to have made several newbie mistakes. Also, it isn't modular unless you can pull parts off and replace them with another component. Also, nothing needs that many solar panels. It just ups the part counts without adding any benefit. Not bad for a first effort, but spend some time refining the design.

[Majic]

This is the most reliable and easy to orbit space station package I've tested so far. The tugs contain a lot of RCS fuel for orienting the station and serve as handy "yard tractors" capable of coupling to standard and large docking ports. The solar panels are handy for powering otherwise "dead" payloads and the lights I like to leave on for darkside operations (and aesthetics).

Once can criticize, but it works well enough that, with a few minor changes for my tastes, it has become my go-to station for sandboxing.

[iDan122]

I agree with the op, there are too many extra parts and the station isn't modular, it is hole aka single launch. Fr example, Skylab was single launch, whereas MIR was modular, assembled from many parts and launches.