Career Mode Space Station for 0.22 - idea for feedback.

[Valley]

I was wondering, as many people think space stations have no real use in career mode - could you make a space station which has no command pod? You place a station in orbit and than remove the command pod. But it has an docking port for ships to attach - send up a pod, dock with the station, and you run the tests. The manned craft than leaves the dock and lands (crashes) back onto Kerbin and returns the data? You can return and runs more tests until it is no longer worth the points to do so. Maybe add fuel tanks to the station so it can be used as a fuel station when retired from science duty?

[marko dash]

the problem is that by the time you unlock docking ports to build stations you've exhausted all the science in the local kerbin area, and to get points from the experiments the part that generated it (example: the goo container) but be intact and present on the ship that lands and gets recovered.

[Whackjob]

Here's an idea. Rather than some simple science-over-time bit, why not have a microgravity laboratory? Put the lab module on a space station, and it doesn't work unless it's in 0G. Then, you have to fly up samples from KSP, dock, run the tests in the lab, then return them. And why not add the capability to have different modules to bolt on to the microgravity lab? Bio lab, polymer lab, et cetera.

This would also give people a reason to learn docking in a hurry.

I thought I had a good idea in the other thread, but nobody seemed to see it.

[Valley]

the problem is that by the time you unlock docking ports to build stations you've exhausted all the science in the local kerbin area, and to get points from the experiments the part that generated it (example: the goo container) but be intact and present on the ship that lands and gets recovered.

True. Rockets would have 'scienced' orbital space to death by the time you can make space stations.

[Valley]

Why was this moved? This isn't a mod suggestion but a question about how to make a station work in career mode...?

[Sirrobert]

Your idea is basicly a station with science parts in it, and than send up a command pod? You can already send up a rocket with science parts, run the experiments on those parts, and send the rocket back down.

Stations are more usefull as staging and refueling points.

PS: yes, you can remove all command parts from a station. Doing so would however lable it as debris, and thus you wouldn't be able to find it on the map until you manually turn on debris.

And there is no need to anyway, as you can dock multiple command pods to the same station

[KASASpace]

The way I see it, stations will only have two uses, and now, only 1 is in play.

The uses are:

1. Long term science with lab over a celestial body with multiple biomes but is easy to take off from (IE Minmus)

2. Cheaper Interplanetary missions, which requires the money system and resources (fuel, other stuff, etc.) to be mined from said celestial body

[Captain Sierra]

Space stations in career mode will likely find their place when resources (and especially sellables) come into play. With funding short, a massive mining operation could be a huge moneymaker for your program. let's not forget that the current tech tree requires you to pay money to unlock each part in a node. Researching it is one thing. Unlocking it is different. Without money implemented, you'd never notice but I think things would get a lot harder when that happens, making reusability and orbital staging points critical if you want to go farther out.