Purpose of space bases/stations?

[KerikBalm]

Beyond looking cool... is there any purpose to bases in space/ other celestial bodies?

The only resource one can extract... is electricity

The closest thing to a station that makes sense to me... is having part of your ship stay in orbit when you send down a lander.

Is there any real purpose to these bases? Something that can increase efficiency/effectiveness of the space program?

If not.... Could anyone point me to a version 0.19 compatible mod pack (My mac is running Leopard, and no later version of KSP works on mine, but I've back ported some stock parts) that allows some resource gathering?

I was thinking of something like Nuclear reactor module + atmosphre processor module + chemical lab + fuel storage tanks = a fuel producing station on planets with an atmosphere... or at least maybe something for Laythe that can convert intake air to oxidizer.

Maybe a drill + refinery + chemical lab for solid bodies with no atmosphere?

[Zephram Kerman]

Well, I like to use orbital stations as fuel stops. My SSTO reaches orbit on vapors. But after docking to refuel, it can reach Laythe.

For resource gathering, what you describe sounds a lot like Kethane. It's very popular. Not sure if the current version is compatible with 0.19 though. Perhaps you can find an older version.

[Spyritdragon]

For me, of course, one point is aesthetics. I like to have a station to science on and such.

One of the most useful properties of a station is the possibility to house large amounts of fuel in orbit, allowing you to refuel your craft in orbit, greatly extending your operating range. It also makes that you don't have to deorbit your interplanetary ships, landers etc, and can just keep them in orbit for further use.

One thing i also like is that stations allow you to keep multiple ships together. I dunno why, but i like it organised this way. It prevents me from having a whole bunch of stuff flying around, and allows me to always have fully fueled Munar/Minmus landers in orbit.

[Collin Dow]

I use stations to compensate, I mean, because they're monumental challenges to the natural world. Yes.

[Seret]

Well, fuel depots are the obvious choice.

Looks like we'll have a new part in the next update: a lab. It's supposed to be big and heavy, and will allow you to analyse samples and transmit them so that you don't have to return the sample all the way to Kerbin. It sounds like a station composed of a lab, lots of electricity and comms gear could be quite useful for harvesting science from other bodies (especially once the other planets get multiple biomes).

You could park a station in orbit around another planet and just have a lander shuttling back and forth to the surface collecting samples for analysis in the lab.

Edited November 9, 2013 by Seret

[Sirrobert]

In the next patch we are getting a lab module that you can bring science to for analizing, and after that you can transmit it back home. So you could probably put that in orbit (it's going to be very big and need lots of power) and have your lander and stuf bring the science there instead of all the way back home

[astropapi1]

You guys didn't read his post, did you?

He's stuck in 0.19. There's no "next patch" for him.

[KerikBalm]

Well, I like to use orbital stations as fuel stops. My SSTO reaches orbit on vapors. But after docking to refuel, it can reach Laythe.

But do you need a station for that? what does it matter if you haul that fuel up in 1 trip or two? Doin it in one means no complicated docking maneuver and use of RCS.

For that matter, you don't actually save any equipment or fuel if you do two trip and dock, or one staged trip.

I see the point of landers for interplanetary craft.... so you don't have to decelerate your fuel and extra equipment down, and then lift it back up...

Likewise i see the point of launching refueling craft from Kerbin to interplantary vessels....

At the moment, I'm using docking ports for pods/landers, and probe cores for my interplanetary nerva/ion vessels, so I just launch a pod up (and I browse the forums while SAS is on and physics warp to 4x on my ion burns...).

I've thought about making stations, and bases on minmus... but I just can't see the point of having to dock my IP craft with a station, and then the "fuel truck" with the same station.

At the moment, the only point I see is so that I don't have to have them in the same orbit at the same time, but either one can go up and just orbit while waiting for the other....

Twice as many dockings for the same effect.

And of course... bases in grav wells.... ughhh....

[Tydeth]

Space stations and planetary bases sans mods are primarily aesthetic. The fuel depot and garage uses for stations help add useful purposes, as a fuel depot loaded with lots of fuel can be quite useful in refilling multiple smaller craft, and a garage keeps your orbits tidier.

Another possible use for stations, if you prefer to keep your Kerbals alive, is as a space colony. Launch and build a station with the Hitchhiker cans, use a reliable launch shuttle to bring crew aboard, then you need only a reliable space bus with 1 or 2 LV-Ns to ferry crew from the space colony to any ship in space that needs to be manned. With a launcher that includes an unmanned probe brain, this allows you to launch new manned ships empty, so that if you didn't strut enough or pack enough thrust or what have you, you don't risk any Kerbal lives during the launching procedure. Just get it into stable orbit, ferry the guys from colony to ship, refuel the thing if necessary, and you're good to go. Granted, even that can forego the station colony(and its space bus) if you have a reliable shuttle to ferry crew into space with.

Anyway, without mods, the point of a space station is along the lines of, "Why not?" They do provide a common purpose in the form of docking practice, as you have a structure that requires orbital construction via docking multiple things together.

[Taki117]

I'm using .22 and i dont know if this will work for the OP or not, but i use my station as a refueling depot and shipyard. While the craft is still on the launch pad I unload enough fuel so that i can get into orbit. (using TAC fuel balancer). Then once there I stop over at the station for a refuel and to await the rest of the ship for in space assembly.

[Hodo]

I use my space stations for two things.

1- They are orbital command centers for my communications network using the RemoteTech2 mod.

2- They also act as refueling and high powered science transmission stations.