Ideal Minmus orbit?

[957Chatterton]

I'm planning an orbital station around Minmus for refueling before interplanetary travel. All I want to know is at what altitude should I establish this orbit? Also, should I instead aim for a higher Kerbin orbit, like 84,000 km, just short of Kerbin's SOI?

For clarity, I am not concerned with the oberth effect or getting to the station since I'll be using a tug for the latter and will have plenty of Delta V for the former. It's just that my space station will consist of so many parts, I don't want to have any regrets about its placement.

Edited November 21, 2013 by 957Chatterton

[TheGeoninja]

Because Minmus requires such a low orbit speed I would suggest that you could put a station at a low Minmus equatorial orbit. This way you can easily do stuff on Minmus such as build a colony and refuel ships with ease.

[Rufferal]

The biggest issue with a Minimus refueling station is its inclination. If you plan on going interplanetary, the biggest problem is inclination. You want to have very little inclination when doing an interplanetary burn, and Minimus will start you off with a few degrees. It's also more difficult to make a transfer from a moon to another planet, although you can leave Minimus's SOI before burning to fix this.

If you really want a station that far out, put it in Kerbin SOI, and make sure it's not in a path that can be intercepted by Mun or Minimus.

[957Chatterton]

Thanks, Rufferal! I think I'll try 50,000 km. I tried 84,000 but escaped Kerbin's soi.

Edited November 21, 2013 by 957Chatterton

[Taki117]

If you do want to put it around Minmus once you get there you could always compensate for the angle of Minmus's orbit by setting the Mun as your target and matching it's inclination (It's at 0.0°) this would help offset the 6.0° inclination of Minmus's orbit.

[SandMan13]

No need to be worried about inclination. Just time warp until Minmus is at it's ascending/descending node and then burn.

And the lowest possible orbit you can get with that station would be ideal. If you are sending fuel up you want to use as little as possible. You could probably go ~10Km or lower.

[Vanamonde]

If you put the station around a moon, keep in mind that every visiting ship would have to decelerate down to (whatever its orbital height is) and then burn more fuel to speed up again for departure. It may not be much for a body as small as Minmus, but it would be a recurring cost and so add up trip by trip.

[Kasuha]

I don't recommend putting the station on Minmus orbit. I'd put it in Kerbin orbit, about as high as Minmus is. Getting the fuel there will not be any harder than getting it to Minmus orbit and for ships it will be way more comfortable place to park.

[little square dot]

Thanks, Rufferal! I think I'll try 50,000 km. I tried 84,000 but escaped Kerbin's soi.

Yeah, Rufferal speaks the truth. I learned this lesson the hard way when I built a re-supply station orbiting Dres only to abandon it because it was such a pain to get to.

Meh, "efficiency", "planning", "variable consideration" and other such tripe is for suckas.

If however you do end up placing a station of some sort in orbit around Minmus, aesthetics would dictate a very low orbit, as Minmus looks BAD from vantage points over 30,000m.

In addition to this, as has been mentioned, orbital periods are ridiculously long once you start moving into six-figure orbits.

Good luck in your refuely endeavour.

[957Chatterton]

I decided a closer orbit of 250km. I figured I could just as well put a general purpose space station in orbit around every body (over a very long time). 250km doesn't render Kerbin, is easy to rendevouz with, gets more Kerbol exposure for solar power (RTGs are ungainly and heavy), and is less time-consuming for construction. All-in-all, my plan to conquer the universe is well under way! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH-... JEB! DON'T TOUCH TH-... nevermind.

[Xiphos]

I think a station in high kerbin orbit will be the most useful. That way, your ships going there won't always have to make an inclination change. Especially if their destination is to a planet that is on the same inclination as kerbin. Since you will be visiting it a lot, the simpler you can make the rendezvous, the easer you make it on yourself, and the mission as a whole. (All my stations are usually 300km above the surface or whichever altitude allows 1000x warp)

EDIT: Ooops, I didn't see the above post from the OP. Gratz on your decision, and be sure to post up some pics of your station when completed!

Edited November 21, 2013 by Xiphos