Going to start a mun colony, Need help.

[Lolkillalevi]

Well after my long awaited goal, I reached the mun! So we got the 3 kerbal brothers over there, Bill, Jebediah And Bob . So back to my point, I want to now create a colony on the mun, Then duna. But i only know about landing a ship on the mun...But i really dont know much about making colonies, So pictures of what a basic colony ship would look like and some tips or hints, would be great!

Thanks in advance!

[KvickFlygarn87]

Well, here's a few suggestions

1. Kethane refinery
   
2. Kethane storage
   
3. Escape pods (enough to make all kerbals escape to a safe orbit, include docking ports and RCS)
   
4. Hab modules (hitchhiker cans)
   
5. Rovers
   

[Lolkillalevi]

Well, here's a few suggestions

1. Kethane refinery
   
2. Kethane storage
   
3. Escape pods (enough to make all kerbals escape to a safe orbit, include docking ports and RCS)
   
4. Hab modules (hitchhiker cans)
   
5. Rovers
   

Okay thanks! I was thinking about doing it without mods, But i've been thinking about kethane and it'd make having a colony on the mun in ksp...More sensable because you can mine, instead of just landing some kerbals on the mun and calling it a colony and do nothing with it lol. I'll go download kethane.

[FITorion]

This is what I did.

Do not do what I did.

Up to that point everything was fine. Land modules and use rover wheels to maneuver them together and connect with docking clamps.

Do not attach a big long thing to have your power generation away from your habitation.

The whole connected base will load rigid and go flying through the "air" when you connect new things...

Seen here in testing was my power module.

Upon attachment to my base the base flew up into the sky and fliped over and then came crashing back down.

Lessons learned:

Do not attach things together.

Long things do not do well on non flat Lunar surfaces. There are no really flat Lunar Surfaces.

Landing several modules close to each other is good enough.

Using rover wheels to move things closer to each other works well.

If you want to link things together Mods such as KAS should be used and not stock docking ports.

I used a "skycrane" like method to land each module. Similar to this:

The fuel and engines for landing are on top. Once landed you decouple it and have it fly off to impact the Mun thus reduced the number of parts on the surface.

Edited December 28, 2013 by FITorion

[Sgt. Cookie]

For small rovers and craft that don't need a tonne of power, use the Thermoelectric generator. Seriously. That ^ rover has way more power than it needs. The mass-to-power ratio isn't nearly as good as the solar panels, but using the Thermoelectric drops the part count significantly.

My advice would be to always have an SST(Munar)O on hand, should you need it. I would also highly suggest that you have a ship with more than enough Delta-V to get you back to Kerbin.

[Markus Reese]

There are a couple ways of doing it. The most important thing is the roleplay for colonies. The most common things might be plan a habitation module, science module, and maybe a solar station. Drop a couple ROVs down, and that is good for fun. Here is one I did a while back. It was done with mods, but all style stuff and an old mod that required life support to prevent your kerbals from suffocating.

[liweih]

If you are planning to assemble your base on the moon, the very first thing you need to learn is the method to land on a precise location. Even you equip all your base parts with wheels, you won't want to drive them tens of km on the moon for rendezvous. The second thing is estimate how many parts your computer can handle. Many times I found myself facing the fact that lag is the biggest enemy to my plans. Third, make a full size model base on kerbin and test it carefully. If it works, it may still have problems because mun has lower gravity.

[flightmaster]

If you are planning to assemble your base on the moon, the very first thing you need to learn is the method to land on a precise location. Even you equip all your base parts with wheels, you won't want to drive them tens of km on the moon for rendezvous. The second thing is estimate how many parts your computer can handle. Many times I found myself facing the fact that lag is the biggest enemy to my plans. Third, make a full size model base on kerbin and test it carefully. If it works, it may still have problems because mun has lower gravity.

Very good summary of the process required. I especially support the third point, do a mock run through on Kerbin!