Do you even Spacestation?

[nholzric]

These are the three space stations in my current game.

I like how you can kinda see the progression through the tech tree, at least between the first and second station. (the second and third were built near the end and at the same time)

This is my science station orbiting Minmus. You can see the science lander in front. Notice the many many OX-4L solar panels, the Rockomax X200-16 fuel tanks in the back, and the hitchhiker topped with a decoupler - these are all evidence of progress through the tech tree. This station is very modular, very messy.

This is my fuel station at Duna. I have my fingers crossed for contracts, currently there is precious little reason to return. The three Kerbals manning the station feel a little duped. Note the orthogonal drive section from the TABA (There And Back Again) Class "Durin's Day" that visited the station and returned home with most of Duna's science. This station is very clean owing to it being built from one section (with two drive sections docked).

This is my home fuel station. "Durin's Day" is docked on the upper right, notice the wasp waist connection (Clamp-O-Tron Docking Port) between the command and drive sections - evidence of the tech tree (otherwise I would have used a Sr Docking Port). You can see an experimental drive in the bottom left designed to take left and right auxiliary fuel units. This station exhibited a bit more design control as it is built in three pieces which all look similar.

[hpersson]

Long time lurker,felt I needed to show of my minimus refuel and science spacestation.

It's not pretty ,but it works.

Jeb enyoing the scenery

[magnemoe]

I tend to launch core in one step then add extra features then needed.

Shipyard 1 is an orbital construction facility who is designed to build other ships and stations. Uses the extraterrestrial launchpad mod. Tanks between the engines and the living module hold rocket parts.

It can build ships around as large as the rocketpart containers so I call it an dry dock.

dry weight is around 100 ton so it can be launched in one go. to the left I have a ketane minier with 2.5 orange tank capacity. To the right an ore miner.

Note how the huge drill almost hit the inflatable living quarter.

I also has an orbital tug who who is assigned to the complex however its docked to an ship who will leave for Dress in a day. The tug gives the cargo an 1km/s push to get it at the edge of Kerbin SOI, it aerobreaks then returning to Kerbin, dock to station and refuel for next mission.

[Spatzimaus]

I don't assemble stations in orbit. My stations are all single-launch deployments using my ultra-heavy SSTO boosters to lift them in one shot. Here's one of my large stations (870 tons) with a spaceplane docked:

It required my heaviest launcher, a 12000-ton booster I keep for emergencies. But launching everything in one hop meant I only needed to make sure there were enough struts to withstand the launch stresses.

Thing is, that sort of station is really designed for when we get a more detailed resource system. When that happens, you'll need somewhere to hold all the raw resource tanks, refinery equipment, etc., which presumably would require enough total weight to be impractical in a mobile design. In the current environment, there's not much point to it, so I generally go a bit smaller and combine a station with a refinery lander in a single craft. I have a semi-station design I use in most other places, shown here with that same spaceplane over Laythe:

It's a 300-ton mobile Kethane refinery, capable of landing on low-gravity moons to refill, but once filled I park them wherever I need a fuel depot.

[InterCity]

Well, i have two common scenarios: a) build the station in VAB and use some insane lifter to get it in place

launch the base module to LKO and then dock random modules at random ports to make the station.

[Landge]

Since 0.21 my stations are smaller and more mobile. Consisting of a Fuel Storage stage, a Transfer Orbital Habitat/Lab stage and a Lander/Habitat stage for the intrepid trio...