Space Stations that orbits the Sun

[Jetenginestar]

Day Dreaming again when I thought about setting up a space station in the middle of nowhere... (Between Eve and Kerbin to be precise)

Is there any practical advantage for this kind of design, I doubt there is .__.

[r4pt0r]

i thought docking with a asteroid in kerbolar orbit was hard, so i imagine the same for docking with a station. good luck op.

as for advantages, using it as a fueling station would mean you dont need to retro-burn to get into orbit(thus wasting dv) around another planet, but i cant imagine the wait times required for it

[michaelhester07]

Currently there isn't much of an advantage to that. If there was an experiment that you could run over time that had to be outside of Kerbin's soi then there would be an advantage. You're better off putting it in orbit of a planet whose gravity will help decelerate ships heading to it.

If you're into mods then the Kethane pack makes a planetary station advantageous as you can refuel and head to a new planetary system.

[cantab]

A space station in direct solar orbit isn't very useful for anything. As alluded to you won't get any help from the Oberth effect, making it more difficult to reach and to get anywhere from.

The real killer, though, will be transfer windows. Say you're going to Moho, then instead of just waiting for a Kerbin-Moho window, you'll have to wait for a Kerbin-station window then wait for a station-Moho window.

Better to have stations in orbit around planets and moons.

[brianorca]

The closer that station is to Kerbin's orbit, the less often you will get a low-delta transfer window. It might be years between each window.

[Sirrobert]

It would be pritty cool to have a station really close to the Sun.

But that's it. It's very unpractical

[Merinsan]

Not only is in not useful, it's extremely difficult to get to.

Once you have the transfer window, rendezvous is extremely difficult because the scale of things is so much bigger, ie instead of getting within 1km of the target, you end up within 200km.

I understand from something Felipe said somewhere, that a problem with timewarp moving things may have been solved (or improved), so it might now be easier. The one time I did it, every time I timewarped, my target jumped by 20km or so.

[Starwhip]

You don't have to send parts individually.

Those two images are of the same station (Which may seem familiar to a few of you ) converted from station to "train" mode. You can do this to transfer the whole thing in one go, and then use an RCS tug to reattach everything.

[Sirrobert]

You don't have to send parts individually.

http://i61.tinypic.com/29v12t3.png

http://i60.tinypic.com/106ft5k.png

Those two images are of the same station (Which may seem familiar to a few of you ) converted from station to "train" mode. You can do this to transfer the whole thing in one go, and then use an RCS tug to reattach everything.

Yes, I've seen that before.

And now I'm going to steal it. Thanks for bringing it up again

[Duke23]

I did that by accident once... It was more like a ship that didn't quite make it to its destination. Kidding aside, I don't see any advantage to doing that unless you just want to for whatever reason (roleplaying?). Seems like it'd be a pain to get to though.

[cantab]

Not only is in not useful, it's extremely difficult to get to.

Once you have the transfer window, rendezvous is extremely difficult because the scale of things is so much bigger, ie instead of getting within 1km of the target, you end up within 200km.

On the other hand, from my experience rendezvousing with asteroids in solar orbit, 200 km is an OK distance from which to make a final approach (ie lining up your relative prograde vector with the direction the target is in so you're heading straight at it). Your overall orbit is so much bigger that in comparison a couple of hundred km is nearby.

Admiteddly all my asteroid rendezvous have been with rocks scheduled to enter Kerbin's SOI, where you can use the trick of heading out the way the rock will come in to get a good intercept. Still, though trickier than hitting a planetary SOI, rendezvousing with a station in solar orbit shouldn't be that difficult as long as you have enough delta-V.

[Starwhip]

Yes, I've seen that before.

And now I'm going to steal it. Thanks for bringing it up again

I've got a whole tutorial for building it. Link's in my signature.

[eempc]

I wouldn't have minded setting up a station at a solar Lagrangian point but I hear Lagrangian points don't exist (yet).

[Raptor9]

I wouldn't have minded setting up a station at a solar Lagrangian point but I hear Lagrangian points don't exist (yet).

This is true. Since the KSP models orbital mechanics using a patched conics approximation instead of a full n-body simulation, Lagrange points aren't possible unless Squad would fudge it somehow. I personally would love it if they coded in a sort of "physics cheat" and added the ability to set up Lagrangian-based space stations. I'd seed fuel depots all over the place, ha ha.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Raptor9

[cantab]

You can still set a station around L3, 4, or 5, with the same orbital period as Kerbin. It's just there's nothing special about those points in KSP, you can put a station anywhere around Kerbin's orbit. And you won't get the low energy transfers and stuff.

[Merinsan]

On the other hand, from my experience rendezvousing with asteroids in solar orbit, 200 km is an OK distance from which to make a final approach (ie lining up your relative prograde vector with the direction the target is in so you're heading straight at it). Your overall orbit is so much bigger that in comparison a couple of hundred km is nearby.

Admiteddly all my asteroid rendezvous have been with rocks scheduled to enter Kerbin's SOI, where you can use the trick of heading out the way the rock will come in to get a good intercept. Still, though trickier than hitting a planetary SOI, rendezvousing with a station in solar orbit shouldn't be that difficult as long as you have enough delta-V.

Based on that, I'd say Felipe has indeed fixed the bug that made it difficult a some time back. I actually was planning on putting a base on an asteroid, in solar orbit. This will make it easier.