Permanent Mun-Kerbin Orbit

[Radsoc]

Yes, but see it as a shuttle service. There are more people on the moon that may need transport and there\'s only a limited amount of crafts

[Awaras]

The issue I have with this is that, if you rendezvous with the station in this trajectory, you\'re -already- on a free return trajectory, so there\'s no point in having an entire station there, since leaving the station to land on the mun would require the same amount of delta-v as sending a smaller (and therefore lighter) craft there from the same trajectory.

But the shuttlecraft could be smaller, and the base could be as big as you want it since it does not have to accelerate/decelerate all the time. So small shuttlecraft to transport people and cargo to and from the base, and a large base with all the amenities of a modern cruise ship for the trip between the Earth and Moon. (Talking about the real world application here). Just curious, how long would it take this base to go from Earth to the Moon and how long to make the trip back? I can\'t open the PDF Xazas posted before...

[NovaSilisko]

But you still need to get the shuttle to the moon. And, to rendezvous with the station you already have the velocity to do that.

The only advantage I see is being able to keep a lander on the station so you don\'t need to send it with the shuttle, but even then, the lander needs enough delta-v to slow down to a landing after undocking from the station...

[Awaras]

But you still need to get the shuttle to the moon. And, to rendezvous with the station you already have the velocity to do that.

The only advantage I see is being able to keep a lander on the station so you don\'t need to send it with the shuttle, but even then, the lander needs enough delta-v to slow down to a landing after undocking from the station...

Yes, and for bulk cargo it seems to me that it would make absolutely no difference whether you have a base like this or a lot of shuttles. But for passengers, you could have a large, luxurious, very massive base that you put into this kind of orbit once and a lot of small Earth and Moon - based shuttles that transfer passengers to it and from it. This way, passengers sit inside small, cramped, low mass shuttles just for the start and end of the trip, instead of them being cooped up for the entire trip OR you having to waste fuel to accelerate and decelerate a much larger, more comfortable shuttle for every trip. I mean, it\'s bearable to fly third class for 2-6 hours with a fat guy jammed next to you, but 2-3 days or more? For any journey longer than 24 hrs you are going to need a lot of extra equipment (food preparation facilities, lavatories and waste management equipment, bunk beds/seats, artificial gravity centrifuges or cryogenic pods or whatever, and it is a lot more efficient to accelerate all that extra mass ONCE and keep it a station in this kind of orbit than to keep accelerating it along with the shuttles...

As someone said, this would probably be more useful for Earth-Mars than for Earth-Moon because of the longer trip times...

[gabyalufix]

Usefulness be damned. It\'s Kerbal Space Program, not Kerbal Space Corporation, amiright?

If it can be done, I hope to see it done, and for no other reason. Death before utility!