Stations or two way tickets?

[seaces]

Hello,

First I would like to thank you all that have participated in my thread (ttp://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/103035-The-purpose-of-the-space-planes) that unfortunately got closed before I was able to thank you. I didn't really expect 5 pages for that simple question, I guess this is due to the great community. Anyway lets get on my next question.

So I wanted to see what Pro.Players here think on gathering biomes from another planets. In my case first I did 2 landings on Mun with command pod, mobile lab and all science instruments. Was very hard since I did this as soon as I unlocked laboratory. I had issues on how to put Poddle engine and support this with basic leg set which barely managed to touch ground first so my engine doesn't get damaged ( I had to lock suspensions to keep the engine off the ground) the margin for error was small but how much science I would gain was a good reward. This made me think on placing a station with a Mobile lab as core and storage for collected samples and light lander that will go up and down and refuel at station as necessary. When I sample all the Mun I will decouple tanks, lander and other stuff and just return with my 3 Kerbs, command pod and lab. Anyway I needed excuse to learn docking since I know I will need that skill sooner or later. So guys what you think? Should I place stations around every planet and when we get the update with biomes on every planet I just start descending and gathering all science or do those two way mission launch, land get back, repeat until you exhausted all biomes on a planet? Lets see what you think about it? Keep in mind that I am talking about stock game I do not intend to mode it yet. I like it they way it is for now.

[Wanderfound]

For science mining, I usually prefer to stick a lab and fuel tank in orbit with an attached lander. Pop down, grab science, back up, clean experiments, rinse and repeat. Either transmit the data (the loss isn't that big a deal when you can mine science at will) or pack it all onto lightweight crew transfer ships as you swap out or retrieve the personnel.

[seaces]

For science mining, I usually prefer to stick a lab and fuel tank in orbit with an attached lander. Pop down, grab science, back up, clean experiments, rinse and repeat. Either transmit the data (the loss isn't that big a deal when you can mine science at will) or pack it all onto lightweight crew transfer ships as you swap out or retrieve the personnel.

http://i1378.photobucket.com/albums/ah120/craigmotbey/Kerbal/screenshot246_zps5b5dd6bf.jpg

Now that is a rocket .

Yes that is what I do send a lab as a core and a lander that goes down and up then I move science to lab a clean the instruments and then I get back down.

[KerikBalm]

Its fairly common to use an orbiting station that consists of a mobile lab and a fuel supply.

Personally I use a lander that collects 2 or more of every experiment (except surface samples, booo). I transmit 1 (boosted transmission), and then keep the other, that way I can send it all back in a single pod.

I have modded my mobile lab to give a +100% bonus to science transmission, rather than a +50% bonus, I also tweaked the materials bay and goo transmit %'s by 5%.

As I use a fully reusable lander, with a lot of "dead weight" in the form of 2x materials bays, 2x goo pods, 2 x retractable solar panels (I transmit all the science I can before ascent, just in case, also that way I can get some transmitted science for the surface samples, since i can take another one after transmitting, but I can only store one on the way to the lab... for some bodies beyond kerbal orbit, I use 2 kerbal landers or more, containing 2 lander cans, so I can bring up 2 surface samples) - I go with the "fuel optimal" engine, not "mass optimal", and use a LV-N on the lander, it does make it a bit prone to tipping over, but I can easily cover every biome in a single launch from LKO.

Sometimes when I get bored of biome harvesting the Mun, or packed way more fuel than I needed (or just do a lot of really efficient landings), I do a transfer to Minmus.

Its perfectly possible to return every science experiment from every biom on Mun and Minmus with a single launch from kerbin (I wait until I unlock the grav max, I don't want to go back and do all that again, even if I can use an even smaller probe to get the data)

[seaces]

Its fairly common to use an orbiting station that consists of a mobile lab and a fuel supply.

Personally I use a lander that collects 2 or more of every experiment (except surface samples, booo). I transmit 1 (boosted transmission), and then keep the other, that way I can send it all back in a single pod.

I have modded my mobile lab to give a +100% bonus to science transmission, rather than a +50% bonus, I also tweaked the materials bay and goo transmit %'s by 5%.

As I use a fully reusable lander, with a lot of "dead weight" in the form of 2x materials bays, 2x goo pods, 2 x retractable solar panels (I transmit all the science I can before ascent, just in case, also that way I can get some transmitted science for the surface samples, since i can take another one after transmitting, but I can only store one on the way to the lab... for some bodies beyond kerbal orbit, I use 2 kerbal landers or more, containing 2 lander cans, so I can bring up 2 surface samples) - I go with the "fuel optimal" engine, not "mass optimal", and use a LV-N on the lander, it does make it a bit prone to tipping over, but I can easily cover every biome in a single launch from LKO.

Sometimes when I get bored of biome harvesting the Mun, or packed way more fuel than I needed (or just do a lot of really efficient landings), I do a transfer to Minmus.

Its perfectly possible to return every science experiment from every biom on Mun and Minmus with a single launch from kerbin (I wait until I unlock the grav max, I don't want to go back and do all that again, even if I can use an even smaller probe to get the data)

I used smaller engine but on my second landing I found out that if I land somewhere where the ground is bit elevated I was not able to reduce speed fast enough (this killed the original trio of Kerbs) so I went back at the drawing board to try and fit Poddle engine to have that more safety and margin error. At that time I didn't have docking ports so I was landing with lab too so it was very difficult especially for me(tall lander, heavy lander) since these were my first landings on other planet.

[Wanderfound]

I used smaller engine but on my second landing I found out that if I land somewhere where the ground is bit elevated I was not able to reduce speed fast enough (this killed the original trio of Kerbs) so I went back at the drawing board to try and fit Poddle engine to have that more safety and margin error. At that time I didn't have docking ports so I was landing with lab too so it was very difficult especially for me(tall lander, heavy lander) since these were my first landings on other planet.

Leave the lab and other excess in orbit and you can comfortably land on an LV-909.

[seaces]

Leave the lab and other excess in orbit and you can comfortably land on an LV-909.

Now I am doing that because I have JUST NOW unlocked the docking ports. Before that I didn't have that so the only way was to land with all that.

[Janos1986]

An orbital lab with nuclear engines, a dockable lightweight lander and at least 3 kerbals are IMHO the most cost-effective way of grinding biomes.

Should you change radically the type of body you want to study (i.e. you finished Mun and Minmus and want to move to Duna) you can simply return the whole thing to Kerbin, recover just the lander, and send up a more suitable one, with added parachutes for example, and reuse the same lab+engines module over and over.

It can save you a lot of money, maximize profits with the "Explore" contracts, and make science grinding simpler.

[Kerba Fett]

On my previous career I used a lander with a lab module. To keep it from getting too tall and tippy I radial mounted t800 fuel tanks with lv909's. (I used 4, but 2 or 3 would probably work.) This lets you use normal landing gear and still have decent ground clearance.

I'd land and take samples. I'd then transmit the samples and clean the experiment bays. Then I'd take more samples for returning and EVA to get them as well as surface samples and EVA reports.

Keep in mind that you can store 1 copy of data in the lab and another copy of the same data in the capsule. This should let you recover ALL the science for each landing spot.

After visiting a few sites I'd reorbit and dock with the orbiting ship to refuel and store data.

Later a small data courier comes from Kerbin to pick it up.

[moogoob]

An orbital lab with nuclear engines, a dockable lightweight lander and at least 3 kerbals are IMHO the most cost-effective way of grinding biomes.

Should you change radically the type of body you want to study (i.e. you finished Mun and Minmus and want to move to Duna) you can simply return the whole thing to Kerbin, recover just the lander, and send up a more suitable one, with added parachutes for example, and reuse the same lab+engines module over and over.

It can save you a lot of money, maximize profits with the "Explore" contracts, and make science grinding simpler.

That's pretty much what I did for Minmus, but good idea with the engine thing. It would have been nice to move my station to, say, the Mun or Duna after.

[Janos1986]

That's pretty much what I did for Minmus, but good idea with the engine thing. It would have been nice to move my station to, say, the Mun or Duna after.

Did you just say "SHOW ME AN EXAMPLE"?

Just kidding, here anyway, this is my long-range space cruiser / space hub.

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[seaces]

Did you just say "SHOW ME AN EXAMPLE"?

Just kidding, here anyway, this is my long-range space cruiser / space hub.

http://imgur.com/a/VdsTK

I like this design...I also have in mind to build some kind of station that can move...

[morscience]

I have modded my mobile lab to give a +100% bonus to science transmission, rather than a +50% bonus, I also tweaked the materials bay and goo transmit %'s by 5%.

A science lab that gives you 100% transfer returns? Now that's just hardcore OP cheating.

[TeMPOraL]

Did you just say "SHOW ME AN EXAMPLE"?

Just kidding, here anyway, this is my long-range space cruiser / space hub.

Last time I built something like third of the size of this, the very next day Kraken came and shred it to pieces.

Any advice on dealing with that?

[Janos1986]

Last time I built something like third of the size of this, the very next day Kraken came and shred it to pieces.

Any advice on dealing with that?

Be gentle with the throttle. Accelerate and decelerate gradually, forget about Z and X keys, and you'll go smooth as silk. 400 tons of silk, that is.

Same for rotation, disable SAS to put the kraken to sleep, apply RCS and let it rotate freely.

You can either counter with gentle RCS pushes to stop the rotation or just cheat right away switching time warp on and off when you're onto your maneuver node.

SAS must be on only during burns.

The ship I posted is pretty sturdy, it doesn't wobble around too much even with SAS on, but there is no such thing as being too cautious.

You can secure everything with struts after assembly, if Kerbal Attachment System is your thing.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Janos1986

[TeMPOraL]

Thanks!

In my case the Kraken keeps on hitting my station when I switch to it from Tracking Station / Map / by using '[' and ']' keys. Any advice on that? I realized I kept SAS activated on my space station. Does disabling it helps?

[Janos1986]

I'm not sure about that, I also leave it on while on parking orbit, and when I get back from tracking station everything is fine.

Can't help you with that one, sorry.

[thereaverofdarkness]

I sometimes use a low-orbiting station for Minmus, and have a kerbal EVA hop to the surface and back to orbit because they get unlimited fuel that way. But it's nice actually having a lander for them. But yes, definitely the science lab is meant for keeping in orbit, unless you are gathering fuel at each landing site.

If I were making a crewed trip to Jool to collect science from every biome to get as much science as possible, I would send a colony ship with three satellite stations each with a science lab, two of which would each eventually orbit Laythe and Tylo, with the mothership being left in Jool orbit at high altitude just outside Pol's orbit. The satellite stations would carry a smallish one-crew lander capable of returning to orbit, with enough fuel to refuel each lander a couple of times and still have extra to return to the mothership. The third satellite station would enter a high orbit around Vall and would release a lander which could collect data easily from Vall and have enough fuel remaining in the station to send out trips to Bop and Pol. The lander itself would be the same as the Laythe and Tylo landers and thus would carry enough dV to make a full sweep of either Bop or Pol before returning to the Vall station.

Jool science would be collected by the colony ship during the aerobreaking maneuver when first entering the Jool system. After all other science was collected, the landers would take everything out of the stations and leave them behind, and fly back to the mothership. The kerbals would then take the science into the mothership and leave the landers to fall into Jool. The mothership would return home, a husk of its former self, but carrying a tremendous amount of precious science.

I would not do that without quickloading enabled. But that might give you an idea of how a large-scale science operation can be run. Anything smaller scale you can probably extrapolate from that and what others have put here.

[Wanderfound]

Did you just say "SHOW ME AN EXAMPLE"?

Just kidding, here anyway, this is my long-range space cruiser / space hub.

http://imgur.com/a/VdsTK

Did somebody mention long-range space labs?

[Slam_Jones]

This is my original science cruiser. It has every experiment, as well as a total of 4 good canisters and 4 science jrs, and a science lab. It's capable of having multiple landers/fuel cells attached.

The reason for the multiple goos and jrs is so that, while aerobraking, I can hit em all real quick, then when I'm out of the danger zone, I can lab em, clean em, and repeat.

Since I've built this, I've started using TAC, so I might have a new version of it soon.

[Pecan]

Did somebody mention long-range space labs? ...

It has to be done.

A reusable infrastructure - Chapters 7 and 8 of the tutorial in my signature guys. Station includes LOTS of refuels for the landers.

Tractor Light Towing a Complete Station (which isn't the best way to do it)

[TeMPOraL]

Thanks!

In my case the Kraken keeps on hitting my station when I switch to it from Tracking Station / Map / by using '[' and ']' keys. Any advice on that? I realized I kept SAS activated on my space station. Does disabling it helps?

Ok, I found a potential solution! .

[seaces]

Can our STOCK KErbals when they are on EVA move for example a small battery pack from one place of a ship to another? Can they interact with some parts in that way?

[Janos1986]

Can our STOCK KErbals when they are on EVA move for example a small battery pack from one place of a ship to another? Can they interact with some parts in that way?

Only if you have the KAS mod installed.