Space Tug

[Aivoh]

Greetings,

I often see mention of the term space tug, I was wondering if there are any examples.

Thanks

[Anquietas314]

A space tug is just something with a docking port, engines and enough fuel to move stuff around. The idea is you dock with the thing you want to move, then move it . Since you're usually going to make it reusable, it turns out to be pretty cost-effective to use nuke engines for them since you'll only ever need to launch one or two of them (two+ if you want to be doing multiple things at once). A related concept is a space train; basically a tug pulling a lot of other things stuck together. Usually just fuel though

[lextacy]

I use KSO shuttle packs station tug. It uses RCS only but thats all you need b/c you will be having this thing docked to your space station for the main haul.

1. Launch tug

2. launch first station module and dock with tug

3. Then start launching shuttles and bringing up 1 module at a time. Use the tug you have to undock , grab new payload form shuttle, dock, profit with rinse and repeat

[Alshain]

There are different kinds of tugs.

1. Tugs to carry stuff between celestial bodies (what armagheddonsgw described above).

2. Tugs that move stuff around on a space station.

The difference is the engine loadout they have. Station tugs often don't have anything but RCS as they don't go far. They are just smaller than a delivery craft so it's easier to make fine movements.

Below are some examples of #2.

There is a simple space tug in the cargo bay of this plane.

Or if you want to get really tricky, here is a universal space tug with all possible docking ports. (perfectly balanced RCS, with no load anyway)

Edited January 3, 2015 by Alshain

[architeuthis]

Here is an example I used for an old fan fic of mine. The craft is a bit of a love letter to the true Space Tug designs of the halcyon days of NASA's ambitious 1969 Integrated Program Plan. Edited January 3, 2015 by architeuthis

[Pecan]

Chapter 7 of the tutorial in my signature.

[Red Iron Crown]

An example of the "station tug" type Alshain mentions, all monopropellant-powered:

The tug is the small vessel at bottom, used for maneuvering station/ship modules around. Lots of torque and RCS, and the tug can manipulate modules with 1.25m or 2.5m docking ports using the attached adapter.

[maltesh]

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As mentioned in the album, the spacecraft in the foreground is a Tugbot. It's powered by twin LV-Ns and draws fuel primarily from its rockomax-16 fuel tank. It has entirely too much monoprop, but I've not yet gotten around to working up a smaller version. It either pushes or pulls payloads with its spinal-mounted Clamp-o-tron Srs.

In the background is a Cantanker, a self-powered Jumbo-64 with two of each size of docking port and enough monoprop to handle its own docking as long as it's brought close enough by something with real engines. The rugbots are buuilt so that they can freely draw from Cantankers docked at either clamp-o-tron Sr. In fact, pretty much every spacecraft I build is built so it can freely draw from a docked CanTanker, and I've been testing resource mining gantries that can land a Cantanker on a Mun-class world and fill it up using Karbonite gear.

As seen in the second image, almost every moderate-sized payload I throw to orbit gets there with a full, or nearly-full Cantanker. Almost everything I throw that doesn't have its own engines also goes with a Tugbot.

And as seen in the last image, this sort of leads to a situation where there are a /lot/ of spare tugbots and cantankers hanging around, under my playstyle.

[FlyingPete]

I have an RCS-powered tug at my Kerbin station. It's useful either for 'valet-parking' station components that don't have their own RCS/control, or for adding extra control authority to something unruly. Either equip it with several sizes of docking port, or have some port adapters handy on the station so you can connect to anything.

I also use the other sort of space tug- something with a large docking port, nuclear engines and lots of fuel. These are for carting payloads between Kerbin and elsewhere. This way you can reuse the engines and fuel tanks rather than hauling them up from Kerbin every time- just launch the payload and rendezvous with it. The analogy to a tug boat is fairly accurate- its purpose is solely to move stuff around.

[Skorpychan]

Hauls and pushes stuff around, as long as it's got a Sr docking port center of mass. Old design from an older version of KSP, though; I'm hoping to redesign it based on Kerbodyne parts.

[LordFerret]

I use a 'tug' with way more fuel and RCS than needed to get to orbit, to restock my space station. Also, as other state, to move stuff around while building.