How to efficiently do station contracts

[Dr-Drunk]

Hey all! (Again, going kinda post crazy today)

So with the implimentation of the Fine Print contract system from 0.90 I'm kinda running into an issue with station building contracts. Now first let me say I'm playing the carreer on normal difficulty so contract payouts are set to the deffault 100%.

My problem is that I just cannot for the life of me figure out how to efficiently launch a station into orbit while still meeting the budget. Let's take for instance a simple example of a contract to launch a station into orbit around Kerbin. Now this often comes with requirements such as having a viewing cupola and a research station there. Now let's say that the place needs room for 8 or so Kerbals as well. (Don't get me started on those 20 Kerbal ones....)

Ok so since the viewing Cupola supports 1 crew, and the science lab supports 2 we're going to need 2 habitation modules to get to the desired ammount of Kerbals on the station. This would total in for a weight of 10.3 tons already and then we haven't even added any structural pieces to make it look presentable or added any batteries, solar pannels, docking ports etc.

To launch a payload that heavy I find that I often have to build a verry verry fat rocket to get that thing into orbit and this often outright exceeds the budget straight away, advance and final payout included. For example the last contract I saw for a simmilar task would pay about 30k in advance and 60k on completion but the lightest rocket I could design to lift the payload already costs 140k or more depending on how much margin for error I want to include.

Launching multiple smaller rockets and having them build the station in orbit isn't helping me much either as the total cost usually runs up to about the same number.

So is there any way at all to do these contracts more efficiently so I actually make some money or are they simply imbalanced and should I skip them for now?

Edited January 3, 2015 by Dr-Drunk

[G'th]

Hmm, using stock only, I would recommend one of two things. Either grinding to build up some cash, or, creating a reusable rocket system you can fly back to KSC after you're done with your station. That way, presuming your reusable rocket works well, all you'd spend to complete the contract is the cost of the station itself.

But if you're willing to go with mods, I would recommend getting Stage Recovery and putting parachutes on your dropped stages (which realistically we should be able to do anyway). That way, even though you won't get the full cost of your stages back (unless you drop it right on top of KSC), you'll at least get some of the base cost back, making the overall contract cheaper to complete. And all for the cost of including a mod that only makes the game behave as it should.

[Slam_Jones]

The most funds-efficient station contracts that I've come across (at least with my own playstyle) are by far the "Solar Orbit" stations.

After I put it in LKO, I'll usually burn so that my ship is ahead of Kerbin, outside the SOI. The reason for this is so that once the contract is complete, I can burn retrograde and fall easily back into Kerbin's SOI.

Hope this helps!

[Dr-Drunk]

Hmmm.. Yea I geuss having either a SSTO large enough to build stations or having a re-usable rocket would help. I'll have to brainstorm on a good design for one of those in the future. Thanks for the tip on the stage recovery mod I'll deffinetly look into that as I do agree that dropped parts should be recoverable. I mean NASA doesn't let it's boosters just float around in the ocean forever either.

I hope that mod makes it into the base game much like Fine Print did.

Cheers G'th

[GoSlash27]

http://s52.photobucket.com/user/GoSlash27/slideshow/KSP/Lifter-Ception

http://s52.photobucket.com/user/GoSlash27/slideshow/KSP/Lifter-Ception/Flight

If you have the tech, I suggest a turbojet SSTO mass lifter. Crazy payload capacity, cheap to operate, and fully recoverable.

If you don't have the tech, I recommend not doing space station contracts.

Best,

-Slashy

Edited January 3, 2015 by GoSlash27

[Reactordrone]

For a Kerbin one you could get most of the crew capability with 1 man escape pods and place it in the orbit where kerbin rescue contracts generate. At least that way you'll eventually make back your cost from rescue contracts. The other way is to wait until you have multiple station contracts and then launch a station that meets all of the requirements and move it from place to place. I've used one station to do a solar orbit, Ike orbit and Duna lander (as well as picking up an Ike satellite contract on the way).

Here's a 10 person station core I flew the other day. Barley touched the fuel in the station's tanks to get into orbit and could have recovered the second stage if I'd added parachutes. Netted me 20,000 profit for that contract.

Edited January 3, 2015 by Reactordrone
Added photo

[Dr-Drunk]

@Slam_Jones

Can't believe I didn't think of that... I always assumed orbit around the sun requiered me to go really close to it or something but I geuss I should have payed more attention to my probes wich all say orbiting around the sun. XD I'll see if I can make some cheap stations to get out of the Kerbin SOI and see if that makes me any money.

I've been able to keep my space program running just fine on all the other contracts such as surveys and esspecially satellite contracts but after an ingame year and with the full tech tree unlocked it just feels bad having to decline 70% of all contracts I get because I don't know how to do them efficiently you know.

@Slashy

That's an insane lifter design right there. I'll probably give something like that a try as well. I've been experimenting with large SSTO spaceplanes since I do have B9 installed as well as Ferram but I find that I often either over- or underdesign my planes resulting in not having enough DV to get to orbit because they're too fat or not having enough DV to get to orbit because I didn't bring enough fuel tanks. XD

Edited January 3, 2015 by Dr-Drunk

[Laie]

The most efficient way of doing station contracts is not doing them for their own sake. Their payout is too low to really justify the effort. However, often they can be completed on the side while going about your business. Chances are that your mission to Duna will already include three Kerbals and a Lab. Add one hitchhiker container and behold: a station.

Or, if you want to send a few Kerbals to Minmus for training purposes, wait until a station contract shows up and the mission will be paid for.

Alternatively, though a little cheat-ish: combine station contracts. You can have several station requests open at the same time; if they're not too dissimilar, one launch and one vessel can first become a station in Kerbin orbit, then around the Mun, then on the surface of Minmus.

[MajorThomas]

To build a large, multi-kerbal station, why not do it the same way they built the MIR station (or the ISS for that matter)?

Just perfect one heavy lifter design and use over and over. Use it to loft modular crew and lab components. Be sure to include lots of docking hubs. Fly each component into orbit, dock it with the ever-growing station, and presto.

[GoSlash27]

That's an insane lifter design right there. I'll probably give something like that a try as well. I've been experimenting with large SSTO spaceplanes since I do have B9 installed as well as Ferram but I find that I often either over- or underdesign my planes resulting in not having enough DV to get to orbit because they're too fat or not having enough DV to get to orbit because I didn't bring enough fuel tanks. XD

Oh, crap! I didn't catch that you had FAR installed. In that case, don't try the turbojet SSTO. It won't work.

Sorry,

-Slashy

[Dave-In-Texas]

The most funds-efficient station contracts that I've come across (at least with my own playstyle) are by far the "Solar Orbit" stations.

After I put it in LKO, I'll usually burn so that my ship is ahead of Kerbin, outside the SOI. The reason for this is so that once the contract is complete, I can burn retrograde and fall easily back into Kerbin's SOI.

Hope this helps!

this is brilliant insight!

[Wanderfound]

Echoing what others have said: reusable stations and multiple contracts per mission.

Either spaceplanes that can return for 100% recovery...

http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Spaceplane%20economics/story

...or use a station contract to pay for the launch of an orbital fuel depot, or interplanetary tug, or the rover that you'll use for waypoint contracts, etc.

Stations without labs are easy to do as Mk2 spaceplanes; just add passenger cabins until you hit the required crew capacity. Labs can be built into Mk2 spaceplanes or carried by Mk3's, but you're often better off building the lab into an interplanetary tug:

Hook some fuel tanks and a lander on the back, then head off on a Grand Tour.

[SAI Peregrinus]

I make my stations out of detachable 1-man return pods. Then, when I get a contract to rescue a Kerbal in orbit, I kick one of the poor sobs out of a pod, rescue the orbiting kerbal, and get the easy payout.

Don't do this if you use a life support mod.

[Mystique]

Strange, is topicstarter playing on some insane difficulty level? Station (and land base) contracts are usually quite profitable, especially if you abuse contract mechanics a bit and use same ship to fulfill several base contracts. Even if not, they're good enough, especially if you use stage recovery mod for booster stages (don't recover that much cash, but helps anyway on long run). Maybe problem is in booster construction? 10-15 tons is not that much heavy payload, even if you don't use asparagus to optimize costs and efficiency.

[Srpadget]

I'm with Mystique. I suspect the issue is booster design that doesn't pay enough attention to costs. Station contracts are among my big moneymakers in the midgame...in Hard mode where the payouts are greatly reduced. I've got a standard "Throwaway Space Station" design that just barely meets the stated contract requirements (semi-modular, so I can swap in labs/cupolas as needed) but is equipped with an 8-ton fuel tank, and a lifter for that assembly that's mostly a passel of the big Kerbodyne SRBs. It's ugly, and really not usable as a functioning station, but it's CHEAP. And it does the job for quickie Kerbin/Mun/Minmus/Solar orbit stations (or Mun/Minmus outposts with the addition of landing legs).

My general recommendation for most "I can't make money on this" issues for any contract once you're out in orbit? Try using fewer liquid engines, more solid boosters, and figure out what you can TAKE OFF of the payload to reduce its mass. SRBs are inefficient, and gawdawful heavy, and thus may not be a great solution if you haven't upgraded the launch pad, but by Kraken they are CHEAP.

[Janos1986]

Dude, ADD MORE BOOSTERS!

Well, it's true in this case.

Also, you might want to make your liquidfuel lifter recoverable, since it's probably made of various rockomax tanks and a mainsail, which are not cheap at all.

Strap a bunch of chutes on ONE SIDE of the lifter (especially near the engine, it's heavier when out of fuel). Put the chutes on the same stage as the decoupler so they deploy on separation outside the atmosphere.

Circularize your main craft's orbit then switch to the debris to follow its re-entry.

If everything has been done properly, the chutes will deploy, and lifter should land gracefully on its belly like a very expensive falling leaf in autumn, ready for you to cash it in.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Janos1986

[tsotha]

I'm playing hard mode and I don't have any trouble making money on these. Reusable booster stages are a possibility, but I normally just slap on a bunch of SRBs.

[Srpadget]

SRBs FTW!!!