Space Stations and Refining

[=BB= Misophist]

Does anyone know if its better to haul ore to orbit before refining? Just by a pure weight-density type thing...

[andylaugel]

With the big ISRU, 1 kg ore = 1 kg fuel. It doesn't matter much either way, as long as you can land and achieve orbit.

With the small ISRU, 10 kg ore = 1 kg fuel. If you use it, refine on the surface and jettison ore from ore tanks before take-off. You will spend more fuel lifting that ore than you get back from refining it in orbit.

Personally I prefer to leave the heavy drills and ISRU on the surface, and have my mining rig dock with my fuel depot on the surface. The advanced grabbing unit, or Klaw makes this easy. The fuel depot handles getting into orbit, docking with other ships, and landing near the mining rig. The mining rig drives the remaining distance and docks again.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=726589697

That said, you don't always get a choice. My M-078 Delta mission completed a lot of contracts moving ore between Duna and Ike. Take-off from Duna used a lot of fuel when the ore tanks were full, so some had to be refined in orbit to land on Ike.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=717612606

[maj.solo]

Use BIG ISRU. Then land the whole ship with ore tanks and everything.

I usually have quite many ore tanks just incase I have problems balancing drills ISRU and solar panels. Fuel cells solve every balancing problem though. But at a point in the career you might not have them. The fuel cells kick in when the solar panels fail. And they seem to consume very little fuel. So add fuel cells to your lander later when you have them.

You can then mine through the night. And if not enough solar power during the day well, heck, then the fuel cells help there too. A lot of solar panels seems like poor mans solution.

Anyways I have a buffer with ore tanks that can give or take ore. So before the lander takes off I ofcourse fill up e v e r y t h i n g. When in space I continue to refine and dock to whatever vessel need refilling keep refining and fill my own tanks and the docked vessels tanks. Then I do fuel transfers to really drain my ship. Then I go down and repeat.

I make mostly combination vessels that are allround and can fix fuel for themselves, do science.

And no I don't have any mining stations I land the entire station which is no station it is a ship that mine and then take of and reful other ships.

It seems not to fuction to refine or drill when one is doing other things. One have to be present and time accelerate it seems. And therefore don't matter where you do it. I don't know if it is supposed to work with drilling when you are not there. It seems not to work. The science labs work though when you are not there.

Anyways. To simplify your own game play.... land the whole thing , drill, fill up, and take off. A lander with drill can land anywhere there is ore. Taking fuel from a base you need to be able to land nearby.

Even the biggest ore tanks are so small you really do not want to sit and transfer ore from lander to mother ship. If they make a HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE Kerbodyne ore tank and if fuel refining works when I am flying other ships then I would totally rethink my entire strategy. Cause then you would win time if you made specialized ships and could have multiple things going on at the same time.

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My Viking 2 landed on Ike yesterday. When you land miner/tanker/science/solarsystem voyager ships of this size it don't matter what the ISRU or drills weigh.

http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/Maj_Solo/media/viking%201%20danger.png.html?sort=3&o=0

Here is a photo to show the size compared to a normal miner/lander/science vessel that just undocked from Viking 2

http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/Maj_Solo/media/Explorer%201%20extracted%20from%20Viking%202.png.html?sort=3&o=0

Or take a look at this beautful shot after the small lander gone through action group testing before landing.

http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/Maj_Solo/media/VikingDuna.png.html?sort=3&o=0

Anyways that is how I do it I land the whole thing. The small lander is the same thing as the big one only smaller.