Cashing out on Ore

[SkiRich]

Based on this wiki ... https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Ore
At the very bottom ...
It sounds like you can convert ore to fuels, and then convert fuels to money (Cash Out)

True/Not True, how do you do that?

[Shelecktra]

True, but not viable (At least for money making) Fuel and ore arent really that valuable considering the effort you go to get it, its better running missions and selling science for funds.

I am on the other hand trying to make fuel free - I use an SSTO from the runway using nothing but liquid fuel and im just building a fuel station to put next to the runway. This way the SSTO can be launched once and used as many times as i like for free fuel.

That being said though, there couldnt really be anything wrong with doing what im doing..... put a fuel converter and mining rig next to the runway and siphon off the resources and recover the pod you used to siphon with....

Hmmm.... you got me thinking here xD

But no, recovering ore from other planets at least is not worth it unless for a mission.

EDIT - Just realised I didnt actually say HOW - Just look in the utility tab in the VAB/SPH (Bottom one) and look for a convertotron, you need one of those, a drill and maybe a small ore tank. They take a fair bit of power and produce a crap-ton of heat so you will need to keep that in mind.

[Jupiter3927]

You would need to dig for ore on Kerbin with empty ore and fuel tanks.
Then you would need to convert your ore to fuel to fill up your empty fuel tanks.
Then you would need to recover your ship for a profit.
This method takes forever and you're much better off taking a few 'gather science from space around X' contracts with a science probe ready to transmit data.

The whole ore refining process is designed to let you refuel off Kerbin.
Moving tanks of fuel for your stuff to Jool gets really expensive and tedious.
Having a dedicated mining and refining station on Bop is much easier.
Asteroids give much faster ore rates than planets but have finite amounts of ore inside.

You could capture asteroids and land them near KSC for some profits too...
They have weird aerodynamic properties and tend to float around like a bouncy castle so bring parachutes.

[Azunai]

mining doesn't pay off really. not even on the runway (if you happen to have ore concentration at the space center). if you want cheaper fuel, you're better off launching a craft with full ore tanks and empty fuel tanks and convert the ore.

fuel is more valuable than ore, so this process can also generate money (used to at least, no idea if that was ever fixed/changed)

anyway, IRSU is endgame tech level. by that point you already have all the tools to solve any contract, so there are many different ways of making money through actual gameplay that don't involve silly tricks like stationary fuel refineries at the space center.

[Manwith Noname]

Originally posted by Azunai:

... launching a craft with full ore tanks and empty fuel tanks and convert the ore.

^^ This is what the wiki primarily refers to.

In fact, one unit of ore costs 0.02 funds, you can change it into fuel using a converter, then take it back and get more funds. One unit of Monopropellant is made from 5 units of ore (0.1 funds total) but it is worth 1.2 funds. This provides a profit of 1.1 funds per 5 units of ore, or 0.22 per unit of ore.

So yeah, there's an odd exploit that allows you to launch a craft with ore and convert it to fuel before recovering to make money but as mentioned, by the time you're capable of doing this you should really be rolling in money and / or have other ways of generating significantly more money in less tedious ways.