Mining, Processing and Fueling

[Stormtempter]

Know of a place that gives a rundown on general design aesthetics?

Should I build a combination driller, converter and fuel tank all in one and plop it down on a surface? Do I have to not only land, but land/dock with it to get the fuel before leaving the surface?

Kerbal isn't really set up for like, making launch pads and have hoses and cabling snaking across from one unit to another right?

And you can't land near the rig, and just bring a hose over to gas up, lol.

So what design guide or tips are there?

Should I do the all in one, separate them out, or mix specific parts? Should I dock directly on top, or should I land near and do some sort of rover transfer? Do I build my craft with wheels instead of landing gear so they can motor into position by the rig?

Its pretty much all unknown territory for me

[CalmLlama]

You can use the grabber claw to dock anywhere on a ship, it makes things simple.

I recommend making a self contained driller/refiner, then making tankers that can land and take off. This way you don't have to carry a lot of extra weigh back and forth, and you can also be drilling and fueling one tanker while another (full) tanker is in orbit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1659479683

[RoofCat]

Mining stations are for people who love the very idea of distributed business empire micro management. More parts just add to weight because of all the ports and duplicate stuff and docking complexity due to need to get close, move around. You love to create extra work for yourself? You are welcome.

Otherwise you can get anywhere in KSP without mining. Or you can use motherships with mining landing everywhere while jumping around. And you can use smaller-medium ships with mining at the target and then drop that stuff there as it isn't too expensive. This actually can save 20..50k for reasonable missions due to lighter launch even though mining equipment isn't free or weightless either. It's just lighter than fuel in the end. If you are good at designing rockets already, that won't save too much considering the size of rewards and millions of cash you have. So it can give advantage, but not that necessary. You can use mining on Mun lander if you want to gather all science in one trip. Which isn't really needed for anything, but saves extras trips in case you want to get science from all 16 biomes there and hate tourists.

Don't use small drills. Don't use small ISRU. Use only as much cooling kW as your equipment requires. Always have an engineer on mining ships. Solar electricity depends on distance from Sun. Going higher than Duna you will need fuel cells. Duna and below - solar panels are preferable.

[Stormtempter]

Originally posted by CalmLlama:

You can use the grabber claw to dock anywhere on a ship, it makes things simple.

Didn't realize I could cross feed with a grabber claw, neat. Is there any loose ratios of equipment to keep in mind? I see in your screenie that you have a huge number of ore tanks on that rig.

This is the first that I built. Its pretty self contained, with several 4k batteries, a probe core, strong rockets, plenty of fuel capacity, 5 large ore tanks, 4 drills, 1 converter and 4 large heat sinks.

Should you have like a 1:1 Drill and Ore container? I'm going to the Mun first if that helps.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1660076335

[RoofCat]

Originally posted by Stormtempter:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1660076335

you sure you need 4000 kW of cooling? Each of those radiators actually reduces your delta v.

Regarding Mun in particular, it has slow orbit and long days. Sometimes fuel cells make more sense there in longer run.

Mining isn't about getting all the ore out of Mun in 1h. You need a little bit of refuelling once a month or once in a few years on further bodies. There is no real need for multiple drills. Just reduces your delta v - again. iirc the numbers, you don't even have enough electricity to run all 4 drills and ISRU at once. Plus unneeded extra radiators need electricity too. Just read part description in VAB. Rightclick to get additional info.

[andylaugel]

I prefer to put my drills and ISRU on the same craft for a few reasons:

• Both need a lot of power, cooling, an engineer, and one or more tanks for ore.
  
• You can power the lot with fuel cell arrays, if the ore concentration is high enough. That means you don't have any shortages at night, or have to pay too much for RTGs.

You may want to test your miners on Kerbin, to see if they'll function as desired. And/or do the math in advance.

Action groups are handy. Here are a few I use:

• 3 - Extend drills, solar panels, & radiators.
  
• 4 - Retract drills, solar panels, & radiators. Stop fuel cell arrays & indicator lights for them. Stop all ISRU operations.
  
• 5 - Start drills, the Liq/Ox conversion on the ISRU, and the fuel cell arrays & their indicators.
  
• 6 - Stop drills, all conversions on the ISRU, and the fuel cell arrays & their indicators.
  
• 10 - Toggle all engines on/off.

Once you make fuel, you need a way of getting it where it is needed. That either means being able to achieve orbit to dock, or docking on the ground.

Docking in space is probably the easier of the two. Just make sure the ore and fuel tanks are balanced around the center of mass and the center of thrust.

Docking on the ground requires precision landing, which might be a new skill. Wheels help here, with a properly aligned vertical docking port. Or you can make things easier and just use the Advanced Grabbing Unit, a.k.a. the Klaw. Having the Klaw on your nose means you can dock on the ground just by ramming the target.

My Mun and Minmus fuel trucks can do all of the above. It can refuel ships on the ground, and in space. And since it can go into space again, it can move ore in the way certain contracts require.

Being able to turn any landable world into a gas station will make a lot of things easier for you, and open things up for you. Best of luck to you with it.

[Stormtempter]

Drill baby drill!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1660139850

Yeah I wasn't sure how much cooling, or ore capacity, or electric charge reserve and recharge and fuel storage I needed so I just kinda built what seemed to make sense.

Right now, in the dark, I'm draining a decent amount of battery, prolly could use more of them, though I don't know how fast my 4 giant sails will recharge in the light. I'm gaining more ore than I can convert, so fewer drills or more converters are likely necessary. I did retract 3 of those radiator sails and the last one is listed at 10.54% which I guess means I'm not overheating much.

So a more even ratio of converters to drills, more battery capacity, less heat dissipation, and solar charging unknown at the moment.

[Stormtempter]

A better view in the daylight

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1660170993

Definitely need more converters. The solar sails can keep everything going and charge at the same time, so thats a plus.

[andylaugel]

Don't expect to run a mining operation through batteries. You need power, and fuel cell arrays are the best solution while making fuel on the ground. Large solar panels and sunlight can also do, but don't work well at night.

You only need one drill and one ISRU. My Tylo lander uses just that. A single ISRU can usually handle multiple drills though, especially if you turn on Liq/Ox, Liq, & Ox on simultaneously--assuming you need both Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer.

Tip: Train your engineers. It affects how well your ISRU works--5% for no engineer, 25% for 0-start engineer, 45% for 1 star, 65% for 2-star, 85% for 3-star, 105% for 4-star, and 125% for 5-star. You can get 3-stars easily enough--plant flags on the Mun, Minmus, and just barely leaving Kerbin's Sphere of Influence for a "solar orbit."

[RoofCat]

Originally posted by andylaugel:

...
Tip: Train your engineers. It affects how well your ISRU works--5% for no engineer, 25% for 0-start engineer, 45% for 1 star, 65% for 2-star, 85% for 3-star, 105% for 4-star, and 125% for 5-star. You can get 3-stars easily enough--plant flags on the Mun, Minmus, and just barely leaving Kerbin's Sphere of Influence for a "solar orbit."

Wasn't an engineer 100% and then every * => +5% up to 125%? Not sure, just a shade of a memory.

[andylaugel]

Originally posted by RoofCat:

Originally posted by andylaugel:

...
Tip: Train your engineers. It affects how well your ISRU works--5% for no engineer, 25% for 0-start engineer, 45% for 1 star, 65% for 2-star, 85% for 3-star, 105% for 4-star, and 125% for 5-star. You can get 3-stars easily enough--plant flags on the Mun, Minmus, and just barely leaving Kerbin's Sphere of Influence for a "solar orbit."

Wasn't an engineer 100% and then every * => +5% up to 125%? Not sure, just a shade of a memory.

You'ld think so, but no. Go check out the KSP wiki page on drills[wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com] and look for a table that breaks it down for you.

[CalmLlama]

Originally posted by RoofCat:

Mining stations are for people who love the very idea of distributed business empire micro management. More parts just add to weight because of all the ports and duplicate stuff and docking complexity due to need to get close, move around. You love to create extra work for yourself? You are welcome.

That being said; Kerbal is really just one big doll house, and its fun to play :)

Originally posted by Stormtempter:

Originally posted by CalmLlama:

You can use the grabber claw to dock anywhere on a ship, it makes things simple.

Didn't realize I could cross feed with a grabber claw, neat. Is there any loose ratios of equipment to keep in mind? I see in your screenie that you have a huge number of ore tanks on that rig.

This is the first that I built. Its pretty self contained, with several 4k batteries, a probe core, strong rockets, plenty of fuel capacity, 5 large ore tanks, 4 drills, 1 converter and 4 large heat sinks.

Should you have like a 1:1 Drill and Ore container? I'm going to the Mun first if that helps.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1660076335

My mining rig has a lot of ore tanks so i can complete the 'move x units of ore from a to b' missions easily.

I would recommend having a total of 20-30k units of energy

For only refilling that one craft, i would just use a single drill. Multiple drills work best for planets/moons where the best landing sites have low ore concentrations.

Its a really neat looking craft, i hope you can share pics of that thing on other planets :)

[Stormtempter]

I got a pic of it up above on the Mun, both in darkness and light.

Its surprisingly robust. The mining core itsself has enough fuel and thrust for about 4,000m/s of deltaV. So it can move decently around on its own if I need it to.

I had a big transporter rocket get it into LKO and on its way to the Mun though, just to be safe.

[CalmLlama]

4km/s should get you from LKO to the mun or minmus and back. You have a center line large docking port on top, you could add a second vehicle with large stores of fuel for long distance trips.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1506303747

This ship is a group of ships all docked together, sorta the same idea only a larger scale. All you really need is an orbiter with extra fuel and a science module, and you have yourself a mission to another planet :)

[Stormtempter]

Looks like someone blew up the strut factory XD

[CalmLlama]

This girl knows how to strut her stuff :)