Moving station designs

[Wildcardz]

Has anyone made a station what can be moved?

And yes it is probably better to build it at your plannend destination, but am mostly curious if someone did it.

[95Bravo95]

Yup. I have done that quite a bit in the past with the kosmos station parts mod. Don't do it much anymore though. Got bored with the whole idea after putting a number of them arround various planets.

[Axe]

I tried a few times, but i dont use mods. Sadly the areas where you dock togather are not very strong. Even in space it twists bends breaks and are generally unstable when i try to move anything that is joined togather.
Unless its a single connection and the pushing part is heavier they always spin and break on me, or bend and flex to the point i stop before they break.

Even ones i balanced and made = on weight and shape bend and whip around, i gave up any hope of a large ship made from other parts that can move. Typically i ue docking as refuling only and not a way to drag along alot of parts sadly.

[Tlaltiplac]

I came up with this design in sandbox. It is bendy, Full throttle is not advised but I managed to get it to orbit the Mun and Min.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=182636852

I am working on a more stable design, without mods, but there will always be bending if your expanding with multiple docks unless you can create a design complete on launch. Main reason for this is struts. But we shall see :)

[Axe]

Yeah i even tried using the triple piece that breaks a large connection into 3 (they have a 4 now) with docking claps, and i split with that a triple beam so i have 3 seperate connections with 3 clamps each connenting them togather, still bend and flex.
I agree with you there Tlaltiplac Until you can EVA and place struts, i think with out mods its near impossiable to move anything of size around cause of the docking ports being made of Kerbal Rubber,

[Gertjan]

i have; i constructed 2 identical stations as part of my kethane converision project, both were just a long stack of rcs tanks with docking ports on stilts on the ends (5 ports per end, a 4-fold diamond and one extending from the station).
one i build in 80km orbit to serve as an easy-to-reach refueling/collection station to build insanely large ships at, and one was supposed to get into mun orbit to collect fuel before sending it to kerbin. this second one also has a skycrane to drop the mining equipment once i had the station.
i used this skycrane to get the station to mun orbit after completion (it had about 7 or 8 docked segments, including the skycrane, rcs tugs and fuel storage).

you must design your station with transportation in mind though, or connect the parts in transport mode and redock them as intended once at your destination.

as you said, building in the desired spot is the better option, but if that spot is further away then a few 100 km above kerbin, moving parts can get annoying, especially if you go to other planets and have to wait months, if not years, for the next transfer window

[Tlaltiplac]

Stable design achieved. just add fuel tanks to top up fuel. The Docked tanks will move a bit but much more stable than my previous design

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=192085220

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=192085429

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=192085576

[Rickenbacker]

Sure, put a few stations in orbit around the Mun, and even one at Duna. No real point to them, though, but it was fun :).

[Wildcardz]

Originally posted by Rickenbacker:

Sure, put a few stations in orbit around the Mun, and even one at Duna. No real point to them, though, but it was fun :).

Best answer! +1 :)

[El Rushbo]

Originally posted by Rickenbacker:

No real point to them, though, but it was fun :).

Fun IS the point of space stations. At least for now.

[Aazard]

if you want to move a station have a center docking port (or at the end of a "rod" station) dockto it and "push it, RCS suggested to point it regrograde ect