General Question How to build space stations?

[Pipcard]

I'm talking about things such as rendezvous with a station with weaker engines than a fantasy vessel such as an XR2, docking with a docking port on the top, and the hardest part: re-entry and landing.

I need to practice all of those before building my station. I just wanted to get my basic plan set up.

 

[garyw]

I'm talking about things such as rendezvous with a station with weaker engines than a fantasy vessel such as an XR2, docking with a docking port on the top, and the hardest part: re-entry and landing.

I need to practice all of those before building my station. I just wanted to get my basic plan set up.

The process is no different. Personally I get into orbit, make sure the plane is good then just sit below the orbital altitude of my space station until about 1,000km away then slowly raise the orbit. If done well I can dock the shuttle with 55% prop remaning.

 

[Napalm42]

I'm talking about things such as rendezvous with a station with weaker engines than a fantasy vessel such as an XR2

You make it sound like the STS is some old geezer. There's a reason it did what it did, but I digress. You'd be surprised just how capable she is, if you fly her right, you'll never have to worry about fuel. My one concern is with that science module, you've basically terminated use of that segment. Since that module doesn't attach, you're now stuck with what i call a "dead port", in which case, if you suddenly decide you want more stuff attached, you've have to pull that module off, allocate it, attach the new one, then place it again. It can get tedious.

 

[Pipcard]

You make it sound like the STS is some old geezer. There's a reason it did what it did, but I digress. You'd be surprised just how capable she is, if you fly her right, you'll never have to worry about fuel. My one concern is with that science module, you've basically terminated use of that segment. Since that module doesn't attach, you're now stuck with what i call a "dead port", in which case, if you suddenly decide you want more stuff attached, you've have to pull that module off, allocate it, attach the new one, then place it again. It can get tedious.

Don't worry, this station will have only six modules (not counting the PMA, etc.), for a reason I won't disclose until later.

What do you mean by "that module doesn't attach"?

 

[auchec]

I was talking about reaching to the side opposite to where the URMS is on the station. Is that arm articulate enough? Maybe if it had 4 joints.

Couldn't you just dock a tug once you have a docking station (is that what it's called?) and use that every time you want to put a piece on?

 

[Pipcard]

I just tested with a URMS (scale 2.00) attached to the Shuttle, and it can reach the modules' grappling points just fine.

 

[garyw]

You always have the the shuttle arm and SRMS to SSRMS handovers are perfectly valid.

 

[Pipcard]

You always have the the shuttle arm and SRMS to SSRMS handovers are perfectly valid.

The URMS is longer, so I only need one arm.

So, there will be 2 Energia launches and 4 Shuttle launches to construct this station. Crew (expeditions) and cargo will be with the Dragon.

---------- Post added 01-22-12 at 09:07 AM ---------- Previous post was 01-21-12 at 09:13 AM ----------

Make that 5 Shuttle launches. I just added a Solaris solar array to the plan. You can see the Shuttle, the Dragon (crew) docked in the back, and the Dragon (cargo) berthed to the Stelar module in the foreground.

The full plan will be revealed later.

 

[Napalm42]

Reminds me just a tad of Daylight Station

 

[Pipcard]

Another change of plans: there will be one Dragon instead of two; it's the 4-man Dragon that comes with the SpaceX Launch Vehicles add-on. So, no Dragon Cargo is needed.

One thing that bothers me is that the Mir-2 node doesn't have any textures, and I plan to name the modules (excluding PMAs and solar array) and label them. I'm not sure how to use Mesh Wizard, and the Neesys module (which also has six docking ports) is too long.

Just saying, there will be six modules not counting the solar array and PMAs.