Idea Stable more user friendly Space station? I hope.

[docabn]

I had this idea when borrowing meshes to make half constructed ships at my moon base. They are of course non functional objects but you could get the idea that a craft is being constructed on the surface.
I was attempting to do the same with Burch’s Descartes showing it in various stages of construction when in orbit. (I’m not very good at this and am still learning so I have not published any of my items yet) but I came across an idea that might solve a couple of problems I’ve encountered and others may have as well.
Space stations fall out of orbit over time nothing like flying to mars and back and planning on completing the mission by docking with your space station in LEO only to find that it landed in the savanna a month before your arrival.
So what I was thinking was that you could make a moon with a negligible gravity, a very small diameter, in LEO, and an invisible mesh. You could then add a single surface base on this invisible moon. Using meshes you could use the mesh, or meshes that would be your space station until it looks right and is sitting with the false moon at its center which means that while you cannot crash into the edges of the mesh where it extends from the false moon but there is some limited collision detection.
You could then take a single ship (option for invisible mesh for this one as well) use the universal cargo deck to add modules with docking ports where ever you need them.
I will spend the next few days working on this but I am unfamiliar with manipulating planets. I am also hoping that if I have missed something or if this has already been tried and failed that someone will stop or offer advice before I start. If it does work I will post pictures and copies of the config files as soon as I can.
Was also thinking that this could be used for permanent slow moving space craft that shuttles between Earth and say Jupiter that is really in an orbit around the sun but comes close to their orbits to allow for easier regular transfer.

Any help with these concepts would be appreciated

 

[RisingFury]

Yea, or you could just turn on the thing that prevents space stations from falling out of orbiter at high time acceleration.

 

[docabn]

At the risk of sounding like a noob: what thing would that be

 

[RisingFury]

Launch pad -> Extra -> Time propagation -> Orbit stabilization -> Enable orbit stabilization.

If it's already engaged, then tweak the settings.

 

[docabn]

Thanks Rising, I didn't even know that was there. Here is to reading the manual.

As far as the idea while I am able to make a rediculously huge and complex structure without using up the processing ability of my computer. I cannot seem to place a dockable item on the planet.
Is this due to landed items being unable to dock? My ships keep falling off of where ever they dock.

I still plan on using this idea for my interstellar asteroid which has a comet like orbit which allows slow moving ships to transit large amounts of cargo between earth, Mars and the Jovian system over the course of two years.

I assume unless I can fix the docking issue I will have to use some sort of transfer ship and a landing pad

 

[garyw]

Is this due to landed items being unable to dock? My ships keep falling off of where ever they dock.

This is a limitation of the orbiter core, you cannot have docked items on a planet so either use attachments or something else such as Universal Cargo Deck.

 

[docabn]

good to know, I will probably scrap part of the space station idea and just use what I've learned for a midway asteroid. Also learned that landing is rediculiosly hard if you make the mass too low and worse if you make the body too small.

Still learning a lot thanks.

 

[RisingFury]

Landing midway between Earth/Mars and Jupiter will make your voyage sooooo much more difficult, not to mention that there might not even be any fuel advantage...

 

[docabn]

The idea is not that you land midway between earth and mars, but rather you attach a Vasmir engine to the back of a large asteroid and push it into earth’s orbit. While there you essentially shape the rock (hollow it out) into a enormous space station one which can support thousands, and push it into a comet like orbit around the sun so that it's orbit comes near mercury’s orbit and extends out to just shy of Jupiter’s.
The idea being that you send ships to board it when it is close to earth and when it approaches Mars or the Jovian system or Venus or mercury(where ever you have colonies) and launch the ships from the asteroid. The advantage is that this is cheap on fuel, however the disadvantage is that your trip could take years.
If you place 2 or 4 or of these object you could have relatively regular intervals of transit and commerce amongst the inner solar system and the Jovian system for a lower fuel cost.

If you could actually add enough rotation to the asteroid you could have some gravity and the thickness of the asteroid should shield the occupants from the hazards of interstellar radiation.

 

[garyw]

If you have the tech to turn asteroids into space vehicles you don't need to worry about doing it because you'll have to tech to get from Earth to Jupiter with ease.

 

[RisingFury]

Hitching a ride on an asteroid will use even more fuel then just going there yourself. First you'll need to match the huge velocity the asteroid has, then you'll need to break again.

Besides, the launch windows for such a ride would be very rare. Instead of only 2 bodies having to be in the right place, you'd have to have 3.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Talk to Buzz Aldrin about it then, because aside from using a rotating station, he proposes the exact same thing pretty much.
You wouldn't have to carry more stuff because depending on the length of the trip to catch up to the rock, you could get away with minimal space and supplies, and use unmanned vehicles to supply the rock, or it could grow/make its own stuff.

 

[atuhalpa]

http://clowder.net/hop/railroad/railroad.html Does this have any relevance to this thread?

 

[Urwumpe]

Talk to Buzz Aldrin about it then, because aside from using a rotating station, he proposes the exact same thing pretty much.
You wouldn't have to carry more stuff because depending on the length of the trip to catch up to the rock, you could get away with minimal space and supplies, and use unmanned vehicles to supply the rock, or it could grow/make its own stuff.

asteroids are not in cycler orbits and many cycler orbits are not ballistic (you need small propulsive maneuvers). AFAIR the Aldrin cycler wasn't ballistic as well. Also you need not just one cycler station for optimal logistics, but up to many dozen.

Using asteroids is like relying on continental drift for travel...

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Actually, the poster I was responding to was going to use VASIMR to put the asteroids in set orbits and I was mentioning Aldrin's cycler idea. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

 

[docabn]

This has gotten way off topic, but yes many dozens would be optimal.
Part of the idea is to use mass that is already in space rather than lifting it off of earth.

As far as matching velocities as rising fury mentioned. You set up the launch windows so that you are matching velocities as it is passing the planetary body you are escaping anyway no more fuel is lost than you would lose in the escape anyway.

“As for the rare launch windows” yes it would be tedious but that is part of the plan. The colony, yes it would be a colony of humans who live grow old, have children and die in this colony would be the constant stewards of these vessels. Very probably they could man factories in the central part which has no gravity and produce products and alloys that can only be produced in zero gravity. They would then become a means of transport, commerce and industry between all the worlds of the inner system, passing close enough only every few years or more depending on the orbit. The asteroids would be able pass these worlds that often if they were kept in highly elliptical orbit. The engines of whatever type would not have to be terribly strong just good enough to hold orbit.

By no means should this concept be seen as something that could be built over the course of years but rather decades. It, would if successful, be stable. Dependable lines of commerce and industry would exist expanding every few decades as a new asteroid was captured, developed, and placed into an appropriate orbit. Until I see a warp drive I make my designs based on the means of propulsion as we understand it, which is slow and tedious.