Space Station Madness

 

Previously, in 0.20.2, just after the save breaking was announced but the latest version had not been available, I started a solar system wide evacuation of all of my active bases and stations to only a couple stations near Kerbin. However, the evacuation proceeded at a rapid rate and I soon found myself with empty bases, and still no update. So, I decided to start preparing for the next version by developing a series of modular space stations that are launched into orbit on a single type of rocket for fast construction of the space stations. I also pre-built several space stations to test them so they would immediately ready when the new version came out.

And finally, version 0.21 of KSP finally was released to the public. Since I had already predesigned several space stations and the craft files were still compatible, I got to work assembling the space station. First to go up is the core of the space station, named Entity 2, as the first Entity was lost when 0.20 save games were broken.

Here we see the Delta 1 (creative name, I know) rocket lifting the core up. It uses 8 solid rocket boosters, 6 of which fire initially along with the Mainsail engines; when the boosters empty, the next two fire to provide more boost to a higher altitude.

Ejecting the last set of boosters to continue on just the Mainsail.

The final stage, composed of just a Skipper does the final push and moves the core into the final orbit.

And finally, the core is inserted into its 120km circular orbit, ready for the plethora of other parts to come.

Second to go up is the station assembler/inspector. It moves the various large modules around and makes assembling large space stations possible. It uses a cupola with some RCS tanks and a docking port at the back to move modules that either don't have their own command units or have no RCS, or are just too cumbersome to move on their own. Here we see the station being boosted on the standard Delta 1 rocket.

The mod procedural fairings allows me to create fairings that custom fit the payload automatically and reset themselves for every single load and allows for realistic rocket designs.

The final stage of the rocket is able to do the rendezvous to the station, while the assembler does the final docking to attach to the station core. The final stage of the rocket then deorbits and in the end leaves no trash in space, keeping the orbits around Kerbin clear of junk and preventing Kessler syndrome.

 Next to go up is the habitation module. This will hold the majority of the kerbals that visit and also allow it to act as a sort of hotel when the Mun/Minmus base program initiates. It lets kerbals to move between Kerbin, Mun and Minmus, with the aid of a shuttle ship for crew rotations.

It is made up of an RCS tank with three kerbal storage containers to hold up to 12 kerbals in orbit.

Now, the third piece of the station is about to be sent up. It is the docking hub, and expands the docking capabilities of the station, allowing for up to seven more vehicles to the station and allows the transfer of kerbals to the other stations much faster, as well as making the station look a lot cooler when multiple vehicles are docked.

Here, you might notice that this version of the Delta 1 rocket uses the fairing from the KW rocketry parts. This is because the version of procedural fairings I used to use rotated too much with longer loads and would collide and destroy the last stage of the rocket when ejected, meaning that the part would not reach orbit and can't be sent to the station. I must have destroyed at least 2 rockets like this. I can hear the accountants scribbling already.

As of this point, only the assembler has actually been docked to the station. Both the habitation module and the docking module are still in orbit, waiting for the window for the rendezvous (this was just because I didn't want to wait for the orbits to line up, so I launched the habitation and docking modules one right after each other).

 Here the assembler has just undocked from the station and is going to attach to the end of the docking module and then move it to the station.

Here (sorry for the dim lighting, I did this on the dark side of Kerbin so the only light source was on the station, and as a result gave horrible lighting conditions) the docking hub is finally docked to the station, with the assembler on the other side of the hub. 

And finally, the last large piece of the station is about to be attached. The large habitation module rendezvous and is moved to the station.

The space station is now fully assembled. But a space station would not look like a space station without those huge solar panels. Since this was a much lighter component than the other modules, and as an addon that was not in the original design, I had not considered the most efficient way to use the Delta 1 rocket to launch it. So, I had to use a smaller model of rocket that I had developed earlier to launch the component, Antares 4. So, is the space station more expensive now that two rockets are needed instead of one? No, actually. The Antares 4 rocket was developed as a crew vehicle to deliver kerbals to the station so the same two rocket designs are to be used over and over again, still making the space station relatively low cost.

 Again I used the fairings from the KW rocketry mod because, again, the payload was too long and I did not want to risk another rocket failure because of the fairings.

Here the assembler vehicle is at work moving the  new solar array to attach it to the station, and increase the cool level of the space station.

The solar array is docked and the assembler is moving to its position at the other end of the space station where it will stay there as an inspection vehicle to check for possible damages during docking and from small space rocks.

Finally, the space station is assembled, with Luger and Raysted ready to receive some guests.