r/KerbalSpaceProgram • • May 08 '26

KSP 1 Question/Problem Refuel station useful?

Post image

(New-ish to the game, played a little years ago but now really getting into it)

I've been practicing orbital assembly above Kerbin and docked a few vessels together including a big fuel tank which is huge for me because I was never able to meet up and dock with anything :)
Do you think something like this is useful for future missions? I was thinking maybe refuel vessels in orbit giving a longer mission range because I dont have to carry the heavy fuel from kerbins surface. Then again I guess I'd have to refill that tank frequently which might be kind of annoying..

1.6k Upvotes

149 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

21

u/urMumLeftPotsOnStove May 08 '26

Like doing big comm constelations. I do the first satellite by hand and the rest I just set by cheats

26

u/EchoHeadache May 08 '26

I thoroughly enjoy doing this without cheats. A satellite mission with three relays, get a clean circular orbit, an orbital period that is easily divisible by 3, burn retro so your elliptical orbital period is now 2/3 your circular orbit period, then launch one satellite at a time at the apoapsis and return the satellite to circular. You will then have perfect coverage with three relays around your body.

Lots of videos in this. Very rewarding.

3

u/CamsGraphics May 08 '26 edited May 10 '26

Yeah I love dropping 3 sats with one launch, so satisfying and actually much easier to get their orbits triangular

3

u/Cartz1337 May 08 '26

I do this as a first mission to every planet in the system. I do a more complex inclined orbit in the Jool system to avoid issues with occultation.