The easiest way to build a space station in low Kerbal orbit is to
build it in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB),
break it apart and save the modules as subassemblies,
launch the modules individually,
dock them together in orbit.
Build the space station
You can build the space station yourself, or load one from Steam.
Using a pre-built space station
I have run into stability issues with the KSS space station. When a few modules have been assembled, it started to wave side by side. I think the issue is, that the heavy fuel tanks are at the edges, and the center is hollow crew modules. Also, the docking ports don’t provide enough rigidity to the structure. If you want to use it
Subscribe to the space station of your choice on Steam
To make the station more robust, I use the Rockomax Adapter where the Clamp-O-Tron Docking Port Sr. is too big by itself to connect to the part, like the Rockomax HubMax Multi Point Connector.
The core
The core at the center of mass should contain the battery, reaction wheels, and control units
Z-4K Rechargeable Battery Units (4)
Advanced Reaction Wheel Large
RC-L01 Remote Guidance Unit
OX-STAT-XL Photovoltaic Panels
Additional Control
Use the Advanced Inline Stabilizer off the center of mass to assist in attitude control.
Joining modules
The Clamp-O-Tron Docking Port Sr. provides a very strong connection between large-diameter modules. If a smaller port is used between modules, reinforce it with a Rockomax Brand Adapter 02 and 4 Clamp-O-Tron Docking Port Jrs. attached with girders.
Crew modules
The MK1 Crew Cabin, and the MK3 Passenger Module provide comfortable accommodation, but those have smaller diameters. If you are looking for a large-diameter module with windows, use the Mobile Processing Lab MPL-LG-2
Fuel Tanks
To provide enough fuel for docking vessels, use the
Rockomax X200-32 large diameter, FL-T800 medium diameter long fuel tank for liquid fuel storage
FL-R120 and FL-R750RCS Fuel Tank for monopropellant
PB-X750 Xenon Container for the IX-6315 “Dawn” Electric Propulsion System ( ion engine)
If the space station contains a Cupola
The Cupola can host one astronaut.
Launching the Cupola with a booster equipped with a Probe Core
When you launch the Cupola, place an astronaut in the cupola. Make sure the front of the Cupola and the Probe Core faces the same way, otherwise, the booster becomes uncontrollable, as the Cupola and the Probe Core will issue conflicting commands to the engines, the Reaction Wheel Module, and the RCS.
Rotate the Cupola, so the hatch is facing you (West) in the VAB.
Rotate the Probe Core, so the label is facing the same way (West in the VAB).
If the cupola is upside down, right-click the Cupola to open the menu, and click the Control Point button until it shows Reversed.
Controlling the space station from the Cupola
To control the space station from the Cupola set the control point correctly.
Right-click the Cupola
In the panel click the Control Point button until it shows Forward.
JSON was designed to be a data only format, and deliberately does not support comments to avoid parsing directives which could break compatibility.
There is a way to add comments as custom elements:
{
"//comment_1": "This is the first comment.",
"//comment_2": "This is the second comment.",
"Name": "John von Neumann",
"Born": 1903,
"item": {
"//item_comment_1": "A nested comment.",
"//item_comment_2": "Another nested comment.",
"Field": "Computer science"
}
}
These are notes on the specifications of spacecraft for specific purposes.
Spacecraft to go to orbit
Rotate the spacecraft 90 degrees with “Q” so the pod hatch faces you in the VAB, the spacecraft heading 90 degrees on the launch pad for easier control with the elevator.
Part
Model (symmetry)
Notes
Stage
Parachute
MK16
Min pressure = 0.6 Altitude = 1000
0
Command pod
Mk1
This should be the first part of the craft
Heat shield
1.25 m
Upper stage
Decoupler
TD-12
1
RCS fuel tank
FL-R120
Monopropellant = 100/250
Fuel tank
FL-T100
Fuel tank
FL-T400
RCS Truster block
(4) RV-105
On top of FL-T400 fuel tank
Battery
(4) Z-100 Rechargeable battery pack
On bottom of FL-T400 fuel tank
Solar panels
(4) OX-STAT Photovoltaic panels
On bottom of FL-T400 fuel tank set Toggle Snap to 6 sided before placing it rotate 90 degrees to horizontal
Engine
LV-909 “Terrier” Liquid fuel engine
2
Booster
Decoupler
TD-12
3
Fuel tank
FL-T400
Fuel tank
FL-T400
Winglet
(4) AV-R8
On lower FL-T400 fuel tank
Radial decoupler for solid fuel boosters
(2) TT-38K
On lower FL-T400 fuel tank
4
Booster engines
(2) RT-10 “Hammer” Solid fuel booster
on radial coupler with “aerodynamic nose cone”
5
Booster main engine
LV-T45 “Swivel” Liquid fuel engine
Trust limiter = 65
5
To launch the space station modules to low Kerbin orbit
Part
Model (symmetry)
Notes
Stage
The station module
Upper stage
Decoupler
TD-25 Decoupler
This will release the payload
0
Fairing
AE-FF2 Airstream protective shell (2.5 m)
1
Remote guidance unit
RC-L01 Remote guidance unit
Fuel tank
Rockomax X200-32 Fuel Tank
Solar panels
OX-STAT-XL Photovoltaic panels (4)
Batteries
Z-400 Rechargeable Battery (4)
Engine
RE-L10 “Poodle” Liquid Fuel Engine
2
Booster
Decoupler
TD-25 Decoupler
3
Fuel tank
Rockomax Jumbo-64 Fuel Tank
Orange variant looks great
Radial decoupler
TT-38K Radial Decoupler (4)
On main fuel tank
4
Main center engine
RE-M3 “Mainsail” Liquid Fuel Engine
5
Booster fuel tanks
FL-T800 Fuel Tank ( 2 x 4)
On radial decouplers with “aerodynamic nose cone” with EAS-4 Strut connectors to attach the top (3) and bottom (1) to the main fuel tank
Booster engines
LV-T45 “Swivel” Liquid Fuel Engnies (4)
5
Winglets
AV-R8 Winglets (4)
On the main fuel tank
Tie down the payload
When the payload is attached make sure to select “Autostrut heaviest part” of every payload items.
When you are in orbit and you don’t want to accidentally stage parts of the spacecraft, hide the staging panels.
Click the Display Staging button to hide the staging panel.
The Stage light will turn light red.
Time Warp
Press the period (.) key to speed up time, and press the comma (,) to slow down
Click the Time Warp indicator to change the Warp speed
Click the orbit and select Warp Here to time warp to that point
Warp to sunrise
Launch and docking are sometimes hard to do in darkness. Click the Warp to Sunrise button to advance the time to sunrise. Make sure no collision happens during the time change.
Flight information
In the Map view
Apoapsis and Periapsis
Hover above the “Ap” (Apoapsis) and “Pe” (Periapsis) icons to view the changing numbers, and right-click them to keep the numbers displayed.
Flight control
The NavBall
The NavBall symbols
Manual flight control
As we rotated the craft 90 degrees in the VAB, use the up (W) and down (S) keys to turn East.
Automatic attitude control
To enable automatic flight control after launch
Turn on SRS with “T” and
Click the Target icon
Automatic maneuver orientation
To automatically rotate the spacecraft to the maneuver marker
Turn on SRS with “T” and
Click the Maneuver icon
Note: You still have to initiate the burn, this is just for automatic spacecraft orinetation.
Automatic prograde orientation
To speed up the spacecraft keep it aligned prograde during the burn
Turn on SRS with “T” and
Click the Prograde icon
Automatic retrograde orientation
To slow down the spacecraft, keep it aligned retrograde during the burn
Turn on SRS with “T” and
Click the Retrograde icon
Changing orbit
Going to orbit
Start pitching east at 60 m/s speed. Slowly keep pitching over, always aiming about ~5-10° below your current prograde marker. If the spacecraft is long, the air resistance can flip the ship.
Maintain this until your map’s apoapsis point is at about 80 km.
200 m/s 75°
300 m/s 65°
400 m/s 65°
Stage solid boosters
500 m/s 60°
530 m/s 50°
600 m/s 40°
700 m/s 30°
800 m/s 25°
Stage lower-stage
Start upper-stage engine
900 m/s 15°
1100 m/s 10°
1500 m/s 5°
Stop the engine when the apoapsis is 80 km (this already happens around 2000 m/s speed and 60 km altitude with the periapsis around -54 km)
Create and execute a maneuver at apoapsis to raise the periapsis to 80 km
Changing Apoapsis and Periapsis altitudes
To change the altitude of the Apoapsis and Periapsis burn at the opposite point.
To raise the Periapsis, at the Apoapsis turn prograde and start a burn. (Fine tune with radial in burn.)
To lower the Periapsis, at the Apoapsis turn retrograde and start a burn. (Fine tune with radial out burn.)
Click the Apopsis or Periapsis to place a Maneuver
On the Maneuver panel, open the Graphical Maneuver Editor
Set the “Scale”, the value of one click
Click the symbols to adjust the orbit
Return from orbit
To return from orbit lower the Periapsis to 32 km. The atmosphere will slow down the spacecraft preventing it to reach Apoapsis again.
At the Apoapsis turn retrograde and continue to burn until the Periapsis lowers to 32 km.
Open the parachute below the speed of sound (330 m/s) when the G force reduces to close to 0, around 100-150 m/s speed, at a height of around 3-5 km.
Maneuver nodes
We can set up maneuvers ahead of time and the spacecraft will execute them at the correct time with the correct burn length.
Create a maneuver node
Click the orbit and select Add Maneuver to place a maneuver node
Set up the maneuver
Pull the handles to plan to change the speed of the spacecraft into that direction. Watch the orbit to make sure you reach your desired destination. The farther you pull the handle the faster the orbit changes. Release the handle to stop the orbit change.
Watch the Apoapsis and Periapsis display to see the result of the burn
Delay and delete the maneuver
First, click the maneuver node to show the handles
Right-click the inner circle to switch to the other view
Click the red X to delete the node, the plus and minus icons to increment and decrement the orbit counter to delay the execution of the maneuver.
Execute the maneuver
Click the dashed planned orbit line and select Warp to Next Maneuver to move the time to 90 seconds before the maneuver
Rotate the spacecraft to align it with the blue cross on the NavBall
Split the burn duration around the node time, so start the burn before its time by half of its duration. Start a one-minute burn at T minus 30 seconds.
If the burn is very short, less than a few seconds, execute the burn with the low throttle for better control.
If you burn with the lowest setting, it is approximately 6.66% power. In this setting, you have to run the engine for 15 times longer than the estimated burn. So a 1-second full throttle estimated burn needs 15 seconds of low throttle burn. So start the burn at T – 7 seconds to center the burn around the maneuver time.
Stop the burn at the correct moment
To make sure you cut off the engine at the right moment, watch the resulting Periapsis or Apoapsis number, do not entirely rely on the calculated burn time.
Right-click the blue Periapsis or Apoapsis icon of the actual orbit to keep the number displayed, or open the Maneuver Node panel.
During the burn, watch the number change and stop the burn when it reaches the planned amount.
Close the maneuver
If you have already reached the correct orbit and the maneuver is no longer needed
Click the red X or green check mark to delete the maneuver
Warp to a location
To warp to a location on the orbit
Click the point on the solid orbit line where you want to warp to and select Warp Here
To warp to the next maneuver
Click anywhere on the dashed planned orbit and select Warp to Next Maneuver
OR if the solid and dashed lines overlap
Click the Maneuver Mode button in the lower left corner to open the maneuver dashboard
Click the Warp to Next Maneuver button on the ORBIT display in the lower-left corner of the screen
OR
Click the Next Maneuver button on the ORBIT display to go to the next maneuver
Click the Warp to Next Maneuver button on the MANEUVER display
In Place mode: Toggle Symmetry between vessel or parent part
F
In Offset mode: Toggle between absolute or load centered offset
F
In Rotate mode: Toggle between absolute or relative rotation
R
Toggle Symmetry Method between mirror or radial
X
Cycle symmetry settings (next)
Shift + X
Cycle symmetry settings (previous)
C
Toggle Angle Snap
Enter
Reset staging list
Ctrl + Z
Undo the last action
Ctrl + Y
Redo the last action
Mod (hold)
Disable surface attach/exclusively use node attach
Shift + Left-click
Move the entire ship The “Shift + Left-click” on any part of the ship to grab the entire craft, and release the mouse button to move it. Left-click again to release it.
To place the part to the correct location align the white dot to the parent where the part should be placed.
For successful staging, make sure the solid rocket boosters are attached to the radial decouplers. No matter where you grab the booster, the white dot always appears in the middle, so place one radial decoupler where the middle of the booster will be.
RCS
Place RCS blocks with 3 or 4 symmetry at the top and bottom of the craft equidistant from the Center of Mass (CoM). If more RCS blocks are needed, place them close to the Center of Mass (CoM).
Save on monopropellant
If your vessel has reaction wheels, you don’t need to waste fuel to rotate the craft. We can select what actions will the RCS system perform.
Enable Advanced Tweakables
In the space center press ESC to open the pause menu, and select Settings
Scroll down and enable Advanced Tweakables, and click the Accept button
Disable the rotation functions
Right-click the RCS truster block and select Show Actuation Toggles
Disable Yaw, Pitch, Roll
If you used symmetry to place the trusters, the others in the same group will be adjusted, but you still need to set up the rest of the groups of the craft.
As the Cupola has its own RCS trusters, configure those too
Staging
Stage 0 is for the parachute, the largest number is for the boosters.
Breaking up groups with symmetry
When you place parts with symmetry, those move together when you rearrange them in staging. To break up the symmetry groups
Click the part you don’t want to move to unselect it
Drag the rest of the (still selected) parts to the new stage
Spacecraft alignment
As you enter the VAB, you are standing on the West side of the VAB, facing East. When the pod is placed on the spacecraft, the astronauts (and the automatic probe cores) are facing North, so you have to yaw right for the Eastern gravity turn. Rotate the pod 90 degrees with “Q” in the VAB to face East, so steering can be done with the up and down controls, and maneuvers are going to be more intuitive in orbit. If the hatch of the Command Pod, or the Cupola, or the label of the Probe Core is facing you (West) in the VAB, it is in the correct position.
When you save a module as a Subassembly, it will always be inserted facing North (hatch facing South), so you should rotate it 90 degrees with “Q”.
Fairings
Turn off expansion animation
By default Protective Shells open when you mouse over them. It is designed to reveal their cargo, but can be unnecessary when used as custom aerodynamic nose cones. To temporarily disable the animation
Right-click the fairing and click the Fairing Expansion button to turn it off.
Edit the fairing
To edit the shape of the fairing, click the Edit Fairing button.
Flight abort
To safely abort a flight assign actions to the Abort action group. When you click the abort handle next to the altimeter or press the Backspace key the action group items will be executed. To open the parachute, press the space bar multiple times to advance through the staging sequence.
Select Action to create an Action Group
Select the Abort action group
Click the coupler under the pod
Add the Decouple action to the group
Select all liquid engines
And add their Shutdown Engine actions to the group
Select the engine of the upper stage in the fairing and add the Shutdown Engine action to the group
Select the radial decouplers of the solid rocket boosters. If placed with symmetry, it is enough to select one of them.
Add the Decouple action to the group
Propulsion design
To reach celestial bodies you need to provide the necessary Delta V to the mass of your spacecraft with your engines.
Use the ISP value to select the right engine for the right environment. Some engines perform better at sea level (ASL), and some in a vacuum (Vac.)
For boosters, use the engine designed for both, ASL and Vac.
For orbiters, use the engine designed for vacuum
Delta-v
To check the delta-v of the vessel, first, open the Delta-v panel at the bottom of the screen, and select Vacuum. Make sure NOT to add the orbital stage value to the booster stage’s Delta-v. Temporarily you can reduce the thrust of the upper stage engines to zero to use the red total value at the bottom, but don’t forget to turn them on again.
Trust weight ratio
The optimal thrust-to-weight ratio for boosters is around 1.5 – 3. Once in orbit, less than 1 is enough for speed changes. The less the TWR, the longer burn is needed.
To display the thrust-to-weight ratio click the orange tab of the stage.
Typical TWRs
Sea level: 1.3 – 1.35
Upper stage booster: 2.05 – 2.15
Orbital vehicles: below 1 is fine
Subassemblies
We can save modules of the spacecraft as subassemblies. We can build a complete space station in the VAB, select modules connected by docking ports, and save them as subassemblies. To launch the modules individually, we load a spacecraft to launch it, and place the module on top of it from the subassembly list.
In the Vehicle Assembly Building enable Advanced mode
Click the Subassemblies button
Left-click the docking port of the module and release the mouse button to grab it.
As the mouse still moves the module click the Subassembly Drop Zone with the left mouse button.
The subassembly save dialog opens, enter a name and description
Autostruts
Autostruts are struts, but can automatically be attached to three relative parts:
Heaviest Part (WARNING this can change as fuel is used up during flight, and as a result of docking)
Root part (the first part of the vessel construction)
Grandparent Part (for a solid fuel booster attached to a fuel tank with a radial coupler, the fuel tank is the grandparent part)
To see autostruts, enable the visibility in the Debug menu, see Visualize Autostruts
You can add autostruts to vessels in orbit:
Right-click the part and cycle through the autostrut attachment options by clicking the Autostrut button. In this example we have selected the Root Part
WARNING: It can cause wobbling in large structures, like space stations.
More information
The Kerbal Space Program wiki provides great information on spacecraft building and control.
6.3 oz. (180 g) sourdough starter, or 1 packet (0.25 oz., 7 g) active dry yeast, or 0.9 oz. (25 g) fresh yeast
1 tsp sugar to rise the yeast
5 – 6.75 fl. oz. (150 – 200 ml) 2% low-fat milk
6.75 fl. oz. (200 ml) heavy whipping cream
3 – 4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
1 whole egg at the end to brush the challah with it before you bake it
Raisins are optional (but recommended) approximately 1 cup
You can also add cocoa powder to half of the strands.
Preparation
If you use yeast, mix the yeast and 1 tsp sugar in 5 fl. oz. (1.5 dl) lukewarm milk and let it rise.
Sift the flour into a bowl, add salt, and sugar, and mix it. We make a well in the middle, and pour heavy whipping cream, egg, yolk, starter, and the 5 fl. oz. (150 ml) milk. We can add more milk if our dough is very hard during kneading.
We begin to knead. When it has pretty much come together into a ball, we put it out on the board and work out the dough thoroughly. It is good if our dough has a nice smooth, shiny surface and does not stick to the board.
Put in a bowl, cover it, and let it rise
with starter 4-5 hours
with yeast 3-4 hours
or put it in the fridge overnight.
Then cut into 4 or 8 identical pieces, depending on whether you want to bake one or two challahs. Add the raisins as you roll up the pieces one by one, cover them again and leave them to rest for 15 minutes.
After resting roll strands of the same length from the dough.
Braid the challah.
We lay it on baking paper and immediately brush it with a whole beaten egg. Make sure that the egg does not trickle between the braids. We now let our dough rise for about half an hour.
In the meantime preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit (190 Celsius). Brush the challah with the beaten eggs again, and you may sprinkle it with poppy seeds. Put it in the hot oven. After 10 minutes of baking, reduce the heat to 350 Fahrenheit (175 Celsius) degrees. The total baking time for smaller challah is about 30-35 minutes, and for the large challah is 40-45 minutes in total.
