Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/308821250
YouTube: https://youtu.be/gIWuT522JG4
Welcome to Kerbalism! I’m your host, Aubrey Goodman. In this episode, we deploy a station to planetary orbit.
So far, we’ve only sent small things into space. Now, we’ll start to experiment with larger objects. The best place to start is a station in low planetary orbit. As you may have noticed by now, this will be pretty much the beginning of any mission. The first step will often be stable low orbit. From there, we have options.
One of the most important components of a successful spacefaring society is a system of orbital fuel depots. These unmanned stations act as storage containers for extra fuel. We will use them for future missions, where it makes sense to refuel in space after launch before continuing on a mission.
This technique will be the foundation for all advanced missions. By staging fuel and other components at key locations, future missions can take advantage of pre-staged resources. The goal is to deploy sufficient equipment to extract and refine the natural resources available in space and on the surface of other orbital bodies. But that’s a lot of work!
We’ll start with a simple orbital fuel pod. This needs to have docking ports, some kind of attitude control system, and enough solar panels to keep it powered. Ships docking with this fuel depot may need to top off various different fuels, so keeping a little of everything on hand is helpful. Our example shows only monopropellant and liquid fuel storage.
A fuel pod is a great start, but we need to start sending manned missions now that we have infrastructure in place. This means we’re ready to send science missions! By launching scientists into orbit, we begin to explore the effects of zero gravity on materials and living tissue. This can be a great accelerator, pushing the cutting edge of our technology ever faster.
Still, just as in real estate on terra firma, location is key. There’s only so much to be learned in low orbit. In our next episode, we expand to consider stations in lunar orbit around a moon. So stay tuned!
And thanks for watching Kerbalism!
Kerbalism 