Building a MASSIVE Mining Facility in KSP!

Let's build a massive ore refinery on Minmus! What could go wrong?
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My PC specs:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor
64 GB RAM
3840 x 2160, 144Hz
This video is intended for audiences 13+ years old.
The song used in the intro is by the awesome Approaching Nirvana!
Check them out:
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The song used was dope, and you can stream it on Spotify:

[@ProfessionalIdiot-mf8lj]

Matt: Stack decouplers litter Minmus Also Matt: Dumps nuclear fuel and engines on the surface of Minmus

[@barmetler]

well they probably exploded, right. And that sounds perfectly fine to me

[@DeepProbe]

​@@barmetler "that radiation counter - you have no need in it!" (with some weird jedi gestures)

[@paulinalevina9690]

At least they aren´t in orbit ruining satellites

[@BHFJohnny]

And the whole base

[@ProfessionalIdiot-mf8lj]

@MattLowne I am just now realizing how this can be seen as ignorant and stupid, so I will be tagging Matt to personally say sorry if this seemed like I was trying to pick a fight.

[@nymbattheeternal1279]

For large surface bases, Gotmachine's Physics Hold mod is essential. The following if from the mod's feature list: Add a toolbar button for managing physics on landed vessels Option for disabling physics (joints/force/torque/velocities) interactions for selected vessels. This noticeably reduce lag with large bases and prevent physics kraken attacks. Option for partially re-enabling physics for robotic parts : allow stock robotics to work on "on hold" vessels. Option for making the current "in physics" deformation permanent, stabilizing bases built on uneven terrain. "On-hold" vessels can still be docked to and undocked from, and Kerbals can still board and go to EVA from them.

[@eekee6034]

That looks like everything I always wanted for surface bases and some things I never imagined!

[@neuronoc.7343]

If there could be an update that also enables making HUGE craft (basically anything built with B9-HX parts) act basically like only 1 part outside of maybe docking ports, that would also be very cash money.

[@razorback8300]

i never heard of that mod, definetly gonna take a look

[@Kings_Gambit_24]

@@neuronoc.7343 UbioWeldContinuum might be what you're looking for. I haven't tested it yet, though. Your comment just got me googling.

[@eekee6034]

@@neuronoc.7343 There's the part weldng mod. Last time I looked, it hadn't been updated since 1.4 but people were saying it works in 1.12. YMMV, probably best to spend time reading the forum thread.

[@MedicMainDave]

Saying "KSP1 is the only spacefrog game" is like saying "Pacfic Rim has no sequel", it's a tautology and I love it

[@STUKA9113]

Never knew Pacific Rim fans watched Matt Lowne, and both have sequels? cause you're implying it .

[@decal24]

it doesnt have a sequel , atleast a worthy one

[@MedicMainDave]

@@STUKA9113 no that's the neat part, both ksp and pacific rim has none, hence why it is a tautology, if you don't know what that is, google it :P

[@TheCreatureThatExists]

Sequels? Why, I don’t think either have sequels yet. I don’t know what you’re talking about. They never had sequels and never will.

[@Snoopsthecat]

@@TheCreatureThatExists i agree

[@davidkistler6749]

Your attempts to anchor the base to the ground gave me flashbacks to my own nightmare of a Minmus base. I had a central core tower with a hex of 6 peripheral towers around it, each representing a separate launch, and I had the "genius" idea of anchoring all seven pieces to the ground. Of course, the game won't let you strut two separate ships/structures together, so they have to count as a single craft before you can connect them with struts. I had to get robotic arms extending docking ports from the central core to ports on each of the 6 peripheral. Each peripheral had to have its port repositioned by an EVA engineer to line up with the arm. EVERY connection made was an invitation for a kraken attack, with attacks becoming more probable with each peripheral I attached. I eventually found that the way to reduce the odds of attack was pre-measuring the exact distance I needed to extend the arm to, setting the arm's target extension to exactly that, playing around with the arm strength so that it couldn't get into a violent tug of war with the docking ports trying to pull themselves together, and quicksaving. Lots and lots of quicksaving. I swear, the kraken was actually aware of it when I forgot to quicksave. It didn't help that I had detached lots of unneeded engines, landing legs, and other bits manually with an EVA engineer and left them scattered around the surface, before manually assembling all the debris into a single piece of junk and boosting the unholy abomination into a suborbital trajectory for disposal via lithobraking. All those probe cores I left scattered around were one more "craft" I had to cycle between every time I hit the ] key, and every time I hit ] I was inviting a kraken attack on either the base or the nearby deployed science. For some reason, the kraken never helped out by attacking the litter. Once the whole thing was finished it worked great. No dancing the jitterbug on landing legs, no leaning left or right, no clipping through the ground and exploding. Most stable outpost ever. But I'm not sure it was worth the pain.

[@AbsoluteHuman]

You can use Easy Vessel Switch to avoid the cycling issue

[@adrianthe402nd]

I'd say install Kerbal Joint Reinforcement [KJR] to limit/prevent wobbling on large-scale stations and bases

[@HistoryOnPaper]

You probably need to auto strut those solar panels because I once used those same beams on a ship before as my solar arrays but then the kraken came but auto strut seemed to work. Oh and also mod recommendation: Ztheme it completely overhauls the ui and addresses some of the things you hate about the default ksp ui and makes it more inline with ksp 2 ui. Also its much more easy on the eyes. Oh and if you think it removes some charm from the game I thought the same thing but then I just became addicted to the mod after a while.

[@albr4]

yep, I'm sure its the solar panels, I've tried making space stations with huge solar arrays and they pretty quickly starting wobbling more and more until they snapped off and the station got oblitered.

[@TheChin58]

Great video Matt! You should try put a communications array on the colony used as sort of a long range radio telescope like the plan to put one on the moon

[@eekee6034]

This thing is pretty stylish in its industrial way, especially the girder structure. It's cool! KSPCF fixes robotic drift, and it fixes kraken issues caused by recalculating autostruts on load. But I don't know if those two fixes combine to make the robot reload trouble go away. TWR = 0.07? Oof! I feel your pain. :) My OrbiTank of the long burns has a TWR of 0.1. It's an early build from when I didn't know what TWR was. Being a tanker, it had to transfer between Kerbin and Minmus regularly, and I guess the low TWR contributed to my general malaise with making these transfers. These days, I build for a minimum TWR of 0.2. (Kerbin/vacuum, of course.) Yeah, the ground anchor needs to be connected a docking port or grabber before you can strut it. I'm slightly annoyed that struts break when you disconnect a grabber, but eh. I wouldn't have bothered moving the kerbals either. Let's assume the refinery's control systems are fully digital and the kerbals can just log in from the comfort of their cockpit. :) I appreciate not being asked to like at the start. Even when I know I'll like the video, the illogic and kind-of arrogance of it sometimes gets to me. :)

[@erics2133]

That wasn't a waste of time, it was a grand demonstration of "don't do this without being prepared for the result."

[@Abrogator91]

The best way to prevent kraken issues is to keep things small. Anything that can be its own structure should be. This would mean having a dedicated mining rig (no refining). You then transport the ore over to a refining plant via rovers. This refines fuel into a small local stockpile, but your bulk storage is part of your landing and refueling site, which means more rovers to transport the fuel from the refinery to the refueling site. It sounds tedious, but think about it: we build these big bases on planets but then never actually... "do" anything with them. Its actually a lot more fun to have it so that the kerbals are actually needed to act as delivery staff. As for how to set this up, i really recommend using the planetary base systems mod that you covered in one of your videos. The wheels that come with that mod (the ones intended for moving the base parts around), combined with the low profile of the tanks from the mod, make excellent fuel transport rovers. Very stable driving. Especially on those big flat minmus lakes. And the last big tip i have is especially tedious, but important for large bases: do not put these things close together! This increases driving time, but its ideal to space them out so that only a couple of structures are withing physics loading distance at one time. Extra stuff for the base: * Habitat module * Comm center * Science lab * Rovers for transporting kerbals/materials * Parts depot for repairing broken solar panels

[@jeffrowe6004]

Small? When I look at my part count and it only says 998, I wonder what I am missing. 🤣

[@peaoui165]

I love that KSP 1 has returned in all its HAIL KRACKEN glory. I still have an issue with your satellite neetwork around Minmus though. With your current setup any ground station would have to adjust the direction of its antenna to maintain connection. Seems needlessly complicated

[@eekee6034]

Stationkeeping is complicated, and isn't built into KSP. With a 'geostationary' setup, you can't get all the satelites into precisely the same orbit, and they won't stationkeep on their own. In a long-term game, they'll drift out of place unless you periodically have to go through all the relays to manually make corrections.

[@peaoui165]

I know but it's more the "yes I set it up this way for realism" aspect of it

[@holographic_red]

I'm glad the KSP community keeps going, I think your channel is one who maybe introduced me to the game. I feel bad for the people working on KSP2, when IP is sucked into bigger buisness it kinda seems bad decisions are made. Bad movies, bad games, easy to digest content.

[@astroevada]

You can use KAS and KIS to allow the refinery to attach to any spacecraft via a pipe and a socket. But this refinery looks baller as hell, like something from the 2050s if that makes sense

[@RealTallestSkil]

Thank you. I’ve been gaslighting myself for years by thinking I can fuel pipe between vessels, flying to other planets, and then not being able to do it when I swore I could. Turns out I haven’t used KAS for about seven years and *used to* be able to do that but can’t anymore. Thought I was going insane.

[@Moscatinka]

For Minmus (and anything smaller) I put a couple of docking ports on the roof of my refinery. Fuel transport ships just land right on top of it and dock for refueling. Requires some smart placing of docking ports and engines of course (or enough RCS power to land without main engines), but I only have fuel transports docking to it to fill up my orbital depot. Any regular ship that just needs refueling at Minmus can do so in orbit.

[@operatorchakkoty4257]

Yeees, a sattelite dish array! Maybe a centrifuge on the surface to account for Minmus' low gravity?

[@BowChickaHonkHonk1]

I went nuts with my Minmus mining operation - I found 15 sites near the equator with decent ore, on flat terrain, where I run refinery rovers with 5 refineries and 12 drill bits, each. They refuel the freighters that keep Kerbin orbit ready to refuel everyone. Sites are 2.6-2.7 kms apart each, so they don't draw each other, to keep the game from chugging even slower. Certainly many flights for my computer to keep track of - sad there's no sequel coming out that's more stable!!

[@Brick_One_A_Lego_Story]

That's so cool. Do you use any mod that does repeating scheduled flights? I can't imagine redoing the same flight again and again just to have a working refueling system.

[@brucejohnson1264]

You need to start using the extra planetary launchpads mod so that your remote bases actually function as bases that can build, fuel, and launch new rockets.

[@josephraffurty9293]

Simple Construction is a good extension to this.

[@Lavry_30]

Matt lowne in 2050: building computer with complete ksp2 in ksp1

[@arthurhufkens2337]

U can do that easily with mods yk

[@MinerBat]

i did build some mechanical logic gates at some point, so if ksp 1 for whatever reason was able to process an absolutely ridiculous amounts of parts a proper (though very slow) computer could actually be made in it

[@gregswank4912]

Ironically, I just attempted to anchor a Mun base to the ground the same way, and had the same issue. I suspect it will greatly stabilize the base, preventing kraken attacks and preventing it from sliding across, or falling through the surface. Man I wish someone would design a sequel that used a completely different physics engine that treated assemblies as a single rigid object that only broke when reasonably excessive force was applied, and not wibble itself to death like a epileptic robot.

[@entropic-decay]

With the hinges and pistons and such, one thing I've found success with when using them for parts that fold up during launch and then stay unfolded permanently is: bring an engineer kerbal with you, and a few struts as cargo. Get the engineer out on EVA, strut the part to be extended out in place once it's fully extended, and remove the piston and hinge system.

[@torbenellert9173]

Building the refinery gave me Velocity Lake vibes somehow - Matt building is zen, and I am happy to see more content for our favourite spacefrog game

[@TheHutchy01]

The car park episode is going to be very intertesting in this series!

[@torbenellert9173]

@@TheHutchy01 I am very much here for what happens when the Kraken notices it...

[@Cringy_studios]

A Rover garage would be insanely cool

[@oasntet]

In a regular career mode, I generally build a mobile science vessel with an onboard lab and drive it around Minmus while the mining station is filling up the fuel truck. Regarding the Kraken, I feel like this is an opportunity to test some things about the Kraken by making small changes to this vehicle, cheating it to orbit around Minmus, landing it again and seeing it if shakes itself apart. The very first thing I'd try is reducing the number of points of contact with the ground. Instead of having a dozen little legs, each interacting with the surface independently and fighting to be the 'lowest' one, just put some tanks directly on the ground and have as few of them as possible touching it.

[@anthonator8810]

another thing to add as a permanent feature, maybe introduce players to kerbal konstructs, and its benefits/mechanics and other things, to add a launchpad that can serve as a visual landing pad, or a whole rocket launchpad (to touch on craft construction in space mods without delving into extraplanetary launchpads yet) and it can let you place something like a mission control on minmus, even an "atc" like tower, to "guide interplanetary ships" for future use in a more roleplay sense

[@DeepProbe]

13:30 Docking anchor. - Yes, you'll need couple of docking ports. And an engeneer. - Also worth mentioning, that anchor have quite naughty habbit of "floating" above the ground during scene loading, so it would be wise to provoke it prior connecting vehicle to the ancor. (IDK is that only for my installation of KSP - due to some antiquated mod, or it's a common issue...) - after docking you may add as many struts as you find fits. 14:50 Act of Totally safe and responsible handling with radioactive isotops. No wonder that kerbals are all green... Outcome: Pity. But now we could believe that Kraken's appetite was sat and do something alike again.

[@jobamay5740]

I would love to see a spaceplane runway and/or rocket landing pad! Whether with parts or just some placed lights on the ground, maybe a terminal/ control station

[@shanebergeron747]

Can you put this series in a playlist? I'm getting back to your channel after binging machining videos (I'm not a machinist, IDK why...) and having trouble finding the videos in this series. Loving it though! And love the return to Blunderbirds!

[@Commander_Ray]

I hope you do some of the mods that make the games physics more realistic and have the proper sizes of planets to real-life and all compensating mods, because watching you figure out how to do things big would be enjoyable to watch

[@jibbles42]

I use the mk3 fuselage long and just couple them with docking ports. They naturally have a flat surface so work well on the flats of minmus. I have some other tanks which are vertical and touch the ground that I can put other stuff on such as ore processors or command towers etc, been using that for maybe a year or so and it's never bounced too much and haven't had any damage done to anything. Doesn't look as badass as your one but it's functional. I also have it set up so all mining drills/power generation/cooling is on one side then on the other is where tankers land, reduces risks of crashing into things. As for ideas for additions, a dock for a rover maybe? when a tanker inevitably topples over it's nice to have something to drive over and try to correct it.

[@bjarnes.4423]

You use KAS to attach Solar panels on a truss to stations in space, so that the drag is lower during launch. I think that would be very cool for a future video

[@scottkorchenko]

Love the video! Instead of 1 massive refinery, how about a "field" of small extractors (like an oil field) and a tanker that goes and collects everything to the launch up to a space refinery added to station? Means you can almost "drop pod" the small extractor units wherever needed on the planet

[@jamoecw]

You need to use the ground anchor properly. The ground anchor was made specifically for this stuff. The easiest way to use them is with a docking port, so that you can install an anchor point to a non-physics body and then dock with it, but you didn't bring all the pieces and returning probably isn't an option (kraken). So find a place that you can attach the docking port that has it touching the ground after installing on the refinery, then install the ground anchor and activate it, anchoring the structure to the ground and ensuring that the refinery always matches that one spot even when the 'fuzziness' that happens when loading (the kraken attack that causes the one you see is loading in 'low res' stuff first and things not lining up properly causing a slight shock to the refinery which then induces a kraken attack).

[@meltdown6165]

I worked on the refueling problem about a year ago (check out my "Behemoth" prototype on KerbalX or Steam workshop). I split it up into 4 components so I don't have to lug around unnecessary equipment: 1) orbital fuel depot/ore refinery in low Kerbin orbit; 2) Mining/refining rover on the Mun with all the drills etc; 3) Mun descent/ascent stage with high TWR engines and landing legs in Mun orbit; 4) multiple fuel/ore transfer freighters with nervas and aerobrakes. A freighter docks with the landing stage in Mun orbit and lands near the rover, is refueled, returns to orbit with help of ascent stage. Then leave ascent stage in Mun orbit and return only the freighter to LKO using mostly aerobraking. Dock with fuel depot there. Return unloaded freighter to Mun orbit and repeat the cycle. You can run 2-3 freighters per landing stage and rover. One freighter can deliver ~130 tons of LF to LKO every ~5 days. (Behemoth still has mining and landing combined in one stage, this is improved in the yet unpublished "Gargantua" model.)

[@oliversavage99]

Next Planetside Exploration Technologies!

[@seananderson5850]

You should make a satellite array. Find a crater and put 3-9 smaller dishes up with a control station nearby. This is similar how scientists have used the ENTIRE distance of the earth as a satellite dish/focuser. Maybe use a reusable SSTO that can get to Mun/Minmus that can haul the infrastructure.

[@KarolOfGutovo]

Yet again I'll recommend that if you are to add life support, use snacks. It's the simplest there is as far as I know. Without additional configs it only adds the titular snacks which are used and generate soil as waste which can be recycled into almost-as-much snacks by some stock and modded preexisting modules and snacks can be made directly from ore too, and optionally it adds stress which runs out faster if there is less space per kerbal, "hydrazine" which restores stress at risk of kerbals acting unwise (yeah, space vodka) and air which I think can be just fully recycled I think? Idk, I play without air config.

[@coolguy2084]

video idea: build a rocket that puts 1 small satellite around each planet. and for Minmus maybe build a planetary base whit rover hangars to explore the surface of Minmus. And its sad to see the miner gone so soon

[@CubeHeadd]

A large habitat complex with a glass dome should look good. And you could add some small girder towers with lights and Communication dishes and other decorative elements. Should make the spacefrogs happy

[@kajto3595]

You could add any mod that adds any kind of ground anchors, like MKS (MKS adds "ground tethers" to landing legs, basically just anchoring stuff to the ground)

[@joacodiaz8631]

I have a save on career mode and i always try to save time and every time a see your videos its like "This Little Maneuver's Gonna Cost Us 51 Years" XD. Btw Im alway impressed and speechless every time you build somthing, you use objects and pieces on ways that i cant even imagine

[@manvslife271]

Are you planning on adding a Life Support system mod in the future? Because if so, you should do it as early as possible, because a life support system fundamentally changes how you plan/build missions and might make previous crafts in the save file virtually unusable after all the work you put in for them. My suggestion is either TAC life support or USI (I personally use USI myself), they aren't as easy as Snacks, but aren't as hardcore as Kerbalism. Also, you should probably upgrade to Near Future Solar if you want to use massive solar arrays.

[@notjebbutstillakerbal]

Probably not

[@30Salt]

Why kerbalism is the only way. Radiation shielding and habitat management will be good content

[@melandor0]

Seconded on USI Life Support, it's great! Much more interesting spacecraft designs! It's no longer just about the propulsion.

[@awilliams1701]

I tried kerbalism. It wanted 3 minutes just to do a crew report. I'm all for KSP2 like science, but 3 minutes? Nah. Forget that. So I'll try TAC I guess. I haven't done anything permanent yet so I can add it. I'm still sad that station science is dead. It was my favorite mod. I think it's called MOAR station science now. It's only 1.9 though. sadly. But GPP looks as great as ever.

[@Buffalo_Soldier]

TAC + Kerbal Health is the best IMO. I don't like USI life support too much.. TAC gives physical needs and kerbal health gives mental needs and radiation, so it comboes perfectly together. Also kerbal health implements thing called "rad - shielding" and "lifetime radiation dose" so your kerbonauts need to get back to kerbin from time to time, and decontaminate themselves, but it doesn't need to be often if you have very good shielding. It's pretty interesting logistical challenge.

[@BrannonAerospace]

Adding a fruit-roll-up style runway using robotic parts for SSTOs to land on might be pretty cool!

[@BowChickaHonkHonk1]

Thanks to everyone who left comments with instructions - I had a terrible time building a base on the Mun, using ground anchors. Realizing the monoliths have a flat, level top, I put an anchor on one and a docking port on that, to install a base on top - and then added a tripod of ground anchors around the monolith, on the ground, building upward to give support and stability... and the kraken made the ground rise up and cover all of it, including the monolith. I have 2 kerbals who are erased. Not listed as dead or missing or alive... just... erased. And a reputation hit to go with it. And it was awful to lose - I was going to name it Chantilly Base, on a Monkey Face... was gonna be epic.

[@t.maximilianwaechter3208]

Loving the callback to the old style modded ksp runs! I think a big satellite or communications dish would look great, maybe up on one of the peaks around the refinery for better coverage?

[@csljr1]

Speculation on my part, since I don't know how the game is coded, but to me in one of the explosions it looked like it was the 'landing leg' components that started exploding first, potentially due to them clipping into each other. If you re-do the station, maybe have as little part clipping as possible, especially on parts that contact the ground. My (admittedly limited) understanding of explosions, whether due to impact with other parts or due to atmospheric temperatures, is that it's done via setting the part's temperature to a value outside the 'acceptable range'. Since temp might propagate from part to part if they're touching, the game may be triggering an explosion chain because it thinks the part clipping means the object has crashed into the other pieces/is going into the ground. If it does destroy the part via setting the temperature, then the effect might propagating to the adjacent, contacting pieces causing them to explode as well, until it reaches a piece not clipped into anything else where the chain can die off. This is admittedly speculation on my part, but I hope it might be useful speculation for what was causing the issue.

[@danielghull]

I like how you are slowly adding mods as you go to this new series. Just a heads up, if you have not already decided against a life support mod (USI, TAC etc.), you will want to add it early in the series because it changes the design objectives of bases & space stations.

[@samuhnella]

For building huge rockets I recommend space y heavy lifters extended, makes it a lot easier to send things like this up into orbit while looking normal.

[@dafoex]

If it's not already been suggested, the Near Future Construction mod has loads of trusses and such structures that would allow you to rebuild a similarly industrial looking refinery. There is a load of stuff under the Niar Future Tech series that might be worth looking at

[@naerbo19]

You can make a separate research station for the research of the surface of Minmus. There is also the option of dedicated connected landing pod to get refined fuel into orbit to either a tanker station or just transfer through the station already there. If you are ambitious you can make a space elevator or a shuttle. Like "automatic" shuttles and "automatic fuel shuttles". There is also the possibility of a separete solar farm and possibly with mods, hydroponics farm. but please don't crack the spacefrogs's spine like that again!

[@victorroza5206]

Something I'd like to see as a base feature is a garage! You could have vehicles needed for the colony, like a fuel transporter or a rover for science operations

[@BrannonAerospace]

Regarding the Kraken attacks, ticking “Pause at Vessel Unpack” in the Alt + F12 menu seems to help me with large bases.

[@a_dreamer8612]

I would recommend more mods to lower the part count and help with Kraken attacks. Those solar panels reminded me a lot of Nertea's near future electrics mod which adds a whole host of electrical parts and giant solar panels. Honestly, I'd just install all of Nertea's near future suite as it adds a lot of parts that fit in well with Restock and allows for the creation of larger spacecraft.

[@FritiFirecaster]

Lower stages having probe cores to deorbit is a bit overkill imho. My usual approach to such is to attach a couple/some sepratrons to the lower stage, facing to oppose the direction of travel. That way, when I trigger the next stage, the prior stage automatically engages the small sepratrons and deorbits the spent unwanted stage. For fun, cant the sepratrons slightly to one side so the stage spins away as it goes! :D

[@zj6074]

A common theory of clipping-based Kraken attacks is that minor oscillations from physics re-enabling interfere constructively and the vessel shakes itself apart as the wobble compounds on itself. KJR will stabilize crafts more than well enough to ensure that doesn't happen with about 95% reliability.

[@williamthompson9262]

Your commentary was on point this video, well done Matt

[@JenniferMcDonnell00]

Matt, don't feel bad about asking us to like the video. I always forget to like, even if it was great. The reminder is no bother to us, and helps yourself out. Keep rocking! ❤

[@anomalyfox5186]

I think Matt could benefit greatly from Nertea’s Near Future Launch Vehicles. It adds wayyyy bigger rocket body parts so you won’t have to make giant awkward fairings on the 5m radius tanks, and it’ll look much cleaner.

[@wormyboot]

You've heard of the Kraken. This time you built the Karen. It was predisposed to flip out of control.

[@ae0n772]

Buildings you could make: A dedicated Water purification/food production hydroponics bay tracking/comms station similar to that of the KSC, a huge solar array maybe a leisure centre? could make little carts for your kerbals to drive around in like the ones that zoom around the SPH and VAB

[@aasishwarsaravana5748]

Please make a Spaceship that serves as purely a orbital transfer vehicle from different planets, refuelled from minmus or on orbit refuelling. And if possible, use mods you used in older videos such as the nuclear jet engines mod and interstellar engines like the fusion drives!

[@garbanzo6867]

I'd like to think Bob left a coffee mug on the main control console, then the vibrations from the mining and low gravity caused it to spill which created a multitude of cascading failures and the eventual unplanned rapid decommission of the mining base... why did Bob have a coffee mug to drink from instead of one of those pouches or specially designed cups for 0 gravity? because science, gotta know if the Minmus gravity is strong enough to drink tea from your favorite mug after all :)

[@TheHutchy01]

Some kind of crane, like the big shipyard ones, would be fairly cool if a swine to move.

[@sethwhite8912]

A massive (like, MASSIVE) solar farm would be cool. That way you dont need to tempt the kraken by putting one on each segement of the base. Trying to figure out how to go full planet coaster would be cool too. Like a rover with tons of storage so an engineer can build roads and pads connecting everything all pretty like

[@bigemugamer]

Getting back in to KSP after a few months hiatus, I to am building a large mining gas station to land on Minmus.

[@Eric__J]

Big ground structures like this are kraken bait. This is one of many reasons why I build an orbital fuel station with onboard large ISRUs and an engineer with a self-contained autonomous lander that lands, drills, fills the ore tanks, has a small ISRU for refueling itself, batteries, solar panels, etc. You can just aim for any low flat which always has ore. It then returns to orbit where it docks with the station to offload the ore, and repeats the cycle while the orbital station converts the raw ore to fuel.

[@ravenmaniac8857]

A massive observatory could be interesting

[@FireheartIndustries]

That ending is essentially why I was so excited to finally have surface bases in KSP 2. Every time I've tried to make them in KSP they have similar fates. Either clipping into the ground and exploding, drifting away, or the kraken decides to throw phantom forces at them and they rip themselves apart. I was so angry to hear KSP2 got cancelled and I still am...

[@MinerBat]

17:22 a construction site would be cool, it you added a mod that lets you build ships at a base

[@Seeraphyn]

You could try to edit action groups before the kraken arrives, set action groups to lock and unlock all your robotic parts, as well as turning servos on and off, and see what that gives you. It's a long shot though. Installing Kerbal Joint Reinforcement might help too but I don't know how well it does with robotics.

[@squirrel_slapper]

Matt I think that you, Scott Manley, Beardy Penguin, Everyday Astronaut, and Martincitopants should form a small team. You should have your own Scooby Doo Mystery Machine only instead of solving mysteries, you make people disappear.

[@liljoestudiosofficial]

what awesome visual mods! It'd look great for your next KSP movie (if you decide to make one)!

[@hfaulk]

Colony needs a huge ground communications dish / array to send signals between other kerbal bases in the kerbol system!

[@Viperflight1984]

For the base you could actually add a separate modules for a colony type building for just housing colonists. The bases own ssto. Some sort of manufacturing building for lore to expand the base. A science building completely separate from it. There are some ideas

[@Kaelygon]

7:50 I see that rocket engines aren't the only thing that you are burning

[@wundermonkeyuk]

Wasn't a waste of time, really great build! i hope some clever person has a fix for this particular kraken. maybe the hierarchy of the autostrut setup or a kerbal sacrifice to the ksp dark kraken lord.

[@josephraffurty9293]

You really need to get the Simple Construction mod for this minmus colony. It’s an amazing mod.

[@jeffrowe6004]

One thing I try to never do is use more then 3 legs. The physics just doesn't handle the spring dampers properly so it will never set flat with more then 3. That starts the legs trying to stabilize on the ground and starts the shaking that just works it's way into every part. That's also what makes it jump when it's loaded. It loads with one of the legs below the surface so it tries to correct it. I also use the USI mods so all my legs have ground tether(at least that's where I think it comes from). Doing that has solved my kraken attacks on loading.

[@Lightning9060]

Would love to eventually see the Near Future mods added in, some really cool electrical and structural parts.

[@pingin6885]

For your robotics problems, it may be worth replacing Breaking Ground's buggy robotic parts with the ironically less buggy Infernal Robotics mod (tweakscale also recommended as the default sizes are incredibly large - you can configure tweakscale to only apply to infernal robotics parts, if you think it's a bit cheaty).

[@TimbavatiLion]

A permanently inhabited base definitely needs a greenhouse cupola! Kerbals don't eat, but they need a place to photosynthesize, right?

[@wesleyewert1023]

the janky way I found to get a ground anchor to work is I landed the base and sent out my kerbal to deploy it right next to the base. I then turned my engines on just enough to get it to slide along the ground over the anchor. I then put matching docking ports on the anchor and base and retracted the landing gear. ended up being asymmetrical and still wobbly enough to make me want the legs down again but it hasn't broken yet so it can't be all bad.

[@icaleinns6233]

You made an ornithopter on Minmus! 😂 So couldn't you just use engineers to attach the beams and solar panels to the base after it arrives on Minmus? It might take a few of them, but that might avoid the Kraken.

[@yogimojo4685]

Damn that pesky kraken, that was by far the coolest refinery I've seen, only other module for the base I could think of would be a faux agriculture dome thingy, if there are parts for it (console player, all mods are exciting aliens to me!)

[@hibikikensaki]

Man they should make a sequel to KSP!

[@blackdog6969]

You need a monument. A captured asteroid on a pedestal for our slightly insane little green people to look up to for inspiration. Jeb demands it

[@champion0n138]

You can add a landing plateform for a little ship that can go explore Minmus

[@wormyboot]

Put an array of lights leading up to the landing pad, like how they do at airports. You almost always come in on the same heading so it'd make sense.

[@marvinrupp114]

I had a small refinery on minmus and a big fuel tank in minmus orbit. A medium sized tanker to fill the tank. Was a nice combination. Got through this very big Stations moved to nearly all other planets and moons

[@TheLilram2100]

The speed at which my ears perked up when I heard the Spirit Tracks OST was almost scary lmao it’s been so many years since I heard it but I recognized it immediately

[@pizzainc.1465]

Mission recommendation: whenever you send kerbals to the base, get one of the IVA mods and do the whole mission in IVA, possibly utilizing your special controller

[@Selatapey]

I really want a game with the astrophysics of this game but actual resource gathering and automation (for example, you need to drag an asteroid into earth orbit, then mine it for something like iridium which you use to unlock more technology)

[@idontwantahandle820]

I highly recommend you start using autostrut on all your big stations and ships. It has kept all of my massive structures intact. I know in the past you've said you didn't want to use it but it's time you did.

[@dancingferret6654]

Would you ever consider doing a JNSQ playthough? There is now a volumetric clouds patch for it, and its increased scale increases the challenge and requires you to build more realistic rockets. SSTOs are harder though.

[@WoodenBirB]

I absolutely love your content. I'm glad to see more megastructures and space stations / colonies. Thanks a lot. Best wishes from Plymouth

[@BrandenMcKinney]

it would be cool to see you do like a coms relay station that orbits minmus in a stationary orbit (if that's possible with minmus) to be the relay between kerbin, minmus, and any future interplanetary adventures

[@alydev23]

I enjoyed the cleanup video as background noise, but these big projects are def more appealing as a watch.

[@adirmugrabi]

here's an idea: add a spin lunch system. since minmus gravity is so low, an electric launcher will be great

[@sambal5108]

The editing feels a lot smoother than usual!

[@visyxl]

this reminds me of that time matt attempted to build a giant space staiton

[@lootbot]

I would be cool to see you create a sort of intelligence center on the surface of minmus. and it would be awesome to have like an array of radio dishes or like a big radio telescope on minmus. of course i have no idea how you would do that but thats for you to decide ;)