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Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.
Behemoth
Mining System
- Type: VAB
- Class: base
- Part Count: 587
- Pure Stock
KSP: 1.12.5
Leviathan Mk.3 Ore Freighter x2
Leviathan Mk.2 Heavy Miner
Behemoth Orbital Refinery
VeHeReLau III Launcher
Payload Mass (launch configuration): 195 tons
Price: 512,235
Total launch mass incl. VeHeReLau III: 1181 tons
Total price: 849,469
This integrated Miner/Freighter/Refinery system enables you to refuel even the largest ships in Kerbin orbit with ore brought back from the Mun.
This can greatly reduce the launch mass and cost of huge interplanetary stacks like Maia and Pannychis.
Launch them without propellant load and then refuel in low orbit after docking with the Orbital Refinery component.
As a bonus, crew compartments on the two Ore Freighters allow tourists to hitch a ride to the surface of the Mun and back in regular intervals.
Leviathan Mk.2 Heavy Miner concentrates all the gear necessary to land on the Mun and extract the ore. This optimizes the range of the docked Freighter. High powered engines keep the burn times during Mun transfer and Mun ascent low.
Leviathan Mk.2
Heavy Miner
- 2x Nerva + 2x Dart
- Crew capacity: 2 (internal)
- Cargo capacity: 650 L + 2x 40 L
- Ore capacity: 75
- ISRU: 8x ‘Drill-O-Matic’, 1x Convert-O-Tron 250, Narrow Band Scanner
- Science: 6x science experiments, 3 Experiment Storage
- Docking: 2x Clamp-O-Tron Sr. docking ports, RCS
Mun landing
docked with empty Freighter; 2300 liquid fuel left; no ore, no oxidizer;
Mass: 84.4 tons
Delta-v: 1150 m/s
TWR: 2.62 at the Mun (running 6x Nerva only)
Mun take off
docked with full Freighter; 120 tons of ore, 100% liquid fuel and oxidizer
Mass: 261 tons
Delta-v: 646 m/s
TWR: 1.69 at the Mun (with additional 2x Dart for 220 seconds)
Leviathan Mk.3 Ore Freighter can ferry 120 tons of ore and 6 crew between the Mun and Kerbin. Two are provided to minimize downtime of the Miner.
Leviathan Mk.3
Ore Freighter
- 4x Nerva
- Dry mass: 37.4 tons
- Crew capacity: 4 (internal) + 2 (external)
- Cargo capacity: 2x 650L + 2x 100 L
- Ore capacity: 12,000
- Science: 3 Experiment Storage
- Docking: 1x Clamp-O-Tron, 2x Sr., 1x Jr. docking ports, RCS
Mun orbit departure
fully loaded with 120 tons of ore and 60% liquid fuel
Mass: 178 tons
Delta-v: 978 m/s
TWR: 0.83 at the Mun
Kerbin orbit departure
no ore, 1100 liquid fuel left
Mass: 42 tons
Delta-v: 1070 m/s
TWR: 0.57 at Kerbin
Behemoth Orbital Refinery serves as the gas station on the Kerbin side. It stores up to 180 tons of ore and provides ISRU and lots of docking options.
Behemoth
Orbital Refinery
- 2x Dart
- Dry mass: 37.2 tons
- Crew capacity: 2 (internal)
- Cargo capacity: 650 L + 100 L
- Ore capacity: 18,000
- ISRU: 1x Convert-O-Tron 250
- Science: 3 Experiment Storage
- Docking: 2x Clamp-O-Tron, 2x Sr., 2x Jr. docking ports, Adv. Grabbing Unit, RCS
Kerbin orbit
without Launcher,
fully loaded with 180 tons of ore,
100% liquid fuel and oxidizer
Mass: 228 tons
Delta-v: 164 m/s
TWR: 0.16 at Kerbin
The Very Heavy Reusable Launcher III can be left attached to the refinery to serve as additional fuel depot. Or it can be recovered back at KSC.
VeHeReLau III
Reusable Launcher
- 3x Mammoth, 2x Thoroughbred
- Mass: 986t
- Parts: 150
- Price: 337,234
- Recovery value: ~235,000 (at 100%)
- Liquid fuel: 62k
- Oxidizer: 76k
- Docking: 1x Clamp-O-Tron, 1x Sr., 2x Jr. docking ports, RCS
Kerbin launch
with 195 tons of payload
Delta-v: enough to put payload into 150x150 km Kerbin orbit and return to KSC
TWR: 1.23 at sea level
Operational Concept
Launch preparation
- Root part is the Clamp-O-Tron Sr. on top of the stack.
- Recommended crew: 1 engineer (Refinery), 1 engineer + 1 scientist (Miner), up to 8 tourists (internal seats in Freighters)
- Launch config for Mun mission: no ore; Refinery empty; Miner fully tanked; 2400 liquid fuel in Alpha Freighter; Beta Freighter (top of stack) empty;
- This configuration weights in at 195 tons and is the preset for the craft file.
- There is ample free cargo space if you want to bring along surface science experiments etc.
- This version comes already integrated with a Very Heavy Reusable Launcher modified with RCS and docking ports.
- It is assumed that you have established Relay coverage around the Mun. Otherwise bring a ‘Phaethon’ Relay Carrier with you at the top of the stack.
Kerbin orbit insertion
- Take off from VAB.
- Start gentle gravity turn at 1500 meters altitude.
- At booster separation, you should be pointed at 45° above horizon and have prograde SAS on.
- Insert whole stack into 150x150 km Kerbin orbit.
- Detach rest of stack from Behemoth Orbital Refinery; one engineer stays with Refinery.
- Keep Launcher attached to Refinery to serve as additional fuel storage (62k LF and 76k OX).
- If you want to recover Launcher at KSC, see reentry procedure in VeHeReLau description.
Mun transfer
- The stack consisting of the Miner and Alpha and Beta Freighters transfers to the Mun.
- Make sure 4x Nerva of Beta Freighter (top of stack) are shut down.
- Transfer to the Mun using 2x Dart + 6x Nerva of Leviathan Miner and Alpha Freighter.
- Insert into 15x15 km equatorial Mun orbit using 2x Dart + 6x Nerva.
- Detach and park empty Beta Freighter in low Mun orbit.
Mun ore mining
- Land Miner and docked Alpha Freighter on 6x Nerva with remaining ~3000 liquid fuel (~ 1450 m/s left). Flat terrain on day side is preferred.
- Start mining: [0] Toggle solar and thermal, [9] toggle drills, start ISRU LF+OX, [5] toggle fuel cells, [6] toggle harvesting.
- If electricity usage allows, also start ISRU LqdFuel at same time.
- Completely fill up Miner and Freighter with ore, liquid fuel, oxidizer and monopropellant.
- Filling up Leviathan will take a 5* engineer between 2 and 5 hours depending on ore concentration
- Use the Fuel Cells [5] if you have a high level engineer on board. Make sure to have some LF+OX production in the ISRU if you do so.
- Manage electricity usage by stopping individual drills.
- Stop mining: Stop ISRU, [6] toggle harvesting, [5] toggle fuel cells, [9] toggle drills, [0] Toggle solar and thermal
Mun ascend
- Wait until Beta Freighter is about 4 minutes from passing straight overhead.
- Take off using 6x Nervas and 2x Dart of the Miner for additional thrust for 220 seconds.
- Enter low Mun orbit using 6x Nerva and ~ 40% LF from Alpha Freighter.
- Undock Alpha Freighter. Engineer and Scientist stay with Miner.
- Miner should have ~2200 LF left, oxidizer empty. This should leave about 1200 m/s after docking with empty Beta Freighter.
Rendezvous with other Freighter and repeat
- Dock Miner with Beta Freighter in low Mun orbit.
- Make sure alignment is correct - white lightbar on Nerva of Miner should be opposite of yellow lightbar on Miner.
- Land complete Leviathan on Mun again with the remaining liquid fuel in Miner.
- Repeat mining cycle and send Beta Freighter to Kerbin when full.
Return Ore Freighter to Kerbin
- Transfer ore/science/tourists with Alpha Freighter from Mun to Kerbin.
- Use aerobraking to save fuel.
- Set initial Kerbin periapsis to 51 km when leaving the Mun.
You will burn up parts if initial periapsis is below 50 km.
First aerobrake pass: deploy air brakes, leave solar and radiators deployed to increase drag.
Engage SAS retrograde assist.
Start burn on 4x Nerva from ~80 km altitude to periapsis back to ~80 km.
This should bring down your apoapsis to about 1,5 Mm and orbit time to about 45 minutes.
Plane correction: target Behemoth refinery; do maneuver at ascending node to get 0° inclination after first aerobrake pass.
Do second aerobrake pass without burn.
Do third aerobrake pass without burn.
Set maneuver at periapsis and figure out how much more you need to brake to encounter Behemoth Refinery.
Manage drag during fourth aerobrake pass to execute the maneuver without burning much.
Increase periapsis to be above atmosphere after apoapsis is low enough.
Rendezvous Freighter with Refinery
- Rendevouz and dock Freighter with Behemoth in low Kerbin orbit.
- Transfer all the ore and none of the liquid fuel to Behemoth.
- Transfer tourists and science back to surface (e.g. using a Sleipnir SSTO).
- Rendezvous and dock Behemoth with target to be refueled.
Return Freighter to Mun and repeat
- Top up monopropellant in Freighter.
- Tank Freighter with ~ 1100 LF; this should give you ~ 1070 m/s in the empty Freighter.
- Return with empty Freighter to Mun immediately, rendezvous and dock with Miner, repeat mining cycle.
- Round trip time of one Freighter from Mun surface to Kerbin and back is about 5 days incl. mining with 5* engineer.
