General Question Space Station Construction

[Relayer91]

Firstly, hello to you all - first post here!

Been flying Orbiter for about a couple of months or so and I've gotten through a fair bit of stuff, mostly flying the DGIV and learning how to navigate etc. Anyway, I'm now confident in using the DGIV along with some of the XR series and I'm thinking it's time for something more of a challenge.

I've thus designed a modular space station, in the same vein as Mir-2 (actually, it uses a couple of components from Mir-2, along with a bunch of stuff from Mustard's site)
The station design at the moment consists of:
1x Mir-2 Core module
1x Mir-2 Titan service module
2x Solaris modules
1x Esanode module
1x Eranda module
1x Esalab module
1x Neesys module
1x Cupola module

Now, here comes the questiony bit - and there are a couple:

1. What would be the best orbit perameters for the station? As in altitude, equatorial inc etc - it would need to be easy to get to, both for launching other components and for docking craft.

2. I have to get this all up there somehow! So, I need advice on launch systems and essentially how to go about building it.
At the moment, I'm really liking the Energia launcher, mostly because it has the fantastic Buran-T payload carrier, and an awesome autopilot. However, I'm open to all suggestions, and I'd like to keep things fairly realistic - so no XR5's or anything.
Furthermore, I'd like to keep it 'cost effective', essentially, not using a massive Energia for a tiny little module like the Esanode. So, perhaps something smaller there, be it a shuttle, or a Soyuz launcher.

So essentially I have to devise a series of missions to launch and build all this - and since you all will probably know a bit more about it than I do, I'd love to hear what you can come up with.

 

[Shadow Addict]

As far as altitude goes, I would say 300-400 km. Inclination should be low so launches are less costly.

The system I plan to use right now is the Ariane 5 for launches up to 20t, Energia for launches up to around 100, and either the Ariane 6 or Saturn V for stuff larger than that (I haven't decided yet). It'd be nice if I had a ~50t launcher to close the gap, but I don't know of any.

 

[Sky Captain]

My solution would be to cram everything atop a single big rocket and launch in one go.

 

[garyw]

My solution would be to cram everything atop a single big rocket and launch in one go.

And lose everything if that rocket fails?

 

[Sky Captain]

And lose everything if that rocket fails?

Still one big launch is more likely to succeed than multiple small launches. For example when assembling a Mars mission in many small launches there would be much bigger chance of launch failure and loosing a mission critical component that can`t be quickly rebuilt and would jeopardize the whole mission as a result.
Also a large rocket allows much more freedom to mission designers because payloads are less limited by fairing diameter and weak lift capacity.

 

[T.Neo]

Use a large rocket, but not an insanely large one. Mass produce mission and launcher components so that one loss is minimal.

This affords you larger module space, fewer launches and a less complex assembly sequence.

But yeah, one launch on a single huge rocket would be awesome in Orbiter.

 

[Relayer91]

Due to a total HDD failure I lost everything and I've only just got back to this project. I've redesigned the station, but I've hit a problem, and I'm really needing some help.
Essentially, I can fly winged craft (including the shuttle) and dock with just about anything, but rockets seem to present more of a challenge.
I have no idea how to go about launching a rocket with that kind of precision.
What I need to be able to do is do a direct ascent to within probably 10km of the core module, and be able to cancel out all my relative velocity with the attitude MFD. I already have a Tranzit tug up there docked to the core, so I can use that to go and pick up the payload once it's closeby and 'stable'
Any help with this? Cheers

 

[atuhalpa]

Launch from Kourou if possible, install and learn to use "Launch MFD" as it is indispensible for rocket launches. If your alignment is off more than 1 degree align the orbits using "Align Plane" MFD, then sync the orbit so you have a relatively low velocity difference as that takes a lot of the headaches out of the rendezvous. It takes longer with the relatively low closure velocity, but it is easier in the long run and more realistic.