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Cooling NV-Rs


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I have a orbital tug that I use for transferring cargo around. The tug has four NV-Rs. Typically, these NV-Rs burn for long durations. These durations are now limited due to thermal effects. What is the most effective way to cool NV-Rs so that they can burn continuously? I have tried adding structural panels as radiators, but this doesn't seem to be effective. The fuel tanks that the NV-Rs are mounted to seem to blow up just as quickly.

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This is something I don't get. What is the benefit of having some play mechanic that doesn't depend on anything the player is doing and forces to add parts 100% of the time. I mean, if it's tied to some design decision on the part of the player, then fine, but if you end up having to do this 100% of time under all circumstances... it's simply annoying and doesn't add anything to gameplay. Why don't you just add some weight to the engine and pretend it comes with radiators built in?

It reminds me of the day we had to stitch the mainsails to their tanks.

/rant off :)

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Add some wing parts. They have a large surface area which helps radiate heat away. What you see below is probably overkill, but should hopefully give you a place to start. A few C Wings around the engine should help immensely. Also, larger tanks are wonderful heat sinks.

2vEzsrg.png

It reminds me of the day we had to stitch the mainsails to their tanks.
I can't really agree with this sentiment. Heating is an important consideration in spaceflight and this is a very welcome game mechanic.
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Yes of course, but, is there any scenario where you wouldn't need radiators on nuclear engines? If there isn't, besides using engines to thrust for very short periods of time, then it is an unnecessary burden that doesn't really add anything, in my POV at least. You will always attach engine, attach radiator, automatically.

Besides, where's the grumpy regex we all know!? :D

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Besides, where's the grumpy regex we all know!? :D
Squad finally released an update worthy of KSP. ;)

Also, there is a suggestion thread for dedicated radiator parts, please up it. Even I think we need them. In the meantime, I am having a blast with the new mechanic.

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Add some wing parts. They have a large surface area which helps radiate heat away. What you see below is probably overkill, but should hopefully give you a place to start. A few C Wings around the engine should help immensely. Also, larger tanks are wonderful heat sinks.

http://i.imgur.com/2vEzsrg.png

I can't really agree with this sentiment. Heating is an important consideration in spaceflight and this is a very welcome game mechanic.

Question, what will happen to that thing when/if aerobreaking at Jool or Eve? Or at Kerbin, after a successful Jool mission?
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I've spent most of today just testing the use of fuel as a coolant. It doesn't work fully. For instance, you cannot cycle fuel around easily and when you transfer fuel from one place to another, the fuel does not take any heat with it. I have found that keeping Oxident in the bottom of the fuel stacks does soak heat away from the engine better.

I think adding fuel cycling through fuel lines and heat within fuel should be added. Fuel is used to control temperature in reality, both in aircraft and rockets.

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Question, what will happen to that thing when/if aerobreaking at Jool or Eve? Or at Kerbin, after a successful Jool mission?
Why would I aerocapture a nuclear tug without proper heat-shielding? It has more than enough fuel to do the job I want it to without risking an atmosphere.
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Yes of course, but, is there any scenario where you wouldn't need radiators on nuclear engines? If there isn't, besides using engines to thrust for very short periods of time, then it is an unnecessary burden that doesn't really add anything, in my POV at least. You will always attach engine, attach radiator, automatically

I agree completely. This new wrinkle is a bad idea. If during prototype testing the engineers noticed the engines routinely overheated when operating as intended (high power for long periods of time), then they would have built the production models with integral radiators so they wouldn't overheat. Net result, the engine works without any further ado to the player. So forcing the player to add radiators of any kind (expedient or later stock/mod parts) is just a complete waste of everybody's time.

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I agree completely. This new wrinkle is a bad idea. If during prototype testing the engineers noticed the engines routinely overheated when operating as intended (high power for long periods of time), then they would have built the production models with integral radiators so they wouldn't overheat.
The best part is that even if you reduce the LV-N's heat production to 100 (from the 240 it has now) you still end up needing to radiate some heat away.
Net result, the engine works without any further ado to the player. So forcing the player to add radiators of any kind (expedient or later stock/mod parts) is just a complete waste of everybody's time.
:D :D :D

This update is literally the best thing to happen to KSP in a very long time.

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I agree completely. This new wrinkle is a bad idea. If during prototype testing the engineers noticed the engines routinely overheated when operating as intended (high power for long periods of time), then they would have built the production models with integral radiators so they wouldn't overheat. Net result, the engine works without any further ado to the player. So forcing the player to add radiators of any kind (expedient or later stock/mod parts) is just a complete waste of everybody's time.

Hell, why not just include an integral fuel tank too. Nobody uses an engine without fuel after all -- it is just a complete waste of everybody's time.

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This update is literally the best thing to happen to KSP in a very long time.

Oh, I agree. I'm amazed, awed, and astounded by the vast bulk of the vast bulk of the stuff in it. Yay Squad! But this item is still a bad idea. There's no gameplay point in it at all. Assume there's no overheating at all; the result is that the player gets to fly his rocket without worrying about it. OK, so add overheating, which requires the player add some other part(s) to counter it. But he will, and the result will be the player gets to fly his rocket without worrying about overheating at all. Only now the rocket has a few more parts and weighs a bit more. So why even bother? It's just a trap for the unwary, which is not good game design. A better solution would be to just make the engine weigh a bit more to account for the radiators. You'd get the same result--a heavier rocket being flown without concern about overheating--but it would have fewer parts (a good thing) and wouldn't be a trap (also a good thing).

Also, introducing overheating to numerous rather significant parts without providing a radiator is a critical oversight. Resource mining, yay! But it requires drills and they overheat, and there's no radiator. LV-Ns, which pretty much everybody's interplanetary empire relies on, now can't do their intended jobs because there's no radiator.

And on top of this, we can still mount "tractor" engines whose exhaust flames lick the sides of the rocket with no ill effects, the massive radiant heat flux that the tongue of fire would cause being totally ignored. If Squad wants to get real with heat, that's the place to start, not with overheating operating parts.

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Oh, I agree. I'm amazed, awed, and astounded by the vast bulk of the vast bulk of the stuff in it. Yay Squad! But this item is still a bad idea. There's no gameplay point in it at all. Assume there's no overheating at all; the result is that the player gets to fly his rocket without worrying about it. OK, so add overheating, which requires the player add some other part(s) to counter it. But he will, and the result will be the player gets to fly his rocket without worrying about overheating at all. Only now the rocket has a few more parts and weighs a bit more. So why even bother? It's just a trap for the unwary, which is not good game design. A better solution would be to just make the engine weigh a bit more to account for the radiators. You'd get the same result--a heavier rocket being flown without concern about overheating--but it would have fewer parts (a good thing) and wouldn't be a trap (also a good thing).

Also, introducing overheating to numerous rather significant parts without providing a radiator is a critical oversight. Resource mining, yay! But it requires drills and they overheat, and there's no radiator. LV-Ns, which pretty much everybody's interplanetary empire relies on, now can't do their intended jobs because there's no radiator.

And on top of this, we can still mount "tractor" engines whose exhaust flames lick the sides of the rocket with no ill effects, the massive radiant heat flux that the tongue of fire would cause being totally ignored. If Squad wants to get real with heat, that's the place to start, not with overheating operating parts.

I think Squad wanted to find a way to nerf the nuclear engines, since the chemical rockets got their isp reduced. So by overheating, it means they can't be used at 100%, which means they have a disadvantage against chemical rockets.

But it still sounds like a poor choice.

Also, on the matter of radiators, what kind of parts are you guys thinking? I think Interstellar using heatsink type of parts. But while I guess they are effective, wouldn't a circulating fluid work better in space?

Why would I aerocapture a nuclear tug without proper heat-shielding? It has more than enough fuel to do the job I want it to without risking an atmosphere.
To save on fuel of course. But it's an honest question. So far, most of my transfer stages had radially mounted nuclear engines and, should I use a 3.5m tank, there isn't a heat shield large enough to cover them, so I'm thinking in either using tweakscale on the heatshield (once it's updated) or, even funnier, push them inside or outside with infernal robotics.

But I'll cross that bridge when I have to. At this point, I'm pretty much relearning the game.

Edited by juanml82
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the Near Future Eletrical mod pack has an absolutely berserk level of radiators.

Whether they actually work with LV-Ns or not, I cant say, I've been frustrated at my existing career not being functional and have no real desire to make a new career and start fresh again.

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the Near Future Eletrical mod pack has an absolutely berserk level of radiators.

Whether they actually work with LV-Ns or not, I cant say (...)

Currently they don't. After updating to 1.0 they will - passively at minimum, maybe even actively.

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Add some wing parts. They have a large surface area which helps radiate heat away. What you see below is probably overkill, but should hopefully give you a place to start. A few C Wings around the engine should help immensely. Also, larger tanks are wonderful heat sinks.

http://i.imgur.com/2vEzsrg.png

I can't really agree with this sentiment. Heating is an important consideration in spaceflight and this is a very welcome game mechanic.

Would the structural panels also work?

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