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[1.12.x] Cryogenic Engines: Liquid Hydrogen and Methane Rockets! (Jan 22, 2022)


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On 1/22/2021 at 2:14 PM, amarius1 said:

Hi, the stock tanks don't seem to have the option to switch fuels, what happened?

I'm using CryoEngines 1.2.1 with CryoTanks 1.5.6 in KSP 1.11.0 Win x64 without problems.  Fuel switch is working in Stock (well, ReStock), Fuel Tanks Plus, Home Grown Rockets, and Near Future Launch Vehicle tanks, with the exception of some specialized multi-mission, monoprop, or electric thruster tanks, as expected.

1 hour ago, Saul Retav said:

I have an issue where boil off is happening despite plenty of EC, probably only in timewarp. I've noticed two different ships now where cooling is enabled and they have plenty of EC and solar panels, but after timewarping several days, lots of fuel boil off happens.

I'm not seeing it.  I tried a craft powered by RTGs, to take orbital darkness times out of the equation, and didn't see any boil off, at any warp level.  I know sometimes depletion calculations for various attributes may not always scale properly during  time warp, so I usually do a quick Alt-F12 cheat to orbit and revert, to verify my darkness time calculations vs power draw and EC on-hand.

If you haven't already, download the latest version of Cryo Engines, then delete all previous versions of that folder and all associated dependencies in GameData (ex., CryoTanks, Deployable Engines, Dyanamic Battery Storage, etc..), then re-install them all fresh.  Nertea's usually pretty good about updating a dependency in a pack when making updates to that dependency.  An older version of a dependency may be tripping things up.  If you're using craft from a previous, older KSP version save game, try it out with a brand new vessel.

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1 minute ago, AtomicRocketBooster said:

Hello all - what mods are you all using for ISRU for this? I have grand plans to build a hopper that converts hydrates or water from the CRP into LH2, but am realizing that none of my drill/converter mods seem to do the things I need. 

You’ll want to check out Rational Resources. It does exactly that and more besides

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  • 2 weeks later...

I feel incredibly dumb.

Can someone ELI5 what the difference between these engines are and regular Liquid Fuel + Oxidizer engines are?  

I feel incredibly dumb.

Can someone ELI5 what the difference between these engines are and regular Liquid Fuel + Oxidizer engines are?  

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Just now, Mr Betelgeuse said:

I feel incredibly dumb.

Can someone ELI5 what the difference between these engines are and regular Liquid Fuel + Oxidizer engines are?  

1) LH2O engines are more efficient, but usually have a bit less thrust  than regular LFO ones, so they are great for vacuum use.

2) Hydrogen is a less dense fuel, so you need bigger tanks to contain the same amount of fuel mass

3) Hydrogen evaporates slowly overtime, unless it is in a fuel tank with the "CryoTank" module, which allows you to prevent it from boiling off at the cost of electricity.  The bigger CryoTanks need a lot of electricity for this.

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1 minute ago, Apelsin said:

1) LH2O engines are more efficient, but usually have a bit less thrust  than regular LFO ones, so they are great for vacuum use.

2) Hydrogen is a less dense fuel, so you need bigger tanks to contain the same amount of fuel mass

3) Hydrogen evaporates slowly overtime, unless it is in a fuel tank with the "CryoTank" module, which allows you to prevent it from boiling off at the cost of electricity.  The bigger CryoTanks need a lot of electricity for this.

Okay, so the layman's term for these engines is that you should ideally use them in vacuums? And Liquid fuel for launches? 

And how does the Hydrogen evaporate slowly?  Do you use radiators to also help prevent this, or do you need cryotanks? 

I guess my biggest question really is when should I use these engines? I just installed the mod into my career save, and I'm a tad overwhelmed with all the new parts. I should have started a new save to ease myself into the new parts, but oh well, I'm not too far into the save so I don't think it's that rough. I'm just trying my best to understand when I use these. 

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2 hours ago, Mr Betelgeuse said:

Okay, so the layman's term for these engines is that you should ideally use them in vacuums? And Liquid fuel for launches? 

More or less. LH2 engines make for good upper stages, and LF makes for good launch stages.

 

2 hours ago, Mr Betelgeuse said:

And how does the Hydrogen evaporate slowly?  Do you use radiators to also help prevent this, or do you need cryotanks? 

Normally the resource amount just slowly decreases. Every LH2 tank can cool itself using EC is you enable the coolers, and the cryogenic tanks cost less power to cool LH2 than normal tanks.

 

2 hours ago, Mr Betelgeuse said:

I guess my biggest question really is when should I use these engines?

What I like to do is design stages of my rocket using different engines and fuels and compare their statistics. Whatever best fits my needs gets used. But you can use the lower stage LF and upper stage LH2 as a nice general rule. 

Edited by TBenz
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15 hours ago, TBenz said:

More or less. LH2 engines make for good upper stages, and LF makes for good launch stages.

 

Normally the resource amount just slowly decreases. Every LH2 tank can cool itself using EC is you enable the coolers, and the cryogenic tanks cost less power to cool LH2 than normal tanks.

 

What I like to do is design stages of my rocket using different engines and fuels and compare their statistics. Whatever best fits my needs gets used. But you can use the lower stage LF and upper stage LH2 as a nice general rule. 

Thank you so much for this. This actually has solved years of me not understanding what these engines are supposed to be.

Last question, but does this mean I need to get the CryoTanks mod from Nerta as well? 

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Im having a weird bug while running the Cryo Engine Restock extra.  The Skiff (not sure if others are affected) seems to be producing the blue exhaust effect even when the engine has no throttle and not even activated.  I am on KSP 1.11

0c6nD9Z.png

Edited by KSPNoob
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On 2/11/2021 at 8:29 PM, KSPNoob said:

Im having a weird bug while running the Cryo Engine Restock extra.  The Skiff (not sure if others are affected) seems to be producing the blue exhaust effect even when the engine has no throttle and not even activated.  I am on KSP 1.11

0c6nD9Z.png

I used to have this problem, too. It was connected with double Real Plume configs. IIRC, solution was to delete one of the configs.

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38 minutes ago, Darkherring said:

I used to have this problem, too. It was connected with double Real Plume configs. IIRC, solution was to delete one of the configs.

I'm not running real plume, at least I don't see it in my folder.  Only engine effect mod I have is Smokescreen and Nerteas Waterfall mod.

Edited by KSPNoob
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On 1/29/2021 at 12:23 AM, Saul Retav said:

I have an issue where boil off is happening despite plenty of EC, probably only in timewarp. I've noticed two different ships now where cooling is enabled and they have plenty of EC and solar panels, but after timewarping several days, lots of fuel boil off happens. :(

Do you have enough energy capacity for when you're traveling through the shadow side of a planet?

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Hi there, Great mod!
 

I was wondering if there is a patch in this mod that allows convert-O-Trons to make the fuel types required for the cryogenic tanks or should I write my own?
 

If there isn’t, should I try to make one, or Perhaps a mod called “Rational Resources” can help by adding production chain is for things like LH2

 

:)

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2 hours ago, MatkesHulk said:

Hi there, Great mod!
 

I was wondering if there is a patch in this mod that allows convert-O-Trons to make the fuel types required for the cryogenic tanks or should I write my own?
 

If there isn’t, should I try to make one, or Perhaps a mod called “Rational Resources” can help by adding production chain is for things like LH2

 

:)

I believe this mod already adds its resources to isru

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5 hours ago, Souptime said:

im contemplating wether to wait for the update or try the dev branch...

Go for the dev branch now and play with the engines. You can go to the release once its released.

Just know that it is not entirely finished and there may be bugs that aren't in the final release.

Make sure you get the Waterfall dev branch as well for extra pretty Plümes

and update CryoTanks

Edited by Spaceman.Spiff
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Today, I release CryoEngines 2.0.0.

HMEmy2z.png

This adds, in a nutshell, a second, less cryogenic fuel to the mod - Liquid Methane - and 10 new engines to make use of it. LCH4 is less dense and less awkward to work with than LH2 but doesn't quite have the efficiencies. It's a good middle of the road. 

More Screenshots

 

Specific changelog: 

  • Updated DeployableEngines to 1.3.0
  • Updated CryoTanks to 1.6.0
  • Updated DynamicBatteryStorage to 2.2.2
  • Updated Waterfall configurations to use new templates from Waterfall 0.5.0+
  • Increased entryCost of Pavonis from 4560 to 12600
  • Added new lineup of methalox engines
    • MR-1 'Compsognathus' Liquid Rocket Engine: 0.625m booster engine (boattail, 0.625m, compact variants)
    • MU-018 'Hawk' Liquid Rocket Engine: 0.625m entry-level vacuum engine (0.625m, compact variants)
    • MR-420 'Deinonychus' Liquid Rocket Engine: 1.25m powerful booster engine (boattail, 1.25m, compact variants)
    • MU-10 'Buzzard' Liquid Rocket Engine: 1.25m average vacuum engine (1.25m, compact variants)
    • MR-4 'Iguanodon' Liquid Rocket Engine: 1.875m workhorse booster engine (boattail, 1.875m, compact variants)
    • MU-11 'Harrier' Liquid Rocket Engine: 1.875m versatile vacuum engine with cool verniers (1.875m, compact variants)
    • MR-8 'Allosaur' Liquid Rocket Engine: 2.5m booster engine (boattail, 2.5m, compact variants)
    • MU-421 'Eagle' Liquid Rocket Engine: 2.5m overthrusted vacuum engine (2.5m, compact variants)
    • MR-420-9 'Tyrannosaur' Liquid Rocket Engine Cluster: 3.75m engine cluster made of 9 deinonychii (finned, bare variants)
    • MU-4U 'Vulture' Liquid Rocket Engine: 3.75m vacuum engine with massive deployable nozzle (3.75m, compact variants)
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