LV-N series Liquid Fuel Nuclear Engines *update*

[Warringer]

I hereby present the hopefully final version of the LV-N10 Liquid Fuel Nuclear Engine. I tweaked it a little from the first version in the 'Part Modeling' forum.

I do wonder where Jeb managed to acquire the nuclear material needed for the engine...

Pros:

It has a higher thrust then the liquid engine

It has a higher temperature tolerance

It needs lesser fuel

Cons:

Its a princess and likes to messily explode

Its runs rather hot and overheats easily

It weight twice as much as the normal liquid engine

It can't be turned off completely. Due to engine design there has to be fuel flowing through it to cool it down.

UPDATE:

Please note the new release of BOTH Nuclear Engines that I designed.

http://www./?42v880etni8cqtv

[cd7890]

nice,though unreliable at high gross weight

[Warringer]

There has to be a downside other then the easy exploding due to shock or overheating.

Its just that I increased the weight before I actually looked at the weight of everything else. :-[

Maybe the weight could be reduced to 50 percent more then the liquid engine.

[Williamca]

These 'appear' to have broken with the update. May want to check and get a fix on them when you can if possible.

Seems to have something to do with the 'Symmetrical' system. Might be something only devs can fix. Parts default. Center parts seem to still work as a reactor but everything else even if chosen as single is defaulted. ;p

[Warringer]

These 'appear' to have broken with the update. May want to check and get a fix on them when you can if possible.

Seems to have something to do with the 'Symmetrical' system. Might be something only devs can fix. Parts default. Center parts seem to still work as a reactor but everything else even if chosen as single is defaulted. ;p

As far as I can see there is no broken stuff in the 0.8.2 hotfix version.

Having a nuclear engine is a neat idea, but rather than making it both higher-thrust and higher-fuel-efficiency than the standard liquid engine, I would rather it be lower-thrust and higher-efficiency (e.g. half the thrust but four times the efficiency), reflecting how nuclear-thermal rockets work in our world. That would mean that you would need boosters to lift off, but you would gain the high fuel efficiency for your core stage.

True. I changed the engine design accordingly, but also just slightly reduced the weight. There is heavy nuclear material in the engine after all.

[Warringer]

On a sugestion I designed an advanced model Nuclear Engine.

Its gets even lower thrust then the N10, but can be restarted and is of a lighter construction. Perfect for orbital use.

[ijuin]

Sounds handy. I'm going to try it out.

[mithril]

for those that are curious, this engine, in our world, was probably called NERVA, if warringer's comments are any indication. thrust better than a Saturn V engine, way better specific impulse...but had some issues with cooling.

[Victor]

for those that are curious, this engine, in our world, was probably called NERVA, if warringer's comments are any indication. thrust better than a Saturn V engine, way better specific impulse...but had some issues with cooling.

Then probably KERVA on Kearth

[bzflater]

for those that are curious, this engine, in our world, was probably called NERVA, if warringer's comments are any indication. thrust better than a Saturn V engine, way better specific impulse...but had some issues with cooling.

Nope. NERVA is something far cooler. It ejects nuclear bombs behind you and detonates them to push you forward. This engine is a simple thermal nuclear engine, which isn't nearly as awesome...

[cjameshuff]

Nope. NERVA is something far cooler. It ejects nuclear bombs behind you and detonates them to push you forward. This engine is a simple thermal nuclear engine, which isn't nearly as awesome...

That was Orion. NERVA was a simple solid-core NTR.

[Sunday Punch]

Nope. NERVA is something far cooler. It ejects nuclear bombs behind you and detonates them to push you forward. This engine is a simple thermal nuclear engine, which isn't nearly as awesome...

That's Orion you're thinking of, not NERVA.

NERVA:

Orion:

[bzflater]

That's Orion you're thinking of, not NERVA.

NERVA:

Orion:

Meh, I messed up names. I thought that Orion's engine was called NERVA.

[dapyeatt]

Super cool... and lots of fun. Jebediah happily zooms into the ground into a giant nuclear cloud.

[vanlock]

Which is latest's version? The one in the first post, or in your last post?

[Warringer]

Maybe I should add the latest versions of the Nuclear Engines to the first post...

[vanlock]

Maybe I should add the latest versions of the Nuclear Engines to the first post...

Thanks for the updated post

[Heimdall]

i hope the dev will implement varied sizes for explosions, it could go from :

- small (what we have now in effects) : explosion made by rocket engines, empty to half-empty small fuel tanks, empty boosters and empty big fuel tanks.

- 3x more powerful (but same visual effects) : half empty to full small fuel tanks and boosters.

- 6 to 8x more powerful (again, same visual effects) : half-empty to full 'big' fuel tanks.

and finally :

- nuclear engines : if they suffer explosion from overheating or by being damaged by a nearby explosion (also by lithobraking ? might be overkill), first is a short but bright flash, followed in atmosphere by a HUGE expanding mushroom cloud, and out atmosphere (30-40km) by an expanding and fading sphere of white-to-pale-blue plasma.

but yeah, one can dream... ;D

[Sunday Punch]

i hope the dev will implement varied sizes for explosions, it could go from :

- small (what we have now in effects) : explosion made by rocket engines, empty to half-empty small fuel tanks, empty boosters and empty big fuel tanks.

- 3x more powerful (but same visual effects) : half empty to full small fuel tanks and boosters.

- 6 to 8x more powerful (again, same visual effects) : half-empty to full 'big' fuel tanks.

and finally :

- nuclear engines : if they suffer explosion from overheating or by being damaged by a nearby explosion (also by lithobraking ? might be overkill), first is a short but bright flash, followed in atmosphere by a HUGE expanding mushroom cloud, and out atmosphere (30-40km) by an expanding and fading sphere of white-to-pale-blue plasma.

but yeah, one can dream... ;D

Sorry to burst your bubble, but an exploding nuclear engine doesn't blow up like an atom bomb. It blows up like a highly pressurised vessel full of hot hydrogen, which is exactly what it is. It would certainly release a massive amount of deadly radiation though. Here's Kiwi TNT, a destructive test of a NTR engine that shows what happens when you overheat the reactor:

Those glowing particles are fragments of the pressure vessel and uranium fuel elements.

[cjameshuff]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but an exploding nuclear engine doesn't blow up like an atom bomb. It blows up like a highly pressurised vessel full of hot hydrogen, which is exactly what it is. It would certainly release a massive amount of deadly radiation though. Here's Kiwi TNT, a destructive test of a NTR engine that shows what happens when you overheat the reactor:

One notable detail is that the blast was very similar to that of black powder, a relatively slow spike in pressure leading to an explosion rather than the rapid detonation of high explosives like TNT. And this is after they modified the reactor to allow them to increase the power more rapidly.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/lib-www/la-pubs/00424689.pdf

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/radiation/dir/mstreet/commeet/meet6/brief6/tab_l/br6l1k.txt

A point worthy of emphasis is that to achieve a reactivity insertion rate sufficient to vaporize a significant fraction of the core, the control rod mechanisms were modified to rotate at approximately 100 times the normal rate.

[Heimdall]

ah damn, so long for the big boom...

[Ramrod]

For nuclear explosions, the engine you want is Project Orion, which has already been suggested in its own thread somewhere.

Anywaym Warringer, thanks for this part. I've used it as one of the later stages on almost every rocket I've built since downloading it.

[Aiyel]

For nuclear explosions, the engine you want is Project Orion, which has already been suggested in its own thread somewhere.

Anywaym Warringer, thanks for this part. I've used it as one of the later stages on almost every rocket I've built since downloading it.

Negative, we don't want something as clunky as Orion. We want a nuclear salt-water rocket. Similar concept of 'propelled by nuclear detonation' but aq high-end NSWR is propelled by a continuous, focused nuclear detonation.

[Heimdall]

Negative, we don't want something as clunky as Orion. We want a nuclear salt-water rocket. Similar concept of 'propelled by nuclear detonation' but aq high-end NSWR is propelled by a continuous, focused nuclear detonation.

oh come on, at least 200,000 tons of payload on one ship, with speed up to 0.1c and riding on nuclear blast ? Orion concept is fucking awesome.

NSWR is cool through, along with Project Daedalus.

[Damonjay]

just checking so i can add this to the list of Addon\'s on the wiki. does this work with 11.1?

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/~kerbalsp/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_addons#Addon_Packs