fuel cell powered lab.

[omelaw]

I think I can to that, but is it practical?

i need to send an engenner and self sustain mining rig or send a lab next to it.

or 4 rtgs are cheaper?

[Dfthu]

16 minutes ago, omelaw said:

I think I can to that, but is it practical?

i need to send an engenner and self sustain mining rig or send a lab next to it.

or 4 rtgs are cheaper?

You would need a lot because when you transmit it takes a lot of power, also you would need a lot of RTG witch cost a lot.

[Foxster]

A fairly large battery and either some RTGs or solar cells to charge is how I tend to do it. 

You could use a fuel cell but the mining and fuel production gear is probably going to be off-putting. 

[Sir_Robert]

30 minutes ago, Dfthu said:

You would need a lot because when you transmit it takes a lot of power, also you would need a lot of RTG witch cost a lot.

That just needs a large battery and slightly more production than consumption

[SnakyLeVrai]

2 hours ago, omelaw said:

I think I can to that, but is it practical?

i need to send an engenner and self sustain mining rig or send a lab next to it.

or 4 rtgs are cheaper?

Check this reply I've made about fuel cells... I've compared them with batteries:

 

If you have enough solar panels to power your mining rig during daytime, you won't need Fuel Cells. They are interesting only if you want to have a huuuuuge amount of EC for night time mining (much more EC capacity than a battery!!!!!!). But then, you'll need:

• enough EC/s to power mining during day,
• AND enough EC/s to power your lab during day,
• AND enough EC/s to power the Convert-O-Tron 250 so you could replenish your fuel cell's LFO tanks before the next night,
• AND enough drills to fill up your ore tanks during day, while consuming some of it to make LFO.

Which means: a heck load of gigantors. Just look at the numbers in the VAB (drills need 15EC/s, Convert-O-Tron 250 needs 30/s in "LFO" mode, etc etc).

That's a huge mining rig.

[suicidejunkie]

 

On Tuesday, March 01, 2016 at 1:04 PM, SnakyLeVrai said:

Which means: a heck load of gigantors. Just look at the numbers in the VAB (drills need 15EC/s, Convert-O-Tron 250 needs 30/s in "LFO" mode, etc etc).

That's a huge mining rig.

Why use solar at all?

Instead, power the drills and the converter using the fuel cells!

A decent engineer and a somewhat respectable mineral density is all you need to turn a profit on the refining process, and that surplus can be used to run the lab.

Edited March 3, 2016 by suicidejunkie

[SnakyLeVrai]

30 minutes ago, suicidejunkie said:

 

Why use solar at all?

Instead, power the drills and the converter using the fuel cells!

A decent engineer and a somewhat respectable mineral density is all you need to turn a profit on the refining process, and that surplus can be used to run the lab.

Sure, that works. you only need to produce more LFO than you consume. It's a heavier setup though, unless you don't care about fast productivity... I like to make a rig that produces LFO fast

[suicidejunkie]

Why do you need fast production?  I find just a few drills with a mediocre engineer is enough to stock up 200t fuel tankers much faster than they can cycle from Minmus to LKO and back.  Most of the time goes to carefully approaching the base; pumping the pre-converted fuel across is nearly instant after that, and the base has 7+ days to make 20k more units of fuel in the background

If it isn't a fuel depot, just a research station with some gas powered rovers, you need even less.

[SnakyLeVrai]

I don't actually need it, I mean I can just warp forward and all. But I like setting things up so they go fast ^^

Of course, I'll completely change this philosophy when I'll go to Jool, Eeloo and all.

[Kamenjar]

6 hours ago, suicidejunkie said:

 

Why use solar at all?

Instead, power the drills and the converter using the fuel cells!

A decent engineer and a somewhat respectable mineral density is all you need to turn a profit on the refining process, and that surplus can be used to run the lab.

To be more specific, I have a harvester that is self-sustained with:

• (CORRECTION) 8 large fuel cells (needs only 6.6 needed for drills and ISRU, but added more for the rest of the system, and made it symmetrical and a bit redundant so 18 power/sec each so = 144 power/sec)
• 6 large drills (15 power/sec * 6, so 90 power/sec)
• 1 ISRU (30 power/sec)
• 800 KW cooling or so with passive radiators
• 6% Ore and level 3 engi

Now you'd need to figure out electrical consumption of the lab to see what you need to add to make it work.

Edited March 4, 2016 by Kamenjar

[Jetski]

Or just time warp 4 arrows or so and let ksp ec bug keep your power full regardless of usage or supply

[Renegrade]

I have to say I'm glad that KSP actually found a use for some of the higher end panels and such.  (even in MPL is stupidly overpowered.  #nerfMPL!)

Prior to the MPL and mining/conversion ISRU rigs, it was basically just ion engines and science transmission (and the latter could be handled easily by a handful of batteries).  Now, at least, a Gigantor actually has a degree of use.

[RizzoTheRat]

I use solar where possible as it's generally cheaper and lighter.  My Mun station has a couple of fuel cells to ensure it can keep life support running through the night though as the battery requirement to run a drill all night is huge.  On Minmus where the nights are shorter it's not a problem to run a drill and ISRU on batteries so there's just a single fuel cell for emergencies.  Fuel cells and RTG's make a lot more sense as you get further out though.

[omelaw]

23 minutes ago, RizzoTheRat said:

I use solar where possible as it's generally cheaper and lighter.  My Mun station has a couple of fuel cells to ensure it can keep life support running through the night though as the battery requirement to run a drill all night is huge.  On Minmus where the nights are shorter it's not a problem to run a drill and ISRU on batteries so there's just a single fuel cell for emergencies.  Fuel cells and RTG's make a lot more sense as you get further out though.

actually, Minmus has a bug that makes sun never set. (in solar penal's prospective)

[RizzoTheRat]

That's only when you're not there or in accelerated time isn't it?  I nearly killed my entire crew when I first built the base as I'd originally designed it for Minmus and then decided to put it on the Mun with no changes.  TAC-LS means your crew can only survive 2 hours without electricity, by landing a craft I had in orbit and hooking it up I managed to keep the power on until 45 minutes before dawn.  Sent up a couple of fuel cells the next day for Bill  to KAS on to the base.

[AbacusWizard]

9 hours ago, RizzoTheRat said:

That's only when you're not there or in accelerated time isn't it?  I nearly killed my entire crew when I first built the base as I'd originally designed it for Minmus and then decided to put it on the Mun with no changes.  TAC-LS means your crew can only survive 2 hours without electricity, by landing a craft I had in orbit and hooking it up I managed to keep the power on until 45 minutes before dawn.  Sent up a couple of fuel cells the next day for Bill  to KAS on to the base.

That's a very clever rescue operation; seems like the sort of thing I'd expect to see in a sequel to The Martian.

[Zoidos]

I always go nuclear for stations and bases further away than Duna or bases on bodies which have very long day-night cycles. The fissionable material of nuclear generators lasts for approx 2 years minimum and is only used up as long as the base/station is the active vessel (Unless you have background processing installed, that is).

Even if you have background processing installed or choose to timewarp with the vessel active, it is still a lot easier to resupply more uranium/plutonium/whatever from Kerbin than to build up a mining operation dedicated for fuel cells. 

Fuel cells make sense on a planetary base where you can just add a small drill and converter and there is no need for getting the fuel into orbit. Although, some mods allow you to mine the fissionable material using ISRU which is even more efficient.

[Terwin]

On 3/4/2016 at 4:54 AM, omelaw said:

actually, Minmus has a bug that makes sun never set. (in solar penal's prospective)

 

On 3/4/2016 at 5:10 AM, RizzoTheRat said:

That's only when you're not there or in accelerated time isn't it?  I nearly killed my entire crew when I first built the base as I'd originally designed it for Minmus and then decided to put it on the Mun with no changes.  TAC-LS means your crew can only survive 2 hours without electricity, by landing a craft I had in orbit and hooking it up I managed to keep the power on until 45 minutes before dawn.  Sent up a couple of fuel cells the next day for Bill  to KAS on to the base.

I have found that when on one of the Minmus flats that my solar panels will ignore Minmus for the purpose of solar power.

This is not always the case for higher altitudes, but on the flats I have not lost the sun except during the rare eclipse.

(it also worked for a base at the north pole, but that is probably because I had 400% sized solar panels sticking up and the sun only barely went below the horizon, so I deem it fairly realistic in that case)