KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[Nansuchao]

I means for OPM ( Outer Planet Mod)

[FreeThinker]

Ahh I do have a suggestion question I was wanting to ask, why is xenon omitted from the big interstellar tanks and nose cone?

Well for one thing Interstelar Fuel Tanks are mend to store Liquids (Cryogenic) at only 5 Bar, they simply cannot store the pressure required for XenonGas. Perhaps it's an Idea to introduce a LqdXenon, that way you can store it like you do Helium in the same tank. Notice that Xenon kind of becomes obsolete with KSPI-E because you can now use propellant like Nitrogen as a propellant, which has better performance and is very cheap or can be scooped directly out of the atmosphere for almost free.

Edited May 17, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Blackbeard]

Well for one thing Interstelar Fuel Tanks are mend to store Liquids (Cryogenic) at only 5 Bar, they simply cannot store the pressure required for XenonGas. Perhaps it's an Idea to introduce a LqdXenon, that way you can store it like you do Helium in the same tank. Notice that Xenon kind of becomes obsolete with KSPI-E because you can now use propellant like Nitrogen as a propellant, which has better performance and is very cheap or can be scooped directly out of the atmosphere for almost free.

Missed the liquid connection. I have not tried nitrogen at all... yet, CO2 has been my staple so far. Speaking of the scoop when using it last on a ship it seems to generate alot of log clutter when orbiting planets/moons with no atmosphere. I will relaod a ship and get back with more specifics.

[MatterBeam]

Sorry to bother you again:

New 'revert' bug after installing latest version.

Upon reverting a flight to spaceplane hanger, the game isn't reset. If I kill a Kerbal, then revert to spaceplane hangar, that kerbal is considered Missing.

Upon reverting a flight to launch, the entire KSPI assembly stops working. Reactor produces no energy, the radiators don't heat up and the turbine plays the animations without producing any thrust.

Log: http://www./view/ftfp8vieu0q2bki/output_log.txt

Also, a few questions:

-What's up with the numerous empty tech nodes?

-Why won't the Atmospheric scoops collect resources when powered correctly? Why won't the thermal turbine use these resources if the scoops are active (refuses to switch to Nitrogen, for example)?

-Why is it, that when I put three nuclear reactors in series, only one of them is active and producing thermal power, while the rest idle?

Edited May 17, 2015 by TruthQuark
Questions

[FreeThinker]

I do not understand why CO2 is so popular as a propellant. Perhaps people like the ability of clean soot from Methane or Kerosine or High temperature CO2. LqdNitrogen is cheaper, highly available in Kerbins atmosphere or low orbit, clean (no soot effects) and can be used in any NTR/electric engines and is relatively dense. The only disadvantage is the low temperature it needs to be stored at.

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Sorry to bother you again:

New 'revert' bug after installing latest version.

Upon reverting a flight to spaceplane hanger, the game isn't reset. If I kill a Kerbal, then revert to spaceplane hangar, that kerbal is considered Missing.

Upon reverting a flight to launch, the entire KSPI assembly stops working. Reactor produces no energy, the radiators don't heat up and the turbine plays the animations without producing any thrust.

Log: http://www./view/ftfp8vieu0q2bki/output_log.txt

Also, a few questions:

Weird issue, I revert all the time and never seen that bug yet, could anyone else try to reproduce it?

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-What's up with the numerous empty tech nodes?

That a dissision by the Community Tech Tree participants, they decided they rather wnat to see all nodes, than have missing nodes even if they don't give any benefit.

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-Why won't the Atmospheric scoops collect resources when powered correctly? Why won't the thermal turbine use these resources if the scoops are active (refuses to switch to Nitrogen, for example)?

It cannot directly feed from the Atmospheric scoop, you need to store it first in to reservoir. Fortunately this is the reason I made Interstellar Fuel Switch, it allows you to change the consent op an empty tank to a resource which is more useful.

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-Why is it, that when I put three nuclear reactors in series, only one of them is active and producing thermal power, while the rest idle?

Well a reactor needs to be connected to a part that uses the thermalheat or charged particles, or the reactor will just idle. Do not that connecting does no longer have to be diect. You can now connect with parts in between, this allows you to connect a reactor which produces charged particles with both 2 generators and a thermal nozzle/turbojet

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Speaking of the scoop when using it last on a ship it seems to generate alot of log clutter when orbiting planets/moons with no atmosphere. I will reload a ship and get back with more specifics.

I guess some null reference bug are created due to failing function. I will added some check that it should not do anything at all when near a body without any atmosphere..

Edited May 17, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Khalkion]

You've done nice job with reactors cost.

However there are some more cost issues: radial cryostats' costs are nearly random.

Radial antimatter bottle... it contains so small antimatter that it can't be used... (antimatter initiated reactor eats it's content in a second). BTW it has low cost, but still useless... may be increase it's volume by 5-10 times. So that we can use few of them for cheap launches, not tens of them. (And sure increase cost to put it in line with other antimatter contaiment devices).

Cost of antimatter collector is ridicously low... compared to other antimatter things.

Power consumption for atmo scoop is not scaling.

Also I have no luck with starting OMEGA fusion reactor neither from batteries (I used reaaly big ones for testing purposes) nor from other reactors... I had plenty of radiators onboard, so it was not safety shutdown. Large fusion reactor is started by default and can be restarted without any charge or other reactors (for restart tests I've cleaned with hyperedit). Both fusion reactors always indicate: Maintaince 0.0KW/0.0KW

And I'm little curious... now we have very little choice of small reactors. We have molten salt reactor and next small is way higher in tech tree and is omega fusion (I can't make him to work) or antimatter reactor. So no midgame small reactors...

Also small sugestion here for NF integration.. NFe has system of capacitors, with it's own resource - stored charge. May be you can make fusion reactors to use this charge for starting up if there is enough stored charge onboard and NF is installed otherwise use stock EC.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Khalkion

[MatterBeam]

Weird issue, I revert all the time and never seen that bug yet, could anyone else try to reproduce it?

It might be interactions with BetterTimeWarp when I tried using it, or with Tweakscale (previous experiments using KSPI parts never included tweakscaled parts).

It cannot directly feed from the Atmospheric scoop, you need to store it first in to reservoir. Fortunately this is the reason I made Interstellar Fuel Switch, it allows you to change the consent op an empty tank to a resource which is more useful.

Ok. I thought the scoops would at least have a minuscule internal reservoir.

Well a reactor needs to be connected to a part that uses the thermalheat or charged particles, or the reactor will just idle. Do not that connecting does no longer have to be diect. You can now connect with parts in between, this allows you to connect a reactor which produces charged particles with both 2 generators and a thermal nozzle/turbojet

Umm... So currently, it's one reactor per engine, no way around it?

Also, I was wondering if there was some way to make Microwave Power Relays function in stock, ie consuming and transmitting Electric Current while producing stock Heat. Is it possible to do this with .cfg file manipulation?

[FreeThinker]

Also small sugestion here for NF integration.. NFe has system of capacitors, with it's own resource - stored charge. May be you can make fusion reactors to use this charge for starting up if there is enough stored charge onboard and NF is installed otherwise use stock EC.

Using NFT Capacitators is kind or hard, as it would require a dependance. I had some plans to create a jump start button (using Electric Power from Batteries), but I haven't implement it yet. One thing I could do I add some special charge ability to the Omega. It would consume a large amount of Electric Charge until it has enough power to jump start the fusion process. This way you don't need large amount of batteries. You could charge it if you could generate sufficient amount of power. FOr example the Omega has an output of of 500 MW. To start it, it would require 25 MW. If you have 2 GIgantor Solar Away, it would require 25000 KW / (2 x 24.4 KW/s) / 60 = 8.6 minutes to charge it. Of cource that would be assuming a 100% Capacitator efficiency. In reality you need more due to to energy conversion and the capacitor losing charge slowly.

Edited May 17, 2015 by FreeThinker

[raxo2222]

Can you build example plane/rocket, that can go from Kerbin to anywhere to show off what Interstellar can do?

FAR has some nice example ships

[FreeThinker]

Can you build example plane/rocket, that can go from Kerbin to anywhere to show off what Interstellar can do?

FAR has some nice example ships

I'm sure there are plenty of people who can create a demo.

[Coffeeman]

Saw you asking for a hand with CKAN on the CKAN thread: How can I help? Is KSPIE already on CKAN and needs an update or do you want me to set up a package for it?

[raxo2222]

I'm sure there are plenty of people who can create a demo.

Hmm I remember building one with vista engines, which could make grand tour on all planets (counting landing on all of them except Jool, where I descended deeply into atmosphere) with that

It had kethane drill and converter.

But that was big and laggy. Wonder how tiny SSTA (A stants for Anywhere) you can build. Warp drives are fine too, but you usually spend 20000 m/s of DV when slowing down

[FumbeiNumbie]

I realized that I haven't thanked you for your work. Thank you!

[Khalkion]

Using NFT Capacitators is kind or hard, as it would require a dependance. I had some plans to create a jump start button (using Electric Power from Batteries), but I haven't implement it yet. One thing I could do I add some special charge ability to the Omega. It would consume a large amount of Electric Charge until it has enough power to jump start the fusion process. This way you don't need large amount of batteries. You could charge it if you could generate sufficient amount of power. FOr example the Omega has an output of of 500 MW. To start it, it would require 25 MW. If you have 2 GIgantor Solar Away, it would require 25000 KW / (2 x 24.4 KW/s) / 60 = 8.6 minutes to charge it. Of cource that would be assuming a 100% Capacitator efficiency. In reality you need more due to to energy conversion and the capacitor losing charge slowly.

As I do some more thoughts... actually there is no difference between starting from EC or capacitors, as capacitors can discharge into batteries... so your idea is absolutely fine, except for that omega reactors are not working right now

[MatterBeam]

So currently, it's one reactor per engine, no way around it?

Also, I was wondering if there was some way to make Microwave Power Relays function in stock, ie consuming and transmitting Electric Current while producing stock Heat. Is it possible to do this with .cfg file manipulation?

[FreeThinker]

I realized that I haven't thanked you for your work. Thank you!

You can thank by playing the mod and report and bugs or difficulty

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So currently, it's one reactor per engine, no way around it?

One reactor can be used by several engines, for optimal performance, the total surface area must match up. For example. 1 x 2.5 reactor with 4 x 1.25 m engines

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Also, I was wondering if there was some way to make Microwave Power Relays function in stock, ie consuming and transmitting Electric Current while producing stock Heat. Is it possible to do this with .cfg file manipulation?

Not sure what you mean but you could put a MicrowaveReciever on a stock part. Dishes seem the most logical canfidate

[raxo2222]

Is this normal for 10 meter vistas overheat and explode in 3 seconds? Also 10m wide tanks of liquid hydrogen would be nice to see.

[MatterBeam]

Not sure what you mean but you could put a MicrowaveReciever on a stock part. Dishes seem the most logical canfidate

What I meant was, could I use solar-panel-powered MicroWave power relays to power electric engines without requiring KSP-I nuclear reactors and radiators?

I'm especially interested in using them in conjunction with Near Future Electrical without having to use the rest of KSPI-E.

[FreeThinker]

What I meant was, could I use solar-panel-powered MicroWave power relays to power electric engines without requiring KSP-I nuclear reactors and radiators?

I'm especially interested in using them in conjunction with Near Future Electrical without having to use the rest of KSPI-E.

I should be possible

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Is this normal for 10 meter vistas overheat and explode in 3 seconds? Also 10m wide tanks of liquid hydrogen would be nice to see.

Yes, if you don't put on sufficient radiators

[MatterBeam]

I should be possible

When you have more time, could you point me in the right direction for accomplishing this? I see you already have a mod that converts WasteHeat into stock Heat when NF is detected. I think my idea could work if we made the Microwave Transceivers and Receivers use Electric Charge Ec instead of MegaJoules MJ.

[etheoma]

Sorry one minute, my bad it seems I was trying to use real fuels when its not 1.0 DERRRRRRRRRRRRRP! Looks like I have to wait to build my SSTO until RealFuels is updated. The tanks have there default sizes which means I can only get in 500L into the Mk2 to 1.25m adapter rather than the 5900L which the deltaV will be about 11x what you see obviously you don't get a linier increase because you must carry the extra weight of the fuel but I would expect about 4000-5000 deltaV, I'm also waiting on RCS Build Aid to get the fuel centred so that my Fuel while empty doesn't change my centre of mass, I know I could do that by just emptying it and refilling it until I get it on centre but that a real pain.

I know the wings on the back look like I'm trying too hard to make it look cool but failing, but I'm using new FAR and it actually reduces my Wave Drag Area and increases stability so. *shrugs* also I know it looks more like a rocket than a plane but its an SSTO and making it long and thin reduces drag so that's just the most optimum shape, obviosly I took Skylon as a little bit of a starting point, its even probe powered which skylon is also supposed to be computer driven driven, but it was done that way really in my case because the cockputs are not aerodynamic enough under high mark numbers.

And this is appropriate here because I'm using a fusion reactor and thermal turbojet to power it XD also designing this as an Eve explorer which the low lift area really wont matter there due to crazy high atmospheric pressure although due to changes in how the engines work, it will need a interplanetary section which will dock with it, which isn't really much of a problem as it would need fuel tanks to dock with anyway to go interplanetary and come back, thats a point it needs a docking port.

Edited May 18, 2015 by etheoma

[Disposeable]

Have you given any thought to asking the guys from remote tech if you could use their antenna UI for the microwave relays?

I think I would make them more useable if you could target them towards specific places.

[etheoma]

Have you given any thought to asking the guys from remote tech if you could use their antenna UI for the microwave relays?

I think I would make them more useable if you could target them towards specific places.

They are "targeted" at the specific ship just you are not involved in the targeting. anyways laser transmission of power would increase the range but the efficiency, the amount you could transmit and the efficiency in atmos would go down, but I do think the way its calculated at the moment is a bit lack lustre.

Masers would fix the atmospheric efficiency as they emit microwaves which travel relatively efficiently though the atmosphere. But even now with massive advances they are no where near as powerful as lasers and certainly not powerful enough to drive an engine, right now there so low powered that there only current suggested use is for communications.

But a nice addon to the current system would be being able to use multiple satellites to for example capture and retransmit to correct the boardness of the beam, you would still lose efficiency to space dust but that can't be helped.

Edited May 18, 2015 by etheoma

[MatterBeam]

Have you given any thought to asking the guys from remote tech if you could use their antenna UI for the microwave relays?

I think I would make them more useable if you could target them towards specific places.

This might be interesting.

Sadly, I have no idea how to integrate energy transmission into remoteTech.

KSPI's Microwave Power relay was built from the ground up for energy transmission, so it might be safer to start from there.

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They are "targeted" at the specific ship just you are not involded in the targeting. anyways laser transmission of power would increase the range but the efficiency and the amount you could transmit would go down, but I do think the way its calculated at the moment is a bit lack lustre.

As you cannot use multiple satellites to for example capture and retransmit to re-narrow the beam which remote tech could do that with some fudging. but dust in space will drop the final amount anyway so.

Just getting the thing to work seems complex enough, thank you.

[Disposeable]

Having that line/cone transmission overlay would be pretty sweet tho. Also be a good excuse to add some variety to the transmitters.