Mod for atmosphere skimming

[overlordmas]

Hey guys 

Im looking for a mod that allowes atmospheric skimming for resources. Been looking all around for something that can do that and the only thing that gets close to it is interstellar expended. but that only works while being in the atmosphere itself. I saw some other post about this but it was just a explanation on how it could work. Not something in the game or mod so i wana know if there is any mod out there that alowes you to do that. 

Thanks guys 

[ARS]

Do you want to get the resources by skimming the atmosphere or the one that also works outside the atmosphere as well? Because you said that "but that only works while being in the atmosphere itself"

[overlordmas]

Sorry for the confusion. What i ment by it only works in the atmosphere i was talking about interstellars irsu. I typed it in a hurry. But what im tryibg to find out is if there is any mod that lets you be at lets say 71k just above the atmosphere and scoopthe atmosphere for resources like nitrogen oxygen etc. Hope i explained it a bit better 

[Geonovast]

... how could you scoop resources from an atmosphere without entering said atmosphere?

I had a mod at one point that let you do this, although I don't remember which one.  But you still had to be in atmo.  IIRC it all depended at atmospheric density, so the lower you went, the more resources you got.  I think its main point was to skim xenon for deep space aerobraking probes.

You can dip down to, say, 65km above Kerbin and not lose much speed, because there's virtually nothing there.  The problem with there being virtually nothing there is that there's virtually nothing to harvest.

[cyberKerb]

@overlordmas What I think you might be after is to role play the idea of the skimming part. This means I think you are looking for a resource abundance mod. You could add a (thin) band of the desired resource just above the atmosphere altitude as you described. The Karborundum resource included in the USI Karbonite+ mod does the solar harvesting thing, but around a body (where specifically, that's a secret for players to work out) - but you could use that method as the basis of what you are trying to achieve. 

You should be able to create your variation of the mod yourself with notepad and a bit of study of the cfg files and how it works.
Something like the below would the resource distribution - I've not tested this, and  I'm not at all certain of the scale of numbers I've used in the example. You'd need to search the forums for that information, Here's an info post / and another / and probably the better one on the config def but the idea is sound. You'll also need to replace the "SomeResource" with whatever you were looking to "collect". (nitrogen or oxygen ). If you want more that one resource, you'd need an extra resource config for each one.

//Resource types:  
//	0 = Crustal			(Stuff you dig up)
//	1 = Oceanic			(Stuff in the oceans)
//	2 = Atmospheric		(Stuff in the air, varies with pressure)
//	3 = Interplanetary	(Stuff you find between planets)

PLANETARY_RESOURCE
{
	ResourceName = SomeResource
	ResourceType = 3
	PlanetName = Kerbin
	
	Distribution
	{
		PresenceChance = 100
		MinAbundance = 10
		MaxAbundance = 100
		MinAltitude = 71
		MaxAltitude = 71
		MinRange = 1
		MaxRange = 1
		Variance = 50
	}
}

Speaking of "collect" you'll also need a mod to a part to allow you to harvest said resource. Again I'd suggest studying what Roverdude has done with Karbonite+ specifically this part. It would be a little more involved needing other mods like CRP as well as USItools and maybe others to get the Resource collector module to work, but this should point you in the right direction for what "I think" you're looking for.

Another part collector is what ARS has suggested below.

If you're ACTUALLY wanting to be in the atmosphere, this method wouldn't work (at least, I think not)

Edited May 30, 2018 by wile1411

[ARS]

There's an old mod called Solaris Hypernautics. It has a special resource collector called dust collectors. Basically you use electricity to turn into magnetic charge, then using magnetic charge to collect dust (it can gather dust both inside or outside atmosphere), before using dust conpressor to turn dust into ore, which you can put inside ISRU or used for whatever you want. Fitted into orbital fuel station, this is basically turns said station into automated orbital mining platform with infinitely available fuel supply (freeing resupply mission, when it becomes a hassle when regularly doing it becomes mandatory). Fitted on spaceships, you can potentially have infinite fuel supply.

The tricky part is making a right balance of resource collectors, it's quite balanced and not so gamebreaking as some would think, since magnetic chargers requires constant electricity, dust collectors works very slowly, dust compression has around 5:1 dust-ore conversion ratio (and eats a lot of electricity), not to mention the parts are heavy (some reaches 5+ ton in weight) and some of them quite large (bigger than mk3 fuselages)

The mod is outdated (1.3) but still works in current KSP version (already tested it), and in my opinion it's not too cheaty, since it's basically orbital mining kits

Edited May 30, 2018 by ARS

[overlordmas]

Thank you both for the great sugestions. Realy helped me out allot. @Wile1411 i dont know if you can explain that further that part off code. Like if never done anything coding wise so i dont know how that all works and all. But from what i understand it sounds pretty cool

Ill check that mod out aswell cause it sounds pritty balanced to me. 

Again great thanks guys helped me out allot

[cyberKerb]

3 minutes ago, overlordmas said:

Thank you both for the great sugestions. Realy helped me out allot. @Wile1411 i dont know if you can explain that further that part off code. Like if never done anything coding wise so i dont know how that all works and all. But from what i understand it sounds pretty cool

Ill check that mod out aswell cause it sounds pritty balanced to me. 

Again great thanks guys helped me out allot

Read this post <here> and the following 10 or so posts afterwards  - it should clear up what the numbers should be. 

[overlordmas]

29 minutes ago, wile1411 said:

Read this post <here> and the following 10 or so posts afterwards  - it should clear up what the numbers should be. 

Yeah i just realised the resources i wana scoop are already in the game haha. So i should be good with just putting that in theres aswell right? By that i mean this 

Distribution
	{
		PresenceChance = 100
		MinAbundance = 10
		MaxAbundance = 100
		MinAltitude = 71
		MaxAltitude = 71
		MinRange = 1
		MaxRange = 1
		Variance = 50
	}
}

Edited May 30, 2018 by overlordmas

[ARS]

Note that even though the Solaris Hypernautics makes it convenient to get fuel station fueled up/ topping up the spaceship's fuel tanks by literally using the resources available in the surrounding area, including interplanetary space, as a balancing feature, it's far less efficient than directly mining ore from planet's surface (More time and electricity needed for matching the productivity of surface mining base as well as having some modules being heavy and large). it also has more complex resource chain. For comparison:

Normal mining: Electric charge (Drill) > Ore > Electric charge (ISRU) = Fuel

SH mining: Electric charge > Magnetic charge (Dust collector) > Dust > Electric charge (Dust compressor) > Ore > Electric charge (ISRU) =Fuel

Summary:

Pros:

-Seeting up right, it can make an orbital fuel station entirely automatic and independent in producing fuel, fuel supply will be topped up regularly in weeks or months

-Frees up resupply craft for other task

-Modules works inside and outside the atmosphere

-Collection productivity rate does not depend on mining location, unlike surface mining bases

-No radiators required, since dust collectors and dust compressor generates negligible amaount of heat, unlike drills. The only thing that needs radiators are ISRU and radioactive material processing unit (heaviest part)

-Sticking an efficient assembly on spaceships allows it to refuel the fuel supply as it drifts through interplanetary space

Cons:

-Some modules are large and heavy

-Resource chain and module constructions is far more complex

-Very dependent on electricity supply

-Dust collectors works very slowly, attaching a lot of them speeds up the collection rate, but increases part count

-Dust compressor has 5:1 Dust to Ore compression ratio. It takes a lot of them (and a lot more dust collectors) to match productivity of land-based mining base

-Far less efficient in in terms of energy + time input to resource production ratio compared to drill-based mining stations

On the other hand, you can literally mining a planet from orbit

Edited May 30, 2018 by ARS

[overlordmas]

Thanks you so much for helping so much guys im a out to get home and start thinkering around with all off it. Ill keep you guys updated 

[cyberKerb]

1 hour ago, overlordmas said:

Yeah i just realised the resources i wana scoop are already in the game haha. So i should be good with just putting that in theres aswell right? By that i mean this 

Distribution
	{
		PresenceChance = 100
		MinAbundance = 10
		MaxAbundance = 100
		MinAltitude = 71
		MaxAltitude = 71
		MinRange = 1
		MaxRange = 1
		Variance = 50
	}
}

Unfortunately what you listed above will not work. I had a quick scan of the maths involved in the  forum posts I menationed and it tells me the numbers I gave in the initial (wild guess) example are completely wrong, but I was kind of guessing that would be the case. Also - the example you modified doesn't have the header part that specifies what resource it is for. So that bit of CFG wont do anything other than probably error out on load.

Take some time, have a read of the forum posts mentioned and give it some contemplation. KSP is a big game about learning high end concept (eg: orbital mechanics) Delving into the modding side is sort of  the same - It's doable with a bit of reading and learning about what's going on.  It's past midnight hear so I have to sign off. Good luck!

Edited May 30, 2018 by wile1411

[overlordmas]

so i promised you guys a update  so here you go. i got some help from other people who did a amazing job helping me figure it out. and this is what the end results are. its a belt with a epicenter of 69km and 10km wide  really appreciate everybody's help with this thank you guys so so much. 

//
//Resource types:  
//	0 = Crustal			(Stuff you dig up)
//	1 = Oceanic			(Stuff in the oceans)
//	2 = Atmospheric		(Stuff in the air, varies with pressure)
//	3 = Interplanetary	(Stuff you find between planets)

PLANETARY_RESOURCE
{
	ResourceName = Nitrogen
	ResourceType = 3
	PlanetName = Kerbin
	
	Distribution
	{
		PresenceChance = 100
		MinAbundance = 0.1
		MaxAbundance = 1
		MinAltitude = 0.23
		MaxAltitude = 0.23
		MinRange = 0.016
		MaxRange = 0.016
		Variance = 50
	}
}

 

[ARS]

Glad it worked