[0.25]KSP Interstellar (Magnetic Nozzles, ISRU Revamp) Version 0.13

[Scotius]

Whew. So, yesterday i made my first warp flight - Raven II probe finished her task of mapping Minmus, and finally i could test her warp drive. The target of test flight turned out to be Dres - it was in conjunction with Kerbin at the moment. It wasn't perfect configuration, because Dres was couple of degrees ahead of Kerbin, but i decided to try anyway. At 0.10 c Kerbin system literally disappeared in a blink, and i could actually see my probe closing in on Dres in real time. It would take only 33 minutes in real time - what a ride! Then i disengaged warp drive, and my smile disappeared. I had to do 5300 m\s burn to capture into orbit O_O. Of course Raven did not carry so much fuel, so i had to either watch my probe shoot into interstellar space or...Yes, i used Infinite Fuel cheat to save my first, and so far only warp capable spaceship. People, be smart while calculating the course for a warpship Couple of things: warping from moon's orbit can be risky, and add a lot of dV to braking burn. The same goes for LKO - it is important when and where we enter warp, because it changes relative velocity significantly. And finally: we need a probe sized engine with huge Isp - not many unmanned ships carry 5000+ dV and can sustain 34 minutes long braking burn, even with nuclear engines onboard :-/

[smurphy34]

One more question before fractal wakes up

Why is this small generator is not producing more megajoules when there's thermal power to spare?

I like your landing struts, what mod are they from?

[smurphy34]

I'm trying to use to AEIS models for the Beamed Microwave power and I think it has messed up the animation and/or readouts. I see 0.000 KW on both the receiver and the transmitters and the activate button works but it never changes state to "deactivate". (but it does after re-loading the vessel)

The context menu shows an efficiency readout, but no power is transmitted.

Do you think I just need to get name of the anim right or if your code hard-bound to the stock models?

EDIT: what if the model I want to use does not have an animation?

EDIT 2: Woohoo I got it working. Just had to correct the anim names and stick to parts with animations. Also all the existing sats in my save had to be turned off and on. Now I have a nice selection of collapsible antennae for my sats!

This sounds really cool, I've been playing around with microwave and different antennas would be nice.

Would you be willing to share what you have? Or at least the steps you made to make this work?

Thanks!

[wasmic]

I like your landing struts, what mod are they from?

I believe they are from AIES. It's a great probe parts pack, and has some cool 0.625m engines.

[Jasmir]

Hi Fractal_UK,

there is something other for your list:

Transmitting Science Data:

- my Lab orbiting Jool shows 9.04 science in the resources-tab

- i can press "Transmitting Scientific Data" in one lab as often i want. (there are multiple Labs on this station)

- the amount of science in the Resources doesn't change

-> switching to a other vessel on Kerbin

- i can press "Recieving Scientific Data" on a Lab on this Vessel as often as i pressed "Transmitting Scientific Data" on the origin Vessel-Lab

- every time i get the whole amount of science of the origin Vessel -> i made over 700 science out of 9.04 science on this way. ( i think, i could make endless science on this way)

[Fractal_UK]

Hi Fractal_UK,

there is something other for your list:

Transmitting Science Data:

- my Lab orbiting Jool shows 9.04 science in the resources-tab

- i can press "Transmitting Scientific Data" in one lab as often i want. (there are multiple Labs on this station)

- the amount of science in the Resources doesn't change

-> switching to a other vessel on Kerbin

- i can press "Recieving Scientific Data" on a Lab on this Vessel as often as i pressed "Transmitting Scientific Data" on the origin Vessel-Lab

- every time i get the whole amount of science of the origin Vessel -> i made over 700 science out of 9.04 science on this way. ( i think, i could make endless science on this way)

How much science do you get each time when you do this?

General Note: I am now back in the UK and development/bugfixing will now resume.

[zzz]

It's finally awake.

I made some simple parts (almost a week ago actually). It's generator in two sizes (I think one is for "big" and "huge" and second for "small" and "tiny" but surely you can use it in any other way if you will decide to use it ). And the last thing - I think it's magentometer.

http://www./?7e2nfo184f3csv4

[Jasmir]

How much science do you get each time when you do this?

I'ts a while ago, but i think I got exact 9.04 Science each. (Personally, i think the main problem is that the science isn't remove from the vessel if i press "Transmitting Scientific Data". Therefore, i can press "Transmitting Scientific Data" again and again.)

I've found a other issue, too: The lab's don't produce Antimatter(if activated) in non-foccussed view. On a vesssel, i got ~30 AM/day if the vessel is in focus. If i fly a other ship for a day, and switch back after there was no AM gain (or way less than the same vessel produces in focus).

[Scotius]

My new Aton Orbital Power Plant:

Doesn't look like much, huh? Well...

This bad boy can generate 1.3 MW in Kerbin orbit. I can't wait to see how much power it will churn out in low Kerbol orbit I've sent two strapped to Osiris tug.

[Jivaii]

My new Aton Orbital Power Plant:

Doesn't look like much, huh? Well...

This bad boy can generate 1.3 MW in Kerbin orbit. I can't wait to see how much power it will churn out in low Kerbol orbit I've sent two strapped to Osiris tug.

That looks epic =D Now I kinda want to build my own, but I'm still trying to get my interplanetary ship together.

[Scotius]

You don't have to go interplanetary with solar power plant. So far i have four Atons in keostationary orbit, and am planning adding more (it got bit boring ) Currently i'm sending two into low Kerbol orbit to power Moho Research Station that is currently in transfer.

[Jivaii]

Ah, no, I want to get the interplanetary ship built first before I start another project. Once I get the station into transfer phase, I can start building other things, such as a Low Orbiting Kerbol Initiative plant (Yes, a LOKI plant)

[automcdonough]

It's finally awake.

I made some simple parts (almost a week ago actually). It's generator in two sizes (I think one is for "big" and "huge" and second for "small" and "tiny" but surely you can use it in any other way if you will decide to use it ). And the last thing - I think it's magentometer.

http://www./?7e2nfo184f3csv4

Looks amazing! as usual.

[Fractal_UK]

Bit slow with the updates since I've got back but I've been working on something complicated and I wanted to share it.

I spotted in another discussion that zzz had posted some really cool radiator models in the hope that someone would make use of them for some in game purpose. It has long been my opinion that heat radiators are one of the biggest things missing from Kerbal Space Program, dissipating heat is a massive problem in space since there is no convenient atmosphere around to convect all of that irritating thermal energy produced by humans and their equipment away. Since my mod is largely about forms of power and power in large quantities, no less, the lack of radiators becomes even more galling. Thankfully, progress is at hand:

The radiators are a little hard to see but this is actually demonstrates an important success of coding rather than a failure of my screenshotting abilities. The panels align themselves such that they minimise the amount of light that falls upon them from the sun, which is important because they are, afterall, supposed to be radiating the heat into space rather than collecting it from the sun. (In other words, they align themselves 90 degrees from the direction that solar panels would).

Due to this being a relatively major introduction to the mod, my current plan is to implement this in two steps (i.e. across two updates):

The first step is to introduce the waste heat mechanics and radiators to the game, the second step is to introduce consequences for not dissipating the heat. The advantage of this approach is it gives me time to assess both how easy and how difficult dissipating produced heat seems to be as well as giving you all time to adapt your creations to the new, more thermodynamically accurate, universe that you will soon find yourselves in.

[Donziboy2]

Nice.

Fractal is there a way to set up a ship to have like 1 AM and 1 Nuke reactor and a central High ISP low thrust engine and some outer engines for landing/taking off.

[Fractal_UK]

Fractal is there a way to set up a ship to have like 1 AM and 1 Nuke reactor and a central High ISP low thrust engine and some outer engines for landing/taking off.

Depends what you're going for really. You could certainly use electric engines (I've corrected the bug fix on these and the other electric stuff ready for the next update) on the sides but they do tend to struggle getting the thrust to deal with locations like Kerbin, even using argon propellant and an antimatter reactor. If you really need a lot of thrust, you could just use a group of smaller antimatter reactors. You could use one central antimatter tank and pump fuel to the reactors using fuel lines - that should work.

[Fractal_UK]

Thought I would show off some more stuff now.

This is a radiator, as its name implies it radiates heat, in vacuum the only way it will lose heat is via radiation. In atmosphere, despite its name, its rather better at convecting away heat. This makes your job of keeping things cool in atmosphere that much easier.

The amount of heat you need to radiate is equal to the thermal power production of the reactor minus the electrical power produced by the generator. Thus the greater the efficiency of the generator, the less (proportionate) power you need to get rid of.

Here the radiators are folded up on the launch pad, when in this configuration radiative output is reduced by 10x and convection is reduced by half.

We can also deploy the radiators when we're ready to undo those nasty penalties, the radiators begin to align themselves edge on the sun.

Much like solar panels, you do *not* want to try flying through the atmosphere with your radiators deployed, here is a shot of me attempting to deploy them during flight:

[wasmic]

Woo, cool!

[theSpeare]

Can you make these panels configurable through their cfg files? Pretty much (+4) parts on all my ships and (unfortunately) it can already begin lagging a bit. It'd be nice to overpower them so you'd only need two or something.

Also I see you're using the new generator models RELEASE RELEASE!

[Scotius]

Fractal, i think i'm going to build a small, neat shrine in your honor. Then i will give offerings of cookies daily, and chocolate every time you post another amazing update Heat radiators...MWAHAHAAHA. I know it will make future missions even harder, and my ships will become more complicated - but still it will be fun to use. Now, suggestion: consider making two sizes of radiators: bigger, heavier but more effective for stations. And smaller, lighter variety for spaceships.

[Donziboy2]

My thoughts were to use outer small engines with a Nuke reactor on the small high thrust engines(borrowing Thermal from the central AM, and also to use the nukes for Warp charging. And only use AM for the central thrust High ISP engine, or when I need extra thrust on the small engines. The problem is that the outer engines don't go past the power the Nuke reactors would normally give them, they dont see the AM reactor.

The only problem I see with those radiators is the same problem we have with large solar panels, any large bump and they are toast.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Donziboy2

[zzz]

consider making two sizes of radiators:

I'm sure he already did it this way. On pictures it's called "huge" and he rescaled it a lot (to the state where I begin to think it's bases is looks too bulky).

[Fractal_UK]

Can you make these panels configurable through their cfg files? Pretty much (+4) parts on all my ships and (unfortunately) it can already begin lagging a bit. It'd be nice to overpower them so you'd only need two or something.

Also I see you're using the new generator models RELEASE RELEASE!

They are editable through the cfg files, you can specify a larger panel area if you particularly want to make it easier to dissipate heat.

And yes, I've incorporated the new models for generators and antimatter reactors but I haven't added the animations to those parts yet, nor have I added a charge/stop charge feature to the alcubierre drive, which is much more neccessary now because it will make any reactor it is attached to run at full power (and thus generate lots of heat). As I say, heat isn't actually going to pose you any harm in the next update, that will come later but I might as well get it working right now.

Now, suggestion: consider making two sizes of radiators: bigger, heavier but more effective for stations. And smaller, lighter variety for spaceships.

I actually have two sizes that I'm working with at the moment though I'm thinking of expanding that to three before release.

The only problem I see with those radiators is the same problem we have with large solar panels, any large bump and they are toast.

They don't use the same code as solar panels, I coded the effects that cause them to break myself, if my maths is correct then they shouldn't break due to a bit of low-speed roving around even when deployed but I admit I haven't tested this yet. Regardless, they should prove fairly resilient outside of atmosphere.

My thoughts were to use outer small engines with a Nuke reactor on the small high thrust engines(borrowing Thermal from the central AM, and also to use the nukes for Warp charging. And only use AM for the central thrust High ISP engine, or when I need extra thrust on the small engines. The problem is that the outer engines don't go past the power the Nuke reactors would normally give them, they dont see the AM reactor.

I wouldn't use smaller nuclear reactors around the outside, the nuclear reactors are exponential in terms of their power/mass ratios while the antimatter reactors scale linearly with mass, so using small antimatter reactors isn't a particular penalty but the larger nuclear reactors are objectively better than the smaller ones.

[Fractal_UK]

I'm sure he already did it this way. On pictures it's called "huge" and he rescaled it a lot (to the state where I begin to think it's bases is looks too bulky).

Ah, well spotted. Yes, I had to do a bit of rescaling, part physical, part imaginary in order to get black body radiation values (via Stefan-Boltzmann) closer to the kind of values that my reactors actually produce.

If you look at a lot of designs for highly advanced spacecraft concepts, they often seem to be a little bit of ship and a huge quantity of radiators. I don't want to go quite to that extreme but it'd be nice to convey the idea of their importance.

[Scotius]

"Atomic Rockets" site contains quite a bit info on heat radiators in space:

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/basicdesign.php