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

[Donziboy2]

I do. Sometimes that's all you need.

For some reason nobody has a sense of humor... I was being sarcastic.

[penguin229]

ignore solved my own problem right after i posted sorry

hey guys im new here and just downloaded this mod but the download file was only 47mb and in the warpdrive parts folder the folders are empty am i missing something or is v 11 had a buggy upload

Edited April 15, 2014 by penguin229
solved

[i8jello]

Can you make the new EC-MJ fix available for .23? I am playing career with Remote Tech, so I can't update until .24, sadly. Thanks!

[phantomlord2]

I have a suggestion: add antimatter thrusters. make em powerful, yet very energy and antimatter consuming to balance it out.

[Sufficient Anonymity]

I have a suggestion: add antimatter thrusters. make em powerful, yet very energy and antimatter consuming to balance it out.

They're already included (though you have to put them together yourself). Thermal rocket nozzle + antimatter reactor + fuel tank containing whatever you want to chuck out the back = what you're looking for.

[SchroedingersHat]

Beamed power is a gamechanger, yes. Thermal rockets give insane amount of TWR, especially when using LFO. I remember having a relay network and 4 unapgraded 3.75 fusion generators (2 round kirbin, one round mun and one at minmus), the 3.75 nozzle was giving me 18MN trust when using LFO (burns fuel like crazy though). Had to limit the nozzle at 30% using only liquid, so don't fall apart.

My point was that it seems like there should be some kind of limit to the receiver, perfectly understandable if this isn't in the mod (it's already so huge and complex) but still yields odd results when abused and this was enough to make me question whether it was intended or some bug/interaction between mods.

A test using my setup with a single power plant to illustrate:

I have a single 8GW power station, beaming to a 1.25m receiver.

To confirm that it is indeed using most of the power:

This nets 1800kN of thrust at a vacuum ISP of 519.

p = mV or thrust = dm/dt * V where V is exhaust velocity. This means dm/dt is 1.8 * 10^6 / (9.8*519) ~ 350kg/s.

E = 1/2 * m * V^2 -> power = 1/2 dm/dt * V^2 = 175 * (519*9.8)^2 ~ 4.5GW

Thus my engine is producing about 4.5GW

I have no idea about real world efficiencies of a process like this, but they're usually not 100%. If we assume a fairly generous 90% of the heat leaves in the fuel, it means that the 1t, 1.5m^2 thermal receiver is somehow dealing with 450MW through radiation and other means. If we assume radiation (again somewhat unrealistic, as you could dump it in the liquid hydrogen, but still demonstrative) it would have to be at over 8000K and wouldn't be a solid anymore.

There's also the issue of Jeb sitting less than a metre away from an 8GW microwave beam and being perfectly fine (but then again, he's Jeb, so he would be).

I reiterate that I'm not complaining, it was just a behavior that was far enough from my understanding of what would be plausible in a near future setting that I wanted to confirm it wasn't a bug or unintentional exploit.

Edited April 16, 2014 by SchroedingersHat

[leftler]

0.23.5 adds a second stock folder: GameData/NASAMission/. That's where all of the new parts live. If you mistook NASAMission/ for a mod and deleted it, that would cause exactly what you're seeing. Solution: Reinstall KSP if you don't have a backup.

That is EXACTLY what happened!! Thank you!

[WaveFunctionP]

My point was that it seems like there should be some kind of limit to the receiver, perfectly understandable if this isn't in the mod (it's already so huge and complex) but still yields odd results when abused and this was enough to make me question whether it was intended or some bug/interaction between mods.

A test using my setup with a single power plant to illustrate:

I have a single 8GW power station, beaming to a 1.25m receiver.

To confirm that it is indeed using most of the power:

This nets 1800kN of thrust at a vacuum ISP of 519.

p = mV or thrust = dm/dt * V where V is exhaust velocity. This means dm/dt is 1.8 * 10^6 / (9.8*519) ~ 350kg/s.

E = 1/2 * m * V^2 -> power = 1/2 dm/dt * V^2 = 175 * (519*9.8)^2 ~ 4.5GW

Thus my engine is producing about 4.5GW

I have no idea about real world efficiencies of a process like this, but they're usually not 100%. If we assume a fairly generous 90% of the heat leaves in the fuel, it means that the 1t, 1.5m^2 thermal receiver is somehow dealing with 450MW through radiation and other means. If we assume radiation (again somewhat unrealistic, as you could dump it in the liquid hydrogen, but still demonstrative) it would have to be at over 8000K and wouldn't be a solid anymore.

There's also the issue of Jeb sitting less than a metre away from an 8GW microwave beam and being perfectly fine (but then again, he's Jeb, so he would be).

I reiterate that I'm not complaining, it was just a behavior that was far enough from my understanding of what would be plausible in a near future setting that I wanted to confirm it wasn't a bug or unintentional exploit.

The receivers have efficiencies (along with other variables that affect reception), as do the engines (based on which fuel you are using). This produces waste heat, of which your vessel has a maximum capacity based upon the parts you use. You must deal with this waste heat with radiators. Or the components that are generating waste heat will shut down.

Engines also have power caps for each size engine.

The difficulty of transmitted power is supposed to be in the building and maintenance of network. Sure it's easy enough to launch with a network at kerbin, but maneuvering around the solar system without additional infracture can be problematic. Launching from kerbin by the time you get the technologies needed to do what you are describing is already an easy feat by normal means.

If you are looking for more realism and limitations, there are several realism mods, in fact whole collections to choose from.

All this isn't to say that I don't think some things are overpowered in kspi, the exponential scaling of reactors and upgrades plays havoc on the balance of the game, but there are indeed plenty of limitations which you are glossing over.

Edited April 16, 2014 by WaveFunctionP

[JimTheDog]

I'm having trouble again with the IR telescopes and their default mission. I think I may have just misunderstood something elementary -- am I right in thinking that the IR telescopes don't work on the deep field survey _unless_ they have a laboratory attached? I've been doing satellites with just the telescopes and some helium and whatnot, and they don't seem to eat helium or add to my data while I transfer away.

-- Also, are IR telescopes/labs based on 'Kerbal' days, or on 'Real world' days?

[phoenix_ca]

As I understand it, you don't need a science lab for the deep field survey, only the direct planetary observation mission. I haven't really used them though. The fact that the wiki says they pretty much don't work when not the ship in focus, and lose all efficiency when you change to a different ship (meaning the computer core requirement doesn't matter because you'll need Kerbals there anyway to fix it), makes me think it's not worth the effort. Sounds like the only way they'd be worth-while is by sticking an ungodly number of them on a single ship with piles of He4 so that you don't need to run the game at high time acceleration for a stupid amount of time. Which is what I'd call kinda broken, since the science labs handle science gen much more gracefully. It's the Kethane scanning problem in a different form. Anything that must be in-focus for a long period of time acceleration, to the exclusion of all else, isn't really all that helpful if you want to manage more than one mission at a time.

[lenain27]

I'm trying to upgrade my fission reactor power microwave network to fusion reactor power and I have a problem to maintain plasma heating of transmitting station.

I define designs in sandbox mode (interstellar mod is very complete and sometimes very hard to understand and sandbox helps me) but the problem happens even in career mode.

On a transmitting station, I designed my transmission station with a 3.75m fusion reactor connected on each side to a electrical generator (KTEC on a side and Direct conversion on the other side)(a KW is a KW ^^). A docked 2.5m fission reactor and 2.5m electric generator is used to start fusion reactor and perform orbital maneuvers (with a thermal rocket nozzle).

At the Deployable Phased Array Microwave Transceiver transmit mode activated, a warning is displayed "Fusion Reactor plasma heating cannot be guaranteed, reducing power requirements is recommenced". As piority value on Megajoule demand on plasma heating is lower than microwave transmitter, I was hoping that everything remain stable.

Unfortunately not ... Returning to space center shut off fusion reactor (not the case when vessel is maintained focused).

Someone can explain me where I failed ? Or a way to limit beamed power ?

[WaveFunctionP]

I'm trying to upgrade my fission reactor power microwave network to fusion reactor power and I have a problem to maintain plasma heating of transmitting station.

I define designs in sandbox mode (interstellar mod is very complete and sometimes very hard to understand and sandbox helps me) but the problem happens even in career mode.

On a transmitting station, I designed my transmission station with a 3.75m fusion reactor connected on each side to a electrical generator (KTEC on a side and Direct conversion on the other side)(a KW is a KW ^^). A docked 2.5m fission reactor and 2.5m electric generator is used to start fusion reactor and perform orbital maneuvers (with a thermal rocket nozzle).

At the Deployable Phased Array Microwave Transceiver transmit mode activated, a warning is displayed "Fusion Reactor plasma heating cannot be guaranteed, reducing power requirements is recommenced". As piority value on Megajoule demand on plasma heating is lower than microwave transmitter, I was hoping that everything remain stable.

Unfortunately not ... Returning to space center shut off fusion reactor (not the case when vessel is maintained focused).

Someone can explain me where I failed ? Or a way to limit beamed power ?

You should update to the latest version, the current version should have fixed this issue.

[Fractal_UK]

As I understand it, you don't need a science lab for the deep field survey, only the direct planetary observation mission. I haven't really used them though. The fact that the wiki says they pretty much don't work when not the ship in focus, and lose all efficiency when you change to a different ship (meaning the computer core requirement doesn't matter because you'll need Kerbals there anyway to fix it), makes me think it's not worth the effort. Sounds like the only way they'd be worth-while is by sticking an ungodly number of them on a single ship with piles of He4 so that you don't need to run the game at high time acceleration for a stupid amount of time. Which is what I'd call kinda broken, since the science labs handle science gen much more gracefully. It's the Kethane scanning problem in a different form. Anything that must be in-focus for a long period of time acceleration, to the exclusion of all else, isn't really all that helpful if you want to manage more than one mission at a time.

The problem with changing focus on the telescopes was fixed in 0.11.

[JimTheDog]

As I understand it, you don't need a science lab for the deep field survey, only the direct planetary observation mission. I haven't really used them though. The fact that the wiki says they pretty much don't work when not the ship in focus, and lose all efficiency when you change to a different ship (meaning the computer core requirement doesn't matter because you'll need Kerbals there anyway to fix it), makes me think it's not worth the effort. Sounds like the only way they'd be worth-while is by sticking an ungodly number of them on a single ship with piles of He4 so that you don't need to run the game at high time acceleration for a stupid amount of time. Which is what I'd call kinda broken, since the science labs handle science gen much more gracefully. It's the Kethane scanning problem in a different form. Anything that must be in-focus for a long period of time acceleration, to the exclusion of all else, isn't really all that helpful if you want to manage more than one mission at a time.

Yeah. I'm having a lot of trouble with getting The deep field survey to work out. It'd be nice as something to launch early on and leave it going in the background until more advanced science options, like the direct planetary observation mission, but I just can't get it to work like that.

[JimTheDog]

The problem with changing focus on the telescopes was fixed in 0.11.

Are you sure? I can't get a basic IR telescope (Dish + Helium + Stayputnik + Power) to do science for me while I'm not looking at it.

[lenain27]

You should update to the latest version, the current version should have fixed this issue.

Thx !

But still the same final issue, fusion reactor is disabled when I come back from space center. After more tests, it seems reactor is deactivated only when focused again (a ground microwave receiver confirm it)

Maintaining ThermalPower locked has no effect, nor Megajoules on generators.

Bah. I thought that I could bring back fission reactor to Kerbin. I'll do it when I'll dock another complex on the station.

[TinyPirate]

Guys, I love this mod, but I'm lost on the engines. I've unlocked four in career mode and while I understand the principle (reactor, generator, engine, odd fuel) I can't figure out which engine suits which kind of craft and what kind of use. Yes, I've read the wiki and I can see the engine stats... they just don't mean much to me. Does anyone know of any good YT videos or writeups where people are using Interstellar engines and explain their logic, etc? Ta guys.

[NeoAcario]

Guys, I love this mod, but I'm lost on the engines. I've unlocked four in career mode and while I understand the principle (reactor, generator, engine, odd fuel) I can't figure out which engine suits which kind of craft and what kind of use. Yes, I've read the wiki and I can see the engine stats... they just don't mean much to me. Does anyone know of any good YT videos or writeups where people are using Interstellar engines and explain their logic, etc? Ta guys.

It's all about Thrust to Weight and how much you need. Doing orbital maneuvers? You need/want high ISP. Take off and landing vertically? You want/need high thrust. These are all the same KSP principles... where SPECIFICALLY are you confused? Don't be afraid to ask very specific questions on here. We do try our very best to be helpful and have a very friendly 1/2 dozen or so here that do just that.

~Steve

postscript

Ultimately you want something like what I did for my KSP Interstellar Grand Tour (link in sig): Upgraded Antimatter Reactors + Thermal Nozzle for vertical take off and landing, and Plasma with Vacuum upgrade for orbital maneuvers.

Edited April 16, 2014 by NeoAcario

[mdapol]

I have a suggestion: add antimatter thrusters. make em powerful, yet very energy and antimatter consuming to balance it out.

Both KSPI and remote tech are working in 0.23.5. At least they are for me. Did you download the Remote Tech update?

[phoenix_ca]

The problem with changing focus on the telescopes was fixed in 0.11.

Thanks for pointing that out then. Please consider updating the wiki so it isn't misleading.

@Jim: What about the placement of the parts? As I understand it, the cryostat that supplies the IR telescope must be connected directly to it (node-on-node). Manual balancing or something like TAC field balanced are required if you want to use multiple tanks.

Edit: Sorry you said "while not looking at it". Haven't got a clue then. Something must be up if it's not working but fractal says it should. >.<

Edited April 16, 2014 by phoenix_ca

[JimTheDog]

Yeah, definitely have it running -- I had a delivery mission to add telescopes to an orbiting lab go slightly wrong (the cryostats killed the tug's power supply, since it didn't have a reactor but the delivery machine did, and with no reaction wheels an uneven weight is impossible for me to handle) and as a result I had four individual telescopes in-situ hooked up to a nuclear reactor enabled transfer vehicle. I could switch on two, leave the other two off, and watch the helium drain. Alas, no research results I could see.

[Videogama]

So, any chance of us getting some sort of inverter semi-soon? Converting DC to AC has long been a thing people gripe about in this thread, and being able to do so directly would certainly make Scott Manley's current mission less tedious.

[Donziboy2]

So, any chance of us getting some sort of inverter semi-soon? Converting DC to AC has long been a thing people gripe about in this thread, and being able to do so directly would certainly make Scott Manley's current mission less tedious.

3 pages ago

I will say that since im in the inverter industry that I would like to see an actual part instead of magic but I am a dreamer lol.

[Videogama]

The gods rectroactively answered my prayer!

...or something. I'll take it XD

[WaveFunctionP]

So, any chance of us getting some sort of inverter semi-soon? Converting DC to AC has long been a thing people gripe about in this thread, and being able to do so directly would certainly make Scott Manley's current mission less tedious.

An inverter has nothing to do with his problems.

Fractal already has a solution to Manley's problem. But it would help if manley would read the wiki. He gets a lot of stuff wrong. Not the least of which is complaining about solar power stations manuvers, when he could simply launch more reactors into orbit instead. Not to mention that waste of time he spends sending up radiators for marginal power gains.