KSP Interstellar mod: ISRU Refinery?

[MrOnak]

Err... can anyone please put a screenshot of the ISRU Refinery from the Interstellar mod being deployed on the surface of any planet / moon up? I can't really seem to figure out how to combine it with other parts to make it into something useful. The issue is not what the refinery does, its more how to connect it...

Thanks a ton in advance

[Taki117]

Check out this

[merendel]

This is one way, basicly you use the refinery as the root part of the vessle and build the rocket below it. Only really useful for a single refinery setup.

The other way is to use radial attachment points around a regular rocket and attach the small nodes of the ISRU to those points. This is really the only effective way to use multipules on the same craft. a useful trick if you go the multi rout is put landing legs on the refinerys and build the rocket in such a way as they are supporting a good chunk of the rockets weight while landed (extra legs supporting the core of the rocket if its heavy) Scott basicly uses this method in the video posted above with the added twist of useing Infernal robotics to make them fold away instead of attaching directly to the radial points.

[MrOnak]

Yeah I found his video later that night... not too sure whether I want to add infernal robotics to my current career at the moment though . I was fiddling with the ISRU in the VAB some more today and it seems that the big bottom attachment point is unusable when the ISRU is not the root object? That'd be a shame, really since I figured out a semi-large (by my standards anyway) station to deploy on Minmus. Not 100% convinced it will survive the deceleration but since its Minmus we're talking about it probably will.

I like your design by the way merendel, seems very compact.

I'll post a pic of my station if it makes it to Minmus' surface in one piece.

[merendel]

The issue with the refinery stems from a limitation of KSP itself. To put it simply it does not play nice with attachment nodes that are not in a strait line. If the 2 primary nodes are in a strait line like most stack based parts (fuel tanks and such) it will happily attach to either when you place a part. However if there are also nodes at 90 degree angles from the primary one it wont let you attach to them as you are initially placing the part. In effect only 1 of those two nodes in that configuration would work as the first attach point even though you could attach to the other once place. Folks voted on the thread when it was introduced which node they wanted the primary and the consensus was to make the small one the primary as otherwise it was useless as anything but a place to dock a small ship. Personaly I wish 2 had been added, 1 with the alternate configuration to make some designs easier.

[MrOnak]

Ah that makes a lot of sense actually, thanks for clarifying this

[MrOnak]

Hooray it worked. Despite 0.7s signal delay curtesy of RemoteTech I managed to land the sucker in one piece.

Mining water works, but for some reason electrolysis is using up the water but doesn't put fuel / oxydiser into the storage tank. there's just two docking ports between the refineries and the fuel tank. Oh well, I'll send some kerbals up there and see what KAS can do to fix that.

[Flip665]

Yeah I found his video later that night... not too sure whether I want to add infernal robotics to my current career at the moment though .

when InfernalRobotics gets fixed, itll be going right back into my gamedata... its a must have IMO... since I haven't used any refineries yet (except kethane, which got the axe from my gamedata for no particular reason) I was wondering exactly how you know where to put them?? i.e. the kethane scanner, is there a way to detect deposits in the ground or is the .cfg just wash the whole planet in aluminum or what ever resource you want??

[MrOnak]

I just landed in the Minmus flats, hoping for the best. The refinery in the picture was sent purely to convert water into liquid fuel / oxidiser so that was successful. Where I landed there is indeed some water to be mined. Not sure whether I got lucky or it is evenly spread. didn't check the files beforehand.

I have a similar albeit robotic refinery on Minmus with the purpose of mining Uranium to get UF4. That one has the Gamma Ray Spectrometer on board so I can see the uranium pockets. I almost managed to land inside one of the bubbles but even next to it there is some Uranium. Not sure how much higher the concentration is inside the bubble but I'm not going to attempt landing this top heavy son of a preacherman again

As for the other resources, I don't have a need for them yet so I can't really comment on that.