[1.1.3] MunSeeker Mk1 Greenhouse (TAC Life Support add-on)

[munseeker]

As a part of hydroponic power requirements comes from lighting, and the greenhouse has rather large windows, would it be possible and reasonable to have the part's sun exposure reduce power requirements?

Off the top of my head the easiest way to do this would to add solar panel code to the part, have the solar panel function linked to the part's operational state, and have the max electricity generated be a fraction of the part's power requirements.

Yes, you are correct that the windows should sure make a difference whenever the sun shines on them. I'd originally played with that idea, but I could not get the part.cfg right to make that work. I think linking the solar panel code to the operational state was where I didn't know how to do it. Any suggestions or code snippets are welcome. :-)

[Secuas]

Hey Munseeker,

I'd love to see your mod on CKAN! Other than that awsome work ^^

[munseeker]

Hey Munseeker,

I'd love to see your mod on CKAN! Other than that awsome work ^^

Thanks! Glad you like it. Please post some screenshots if you get the greenhouse into a cool location.

[Vahal]

Greatings from Freyja Mothership!

[WuphonsReach]

Taurus Station (partly constructed), uses a pair of MunSeeker greenhouses to extend life support supplies.

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[munseeker]

Vahal & WuphonsReach: Thank you so much for sharing - these are fantastic craft. Makes me happy to see you getting something out of the greenhouse.

[Vahal]

And thank you for making this VERY useful part. I tried myself to "mod" and long story short, I suck at modding so I'm happy some ppl do the job I can't and do it nicely. I just had to train my kerbals to eat vegetable instead only snacks... Very, very difficult and sometime deadlier than 5km/s reentry with DRE.

[WuphonsReach]

For balance purposes, the greenhouse should be have a lot less mass when launched. It's the same issue as the TAC-LS recycler parts, they mass too much compared to what they do which makes them useless except for the missions to Eeloo/Jool/Dres (3000+ days).

My personal preference would be for them to weigh the same as the Cupola pod (1.8012t) instead of the 6.0297t. I would suggest lighter, but by matching the Cupola mass it makes it easier to put a Cupola on one side and the greenhouse on the other for a VAB launch vehicle and still have it balanced.

[munseeker]

For balance purposes, the greenhouse should be have a lot less mass when launched.

Thanks for the comments! I intentionally raised the weight and energy consumption to the current levels for gameplay purposes. I typically build large stations and bases and I enjoy having to work close to the edge of what my lifters can carry (well… or not). The greenhouse is very useful for long-term missions and permanent stations, but it is SO useful that I wanted to make it very hard to achieve.

Purely from a practical in-game storytelling standpoint, the greenhouse uses the same framework as the cupola, but contains the necessary plumbing, tanks and soil to support plant growth. Those machines and the weight of the biomass and soil would make the greenhouse always heavier as the - essentially empty - cupola.

[Mapoko]

I have 1 request : Can you please remove the crew slot or work on IVA or maybe increased productivity when there is kerbal inside ?

I lost a kerbal's whereabouts not once due to the crew slot inthere.

[munseeker]

Here's some new pictures of the Mk1 Greenhouse as part of a station around Duna.

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[rockowwc]

Just found this.. will have to add it to my mods tonight to use on non OKS/MKS stations to extend the times between resupply missions..

[Cairan]

Great, I was looking for something like this for small outposts... MKS/OKS is great but sometimes you just need to stretch it a little for base camps...

[munseeker]

Fixed the attachment points for KSP 1.0x, changes are live on GitHub.

[EmpCris]

Great, I like Greenhouse

[Vahal]

Yech!

[GPride]

Does this work with OKS/MKS?

[munseeker]

GPride said:

Does this work with OKS/MKS?

I've never used that, so I'm not sure how it would integrate. The greenhouse was specifically made to work with TAC LS - if TAC LS works with OKS/MKS, then this greenhouse will, too.

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Via a post at the TAC LS thread I just found this TAC LS mining mod, which integrates both with TAC LS and the MunSeeker Greenhouse! I haven't tried it myself yet since I'm advancing slowly through a career game, but if you try it and it works please let me know here in the thread. Thanks!

TAC LS Mining mod: [removed link to defunct website]

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Here is the KSP Forum post for the TAC LS Mining mod that also integrates with this greenhouse: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/121185-TACLS-Mining-%28addon-to-TAC-LS%29

[StevenJ]

munseeker said:

I've never used that, so I'm not sure how it would integrate. The greenhouse was specifically made to work with TAC LS - if TAC LS works with OKS/MKS, then this greenhouse will, too.

- - - Updated - - -

Via a post at the TAC LS thread I just found this TAC LS mining mod, which integrates both with TAC LS and the MunSeeker Greenhouse! I haven't tried it myself yet since I'm advancing slowly through a career game, but if you try it and it works please let me know here in the thread. Thanks!

TAC LS Mining mod: [removed link to defunct website]

- - - Updated - - -

Here is the KSP Forum post for the TAC LS Mining mod that also integrates with this greenhouse: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/121185-TACLS-Mining-%28addon-to-TAC-LS%29

I wrote TACLS Mining, I wrote it specifically to work for your mod and TACLS for simple self sustaining colonies to avoid having to install MKS OKS. Don't get me wrong Roverdude, if you read this, I love your work but MKS OKS is a bit big. The idea with TACLS mining was to just use the ISRU to mine for clean and waste resources for TACLS and your greenhouse. It's very simple. It just lets you convert ore to waste, waste water, and co2 which are the inputs for your greenhouse. That's it, very straight forward and you can mine for oxygen and water for tacls. I called the function biomass for waste but it still just mines waste as a resource which is one of the three inputs for your module.

[TrooperCooper]

Thank you for the mod!

I have been putting these on several of my vessels. But for some reason I realized, that my food consumption was still pretty high.

Now I have been running a few tests with this part. And it seems like it does in fact increase all my TAC life support consumption rates.

Compare the following images. These two basically identical crafts (except for the greenhouse) have been spending almost exactly 100 (earth-)days in space, orbiting around Kerbin in a KCT-simulation. The game focus was on another object during that time and the greenhouse was activated.

The ship with the greenhouse consumed 209 food, 135 water and 34090 oxygen.

The ship without a greenhouse consumed 147 food, 97 water and 14804 oxygen.

Am I the only one experiencing such problems? Or is Jeb more hungy than Val?

[munseeker]

Thank you for the mod!

Compare the following images. These two basically identical crafts (except for the greenhouse) have been spending almost exactly 100 (earth-)days in space, orbiting around Kerbin in a KCT-simulation. The game focus was on another object during that time and the greenhouse was activated.

The ship with the greenhouse consumed 209 food, 135 water and 34090 oxygen.

The ship without a greenhouse consumed 147 food, 97 water and 14804 oxygen.

Am I the only one experiencing such problems? Or is Jeb more hungy than Val?

First thanks for the kind words!

Hmm... Not sure what's going on there - I just now ran a similar test to yours. I used a large TAC container for three kerbals in two otherwise identical crafts, one with the cupola, one with the greenhouse. After two years, the one with the cupola was down to 88 days for all supplies, the three kerbals with the greenhouse still had 240 days food, 466 days water and 116 days oxygen.

My guess is that this is an interaction with another mod and TAC LS and this might generally impact your TAC LS numbers.

Here's an album with my two craft and the TAC LS status after two years:

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[A_Burnt_Rodent]

Is there any way to get this to work with Vens Stock Revamp? There is no option to open the window shutters (also the flag decal is a plain grey square).

[munseeker]

Is there any way to get this to work with Vens Stock Revamp? There is no option to open the window shutters (also the flag decal is a plain grey square).

If that mod changes how the stock cupola works, this will probably break my mod, since I use the cupola model. I'm afraid I won't be able to support that since it would probably mean to create an extra texture set. Sorry!

[A_Burnt_Rodent]

Ok, thanks for the reply.

[munseeker]

Tested against KSP 1.0.5, works as it did before with the latest TAC LS (ignore the TAC LS version error on load).