Angelo Kerman

Thank you much for this information! This will definitely help me on my quest to get a working active radiator.

Oh very cool, thank you. that is a piece of the puzzle. My mod already uses the Stefan-Boltzmann law and calculates the temperature increase based on specific heat and mass of the working fluid. Now I just need to know what values ksp uses for specific heat and the mass of the working fluid. I suspect that the mass is just the current mass of the part itself, plus any contained resources. If I can get the heat stored in the part, then I know by how much to adjust its temperature when I transfer that heat to my radiators. I think there was a thermal mass modifier field too. So many questions...

I'm in the process of studying the new heat mechanics and have lots of questions myself, because I want my DSEV radiators to be active. I define that as transferring heat from the various parts into the radiators themselves, and relying on the game's new blackbody shader to make them glow. I have some ideas on how to transfer heat but need help to know what the parameters mean, like thermalMass and radiativeArea. If the stock game uses the Stefan-Boltzmann law then I need a few parameters to calculate how much heat to transfer to the radator, such as the heat capacity of the working fluid. Definitely a work in progress for my mod, and I am just getting started.

Awesome, thank you much! It was a fun challenge, and a welcome break for modding. I look forward flying the latest shuttle once it's ready. My next challenge, after I get my mods stable, is to write a launch control program for kOS and STS.

During a break in modding to play 0.90 before 1.0, I took the STS Challenge by Inigma- and created an episodic story around it! I learned quite a bit about creating videos with KSP, in the process. I have much more to learn, but I thought you'd enjoy these: Episode One: New Beginnings Episode Two: Training Day Episode Three: Flight of the Falcon

Absolutely guaranteed to break. It will take me a couple of weeks to update Multipurpose Colony Modules.

I am sure this has been discussed before, but why do all resources except stock LFO assume 1L units while stock LFO appears to be 5L units? Or did stock tanks not really standardize their fuel volumes? Trying to understand the standard unit sizes since with 1L units the tanks I made hold a lot more stuff now...

Sad to see that the existing design is having issues in 1.0, but no doubt Inigma can figure out a solution. I did manage to complete my challenge before 1.0 though. Was a welcome change from building mods. Final episode of STS:

just a heads up, with 1.0 released, the next update to DSEV will be 1.0 compatible and save breaking. Be sure to retire any vessels you have in flight.

Blender? Ugh. I have to resize everything, I work with 3DS Max. Oh well, I'll probably end up resizing the tanks I made. But I might still be able to help with the engine, sounds like they just need their "tank butts" removed?

@sarbin: What format are the engine files in? I need 3.75m fuel tanks for DSEV, and I like the ones in tthis mod. Perhaps we could work a trade?

Do I understand correctly that this new rework along with the reworked parts will become the standard release once 1.0 is released? I really like what the IR rework team has done!

I watched DasValdez play with this mod the other day and holy moly it looked fun! I think it would be fun to combine it with kOS and the new 22.5km physics limit to create battle bots.. Kind of like that old RobotWars video game.

It was 35k in the paper because the thrust was so low, about 68kn. In the NASA paper, the engine is designed to run continuously. The ship flips around mid way to slow down. Since KSP doesn't let you do that very well (it would require many hours of boredom) I chose to increase the thrust and decrease the ISP in the interests of gameplay. My test craft, with four 3.75m liquid hydrogen tanks from NFT, gets something like 56k delta-v. You can go anywhere in the kerbol system and back with that much delta-v. If that isn't enough though, the engine performance is done through config files, so you can easily change it to your liking. My other idea I am toying with is an ArcJet based engine. Basically, take nine of the RCS thrusters and cluster them together. You'd get a paltry 10.8kn of thrust and you'd eat through 1,350ec/sec, but it might be useful in some situations.

Wow, that's quite the list! Thanks for putting that together. Based on my vision for the mod though, the Supernova is the best engine offered. The next engine I do will offer performance in between the Supernova and the NERVA (what we knew as the LV-N, which now burns liquid fuel only, apparently). The Trinity NSWR motor would be too overpowered, so the Triton, with its high-thrust mode that's a step behind the Mainsail and consumes LFO, and its low-thrust mode that is liquid fuel only but is still more thrust than the Nerva, should fit the bill. I also want to make a 0.625m mini-nuke that can be stacked or radially attached. Hm... that might be a reason to redo the nuclear aerospike... They will have to wait though, I'm still working on refining the existing parts. This weekend I tossed out the existing heat management system and abstracted it in the interests of game play. You still have to worry about overheating, but for the time being it won't be tied to part temperature (at least until I see how 1.0 affects temperature). Oh, and the mod now gives you a custom part category, and the ArcJet RCS thrusters are fixed, and the Supernova and fusion reactor remember their last state. So pretty much the mod is ready for 1.0, and just needs an update to ModuleManager and InfernalRobotics.

Wow, thanks for the video! I've added it to the first post. Looks great!

I love PorkJet's engines and his Atomic Rockets mod is way cool. But the two mods won't be merging. That said, DSEV will work alongside Atomic Rockets if installed.

Finally finished up editing of the third episode of STS. Here is the entire series: Episode One: New Beginnings Episode Two: Training Day Episode Three: Flight of the Falcon It was a lot of fun to do the challenge, and I learned a lot in the process. The station construction missions are the last four flights in Episode Three. Thanks for making such a great shuttle, Inigma, and for the challenge. I look forward to what you create for 1.0. Edit: I am reading kOS and it is prettry interesting. As a professional software developer and mod creator I think ithat it would be an interesting challenge to write a launch program for the STS once the design is established for 1.0.

Looks neat! Looking forward to playing with KIS in the new release. Would love to see that 20,000L container under the sea...

I believe the thrust limiter currently just limits thrust, not isp. It definitely won't affect delta-v. However, 1.0 will apparently affect isp based on thrust. Not sure about tthat, but next week is bringing a lot of changes to the game.

Just a heads up that I found an issue late last night with mixing large and small radiators on the same craft and running the Supernova. I should have a fix later this week. If I don't then for now, don't mix the two radiators. edit: due to the major changes coming in 1.0, I'm simplifying the heat management system so that radiators won't explode. It will be ready after 1.0 releases.

Thanks. If I can come up with something that fits game-wise then I'll add it in. It has to be good but not overshadow the Supernova. Meanwhile, I've created a new release. Get the latest here. 0.3.15: Moar Thrusters - Improved engine thrust on the Supernova. Hydrogen mode thrust has been increased to 900, up from 600. Pulsed Plasma mode is now 650, up from 150. - Supernova now consumes fewer FusionPellets when idling. - WB-2 reactor will start idling when its EC resource is full. When idling, it consumes fewer pellets. - The WB-2 reactor shows how much EC it produces when running. - Added the RT-5 ArcJet RCS Thruster. It offers RCS thrust in 5 directions for more epicness. - Reduced the thrust power on the ArcJet RCS thrusters to 1.2kn (half what it was before and more in line with stock RCS). - ArcJets require 150 EC/sec. - The ArcJet RCS thrusters can be started, stopped, and toggled through Action Groups. - Added the WBR-12M Radiator, a small radiator for the fusion reactor. It needs more artwork but it is functional. - Radiators now measure in terms of Celsius © instead of speed of light ©. It's still better than negative Kelvin...

Get the latest here. - Added the FLM-100 radial storage tank. It slipped into the last update, so it's now officially ready for use. - Deprecated the WB-120 radial fusion pellet tank. - Removed the SpareParts storage template. Fixing DSEV vessels will require RocketParts (which, if you have Extraplanetary Launchpads, can be used to build rockets). - Fixed an issue where the ArcJet RCS would still act like it is firing even when disabled. - Fixed an issue where the HexPort allowed you to toggle the vestibule while in flight. - Fixed an issue where the double hex truss allowed you to toggle the center vestibule while in flight.

Sneak peak at the next episode: Now to fly the remaining missions!

The pulsed plasma mode of the Supernova, with its really high ISP, definitely could fill the role of the antiproton-catalyzed fusion drive. I plan to make it a field-upgraded option that requires RocketParts and some science, and is done on a per-engine basis. Perhaps a further upgrade would boost the engine's thrust in pulsed-plasma mode. I'll think on the radial VTOL drive, and add it to my list of potential parts for the mod.