2nwyka

The ISRU is effectively a heater, as KerikBalm has mentioned. For my first attempt I built a mining ship based around a MK3 component set with, from bow to stern, a MK3 cockpit, monopropellant tank, large cargo bay, small cargo bay, long rocket fuel fuselage, and a Skipper. I nestled one inside of a MK3 cargo bay and shielded it as best I could with both dead space and engines. I was able to run it producing monopropellant for nearly an hour (compressed) before it began to finally heat up. It took a while for it to cool back down. Keep it out of the sun and it will produce fuel longer. Solar panels can function as radiators, but I've only found them to work like that while they're shaded. I put four XL Arrays spaced around the MK3 fuselage and rolled the ship around to shade them and they tended to cool off the ISRU faster than when they were fully exposed. After having played 0.23 and 0.91 for so long this new realistic heat engine is taking some getting used to.