Dollehz

Can someone explain the physics behind the nuclear LIGHTBULB? If you increase thrust (increase the propellant mass flow) with the thrust the ISP and thrust increase. However when increasing the mass flow with the slider, thrust increases and ISP decreases.

Okay makes sense, so the part information is an approximation of the values you can expect. I understand the actual figures are a bit more complex. Do you have any formula for the thrust like there is for ISP? Is it related to the reactors power output? Linear, exponential,.. ?

Need some help with some numbers here. So, i't trying to figure out my thrust and ISP for a reactor with a thermal nozzle. I know these values are displayed in the VAB but i'm trying to fully understand this mod and I came across a lot of values that didn't make any sense. So in my example we combine a pebble bed with a thermal rocket nozzle; look up the numbers; make some calculations and identify some bugs. Reading the parts info I get Pebble bed: Thermal nozzle Performance: 797.6kN @ 1150s. Great found what i was looking for! Thermal nozzle: Thrust 138.889 kN - 500.0 kN @ 200s - 720s. Now wait these are completely different numbers.. Let's right click the engine: But wait there is that whole list of formulas Lets try another fuel type, let's take Hydrazine Now what about calculating Thrust and min ISP? If any of my reasoning / math is wrong, please let know. TLDR;

Found the problem, the ISRU refrigerator consumes power even though it's not doing anything. Forgot to turn of my lqd methane -> methane conversion (user error). Setting the slider to 0 fixed the problem. Weird part is there was no lqd methane left but the ISRU kept draining power, don't know if it's suppose to do so.

No, not running Kerbalism, I'll try the link.

Found a weird problem, I know it has been discussed before, but I couldn't find a conclusive answer. The DC Electrical system seems to create an infinite consumption of power My space station has been in space for years without having any problems used power is easily refilled within seconds. Now I used up all its MJ and somehow its not able to recover. As you can see the Current Supply of 487 KW should be enough to cover the demand of 80.1 KW and recharge my MJ To my understanding the DC electrical system is somehow related to the required power to fill the MegaJoules back to 100% and can generally be ignored, as confusing as it is. However in this case nothing is recharging (not EC not MJ not KW) all 3 remain at 0, yet something is consuming all the power. Even with everything turned off (0 consumption) DC Electrical System uses all my energy to do nothing. Am I missing something?

Found this bug to also affect the other nuclear engines (LANTR, liquid core reactor engine, etc.) Rescaling messes up the numbers, re-attaching the part fixes the numbers for the current size. When rescaling numbers mess up again This happens when changing scale either up or down

Well aside from the extra protection the inside is a cooled bag of fuel just like the other tanks so why can I not fill it with whatever i want? Maybe you can slightly reduce the volume of the tank compared to the others as trade-off. The extra protection takes up space. Imagine tank 2 vs tank 3, same size Tank 3 is a pure fuel tank, everything you see is filled with fuel Tank 2 is a protected fuel tank, so some of the size of the tank is protection -> less fuel than Tank 3

Well, the possibilities are endless with this mod. With my limited knowledge i'd say add them all (except the radioactive stuff) You said the fuel tanks can not be switched, so when making an SSTO that has to land on several planets and mine for fuel, the selection of fuel will depend on the available resources on the planets. Having many options will make selection of fuel type easier. Any reason why Tank 2 supports less types of fuel as the others?

Main issue with Tank 2 is that its the only atmosphere 'friendly' fuel tank. So when making a craft that is planned to be used in atmo, fuel options become pretty limited. Imagine an SSTO bound for Duna planning to scoop the high CO2 in the atmosphere and use it as propellant. You can't use the Tank 2. Correct me if i'm wrong but shouldn't tank 2 be the same as tank 3 & 4, except tank 2 supports dual configurations and has extra protection? I imagine tank 2 to be the same as tank 3/4 but with a protecting cover.

Question: What's the reason all types of fuel tanks support different types of fuel? I understand some differences but others seem very odd. For example: 1st tank, supports some IFS cryogenic fuels, others not. 2nd tank supports some unique combinations, but many fuels are 'missing'. eg. combining Kerosene + lqd Oxygen is possible, using only Kerosene is not. The 3th and 4th tank are mostly the same except some fuels. 3th tank: Diborane, 4th tank: lqd Diborane (naming issue only I think) 3th tank does not support lqd Nitrogen-14 while 4th tank does not support regular ldq Nitrogen 5th tank supports lqd water and drinking water, other tanks support lqd water but not drinking water 5th tank: lqd Helium-3 lqd Helium-4, no normal Helium etc.. Also: 1) Don't know if it has been reported/is known but the pop-up menu's are click through, same for the engines propellant menu 2) Some engines (electrical/RCS) do not have the propellant menu

@FreeThinker i'm afraid the resizing bug has not been fixed completely 1) New parts, all OK 2) reducing size, difference in thrust 3) increasing size to original size, difference in thrust When removing and re-attaching the nozzle, thrust is shown correctly.

Found a bug, something goes wrong when adjusting the size of an exhaust connected to a reactor. (pay attention to the thrust) 1) Newly made, nothing wrong here 2) After changing the scale and going back to the original: The thrust in the engine pop-up remained the same however actual thrust is a lot higher 3) Also, weird stuff happens when removing and reattaching the engine BEFORE AFTER Doesn't look normal for a molten salt reactor and a tiny engine to have a thrust this high. Changing the size of the reactor also creates inconsistencies.

That clears things up. How will i know the theoretical max of 8% will be of only 75kW. In other words, were can I find the info that 75kW of the 300MW will be used for power conversion, and How can I know how much of the theoretical max 8% will get? Basically is there a way to know/calculate the actual elec power provided by the engine in the VAB

So how can I know only 0,25% of power wil be used for electricity? And why will it be converted with an efficiency of 6.5% while it states 8%?

Can someone help me out to figure out how much electrical power I can expect from my engine. In the VAB the info states total power = 300MW It also states that 8% is used for electrical power (24MW) In flight the numbers are totally different. I only get 4.9KW out of the generator. The engine gives 300MW Of these 300MW, 75KW goes to the LANTR (elec generator?) Then only 4.9KW of power is available. (6.5% of 75KW) Am I missing something here?

@FreeThinker Found a strange bug. When quicksaving and reloading my engines stopped working giving a NaN temperature. This problem only occurs when combining several nuclear engines. I've only been able to recreate this problem using 2 liquid core engines combined with 2 Candle engines. EDIT: Same problem occurs with 1 Liquid core engine combined with 1 Candle engine Strangely when I shutdown the reactors everything works again at a fixed ISP (should be changing depending on thrust for the liquid core engines) The before save/load and after screenshots: following errors keep repeating:

@FreeThinker I'm having the exact same problem as flyguybc. The 'Tory Nuclear Ramjet' and the 'Direct Cycle Nuclear Turbojet' are affected in the same way. Any fuel type, any craft, once you activate the engine weird stuff happens.

Question: Having some issues with the Candle engine. The engine gimbal is not working in the Yaw axis. Is this working as intended? Thanks