AntaresMC

I got highly inspired , but the greatest differences is that there is actually only 1 resource, and you recycle it in 2 different ways at the same time. And self sufficiency is actually possible. Also the hab is not a timer but a multiplier to give an incentive to not cram a gazillion kerbals on a 10y trip... Note: USI LS is horrible without MKS, lacks any possible way to recover fertilizer or hab time, and no workaround .

Interesting! I designed a KS system that is super easy to be closed loop, but gets exponentially more difficult the more non LS people you have. There are 2 cycles, snacks-waste, a time limiter to kerbals working at all, with recyclers, that cut food usage by 1/4 and 1/2 if 5star engineer on board and greenhouses that turn 1waste into 1/4 snacks ans 1/2 if lvl5 scientist. Pilots have an ability to share LS in 2km and manually move resources in that distance, for balance and ease of colonizing. There's also space, that is a limiter to the efficiency of kerbals at work. Each kerbal uses 1 space, each empty seat gives 1, cupoulas multiply by 3/2 capped at 1 to all crew, dont stack. Efficiency=1-1/space)×stars×cupoula. So a hichiker+can+cupoula+recycler for 2+agroponics for 2 is self sufficient. To compensate for the exponential difficulty curve if let non LS prsonnel in, you can duplicate waste by adding an equal mass of ore and another equal of water (also propose a fuel system, ask if interested or this post will be infinite) in a lab/converter, making it net positive, and making this difficulty curve flat (not as Kerbin, but as a straight line) in big fully equiped surface bases, but a pain in orbit, encouraging to build more ISRU bases and less stranded OP labs in the middle of nowhere picking up tons of cheap science from Mun... as there's so easy recycling, its turnable off and all capsules have supplies to a week full (they'd be filled in a 1/3 basis to allow 100% eff) so 3 weeks, there is no grace periond (in practice is 3 weeks, but u can remove it or something..). Kerbals can be on EVA as much as they (or you) want if in 2Km of the vessel, using its LS, if not there are upgrades in tech tree (KSPIE style) to improve EVA time, that dont recharges until again in the ship. The first week space dont matter.

Ok, got new favourite nuke (was the NSW, but its new design...)

I say its a useless pain in the ass for devs in a KSP like setting. Also there are loads of easy tricks to be solo on a MP server, yea, would suck, but dont worry... WTH are this numbers!?

Is there any way to change exhaust depending on propellant? I love purple-white H+ engine plumes, but I miss it in some rockets... Also (offtopic) Im taking seriously the degenerate stuff, actually working on a metastable tank, with a sane mass ratio, normal electric charge usage and crossfeed, but cant hold it permanenly, slowly loosing udD (in dust, not blobs this time) and turning to WasteHeat, if loses all lHe or WasteHeat goes to top, explodes as a nuke!

Unforced things are always welcome in super-sandboxes like KSP, force a thing aint good... Forced MP makes no sense, actually is counter productive for devs (free extra work) and players (less liberty) Some kind of optional life support, that dont have permanent consequeces (as snacks or USI, just deactivate kerbals) or efficiency penalizations for not bringing enough space/electricity may be a clever nerf to labs and even "force" you to have a payload cap for training SSTOs (its often silly the so OP they are). A non invasive one like this: you have snacks, if your kerbals dont eat'em, dont work, also need EC. With engineer and recyclers reduce its usage, with scientist and agros you recycle the poop (just a few parts to selfsufficiency). The more space they have the better they work, cupoulas help. Some details and the numbers I posted in a long post about KSP2 simplicity, its meant to not punish for having more kerbals but more "useless" ones, that dont produce LS so its more difficult to have an extra 2sci 1pil for a lab, but not a manned long range SSTO with only 2 crews and a bot... AND OPTIONAL!!

But do you know how boring is that kinda grinding? Simple solution is to make stlide down science rewards and prohibit yourself from taking KSC science. You can perfectly unlock perts to go to Ike, Gilly an plantes' flybyes. Planes do well for initial science and dont need ions nor nukes, good design or orbital assembly work just fine. Even only a rover with an arm gives huge returns, and thats almost as easy as a moon and back landing (assuming done well dV wise is moreless same). Another solution, this time by Squad is to savagely nerf labs, ground science, reduce general rewards and make a system in where the science earned drops exponentially the closer to kerbin (give 5 science as kickstart for the 1st free tech, so start isnt as boring). Also expand the tech tree, increase overall money costs more in the mid-late game so you may be forced to sell science, an entire branch of the tech tree for reusability or something like that and you are now forced to explore at least an extra system. Also remove science earnings from contracts.

Ok, a really kerbal engine: This is not a definitive design, just a sketch, and if I knew of CGI would make an actual model. The shock absorbers are Orion style at least. Note that we are burning a lot of tens of Kg of fusion fuel each pulse, and a pulse more than once per sec is desirable which gives it an astounding thrust power of several TeraWatts! Using dD as fuel is recommended He3 as propellant instead of He4, as it fuses as well, and aneutronically, meaning less heat to our poor engine... Can burn only fusion fuel without propellant, and still gets torchlike thrust. Lets say 1/2Ms probably more (theoretical max around 8e5s). Depending on its pulse rate, so heat cap, so radiators, you can get more or less thust depending on radiative cap and how may Gs you want. If not enough radiators always can, lets say we need more thust than our radiators allow so we inject He propellant. Every superfluid cryo propellant will work. We ignite the pellet by shooting a laser to the pellet. This isnt an IC laser, we only need to heat it up untill around 400K or mabe less to make it do BOOM. There's almost no unburnt fuel less (unless you consider fuel the fusable He3 propellant, as most He3 is unburnt). Also in this example you only get around 104 charges + He prop assuming 2 5m wide tanks (will explain the tanks later). But each charge is like a nuke, not a orion nuke, but one with the yiel of a small thermonuclear weapon. Good fractions of a megaton. If detonated if detonated 400m from the nozzle, will give 1/1600 of its heat, or a 1/16 of a %, but require a 4800× more powerful nozzle, or 1600× if we reduce efficiency by a factor of 20 (unacceptable). So we need distance to reduce heat, closeness for a efficient nozzle, ablator to smooth the heat shock, radiators to cool down between pulses and a lot of thermal mass to withstand the pulse in the first place. Thermal mass: we can use the all mass in the He tank. The more thermal mass the less distance/ablator required. Ablator: extra propellant and the cheapest in terms of mass. Can only withstand so many shots and its hard to replace. The more ablator the less of all but closeness, so a good pick for not so long trips. Radiators: obvious. No one playing KSPIE will doubt. But other cooling is needed as if not there would be too much time between pulses. Distance: the most the nozzle allows you. The more, the less heat but less energy to pick and more to use. Since ignition lasers arent virtually any cost at all, youll can go further than Kerbstein or OPdalus. Closeness: the most heat allows you. Same but inverse to the distance. The nozzle loses power cubed, the heat squared... This is NOT a all in one engine, you'll need another, smaller engine like a kerbstein to do fine ajustments, since this may cancel 1/2Km/s in a blow. Did you think Orion was kerbal? You dont know me. Any questions? Not kerbal enough? Shadow shield, enough shock absorbers and other safety features not included.

Here Im gonna post ideas to try to contain, store and use marbles with hundeds Kg of highly unstable fusion explosives that will waporize your ship unless you burn them quick, slow, cold and pressurized enough. Im talking on seconds, %s od a percent per sec, supercryogenically (the colder the better) and diamond avil pressures SQUARED. Im not material scientist nor astrophisicist bu I wouldn recommend having a white dwarf in your house! Ill try in your ship. Im just a super nerd and its quite at the ege of my understanding, so if Im wrong correct me, as I will be building above previous blocks. Also Im making the best assumptions and assuming the most convenient model: an ultradense supersolid that dont instantly explode provided pressurized and cold enough. I dunno the exact numbers, ax there are little studied (at lest are difficult to find) and all have mostly a different theory when it comes to numbers, so I will let it to game balance to find the answer...

Still want AFFRE to exist and who uses the FFR to power? C'mon! Also the lightbulb and liquid core would do much more if reactors, as they can be really versatille... The thread is done, Degenerate thinggies for KSPIE (and mabe KSP2) Edit: why does the pebble bed use UNx and not UrEn? It makes more sense since you dont need high temp fuel because if melts the CNHf still holds it

Started with a proposal about ultra dense (aka degenerate) deuterium and... I might have started to design seriously...

But the mechanismis arent the same!! In the pebble bed they are enchased in a CNHf alloy (at best), so all CP get thermalized before they get to the reactor itself! In the FFR (that mabe should be an engine, I cant see power gen usages for it... COUGH, AFFRE, COUGH) they are made dust or even gas to make CP scape... Also, do I repost the degenerate stuff there? Im a bit lost

A simple life support system like the one I suggested in a thead about KSP2 complexity, in where you have "snacks" and parts that recover them, needing a few parts, a lvl5 scientist and engineer, a bit of extra seats and a cupoula to be fully self sufficient. This makes not-as-easy the lab thing as, for normal missions, even long range SSTOs its only a few tons les payload cap, but for labs and outposts, that you need kerbals working in non LS, it gets exponentially harder. A resource sharing function with pilots helps it as you can make a small infrastructure to supply your ship, but not just send a rocket with a lab, 2 kerbals a probe core, antenna/solar panes, etc to Mun and let it there. As labs are much more difficult, if you nerf them a bit (making them 10× slower and 1/2 as efficient) you can make a Duna landing as hard and rewarding as a mun orbit lab, making it a good choice gameplay wise, so the go to other worlds is more rewarding but labs give a small flat income while that ultra long Jool mission is going, encouraging synergias as you can work by passive while earn your most by active. Even, a Jool lab may be too costly and long term that is better to do a moho+Jool+Dres (that doesnt exist) landings while a Mun and Gilly surface lab are giving a bit extra.

CP can be thermalyzed, heat cant be converted to work (TD suck, I know). Still weird that PB can give CP in the 1st place

From front to back, if you say your tech level I can give you ideas for the drive/power. D is easy pick on Laythe's oceans, just a water scoop, a lab, an electrolyzer and you are fine. But start with the base (@Jhook777 has good updated ISRU tutorials), then the propulsion He3, well, I recommend going with a bit He3 (from Minmus/Mun) from start, a OCGCNTR (we need a nickname), NSW, should do the trick if not. Take athmo scoops. If have bouyancy mods better, if not, a skim through the athmo with fusion thermal ramjets (or better Z-pinch, but they require He3) or even a base in Jool's "ocean" (there is a dense part where if you make a light/voluminous ship can float stock). For the return trip a capsule with mag nozzle, brachistochrone or along the lines or VASIMR. Beamed power is your friend, make a good hard UV/soft X network and take 6 relay minisats with the main ship. 1 every moon, 2 between Jool and Laythe.

What? And, how a PB reactor give CP? This is weird...

Ok, I said it 1/2 kidding 1/2 not-saying-that, and only referring to the thing that you can only aply 1 layer of chem protection. AR is the best thing in the word, I dont deny it. But with a bit of moving well the fuel some sci-fi materials (its a scifi mod, we can expect graphene composites and nanotubes, I think). Generally when you say "it cant be done" and there's not a scientific law prohibiting directly, theres usually a workaround... I started posting recently because Ive got loads of time and looked interesting, but Ive been reading it and being the most nerdy hard scifi nerd Ive seen. 1st) I started talking in a KSP2 thread, proposing a fuel system and life support specifically made to not complicate the gameplay but deepen it. 2nd) Scientific articles? 99% the info I said is in AR, applied and used to build those sustems I suggested. If you think its wrong or irrelevant please point it out and correct me, last thing I want is to misinformate...

AthomicRockets is wrong, this is just lack of imagination. One word: MeTaMaTeRiAlS More precisely, a few months ago, was confirmed (was hypothesized previously) a wonder called rotated graphene to make a theoretically infinite number of different crystal structures by rotating sheets of graphene, even made a method of production. The thing is that you can make a coating of RG in a specific angle that allows for the required temp resistance, dope 1 layer with anti-oxidizing and the other with anti-reducing dopage, punch random holes in the structure with a proton gun and put a catalyst that will move ions between the 2, pass a small high voltage current to electrolyze it and undo all chem activity and you are done. You can also have 2 coating variants switchable by an engineer. And a nanotube surface, unpermeable to metals but permeable to non metals and put the anti oxidizing below. Then pass propellant trough creating a boundry layer. All this options are the ones I came up while reading/writing the posts, but the thing is that you can add more than 1 layer and move products cleverly. You can also have a secondary neutral prop. that cools and chem protects the walls. Also, WHY NOT PASS THE AIR THROUGH THE FVCK1NG REACTOR!!? Should have to be compressed (pitty thrust) or liquified (refrigerator needed). Even though the posibility is great, youve got that a refrigerator isnt practical and laughable thrust is the last thing you want in a launch. BUT anyway dont make the really common error of lowering Isp, because even though afterburning lowers your Isp, if the extra propellant is free the cost in terms of your own propellant is the same, and gives more thrust, so INCREASES your effective Isp (thats why I use Isp instead of EV, cause EV=eff is only true in perfect vaccum). Also in an aerospike nozzle you cant prevent air from reacting so it would be more like an "athmo bonus" and ON TOP OF THAT an "oxidizing athmo bonus" in Kerbin/Laythe (O2) with reducing props and "reducing athmo bonus" in Jool(H2) and Kerbol if pro enough XD with oxidizing props. Duna's athmo is CO2, neutral. Eve probably has a halogen rich athmo, painting it purple, but in so small concentrations chemjets dont work, there is less ox athmo bonus, but a small bit. The atmo's bonuses would only aplly to areospikes, and neutral/byprop arent affected by chem nature. Chem nature are boosts to Psp, athmo just to thrust, conserving Isp. The possibility of add even more air to afterburn is there, but most will react with air without the need of intakes, so only a small boost in Psp. For a well optimized aerospike its the same Isp jump that would be from a rocket to a jet aprox, a little less. Edit: I prefer to talk in Psp than in Pf because Psp counts all power from the engine, not just the kinetic energy of the propellant. Unfortunately Pf is more used

Im out in the clouds, sorry, I didnt read the VAB part. Why? Why not swich blanket with an EVA engineer when turned off?

Souds cool! The afterburner is using fuel and get extra thrust with air, right? Why? If you can add propellant why not just air alone? Also could change the aerospike to be afterburnable instead of a new one, at the end is quite useless now. Interesting. I suggest fusing the jet and ramjet (more like a tech upgrade that allows to swich mode, like the SR-71, also the TJ model is a bit flatty, the ramjet looks better) and doing the same with the VTOL version, but without upgrade as its unlocked later. The turbo-ramjet thing is not high tech and its superduper easy with thermal jets, as they sont need constant pressure, just a door to open/close. A quick note, redirect the flux from a fusion reactor is probably impossible. For a VTOL engine to work it should rotate around the reactor, but always pointing away from it. Also surface atachable mini thermal turbojets with 360° vectoring would be awesome as control points for big VTOLs. What? Even bigger? Ive been playing KSPIE from a few monts only, and watching from about a year, so I dunno how it was, but have you seen the size of ion engine nozzles? They are CP nozzles as well, and are TINY, and not bell shaped, they rarely are longer than its radious and wider than its hole! Something like this: (for a universal CP nozzle, if specialized can be 1/2 as long) It also makes a good point defense weapon, this design was meant for anti drone/torpedo weapon for the scifi setting Im working on (have to name it), made to work along with lasers, but is basicly a really powerful beam concentrator, so a good nozzle (around .9 eff). Power usage can be reduced by quite a lot if remove that external ring, but lose aroung 10% Isp. May also work as close range, low heat footprint beam power transmitter, even could add ion beam transmitters (really efficient, almost 0 heat footprint, move CP instead of MJ, short range, dont pierce athmo at all) The mechanism. For the low tech nukes, just a heat exchanger. Ive got it for the gas core (a lightbulb like mechanism), the FF (afterburn it with propellant), the tokomak, mag target, MIF, stellerator; a kinda double mag cage where propellant pases trough between the core and the walls. For the other reactors, probably witchery...

I will try to design how thermal nozzles may work, are you interested? Im not gonna play with the AM reactors because the fact that injecting propellant doesnt break them is a miracle. Fusion, will try, but no promises. In fact the GC, FF, and fusion should be all magnetic, as at this temp is all plasma. A small question: the GC fission reactor is closed or open? Because I cant see an OC design with walls and that lotta power output. If closed, Ive got concept (also wouldn be cool if the lightbulb was a reactor with a variant with engines and vectoring and a variant with reactor only? Or mabe just 7 attachment points to put 7 thermal engines). Also loved if had tweakable Isp, the more, the more WasteHeat. The max is around 2000s without radiators on lH2, 3000 is easy with aprox the mass of the engine in radiators or about 4× if brayton cycle, 4000s is possible with a lot of radiators, no brayton. The report assumed metal-graphite rads, graphene may do better. Cant remember how was called but its in the engine list 2 of AthomicRockets)

Are you talking on the ramjet or th Isp curve? If Isp curve, thats a problem because the aerospike and the single part engines are in clear disadvantage. Lower power reactors aint suposed to give thrust and you can improve pressure by afterburning. Its true that of the nukes, only PB is usefull for that, but isnt it intended? NTRs are really low TWR things, at this tech level a chem 1st stage or SRBs is normal, you dont need that everyone can do everything. Also the aerospike should be heavier and lack radiator, same thrust but dont lose Isp with athmo, instead have perfect nozzle eff at any pressure. In fact I cant see use for a bell thermal nozzle unless you are very TWR limited, and with early beam/NTRs you are... The thermal turbojet Id fuse it with the ramjet. The 1 part thermal turbojet, I havent used it since I tested vs the tory. The bell nozzle I dont know if its a cool middle tech solution or redundant. The VTOL nozzle is a bit awkward, some kinda radially atachable thermal nozzle will make life when using it easier. And the mag nozzle is gynormus, scale down it a bit, why is so giant?

The thermal ramjets work like this, Ive never seen a name but hybrid or with gears. There is a small caveat. The smaller the core temp, the smaller is gonna be the thrust per difference of pressure. What that means is that early thermal whateverjets will need a compressed air or onboard fuel to kiclstart off the runway, until they got enough speed. The better its core temp, the less speed. Also the intake no matter if has active compressor or not compress a little, specially the shock cone one, and they are all very heavy, so pure (sc)ramjet intakes cant be. We can assume they are all SR71 like and it eases our life. Here is a good explaination of its intake/engine Edit: I still dont know why the nuclear thermal jet exist at all, its a cool concept, but the Tory is lighter, gives more thrust and you can use a teeny bit of fuel to get up to speed. The only time Id use it is when that awful radial lintake Tory has is too pain in the ass, LET US PUT THE INTAKE WE WANT! (I know its a real world proyect, blalablab, but part cramming exist, if I wanna recreate it, I just turn a bit a cone intake and fuel tank, voilà) AND havent got the pebble bed (besto thing in da worl for nuke jets!)

Butyou can have a SR-71 like intake that have an internal "pump", and when there's enough airflow close a door and rely on ram pressure, but regular ambient pressure should work fine, remember, they dont need a fixed pressure to ignite/keep reactions, air isnt fuel, is just propellant that you can add at any pressure. Yea, pitty thrust, but get going, more pressure, faster, more pressure... Until you takeoff, thats a good balance point as thermal jets would need more runway. A small payoff for infinite fuel

Thermal ramjets (or whateverjets, thet are all the same) work like Tory, they get more thrust the faster they go but never goes to 0 until there's no heatable air. I should can turn it on in runway as soon as I open the intake, it just gives me a thrust equal to the Airflow×(1-Tintake/Texhaust)×NozzleEff, assuming the air isnt compressed anywhere for simplicity . They arent like chem whateverjets that require a fixed pressure to work, just need air thats not hotter than the core.