Fractal_UK

You have to add enough to meet the 7MW demand (for the 1.25m reactor) for a few fractions of a second, I think it's probably 3 frames, so I'd guess in the region of 500 units of ElectricCharge. It looks like your modded solar panels are not loading the Interstellar waste heat module correctly - no waste heat module means no corrected solar power curve so you will see less power than you should. I'm not familiar with those panels though, so I'm not sure why it isn't working, can you look in the .cfg file and see if they use ModuleDeployableSolarPanel? If so, it should work. I've just been exploring this bug and I can't for the life of me figure out why this is happening, it seems to still occur even if I take all of the PartModules out - in other words, remove all the references to my code. This is not a problem that I can solve, unfortunately. Only nodes along the same axis are accessible and the general consensus seemed to be after the previous update was that the side node is more useful to attach the refinery to. Once the refinery has been placed, you can attach to the bottom node. This is a limitation of the stock game, so not something I can fix, sadly. Pants, thanks, at least this one is easy to fix I'll look into it.

It isn't used, just delete the file. I kept it solely for reference. Actually, this isn't a bug. I made it so that electric charge could start fusion reactors - it takes quite a lot of electric charge but I think it's less annoying that way.

Sorry, there were a load of missing files, I have uploaded them all now - somehow I missed the file additions trying to get the update out quickly. Now you can browse the rest of the code.

Version 0.9 Released Enjoy Version 0.9 -New Megajoule power supply/consumption display! -Massively expanded resource system including atmopsheric and oceanic resources definitions - aluminium and water mining integrated into existing planetary resource system -New resource scanning and science parts - Gas chromatograph and Liquid chromatograph mass spectrometers for analysing atmosheric and oceanic composition -New resources: Alumina (Aluminium Oxide), LqdWater, H2Peroxide and Ammonia -ISRU production of Monopropellant now possible -Lithium and Uranium extraction from seawater now possible (very slowly) -New Duna water resource map - means lots more water at the poles -New tweakable generator mode - Direct Conversion Electric Generator, which works with ChargedPower from fusion reactors -Fusion reactor tweakable fuel modes - Deuterium/Helium-3 and Helium-3 -Fission reactor Uranium/Thorium modes tweakable in VAB -Thermal rocket propellants tweakable in the VAB - TWR, delta-v and Isp calculations now compatible with MechJeb -New precooler module, replaces the stock radial engine body (which doesn't do anything) - atmospheric engines overheat at very high velocities unless precoolers are directly attached to intakes -Atmospheric performance of engines vastly improved -Thermal Mechanics improvements - radiators will find a thermodynamic equilibrium, generator efficiencies increased to compensate -Myrten's microwave routing algorithm added -Refinery totally redone -New generic resource extraction module for easy modding! -Refinery functional attachment nodes reversed -Thermal rocket can use LqdWater or Ammonia as propellant -B9 cargo bays act as radiators -Antimatter Tank power supply improvements -Supply of stock electric charge from megajoule resource managed finally fixed -Reactor temperatures fixed -Thermal jet 0 thrust after re-entry problem fixed -Antimatter collector GUI improvements -Fixed magnetic field data Download links on the first page have been updated.

Okay, I have had chance to put it in, so let's make one of these funny resource diagrams like SQUAD put out there some time ago. This is how you make Monopropellant: I could abstract the process and have simply Water and Ammonia inputs involved in producing the Monopropellant but Hydrogen Peroxide is a pretty useful chemical that I may give some use to in the future so I'd rather prepare for that possibility. Indeed Hydrogen Peroxide is actually an oxidiser commonly used in, you guessed it, rockets. Additionally, Hydrogen Peroxide is the standard oxidiser in MFS-Real Fuels so assuming I can convince NathanKell to produce a load of additional ModuleManager configs, this will be useful to players who use both that mod and Interstellar. Note: In order to guard against spelling errors and annoyingly long names the "Pechiney–Ugine–Kuhlmann Process" option at the refinery is simply called "Monopropellant Production".

It's really really simple just to add in but it will be a little trickier to add without making the interface of the Liquid chromatograph–mass spectrometer look a bit weird - there is already a resource definition for water so you could create another definition for water but with the TAC resource type but it will then appear twice in the Liquid chromatograph–mass spectrometer analysis window. This may or may not be something that bothers you. Anyway, instead of just clicking the electrolysis option on the refinery and it gives you either aluminium/oxygen and liquid/oxygen depending on your location, you now choose a resource to extract first, e.g. "LqdWater" or "Alumina", which you extract with the refinery - it has capacity for both of these resources. You can then carry those resources away with you if you want and electrolyse them later. This means that in the future, you could imagine having a smalling mining part that only has resource extraction options (no processing options) and you collect up water, alumina or other resources on the surfaces of planets and ship them back to some kind of larger processing facility to electrolyse them into finished products. Additionally - I likely don't have time to do it for version 0.9 (but I'll have a go) - I have put in place the groundwork for chemicals like Ammonia being available in certain places (I won't tell you where because it's fun to explore!), you will be able to see where it is with the new resource scanning parts, the mass spectrometers. Combined with an option to manufacture Hydrogen Peroxide from water, this will finally permit the manufacture of Monopropellant out in space. Note: Because of all these additions to the resource system, refineries are likely to be somewhat broken, or at least hindered, by the update (nothing else will be). Since this part is already a bit of a headache with its dodgy attachment nodes, I'm guessing this won't be a major problem and getting the thing working nicely will be well worth it. Edit: ^Though it's looking like it may actually work fine anyway, afterall.

Okay, here's something of interest with respect to resources - in version 0.9 there will no longer be a single type of resource definition, there will be three differents types. These are "Planetary Resource Definitions", "Atmospheric Resource Definitions" and "Oceanic Resource Definitions" these can be used to define the constituents of the crust, atmosphere and ocean of every planet in the game. Planetary resource definitions, you have seen before, they look like this: This is used to define Moho's crustal abundance of Uranium, defined by the image moho_uraium.png PLANETARY_RESOURCE_DEFINITION { name = Uranium celestialBodyName = Moho resourceName = UF4 mapUrl = WarpPlugin/PlanetResourceData/moho_uranium resourceScale = LOG_SCALE scaleFactor = 1.0311580936394657748190008944693 scaleMultiplier = 3 displayTexture = WarpPlugin/uranium_resource_point displayThreshold = 0.001 } The new types look like this: This defines the oxygen content of Kerbin's atmosphere as 20.946% ATMOSPHERIC_RESOURCE_DEFINITION { name = KerbinOxygen // a name guiName = Oxygen // a name to display in game celestialBodyName = Kerbin // the planet resourceName = Oxidizer // the resource to extract abundance = 0.20946 // the fraction of the atmosphere that is this resource } This defines the Uranium content of Kerbin's oceans as 0.0000003% OCEANIC_RESOURCE_DEFINITION { name = KerbinUF4 // a name guiName = Uranium // a name to display in game celestialBodyName = Kerbin // the planet resourceName = UF4 // the resource to extract abundance = 0.000000003 // the fraction of the ocean that is this resource } As you can see, I now have code infrastructure to create resource extraction that can be done from planetary bodies, atmospheres and oceans anywhere in the solar system. Also coming in the new version is a generic resource extraction component that you can use to produce resources - this will let you mod in your own resources using only .cfg files, no coding required. That looks like this: MODULE { name = FNModuleResourceExtraction // you need this part powerConsumptionLand = 10 // number of megajoules used extracting this resource on land powerConsumptionOcean = 100 // " in ocean extractionRateLandPerTon = 0.009259259259 // a measure of how quickly the resource is extracted on land extractionRateOceanPerTon = 0.0001 // " in ocean resourceName = UF4 // name of the resource to produce unitName = Uranium Miner // what it is extractActionName = Mine Uranium // what the "start" button says stopActionName = Stop Uranium Mining // what the "stop" button says }

Kethane has been the most popular resource mod for a long time, the fact that the stock resource system has been shelved indefinitely is irrelevant, nothing has changed with regard to hard dependency since I last discussed this matter - it remains out of the question. Any Kethane integration will only be of the very soft dependency kind, e.g. the current Thermal Rockets being able to use Kethane as a propellant.

It will just be fusion reactors that produce charged power - in theory, antimatter reactors should produce some too but in this case it is charged pions that are being produced, these are very fast, very penetrating and essentially impossible to stop so although power is technically being produced in this form, you can't extract it. As for Helium-4, I don't really have a use for it at present so I'm not going to worry about it. It's certainly no use for carrying away waste heat considering a few years of reactor operation will get you a few kilograms of helium-4. It is almost certainly used inside the brayton cycle generators but its used within a closed cycle so it doesn't really get used up, so not much need for a resource for it.

Sure, here you go: The other effects of changing fusion fuel are mildly altered fuel consumption rates - Deuterium/Helium-3 is the most mass efficienct while pure Helium-3 is the least mass efficient. The Deuterium/Helium-3 and Helium-3 burning options also both require more laser power (1.5x and 2x respectively) than the Deuterium/Tritium mode - the best option to use then depends very much on what you're going to do with the reactor. Deuterium/Tritium is the clear winner for thermal power but the others will offer some significant improvements in electrical production if that's more what you're looking for. Yes, that is correct. Yes, you can do this as well. Obviously it uses up both attachment nodes so no thermal rocket but if all you want is electrical power, you can do this.

I guess it could be some incompatibility with another mod or mods. You could perhaps try making a copy of your KSP installation, add just Interstellar, see if you have any problems when it's the only mod you're running, then keep adding your mods back in until something goes wrong? Fusion reactor is just one part, just like the fission reactors. The fusion reactor is easier to switch fuels on though, you can just toggle them whenever you want. The generator might need to be different, it really depends what you want - you can use a "direct conversion generator" with any fusion reactor and it has 85% efficiency but the amount of charged particles you produce depends on the fusion reactor - 20% for Deuterium/Tritium, 80% for He-3/Deuterium and 100% for He-3. Personally, I think using direct conversion generators is a good idea with even the Deuterium/Tritium reactors because you have a nice dividing line - 80% of the power is always available to thermal rockets and the remaining 20% gets converted into electricity at 85% efficiency. The only situation where I wouldn't do it that way would be one where I was designing a Deuterium/Tritium fusion "power plant," something that never or almost never used thermal rockets. Here is a handy table to compare electrical production by different methods

It depends exactly what you have done in terms of installation - you should end up with three folders inside GameData, those are HexCans, TreeLoader and WarpPlugin. If you do have those directly inside the GameData folder, you have installed it correctly. Also, you should be able to see if the WasteHeat is working by right-clicking on a solar panel, that will give you information about the amount of WasteHeat the panel is currently generating. If you don't see that, chances are there is something wrong with your installation.

Yeah, it's definitely those unupgraded reactors capping radiator temperatures. At the moment, you'll need 6 of those radiators to keep that thing cool in space. If you have any docking ports on there you could send a kerbal out to shut the reactor down until you can dock some more. After the update, 2-3 of those radiators will be enough for that vessel.

The update will come up after 0.23, all the new content is more or less done - I had a very productive day of coding yesterday and this morning. It's now simply a matter of some fine tuning and then making tweaks that the new update allows when it emerges.

No, there's no placement rules for radiators. The only other thing worth checking then is, are you using an unupgraded reactor? The temperatures of the unupgraded reactors are quite low and the other restriction on radiators is that they cannot get hotter than the reactors. So, until you get the upgraded reactors, you won't see much benefit from the upgraded radiators. This is partly a problem with the current version where the reactors are a bit cooler than they should really be (which consequently hinders radiator performance earlier than it should) - that can make things a little harder for the mid-tech era. When the new version comes out, virtually all the thermal mechanics will be improved. For now, you should be able to deal with the problem for now by installing a few more radiators - if you share an image of your craft or something maybe I can help you figure out how many you need.

Maybe you aren't generating enough heat that needs radiating? You can't, afterall, radiate more heat than your reactors are producing. If you're not producing lots of WasteHeat, don't worry about the actual figure that's being radiated.

Which is coming out on Tuesday.

There are two factors that contribute to this, both will be fixed in 0.9. Yeah, sorry about this, it works in the refinery but only Thorium reprocessing is working in the science lab (due to a typo), again fixed in the next update. Basically, I think the trick to utilising the decay process is going to be to use Deuterium/Tritium fuel for an initial mission and just carry some He3 tanks on the voyage. By the time the mission is complete and you get whereever you're going, you'll have some kind of supply of He3. Flying around Jool as low as you can go with a thermal turbojet is probably a method with more immediate returns though.

No, antimatter can be manufactured on the launchpad but you don't start with it, the rule is, if its extremely energy intensive to produce or derives from a short half-life isotope you have to make it yourself - tritium is the exception to the rule because you do get a small supply in the fusion reactors, just not the larger supply in the containers. Anyway, Helium 3 is a result of the decay of Tritium, which has a ~12 year half life, it is at least stable though, so you once you have it it won't go anywhere. Mechanically this will function very much like real life: after 12 years, half of any supply of Tritium you have will have become Helium 3 but the decay process is constant and ongoing, so even after 5 minutes you'll have some tiny quantity.

Helium 3 will not be available at launch, no. I'm assuming that on Kerbin, like on Earth, Helium 3 is exceptionally rare - it is possible to manufacture on Kerbin, however, because Tritium decays into Helium 3 so if you can produce lots of Tritium, you will eventually end up with a tidy supply of Helium 3. I want to add Helium 3 mining to regions like the moon's polar regions but even in those areas its very rare so I don't want to make a static mining operation, I'm looking to add some kind of tractor with revolving regolith processor that drives around sifting through lots of regolith to extract all the juicy Helium 3, I just need to find someone who can take this idea from my head and turn it into model form! Note that these aneutronic fusion reactors are very different to the other reactors in the mod, attached to a generator they'll give you stupidly high efficiencies at making electrical power but they give very little thermal power and consequently much less waste heat.

Lithium is a pretty abundant element so I think the justification for mining it locally is very strong, it would be easier to find than elements like Uranium or Thorium, it would come as some mineral but you have electrolysis equipment in the refinery anyway so that's all fine. I will put lithium into the resource system soon, in addition to switching both aluminium and water into that system so you'll have some variability in the availability of those resources rather than the current setup where you either have plenty or nothing. Additionally, with respect to fusion, you will be able to use Deuterium/Helium 3 or pure Helium 3 fuel with the upgraded reactor in version 0.9 and both of those can be extracted from Jool's atmosphere so a thermal jet based upon Laythe that sports atmospheric scoops could serve as a refueling vehicle for Laythe-based fusion reactors.

Update I have been working on an electrical power display for your ships for version 0.9, it will give you information about the amount of power that your generators can supply, current power demands, net power and power utilisation. You can also get a list of parts that are currently drawing power, how much they are drawing and potentially, for certain parts, information about what that part is doing with it. As an example, instead of just seeing "Science Lab 5MW", you might see "Science Lab (Researching) 5MW", this will help you see which parts are doing what and what they are doing with it. For the first run, this system will just be informative but in the future I can tie it into the power prioritisation code so you'll be able to use this display to divert power preferentially to the components that you want to receive it the most. Using the information gained from testing this, I've improved the handling of power by antimatter storage tanks too, so that should lead to fewer messages restricting time warp and generally improved performance.

I will probably do this at some point soon, before I do it though, I want to improve the LFO code so that you get a more realistic change to thrust and specific impulse.

I've heard of it, but I'm a little turned off by the more sci-fi elements. A realistic resource system is one of the main goals for Interstellar, especially with this latest news in mind any delay to the stock resource system should only be seen by us modders as an opportunity to make something interesting. If you don't like the late game parts, you can either delete or simply not use the parts, everything is modular so you don't really lose anything by doing it - you can power all the ISRU parts using nuclear power anyway. Everything in the late game is supposed to be balanced somewhat by the time to achieve the technology and resource availability of advanced fuels but I understand that some people want to stop with modern or just beyond modern technology. I'm aiming for compatibility and good playability with both MFS+RealFuels and RSS as well as the stock game or any combination of the above.

The problem is - generator electricity production is very variable depending on efficiency. Upgraded reactors, thanks to their high tempetatures make the process of estimating power output simpler but in the extreme case of unupgraded reactors and upgraded generators, you can theoretically go between almost 0 and 60% efficiency depending on the amount of radiators that are available. So you need to take into account: reactor upgrades, generator upgrades, radiator upgrades and reactor and radiator expected temperatures in order to guess output and that is an incredibly complicated amount of factors to estimate. I'm very interested in the idea of adding more Liquid Methane engines, a 1.25m version particularly but this isn't the kind of thing that I'm personally very useful for. Making a Liquid Methane engine requires 0 lines of plugin code and a lot of really good modelling, so I'm not the best person to drive that forward, I just need some generous artist to take an interest in making some engines. If I did make another engine, it'd just be a smaller one with scaled down thrust and mass and almost the same specific impulse. Pretty much the biggest factor in determining specific impulse is the propellant so it's a little strange that the stock engines have so many different combinations over such a wide range - I can only assume they're modelling a range of perfomances you could get with different propellants (Kerosene, Hydrogen, MMH, etc) without the extra complexity of actually using different resources. Generally, automatically by researching technologies at the R&D building. Look in the first page of this thread or on the wiki, the nodes with technologies in brackets upgrade things for free.