AeroEngy

Thanks for the information. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get back into this mod. I haven't played KSP for over a year so lots of new things to get back into. What??? No such thing as too much power! Actually I was messing around and put 2x antimatter reactors / thermal turbojets on a MK2 plane. It was ~10g at full throttle in atmospheric mode off the runway and I killed Jeb pretty quick. I had a hard time keeping the throttle low enough for it to be controllable ... might have been a tad of overkill. Thanks again.

I wasn't to worried about waste heat in this test. I was just trying to get a feel for the performance level of the quantum vacuum mode. I just needed it to not shut down for < 1 minute. I was mainly curious if this very low thrust level is typical in quantum vac mode? Why max throttle power is only ~500MW when the reactor/generator combo can produce up to 3.9GW.... what is limiting the power output to the thruster?

I have been away from this mod for a long time but thought I would give it a go in sandbox and test out some stuff. I seem to be having a problem with plasma thruster operating in quantum vacuum mode ... or am not understanding something. My test vehicle has a 1.25m antimatter reactor, charged particle gen, & a plasma thruster in quantum vac mode. Reactor Stats: Charged Power 586MW / 4.5GW (Why isn't it generating more?) Generator Stats: Current Power 507MW of 3.89GW Thrust: 0.8kN with max throttle power: 507MW (Is this all that the thruster can do? Is it limited in the power it can output?) I kind of assumed I would get more thrust out of it since the wiki states this: I am certainly not seeing the same performance as liquid fuel ... so whats going on exactly. Thanks for any information.

Check out this guys website. It shows a decent amount of detail in his design, construction, and testing of an 8-stage coil gun.

The reason they are there is mostly to give some padding in the timeline and to target an exact launch window. So they do a bunch of checks, preps, and fueling that might take a variable amount of time if someone is slow to do a step or some other complication pops-up. This is all done as part of the initial count and it is possible to fall behind due to random complications etc. Then they hit the planned hold time which can be extended or shortened. This allows them to catch back up if necessary and pick the count back up so that T-0 hits on the exact time they need to launch to hit their window ... or rendezvous with the ISS or whatever. So it is basically just some padding in the schedule. IT could be done without a planned hold put the launch procedure would just need to have a little bit of padding here and there instead of one longer hold/ time pad.

I made this awhile ago for KSPI for people to get an idea of how to use warp without using tons of fuel to to match velocities. Basic steps are match velocity direction, then magnitude and then jump to target. 1) Warp close to Kerbol and wait for craft velocity to be parallel to your target. 2) Warp so you are falling directly toward Kerbol. Wait until your V is the same magnitude as target. If you target is an outer planet then reverse the warp point so you are flying directly away from Kerbol. 3) Warp to target body with your V matched in direction and magnitude.

It could be the antimatter tanks. They require a bit of EC to keep containment and if you have no other source of power they could drain your batteries. It has been awhile since I sent mine up ... but I believe you can disable/turn off the tanks in the VAB. Then they won't start using EC until you re-enable them. I just left mine disabled until the were connected to my station which has a fusion power source.

These are kerbals we're talking about ... they are always careful. Plus Jeb said it was fine to drop 2 big antimatter tanks from orbit what could go wrong?

KAS definitely works with antimatter. It is what I use on the ground to fill up on the pad/runway. Here is how I did it:

I had the same problem. Running fuel lines from the helium cryo tanks to the telescope fixed it for me. I had no decouplers or docking ports in between so it seemed like the helium just doesn't follow the same flow rules as everything else.

Thanks for the info. I have that toolbox at work but not on my home version. However, there is a way to access TCPIP via Matlab's Java framework that I might try to see if I can implemenet. Here is a Mathwork's file exchange submission similiar to what I am talking about. There is probably some extra overhead this way but it might work. http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/24524-tcpip-communications-in-matlab

Does this use the Communications toolbox in Matlab to get the TCPIP data or does it uses something else like Java to access TCPIP? I didn't think you could do that in the vanilla version of Matlab. Any other Matlab version / toolbox requirements? I can't download it to take a look right now but this looks pretty interesting since I spend 90% of may day job in Matlab working on real rocket data.

It could be done and controlled reasonably well ... with some compromises. I think the camera control would be a the hardest part. However, I don't really mess with the camera position that often once I get it where I like it. WASDQE = Left stick + L1, R1 throttle control = L2, R2 SAS+ RCS = X,B Staging = A menu = Start button Camera = Right Stick (Zooming might be an issue) external/IVA = Depress Right Stick time warp = D-Pad left/right action keys = Selection wheel on D-Pad down. HNIJKL = Use Y or menu to toggle translation control. Then left stick + R1, R2 normal/docking/map = D-Pad Up switch between celestial bodies/vessels = menu or alter keys when in map view(x,y bodies &a,b vessels)

Here it is in diagram form. However, I usually match direction then speed. Where his explanation was speed then direction. 1) Warp close and wait for craft velocity to be parallel to your target. 2) Warp so you are falling directly toward Kerbol. Wait until your V is the same magnitude as target. If you target is an outer planet then reverse the warp point so you are flying directly away from Kerbol. 3) Warp to target with your V matched in direction and magnitude.

I would love the ability to integrate Fractal's resource scanners with something like the old ISA MapSat or the newer SCANsat terrain mapping plugin. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55832-PLUGIN-PARTS-0-23-SCANsat-terrain-mapping You could send probe(s) to a body with Fractal's scanners, let them orbit in high inclination for awhile and then create an actual full surface map of each resource. It would be much more similar to how an actual space agency would do it.

Looking at the Orbit API another very useful number to return would be eccentricAnomaly. It can be calculated using existing information however it involves some iterative numerical methods that I would rather not have to do in kOS script. Also I see inclination in the Orbit API as well. Is that already available somehow in kOS if not that would be good as well. I have no idea how GitHub works so I didn't add this as a feature request there ... I had stepped away from this mod when it went unsupported for awhile. I am thankful it has been picked back up and look forward to getting back into it.

I tend to agree. I like the idea but don't like how the current pre-cooler models limit my designs. How exactly do you removed the over heating module/disable the pre-cooler requirement? Or is there a way to add a precooling module to other parts? For example some of the fuselage sections especially in the larger b9 crafts could house an internal pre-cooler fed by radial intakes connected directly to it.

This isn't true. From the license Bac9 used in the OP, anyone is free to adapt/modify his work and distribute it so long as you 1) Give credit 2) it is non-commercial and 3) Apply the same licensing terms. Link to the license.

The last post from him anywhere on the KSP forums was 25 December. I haven't given up hope yet that he will appear again but I am starting to get a bit pessimistic.

The waste heat can be a frustrating if you don't understand whats going on ... and I don't pretend to fully understand it either. After you warp your craft for awhile does the waste heat bar stabilize ... or does it fill up and shut down your reactor? The reason I ask is because like in real life radiators dissipate more heat the hotter they get (the more full the bar). This is non-linear and a bit difficult to wrap your head around. It is impossible to have a waste heat of zero so don't try. So long as waste heat eventually stabilizes somewhere on the lower quarter or so of the bar you should be OK. Since your craft doesn't need that much power you could probably get away with much higher wasteheat (75%-ish) since efficiency (more about that later) shouldn't be an issue. Also, I believe I read many pages ago that Fractal is working on some kind of Thermal sizing / management thing for designing this stuff in the VAB which should help. Now about the reactor efficiency according to the Wiki the non-upgraded 62.5cm reactor produces 1.5 MW of thermal power. The non-upgrade generator has a best case efficiency of 31% (leaving you with 465kW of power). However, this number is further reduced by the ratio of hot to cold bath temps for the generator. The hot bath is the reactor's temperature and the cold bath is the radiator's temp. The efficiency equation is this (1-Tc/Th) ... so say your reactor temp divided by the radiator temp is 0.5 then you will lose 50% of that 465kW and only output 232.5kW from the generator. Similarly if the ratio is really high like 0.9 (lots of waste heat) then you would only have 46.5kW output from the generator. The mystery part of this to me is how the waste heat bar relates to temperature ... so I generally don't think about it. I just try to keep it less than ~25% full (unless doing some short term high power draw stuff).

A couple of things about your videos. First thanks for taking the time to make these. A series of video tutorials could be very useful to those new to KSPI. The following is meant to be constructive feedback, I am not trying to offend, and I am thankful you took the time to make these. In general I would recommend trying to keep in mind the people seeking out these videos likely will be the most inexperienced. So try to start from the most basic items and work your way up. For example, in your first video you jump right into launching something using a microwave relay network which was never explained before hand. Then you later give a brief explanation of the network which is a bit backwards. For someone new to KSPI they would be completely lost for the first 1/2 of your video and then still slightly confused because they don't know the ins & outs of reactors, generators, receivers, transmitters, etc. For that tutorial you probably should have first describe the function of the basic parts, how reactors need generators, etc. Then show & explain your ground based power stations & transmitters. Next talked about how receivers work (they must be pointed at a relay or received power drops off, etc.). Then talk about using orbital relay networks to account for this. Lastly show using said network to actually do something useful like finally launching something via plasma. Covering it more in depth would have taken longer so breaking it down into smaller tutorials might be beneficial. One covering parts & their interactions, one showing power generation and building of a relay network, one using a network to launch crafts, etc. My last point is that I think you have some inaccuracies in your second video. You talk about efficiency is a function of the amount of waste heat in the reactor vs the radiator which isn't really correct although it sort of is related. The actual efficiency is based on temperature which for a thermal generator is (1-Tc/Th)*percentage of carnot efficiency. Where Tc is your radiator temperature, Th is the reactor temp, and percentage of carnot efficiency varies depending on upgrade generator or not (31% or 60% upgraded). I don't know the correlation of wasteheat and part temp or how the above changes when you start using direct conversion & charged particles ...

Cool. Thanks!

Do you think you could package up the files & fixes, upload somewhere and provide a link? That way down the road others won't have to spend time tracking the original and figuring it out for themselves.

I forgot about that also. I second this being added due to high levels of awesome.

FYI, from what I understand of the license terms terms you can modify and distribute any changes as long as you license it under the same terms. Sections 4 &6. https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/blob/develop/FNPlugin/License.md However, it would be bad form to not talk to the owner first.