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  1. To keep it brief, I would very much like to see a feature where it shows how much fuel your tank has even if it's just in the parts manager. Being able to have drop tanks such as those on the space shuttle without eyeballing it every time and wasting fuel would be great.
  2. [Devblog 1] [Devblog 2] [Devblog 3] [Devblog 4] [Devblog 5] **[0.1.4.3]:** ## Fancy Fuel Tanks v0.1.4.3 Patch Notes ### Updates and Additions [DISABLED VFX] [VFX will return soon.tm] ### Enhancements and Optimizations **Texture Overhaul**: - Overhauled textures for SR813, CV411 and CV401. **Performance Improvement**: - Optimizing performance through more efficient update processes **Module Refactoring**: - Extensively refactored every class to better align with modern software design principles and to simplify the codebase. **Dynamic Module Identification**: - Overhauled the module to incorporate utilizing 3D Shader to handle the VFX. This takes the work off CPU and places it entirely on the GPU ### Bug Fixes - Resolved an issue where CV401 texture was not rendering properly -Reworked 4 textures (2 Medium Hydrogen Tanks, CV401, and CV421) - Disabled VFX ## Next Steps - Fully integrate Volumetric Vapor with Dynamic Environmental calculations - Continue to refine performance and enhance the visual appearance of VFX, aiming for seamless integration and realistic effects. If you encounter any issues or have suggestions, please feel free to contribute or open an issue on [GitHub](https://github.com/cvusmo/FFT). 0.1.4.3 is available now on CKAN and github! Devnotes: I've never made 3D Textures before so I'm learning all of this as I'm modding. 3D textures are pretty complex for their shaders. Unfortunately there's not a guide on how to make 3D textures. I've looked and if anyone has any resources they know of that could help, that would be appreciated! For now, I wanted to update the quality of life. 0.1.4.4 is going to focus on texture overhauls and adding a few more tanks. Once I have a fully functional, stable, and not-performance heavy VFX, I will let you all know. I will still update about it! The devblog #5 will be out Friday on Youtube! [Soon.tm] - VFX Overhaul - Update OAB pictures [WIP] - Clean up textures [WIP] - Improve VFX quality [WIP] - Improve Texture quality on Hydrogen Tanks (medium) [WIP] - Improve performance of VFX [WIP] Devblog #4 Below is a list of everything I've been working on for Fancy Fuel Tanks v0.1.4.1. It's been a lot of work and I'm really enjoying learning how to optimize and improve performance. Fancy Fancy Fuel Tanks v0.1.4.1 Pre-Patch Notes Here's the flight telemetry I've gathered from testing. I'll be using this data to fine tune the Dynamic Environmental VFX!
  3. After some study of the history of rockets (and playing some RP0), I noticed that the most common storable oxidizer in the late 1950s through the early to mid 1960s seemed to be nitric acid. However, by the late 1960s and beyond, nitric acid had been supplanted in most applications by N2O4. Why did this switch occur? Was it motivated by ISP, corrosiveness, handling characteristics, density, boiling/freezing point, or something else entirely?
  4. I started building a Mun station, where I had a core module and a lander I had a two-stage ship ready to dock to the "MSS" Fuel (to my lander after landing on the Mun) Probe launcher (lander and orbiter) The original idea was to send my orbital probe in an escape trajectory of Kerbin, using the Mun to slingshot the probe and then slow down to match the orbit of the MSS, launch the lander probe (to land on the Mun) and then dock with the station to provide fuel in the future. I however had two issues: I chose XS docking port instead of a S port for my vessel My probe lander docking port decided to disappear, when I launched my orbiter probe I launched the orbital probe successfully, but at the cost of a docking port disappearing for my lander (which could now not be undocked) Then I realised my mistake of attaching the incorrect docking port, as I approached the Mun station Then after some issues with time warp, I decided to scrap this ship. So I separated the 2 probes to do some scouting instead The probe launcher part (with the stuck lander) was sent to Duna as I had plenty of fuel to land there The fuel part was sent to Minmus, where I landed at the north pole: Eventually I did a separate mission where I added more docking ports (both XS and S) to the Mun station and I think the final product looks very cool! The orbiter probe and Minmus landing are featured in two of my bug reports that include videos if you're interested to see them
  5. Hi I have trouble with fuel draining from my upper stage. Fuel crossfeed is off. Also at stage separation remaining methane and/or oxidizer is not calculed properly. Is there a way to make sure my fuel will not drain into the first stage? Here first stage is almost empty : Looking at delta v, we already see there's something wrong and the upper stage leaked. Then stage separation, upper stage is only half full or half empty : My setup in the VAB: If you have any tips or workaround for this bug, it would be appreciated Thanks! Edit: To troubleshoot crossfeed, I made this testbed. Faster iterations and less kerbals stranded around the mun :
  6. This glitch drained all the fuel from my mun lander, luckily I managed to find steps to reproduce
  7. Hi there. I'm a recently separated USAF jet engine mechanic, and a current Physics student. I have a long time interest in propulsion systems, and have learned a great deal about them even outside of the few engines I've had wrench time on. I bring all of this up mostly to brag if I'm honest, but also hopefully to lend my opinion (and it is just an opinion) a little more credence. I know the feedback the devs are looking for currently is probably on performance and bugs at the moment, but I can't help but already make gameplay suggestions, lol. For all I know, the following suggestions are already planned, but I thought I'd chime in if not. KSP 2 is introducing different fuel types into the game (beyond solid, liquid, and xenon), which I think is great. KSP 1 oversimplified fuel types, which is great if you're new to rocketry, but opens up exploits, like unrealistic densities when it comes to LH2 derived engines. However, I think KSP 2 could be implementing these different fuel types into the game a little bit better in the future. Currently, it looks like SSTOs are more difficult now that jet engines and NERVAs do not share fuels. And, SSTOs SHOULD be more difficult than in KSP1 imo, SSTOs are anything but easy IRL... However, I think they should be more difficult in a different way than simply not sharing fuel types... Because in reality, these engines should be capable of sharing fuel types... In short, I think KSP2 developers should consider introducing more fuels, and, make some engines multifuel capable, either in VAB, or in the field (as well as make well researched decisions on which engines are multifuel, how, and why). RP-1/JP-1 to JP-8/Kerosene/Diesel/Alcohol/Gasoline, etc: Wholly Too Much Information About RP-1 One fuel simply absent is a generic heavy hydrocarbon based liquid fuel. I understand the choice to, at least starting off, make most engines "Methane" powered, as most rocket and jet engines can be made to run off of Methane, at least in theory. It's a good every-man fuel. In reality though, its lower density and cryogenic requirements often make larger hydrocarbon fuels cheaper and easier to use. It's why my own plane (The KC-135) was powered by JP-8. Methane is rising in popularity mainly because it provides better performance than larger hydrocarbons, while not being quite as demanding storage wise as LH2, but there are still plenty of reasons to use old fashioned hydrocarbons. There are probably hundreds of iterations of the "cheap storable hydrocarbon" fuel, but KSP 2 could easily simplify this concept down to say, some fictional fuel called "LP-1", that serve as a universal stand in for all of these variants... Because they all have similar chemistry, similar density, similar performances, etc... For example, one could conceivably throw RP-1 (a rocket propellant) into a jet engine, adjust its specific gravity on the fuel control, and it might run just fine (in fact, I believe that was one of the military requirements in the specifications for RP-1, that it could be used to run existing military jets in a pinch). One reason to choose this fuel in game is that, although it's dirtier and less efficient (lower ISP) than Methane or LH2, it would also be far denser (smaller tanks for the same mass of fuel), and in the future career mode, it could also be a lot cheaper than any fuel requiring cryogenics (like Methane or LH2). Less efficient fuels like these heavy hydrocarbons can remain competitive against the higher performance stuff, because the lower tankage requirements has the potential to save on dry weight. Jet Engines (and some rocket engines): Igntition! (Truly, one of the books of all time) Jet engines are generally indiscriminate about what they will burn. John D. Clark even states as such on page 32 of his book Ignition. It's actually one of the advantages of jet engines, as in WW2, it allowed Germany to use low quality fuels (pretty much just diesel) in high performance aircraft. As such, it would make sense in KSP 2 for jet engines to be able to burn either Methane, or this fictional LP-1... However... It should also be able to burn LH2. Although it is an uncommon fuel for jet engines, it is completely conceivable to run a jet engine off of LH2. In fact, running hydrogen fed jet engines was an important stepping stone in jet engine development. Hans Von Ohain ran his first jet engine in 1937... Off of gaseous hydrogen. He chose this fuel because it doesnt leave coke behind (it has no carbon in it), and as a gas, it's already atomized before even entering the engine. Even liquid hydrogen, is easier to atomize than anything based on hydrocarbons, because of its very low boiling point. Using hydrogen, he was able to get his first prototypes up and running, before working out the issues on using hydrocarbon fuels. He briefly talks about it in the book The Jet Age on page 33 (an awesome primary source that collects accounts from the greatest jet engineers from the jet engine's early history). Again, generally, hydrocarbons are simply more practical to run in jet aircraft. But, some modern jet engines are designed to run off of LH2. For example, scramjets require the fast atomization properties of LH2, due to how little time intake air spends inside the engine before being exhausted. And, the Sabre engine (the engine the Rapier is based off of) also is designed to run on LH2 for precooling purposes (I'll get to the Rapier in a minute). In short, I think players should be able to select between LP-1, Methane, and LH2 to run their jet engines off of. This would require a lot of thought from players on whether they want low cost and ease of storage of LP-1, the high efficiency but poor storage of LH2, or the middle man of Methane. Jet engines are generally aircooled, which means the main consideration in adapting a jet engine to run on different fuels would be the fuel pump, fuel control, and injectors... Which on my engine at least, wouldn't be that difficult to change out. The bigger concern would be going from normal hardware to something that can handle cryogenics, rather than the physical act of mixing the fuel and air properly. Maybe the fuel lines would need to be changed out for insulated ones as well. But, even in the field, those are all line items a qualified mechanic could change within a few shifts. Also for LH2 in particular, a service engine would likely need to be made out of slightly different alloys, to combat hydrogen embrittlement. Perhaps these changes could be reflected in the fuel efficiency, cost and weight of the engine in the VAB in game (maybe one day give them slightly different models depending on fuel type). Perhaps the player could select one that could be multifuel in the field (meaning, could be refueled with any of the three fuel types in situ), but also be the most expensive and heaviest version (since it would likely require multiple fuel pumps and some sort of adaptive injector). Rocket engines could also be selectable, but should maybe require a lot more thought from the devs on which fuels, which engines, and why. Many of them are designed with active cooling or special turbopumps that rely on a specific fuel. For example, I don't think an RS-25 (the Vector engine in game) could be very easily adapted to run on LP-1 due to its active cooling and special preburning closed cycle turbopump. By the time you redesigned that into an LP-1 engine, it would basically be a totally different engine anyway, sharing few traits with the original. So perhaps an engine like that should be limited to LH2, and maybe methane. Point is, while in theory rocket engines should be as simple as jet engines to adapt to different fuel types, in practice, it may be really hard, and therefore, not worth doing in KSP 2 for many types of rocket engines (particularly the more advanced and realistic ones. Perhaps multiple fuel options could be restricted to OG engines, like the LV-T30, LV-T45, Skipper, and Mainsail, since those engines are more fictional anyway... Would also give some reason to use them more often). The Rapier Engine: Wholly Too Much Information On The Sabre Engine (Upon which the Rapier engine is based) The Rapier Engine in particular is currently running the wrong fuel. I think one could be built to run on Methane, but above the other jet engines, it is specifically designed to run on LH2 in real life (the Sabre engine), to take advantage of the cryogenic LH2 for precooling. This is one of the reasons why Skylon is so big, that SSTO needs to store LH2 to run the Sabre engines. Jet engines get most of their energy out of a fuel by having a difference in temperature between intake air, and exhaust. The greater this difference, the more power and efficiency the engine has. Engines are made out of non-fictional materials however (kind of a dumb way to put it, but it's apt), which means there's only so hot they can get before they literally just melt or fail inside. This places an upper bound on exhaust temperature. However, the intake air can also get pretty hot as a lower bound for this temperature difference. The act of forcibly compressing air through ramming (which basically every jet engine does except for Scram engines, which can't afford to do that very much) increases intake air temperature before it even has a chance to be burned, reducing efficiency and thrust. This problem gets worse and worse the faster you go, as shock heating at supersonic, and then hypersonic speeds, increases intake air temperature to the point where it's as hot as the exhaust... This is the end of the road as far as normal jet engines are concerned, as there is no way to burn fuel at those intake temperatures, without the exhaust just melting the engine. The Sabre engine aimed to solve this problem with the use of a precooler. Instead of using ram compression to compress intake air, it instead uses an extremely efficient heat exchanger between cryogenic fuel (liquid hydrogen) and intake air. This is pretty amazing technology actually, as it allows the engine to both compress AND cool the intake air, rather than trade off between compression and heating. Since it cools the intake air, it allows the engine to operate at airspeeds far higher than any other jet engine. This doesn't just have applications in the hybrid jet/rocket Sabre engine, in theory, adding a precooler like this to any suitable jet engine, should massively improve that engine's efficiency, thrust, and top speed. Unfortunately, the precooler in KSP1 doesn't do a whole lot besides act as a decent inline intake. KSP2 should probably rectify this by making the in-game precooler do what it says on the tin (cooling intake air to allow faster operation of jet engines, particularly for the rapier engine... In fact, the rapier probably shouldn't be able to go faster in airbreathing mode than the panther or whiplash, without a precooler). Considering all of this... The rapier engine should probably come standard as using LH2, and requiring an LH2 fed precooler to run at peak performance... Conveniently, this would mean it uses the same fuel as the nuclear engines, to the rejoice of SSTO builders (though also require the massive fuel tanks and the new low density LH2). As for the selectability of those two components... Well... Methane is still cryogenic to some extent, so maybe that would work. LP-1 wouldn't be cryogenic at all. However, even LP-1 ran through a precooler could be better than no precooler at all, due to the difference in heat capacity between any liquid state fuel, and the gaseous state of the intake air. That's actually one of the reasons why the precooler is so efficient IRL, it's not just that the LH2 is cold, it's also that it is in a liquid state, far denser than the intake air. So even tepid LP-1 could be used as a coolant against thousand degree intake air. So perhaps the Rapier and Precooler could be considered multifuel as well in game... But there would have to be some performance penalties for using less or non-cryogenic fuels. Perhaps the devs could reach out to Reaction Engines to ask them directly whether or not the precooler/Sabre concept could even remotely work with anything other than LH2 to confirm. NERVA: Wholly Too Much Information About Nuclear Rocket Propellants The nuclear engines are perhaps the most multifuel capable engines IRL, of the engines on this list. In nuclear engines, the "fuel" is actually the fuel rods (Uranium or Plutonium), and what is exhausted is just propellant. A propellant is literally anything with mass, and in NERVA engines, are little more than a coolant for the core... So any fluid that can suitably act as a coolant, can be used in a NERVA engine. There is no need for combustibility for a NERVA propellant, so even completely inert fluids are usable (Helium, for example). The main reason LH2 is used is that, in any rocket, a higher exhaust velocity increases efficiency. That exhaust velocity is, at least in any thermal rocket (from chemical rockets to nuclear thermal rockets) a function of both the energy produced (heavily correlated to temperature) and the molecular weight of the exhaust... LH2 is the lowest conceivable molecular weight (unless you want to get into some crazy fuels like metallic hydrogen, plasmas, or laser light), which means that for the same operating temperature, hydrogen can be accelerated to the highest exhaust velocities possible in thermal propulsion. There's also a big reason not to use anything else. Most of the NERVA's efficiency is achieved purely through the use of such a lightweight propellant, and not by achieving high temperatures. The peak allowable temperature of the core of a nuclear rocket is actually often lower than what temperatures can be achieved in chemical propulsion (though the nuclear engines in game appear to achieve pretty ludicrous core temps)... This means that running something heavier, such as perhaps water, could leave the NERVA operating at as low, or lower ISP than high performance chemical rockets like the Vector (RS-25) engine, depending on the core temperature of the NERVA. Although LH2 is clearly the best option for a nuclear engine, there is still good reason to give a player the option to run suboptimal fuels. For example, maybe a player just wants fuel compatibility between engines and between other spacecraft, so they're willing to take a hit on engine efficiency if it means only dealing with Methane. I think the best reason for it is to ensure greater usability in deep space where fuel production is limited. Let's say you're busy colonizing the Jool system, and only have simple H2O or Methane mining set up, but no real LH2 production set up... A suboptimal fuel on a nuclear powered spacecraft is better than no fuel at all. In fact, I think having the nuclear engines have an in situ mutlifuel option would be pretty amazing, even if that version of the engine were ungodly heavy, if only because it gives the player a lot of capability in fueling it with basically anything they can find out in deep space. One could literally just melt ice from comets, and with no electrolysis or croygenics for LH2 production, run straight water to get back to Kerbin, then switch over and refuel with LH2 in LKO for the outbound trip. I found a 2016 research report which shows predicted ISPs for different propellant types, LH2, NH3, H2O, and CO2, at different core temperatures. This graph peaks at just over 1100 ISP for LH2 at a core temperature of 3600k. The bigger nuclear engine in KSP 2 achieves 1450 ISP, which suggests a pretty insane core temperature of more like 4,000k. Although this chart doesn't go that high, we can still make some educated guesses. Methane has a molecular weight of about 16 g/mol, which should give it an ISP slightly better than NH3 (which has about 17 g/mol). Now, the two nuclear engines in the game are at 900 ISP and 1450 ISP with LH2 (if I remember correctly). Going off the graph in this document, it would be reasonable to have a methane propelled version at 500 and 800 ISP respectively... Which honestly, is nothing to sneeze at. Even H2O propelled versions (if H2O is ever added as a resource) would manage 350 and 500 ISP respectively (even worse, but better than nothing, and still just outperforming most chemical rockets... Though in a much heavier engine than any chemical rocket). Then LP-1 could be used too, though I'd imagine its ISP would be awful (maybe as bad as monopropellant)... That'd be the sort of thing a player would just use in an emergency, like if they're willing to throw ANYTHING in the core to get back home. That reminds me, it would be nice to use oxidizer as well, as a way to use unspent oxidizer... Though that might not be the best idea IRL, given most oxidizers, particularly liquid oxygen, HAPPILY react with metals in high temperature environments in the absence of fuel to react with... Perhaps that could be a funny feature though, like, use oxidizer in a nuclear engine for an emergency, but take care not to use it too long, or the engine blows up. BTW, this is sort of in-line with the performance of methane and water nuclear thermal rockets from the game Children of a Dead Earth, which is another realistic space sim that does allow for different propellants on nuclear thermal engines. One final advantage of allowing for different fuels on nuclear engines, is heavier fuels may actually increase the TWR of the engine (it's easier to get higher mass flow rates out of heavier fuels, if for example, the propellant pumps and injectors being used are more volume flow rate limited than mass flow rate limted). This could mean that these otherwise very heavy nuclear engines could be more useful in landing in taking off from worlds using Methane, and then switch to LH2 for long hauls between planets. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyway, this has been a long winded case for multifuel engines. If you've managed to drag yourself this far through my word vomit, then I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts are as a player. Do you think this would add to player choices, dilemmas, and improve game-play, or do you think multifuel engines only needlessly complicate things? Personally, I like the Dilemma of... Do I rot in deep space for eternity, or dare use the forbidden propellant (pure oxidizer) in the 10 ton nuclear power plant, rolling the dice on getting back home alive? Or detonating in a mini Chernoby that can be seen from Kerbin...
  8. Less simple ISRU So, you’ve been there. Just using the stock engines don’t cut it anymore for you. You have a bunch of hydrogen powered engines, be them from Cryo Engines, SSTU, BDB or some other mod I don’t know or remember. Or you’re using LH2 powered nuclear thermal rockets. Or you love Nertea’s lithium powered engines from NFP. Or the few methalox engines available (I think only from a patch of NFLV). And maybe you also like off planet building, with either Global Construction or EPL. So you set up a mining site well beyond Kerbin. Ok, maybe “well beyond” means the Mun. But it’s not the VAB. And you convert ore to LFO and monoprop. And also to liquid hydrogen. And also to lithium. And also use it for building stuff with Ground Construction. And into other stuff. It’s ore for everything. KSPI-E and Kerbalism have their resource chains, but they are complicated mods. Is there something in the middle? Something that’s not as daunting as KSPI-E but also doesn’t mean ore is almost magical? Yes, this. Also Rational Resources. But this too. What does it does and what it doesn’t? First, it doesn’t preclude any stock dynamic. Ore to LFO and monoprop is still there. I’m also not overwriting or deleting stuff from other mods (that wouldn’t be cool at all), so Nertea’s ore to hydrolox/lithium/methalox patches remain. If you want to continue refueling ships at Minmus or the Mun, you can still do it, as usual. What it does? It adds simple new resource chains using existing CRP resources for liquid hydrogen (plus oxidizer), lithium, sabatier processes for methane production and atmospheric harvesting of xenon (and argon, but if you’re using NFP, Nertea already had you covered with that). Here’s the simple run down Now for the resource explanations (you can skip this): Oxidizer Yes, theoretically, the in-game oxidizer isn’t based in liquid oxygen. But the mod community has long equated both for simplicity (and that LF burns with oxygen in the stock jets, I guess), so I’m going with that. The idea of this mod is to keep things somewhat simple, after all. Hydrates Based on what I see from CRP and Roverdude’s mods, “hydrates” represent several types of inorganic salts like chloraluminite or hydrates formed by cobalt chlorides (the people who included them in CRP can correct me here if I’m wrong) which have roughly 50% of water, or a corresponding mix of hydrogen and oxygen. So as a rule, I’m going with “if you can do it with water, you can do it with twice the mass of hydrates”. What can you do with water? Well, high temperature water electrolysis (so you still need radiators) as well as the Sabatier process to produce methane and oxygen. Why are both available instead of just water? Well, because while hydrates are common, water is not. I did add a bit of water to some specific biomes of the Mun and Minmus to make sure you can run the Sabatier process there and refuel any methalox engine within the Kerbin system (so you can always refuel there), even if realistically, there shouldn’t be any there. Also, since you need twice as much hydrates than water to do stuff (as well as extra electric power, since you need to first get the water out of the hydrates before making fuel), it’s not efficient to ship hydrates around with rockets – you’re flying around twice the mass you’d fly if you’ve turned it into fuel or if you’re using water. But, then again, water isn’t that common. Spodumene Spodumene is a mineral already included in CRP with the chemical formula LiAlSi2O6. So we have a bit of lithium to extract from there – but only a bit, there is a reason why salt brines are used on Earth to extract lithium after all. If flying hydrates around isn’t efficient, hauling spodumene is absolutely not efficient at all. You’re far better off refining it in situ because the vast majority of it will be lost. You could actually get quite a bit of oxidizer from it, but I feel that can be confusing (why are you looking for oxidizer if you intend to fly magnetodynamic thrusters?) and for gameplay reasons, I made the spodumene -> lithium conversion rather fast. If I added oxidizer, it would produce it really, really fast. But if I were to balance it with ore->LFO, lithium would take ages to extract. Carbon dioxide (and the Sabatier process) CO2 is here only to help produce methane, and is the only production chain which requires two raw resources. I didn’t yet see many mods with methalox rocketry – only an extra for NFLV, but I may be missing some mods. I also have a mind of checking how to use B9 part switch to make methalox versions of some stock engines. Nertea’s Cryo Tanks mod has support for methalox tanks as well as an ore -> methalox patch. I’m not touching those patches, so it’s still active if you’re looking for a simpler way to produce methalox. But if you’re looking for a more realistic way, you can use this mod. You’ll also notice that water and CO2 are both inputs and outputs of the Sabatier process. After digging a bit, I’ve used this https://marspedia.org/File:Propellant_production.png as a template – only that a lot faster because 420kg of methane per day wouldn’t cut it for gameplay purposes. A small byproduct of both water and CO2 still results, so I found it simpler and more interesting to add them as outputs rather than subtract them as inputs. As with hydrogen production, the Sabatier process can be done with either water or hydrates, and it takes twice as much of hydrates than water. Also keep in mind the resulting proportions don’t exactly match those used for engines. As for CO2, for simplicity reasons I’m not distinguishing between solid, liquid and gaseous CO2. Instead I’m using CRP’s carbondioxide definition which, based on it’s very low density, I guess it was meant to represent gaseous CO2. Adding the different states would require several conversions and three different storage tanks, all for a raw resource for a very niche fuel type, and that goes against keeping this mod kind of simple and easy to use and understand. As a result, you’ll see CO2 uses large amounts of in-game units. The drills report a large electric consumption to extract it because I’ve pumped up the efficiency rating of CO2 extraction to extract a large amount of units in a reasonable time, but don’t worry – the electric consumption is actually normal. As for its presence: CO2 melting point is 216.6 °K (-56.6 °C / -69.8° F) so it has no business being solid closer to the Sun than Kerbin. Or in Kerbin. I added a patch to add it to the stock system while removing it from Eve, Gilly and Moho. I did add it to Kerbin shores so the mining rigs can be tested at the Launchpad. And yes, in selected biomes at the Mun and Minmus, even if it shouldn’t be there, to keep with the philosophy of not preventing any stock mechanics. Essentially, you should at least be able to refuel methalox ships with the Kerbin system. Yeah, it shouldn’t be possible. If you want that part of realism, don’t do it, I guess. As for mod planet packs, some add it in its gaseous form, but it may be lacking in its solid forms. Your mileage may vary. (New in 0.4) Uranium enrichment for nuclear reactors CRP added uraninite ages ago, but creating nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors is, AFAIK, only covered in MKS. It’s also a bit OP since not only nuclear reactors are themselves OP, but because we’re talking about running a nuclear facility capable of making weapons grade uranium in another planet. So the stock 2.5 meters converter can now enrich uranium, but it requires a whopping 3000 EC. This mod also patches the NFE and KPBS centrifuges so they can also do it, but at a more reasonable electrical consumption. A word of warning: uraninite is dense. By weight alone, the stock holding tanks could hold hundreds of tons, I've limited the amount imagining the tank's structural resistance, but you can still mine and store a lot in very little volume. How does this all come together (and mod integration) (you probably want to read this) So, how do you get this stuff off the ground (or the atmosphere if you happen to have you nearby) and into something that goes boom – hopefully upwards and sideways? Storage As far as storage is concerned, the ore tanks will now hold water, hydrates, spodumene and CO2 as well as ore. For simplicity reasons, we can abstract parts of the CO2 extraction process and assume it’s frozen solid as part of the atmospheric extraction process. Atmospheric harvesting Gaseous resources from the atmosphere can be harvested with the stock precooler and the mk1 fuselage air intakes. The mining rig air speed matters in the efficiency by which the gasses are captured… and chances are your rig isn’t zooming around at match 2 – that’s a limitation which can’t be removed, to my knowledge, with module manager patches. So the percentage of the particular gas in the atmosphere matters a lot. You’ll see you’re barely sucking CO2 at the Launchpad. Now go and try the same at Duna ;-) Also, it takes more power to harvest CO2 than other gasses because it’s being stored in solid form. Or at least in holding tanks which seem to be designed to hold solids, so it’s being frozen and that takes more power. The surface scanner will also scan for atmospheric CO2 and, if NF Propulsion isn’t present, for xenon as well. The reason it doesn’t scan for xenon if you have NFP is that NFP already includes an atmospheric sensor that scans for both xenon and argon. Surface mining The drills now come with the option to harvest water, hydrates, spodumene and carbon dioxide. Not much more that needs to be said about it. Resource conversion All done in the stock converters. And the Kerbal Planetary System converter. And the Mining Expansion converters. In short, the stock system is to use drills to harvest ore, store it in holding tanks and use the ISRU converters to, well, convert it. All these processes require quite a bit of electricity and generate heat. This mod uses the same parts and system and just adds a few more toggles and more places to look for more raw materials. Mod integration Scansat Scansat already covers water, spodumene and hydrates by default. CO2 has been integrated into the planetary overlays and maps, so you can use Scansat to plan your mining, refining and colonization efforts. Kerbal Planetary Base Systems The converter, regular drill (not the dirt drill) and the ore holding tanks are all patched to extract, store and process the new resource chains Feline Utility Rover The converter has been integrated too Stockalike Mining Extension It’s fully integrated. As with KPBS, you can use the drills, converters and holding tanks to mine, store and process hydrates, water, co2 and spodumene. Stockalike Station Parts Redux Water is already available for the SSPR storage parts by default. The existing hydrates template in SSPR is set to be activated if either MKS or TAC LS aren’t already triggering it. Spodumene and CO2 options are added. Remember, though, some resources are better processed in situ, since conversion rates aren’t necessarily 1:1 Near Future Construction Water, Spodumene, Hydrates and CO2 templates have been added to the trusses capable of holding ore MKS Very little actually. If Umbra Space Industries is present, the logistic module will be added to the ore holding tanks, which should allow them to participate in the USI logistics system. If both USI and NFP are present, the module is also added to NFP lithium tanks (though I’d remove it if @Nertea objects, as it’s his mod, same with the SSPR integration). MKS already handles hydrates and water by default, so hydrolox production shouldn’t be a problem: raw resources can be remotely mined and transported with the logistics system to a larger inhabited base for processing. Remote mining and processing of spodumene and CO2/methalox is, as of initial release, slow. Full integration would require adding spodumene and CO2 to the automated drills as well as adding the conversion recipes to the automated processing units as well as, perhaps, adding them to the MKS tanks. Nothing of this is, as of yet, implanted, so crewless production of methane and lithium will be slow Planet Packs No integration (yet). Spodumene, water and hydrates have a global definition in CRP, so unless the mod author has removed them, they will be there. Gaseous CO2 may or may not be available, that depends on the planet pack author. Solid CO2 will be there in smaller amounts (at least as of initial release) since I’ve added a global definition – which also means it will be around in hot planets where it shouldn’t be, so I’m open to suggestions about removing it. I am considering adding a surface CO2 config for RSS, but I don’t know if the RO/RSS crowd would be interested. Added a resource configuration for Real Solar System, which increases surface water in bodies with abundant known surface ice and a bit of surface carbon dioxide where it’s known to be. Off-planet manufacturing mods Not integrated either. While part of the reason I made these patches is because of “one resource to rule them all”, which is what happens with Global Construction without MKS, I’d be messing with those mods resource chains rather than adding new chains for existing mod fuels. So I’m not doing it. And yes, that means nothing stops you from extracting ore to use with GC to both build ships and use it as fuel, and also that EPL still requires metal ore for building and ore for the smelter. Making an additional resource chain for GC material kits would interfere with the more complex MKS resource chain, and I’m not messing with other people’s mods. As for EPL, while both hydrates and spodumene contain aluminum, which could reasonably be abstracted into “stuff spaceships can be made of”, adding metal ore as a byproduct of their isru chains would mean messing with EPL’s gameplay. And on top, EPL’s metal ore and its smelting process is based in an iron ore (hematite IIRC), not aluminum. So while I considered it as a way to add more flexibility to the base locations, I’m not touching it. Dependencies Module Manager, of course, since this is a collection of patches Community Resource Pack, for the resources B9 Part Switch, for the tanks I haven’t included them in the download, as Less Simple ISRU, being a collection of patches, can work with KSP 1.8 or 1.9, but B9 Part Switch require different downloads for either versions. So if you don’t have them already, download them. Pictures Because of course Solar panels courtesy of Suicidal Insanity’s MK2 Expansion, drills from Mining Expansion (also by Suidical Insanity) and Nertea’s NFP methalox engines. Also, I didn’t pack enough panels and the lander doesn’t really have enough dV to get back to space, so don’t copy that design. That’s the Sabatier process running at Duna, processing hydrates. And yes, the 1.25m convert-O-Tron is, well, the 1.25m convert-O-Tron: The crew isn’t happy. Now Minmus, showing Kerbal Planetary Base System integration, and radiators by Nertea’s Heat Control. Also the Sabatier process, this time with water Scansat integration (and hyperedit to cheat the probe into orbit). Yes, dry ice (solid CO2) shouldn’t be there, but I’m don’t want to cut Minmus refueling bases. More Scansat, mining and processing with Mining Expansion’s largest parts. Lithium processing for NFP largest engines. Val is happy. The surface scanner and high temperature electrolysis to produce liquid hydrogen and oxidizer. Tanks by cryotanks. Of course, I’m open to suggestions (except for CO2 Nuclear Thermal engines, Rational Resources already has those) as well as any correction to balance and the resource’s proportions (I do think I got them right, but I may be mistaken in something) Changelog 0.40: Added Uranium Enrichment, fixed Cryotanks 1.6.1 causing a conflict with this mod. Updated version file 0.30: Various fixes by @AccidentalDisassembly. Ore tanks now hold a stock-like amount of resources (as in, five times less). Updated version file for 1.10 0.20: Added Near Future Construction integration, RSS integration and updated readme file 0.10: initial release Download links Spacedock https://spacedock.info/mod/2378/Less%20Simple%20ISRU Curse https://www.curseforge.com/kerbal/ksp-mods/less-simple-isru License: GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3GPLv3 Enjoy
  9. Goo Pumps & Oils' Speed Pump (GPOSP) Allows you to simply and automatically transfer or balance resources By Lisias and zer0Kerbal, previously by @hab136, then previously by @Geordiepigeonowner, and originally by @Gaius Description by Gaius See more Help Wanted Localization Installation Directions Use CurseForge/OverWolf App (currently does not install dependencies) or Dependencies Kerbal Space Program KSP (API) Extensions Either Module Manager /L Module Manager Supports Community Resource Pack Procedural Parts SimpleConstruction! (SC) SimpleLogistics! (SL) Station Science The Gold Standard! (TGS)] Fuel Switchers alphabetically B9PartSwitch Firespitter Interstellar Fuel Switch Interstellar Fuel Switch Core Modular Fuel Tanks SimpleFuelSwitch *red box below is a link to forum post on how to get support* Be Kind: Lithobrake, not jakebrake! Keep your Module Manager up to date Credits and Special Thanks @Gaius for creating this glorious mod! @Geordiepigeonownerfor maintaining this mod after Gaius was kidnapped by Space Worms @hab136for taking over after @Geordiepigeonowner, who was also kidnapped by Space Worms see Attribution.md for more comprehensive list Legal Mumbo Jumbo (License provenance)
  10. This tutorial demonstrates how to calculate your mission fuel requirements using a spreadsheet and the rocket equation. I recently flew missions to Duna and Eve that each required orbital assembly in LKO. These ships were too large to fully assemble them in the VAB, and I realized that I didn’t have a method of determining how much fuel each mission would require. I’m sure there are plenty of other use cases where you may need something more than the VAB tools to determine your fuel requirements. Too Long, Don’t want to Read? Do you just want a copy of the spreadsheet and the short version of how to use it? Here you go: the spreadsheet. Short Version: Longer version: What are we doing with the Rocket Equation, how to create the spreadsheet from scratch and fill it with the Excel formulas that implement the rocket equation, and how to fill in your mission-specific details to get the results you want.
  11. In KSP we fill tanks with two combinations for liquids - kerosine and kerolox, and in ksp are special tanks for each combination. I would like to suggest a more complex but more comfortable mechanic for future. You can fill tanks with any (I mean liquids) type of resource and limit is only volume of tank and total volume of your resources. Here how it will work You open settings of tank and choose what you want to fill the tank with - specific mix (methan, metalox, hydrolox, hydrogen), which provides right proportions of components, or your custom mix. To avoid confusion in which tank what fuel I propose to make a filter that when you turn it on the tanks displayed the type of mix. So that a beginner is not confused by all this at first, it is possible to make methalox as the basic mix There aren't mentioned xenone, ores or exotic fuels becuase for these resources the special tanks are needed I think that function will reduce amount of tanks -> amount of parts and simplify using of different fuels for all spacecrafts
  12. Perhaps it is a good addition to KSP2 as it can be extracted in CO2 rich atmospheres, which means it can be extracted on Duna and Eve! But hey, wait. Why add that, when methane can also be extracted, also being more efficient? Simple. Unlike methane, carbon monoxide can be producted with 100% indigenous materials, whereas CO2 can also be converted into oxygen. This means it would be a pretty much infinite, easily producted fuel. This would dramatically reduce complexity and cost in a colony. NASA has published an article describing CO fuel (just search "Carbon monoxide rocket fuel" and you will find it). Maybe it's 80% useless fuel. Maybe it's a nice addition to KSP2, and maybe they're already including it- but hey, I'd like that fuel in the game.
  13. Ok so im planning on making a minmus base and i want to use a mass driver to transport recently fueled ships into Interplanetary space. I need the Strongest Liquid fuel engine for the driver. I need something with the most efficiency to launch a payload up to 200lbs. This mass driver will be used to establish other bases.
  14. A continuation of a continuation Previous thread, Original thread. Thanks to Gaius and Geordiepigeonowner. Please see new thread: Old thread, for history: This mod lets you assign "pump levels" to fuel tanks (and more!). Higher-level fuel tanks will flow automatically to lower-level tanks. Equal-level tanks can be set to balance automatically. Now with action group support! Compare and contrast with TAC Fuel Balancer and PWB Fuel Balancer. The stock fuel priority system in KSP 1.2 controls how fuel is drained by engines. It never moves fuel from one tank to another, which is what this mod does. Download for KSP 1.7.3: Curse, SpaceDock, Github Download for KSP 1.6: old version at Github Download for KSP 1.5.1: old version at Github Download for KSP 1.4.5: old version at Github Download for KSP 1.3.1: old version at Github Download for KSP 1.2.2: old version at Github Download for KSP 1.1.3: old version at Github Sources: Github License: GPLv3
  15. the mod aims to archive a system whre you dont have to fokus on fuel that much. if you like flying like in the TV series the expanse. but dont like to cheat fuel either. making it an scifi mod adds a system where you have to burn Exotic Fuel(1) in a Ractor(2) to produce Reactor Power(3), the ammount of power generated determines how many and wath size of exhaust (engines(4)) you can use so you have somewhere in your craft an heavy, expensive and hot reactor. and on the craft exhaust points. PROS: get everywhere in a singe stage fast CONS: heat: your reactor need coolig. or you get heavy efficency deficits (heat mechanics are still tweaking) high cost (you can build right from the start. if you can afford itl) heavy it also has mainly vanilla parts designs. because i dont know how to model and animate (except one solar panel from another mod), iam hiring if you can model me some. Parts Reactors: The heart of the vessel. produces the energy needed to propell it. very hot and expensive Exhaust: exhaust points for the reactor energy. high thrust, small and high ISP Storage Unit A modular storage unit. that can change its storagy type. even in flyght! Solar Sail A enormus structure that generates a little ammount of reactorpower. not enough to propell the vessel.. but with capacitors you maybe dont need fuel anymore on long journes Factory A part that converts ore in exotic fuel. Compact fly assistant: rovemate and avionics hub in a tiny box Short Build Explanation first you need to choose your reactor. the reactor determines the amount and size of exhaust you can use (1 smal reactor can support 2 nano exhaust. or 0.5 small exhaust) you have to deal with the heat too. then you can place your desired exhaust points. you can attach them everywhere!. last you need some exotic fuel storage. put the modular storage unit in our craft, and configure it to the wanted resource DEPENCIES B9 Part switch *1 "Exotic Fuel (EF)": cost 32 per unit (liquid fuel is 0,8), only used in the reactor to Produce Reactor Power. the fuel is 20 times "better" then liquid fuel *2 "Reactor": uses exotic fuel to make reactor power. that is then used by engines or RCS blocks, comes in small, medium and large (0,6m, 1,25m 2,5m) *3 "Reactor Power (RP)": generated by reactors or very very little by solar sails. can be stored in configurable storages or directly used in rcs blocks and engines *4 "Engines" extra engines that use reactor power to propell the vessel. 3 in total + RCS the larger the engine: more reactor power needed. but even a 0.5. they have an extreme thrust contacte me here if you have questions or something: or if you want to help me to make the mod more fleshed out Lyzz#2142 (Discord) DOWNLOAD https://spacedock.info/mod/3011/VM Vollmetall Alternative Propulsion System SCREENSHOTS LICENSE: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. If others modify or adapt the material, they must license the modified material under identical terms.
  16. FuelWings Fuel resources added to stock and B9/B9 Procedural Wings. This addon allows you to add and customize fuel types/quantities in stock wings, and automatically cross-feed between other parts! Also supports B9/B9 Procedural Wings. The intention of this is to improve weight & balance, reduce craft size, and increase aesthetics. More info & Credits in info.txt file. Current Note: ModularFuelTanks is no longer required, is now just a "default" option. Check changelog, swap out as needed. Shoutout to Critter79606! Installation: ialdaboath - ModuleManager NathanKell - Crossfeed Enabler taniwha - ModularFuelTanks azza276 - B9 support Critter79606 - Compatibility w/ other fuel mods Changelog: Download SpaceDock - v4! Github - v4! (Curse currently unavailable) All rights reserved
  17. Title is self explanitory, cant seem to find a toggle fuel crossfeed option with advanced tweakables being enabled, trying to do this on a TT-38K radial decoupler. I need this option because i dont have fuel lines yet.
  18. I love putting the RE-M3 "Mainsail" Liquid Engine in my rockets, but since it's the heaviest are there any best liquid fuel engines for first stages out there? (no mods please) I use the 'Skipper' Liquid fuel engine for my second stage.
  19. ColorFuel Lines (aka Colorful Fuel Lines) This is a very simple mod pack, simply adding more color choices for fuel lines., as a tweakable option. WARNING: Upgrading to 0.2 from 0.1 can be save-breaking for vessels using the 0.1 fuel lines. To edit your save manually, change all references to "CFLfuelLine(color)" to "fuelLine" (note the capitalization). Part of the NecroBones suite of mods, that work nicely together: Modular Rocket Systems (stock-alike parts pack, NASA-like alternatives, and filling the gaps) SpaceY Heavy Lifters Parts Pack (stock-balanced large rocket parts, 5m parts, large SRBs) Color Coded Canisters (replacement models/textures for stock fuel tanks: prettier, cleaner, and diameter color-coding for the tank end-caps) Fuel Tanks Plus (collection of large stock-like tanks with Color Coded Canister style) ColorFuel Lines (color-selctable fuel lines) Lithobrake Exploration Technologies (lander parts, large chutes/legs/ladders/etc) Required Dependencies: ModuleManager Firespitter "Core" or InterstellarFuelSwitch "core" (only the DLL is needed from either) DOWNLOAD: SpaceDock or necrobones.com License: This mod's custom components (except the textures) are being shared under the CC-NC-SA license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ The textures are modified versions of Squad's fuel line texture. Therefore they should be considered Squad derivatives. Revision History: 0.3.3 (2018-03-12) - Tweaks. - Updated download link in readme to Spacedock instead of *. - Removed included copies of MM and IFS. 0.3.2 (2015-11-09) - Small fix. - Changed MM config to work with InterstellarFuelSwitch as well as Firespitter. 0.3.1 (2015-07-13) - Small bug fix. - Corrected the White/Grey naming displayed in the context menu. 0.3 (2015-07-09) - Color tweaks, etc. - Changed "orange" to more closely resemble the orange tanks. - Brighted the arrows on the "black" fuel line to be a lighter grey. - Added README. 0.2 (2015-07-07) - Rebuilt Alpha - Added two new colors, Grey & Purple. - Converted textures to DDS format. - Changed to a tweakable on the stock fuel line, rather than separate parts. - Now requires ModuleManager and FirespitterCore to function. - WARNING: Save-breaking when upgrading from version 0.1. 0.1 (2015-07-07) - Initial Alpha - First release.
  20. It's not effective, either to have a single gigantic tank for Tylo and back, nor having two hundred separate stages for a trip to Mun. Is there a formula to calculate the minimum fuel to dead weight ratio for each stage in order to have a net delta-v gain for adding that stage?
  21. Note: At very low torque, this mod makes the rotors consume extremely low fuel, making them rather overpowered for small planes such as the one pictured. Balancing is in progress. The Kerbal Space Center made a biplane using the R121 turboshaft engine, and it ran out of gas before it could fly a km away from the space center. After Jeb safely whipped that baron onto the mysterious green substance that makes the scientists yell at him for not cleaning his boots, the incident report team at R&D realized that it consumed fuel 6.25 times AFP (At Full Power) faster than the small jet engine AFP! The kerbal engineers contacted C7 Aerospace Division only to receive automated replies spouting nonsense about a warranty. Fortunately, Jeb owns his own junkyard and with a bit of duct tape and some spare parts the Kerbopower 108 was good as new and ready to circumnavigate the world!* Of course it was only after all of this that C7 Aerospace Division finally bent to the countless lawsuits of failed classic airplane designs to revisit their horribly designed turboshaft lineup. As much as their management hated them, however, the recalls saw resounding success. Spacedock! Github! [Source] Find it on CKAN! Soon! Hopefully! *Circumnavigation requires frequent stops at intermediate airports. The Kerbopower 108 has a powered flight time of 25 minutes with rebuilt engine on a full tank with cruise speed of 270 km/h or 75 m/s. Range may be increased by flying at lower power. For increased fuel capacity, consider purchasing the Kerbopower 105 or Kerbopower DT-1 supplementary fuel tank (sold seperately) Graphs for smarty pants: Contains MIT License. If you have a better idea for what license to use, feel free to leave a comment. I wasn't sure which one to use because this mod is a very tiny patch to make the LF consuming rotors actually useable in career mode, so I just used the same one as another tiny modlet. Though that one was a plugin, so I may not have been correct in doing so.
  22. [Moderator's note: Much of the content here, including this OP, was split off from another thread where it was off-topic. That thread is about the recent Rosatom rocket engine failure. This thread is about Cheif Operation Director's idea for a perpetual-momentum machine that violates the laws of physics.] Yes but it is inefficient and you are still restricted by fuel. If the ruskies could find a way to harness the air and create propulsion without actual expelling the gas they have a winning system,
  23. Do you think it will only be the usual + Mettalic hydrogen, or do you think there will be Moar Fuels?
  24. Been playing KSP for a few months now, and i was wondering how to transfer fuel multiple times. I don't know if im missing something, but after successfully transferring fuel between two tanks i cant transfer between them a second time. No, crossfeed has zero affect on it either. Im also playing on KSP 1.10, so no fuel transfer mods past KAS work either, and I'd prefer to not have too many non-stock parts.
  25. hi, hi have a problem with KSP version 1.10, with these mod installed: extraplanetary launchpad kas Kerbal engineer redux darkMultiplayer kerbalism KIS mechjeb2 planetary base and now when i exit to perform a EVA the kerbal has no monopropellant in the EVA tank. could it be a feature of one of these mod that i oversaw while i was installing them or is it a bug?
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