Electric Engines

[ProFilip]

So, like the title says...

I think that Electric Engines should be added to the game. It would really be a good addition. But, that would be overpowered. Slap on a bunch of solar arrays and generators on and you are good to go. So, I have and idea how to fix that. There should be weaker engines and stronger engines that require a LOT of power. That is my idea for electric engines. I hope you like it !

Ps: I know that there are engines which use xenon gas and electricity, but my idea is electricity only engines.

[Renegrade]

KSP is built around the concept of Newton's Third Law - aside from some minor quibbles about this or that, it's relatively close to actual physics. I don't think Squad will go for a reactionless drive like that...

[Sean Mirrsen]

There's a few threads over in the Space Lounge about the Cannae Drive/EMDrive, but the prevailing opinion so far is "most likely still impossible". Besides that, an electric-only space thruster would either break all interplanetary transfer burns forever, or be too weak to ever be useful (i.e. hour long burns at best) if you take game balance into account.

There could, I guess, be stuff like electrodynamic tethers or something, but that would be impossible to properly simulate with the way KSP's physics work.

I would, however, like to suggest implementing some variety of ion/plasma engines a-la Nertea's Near Future Propulsion mod. Small thrusters, large thrusters, weak thrusters, strong thrusters! Xenon, Argon, Hydrogen! All the variety you could ever want, with very good stock-styled models and decent balance.

Edited February 21, 2015 by Sean Mirrsen

[Daze]

I think that the reactor and some engine of KSPI would fit very nice

[wizzlebippi]

What do you mean by electric engines? I think electric driven propellers or ducted fans would be nice, but require a lot of power. As for the EMdrive, until someone knows why it works, probably not a good addition.

Also, the near future addons are pretty amazing.

[Starwhip]

Electric propellers, yes.

Reactionless drives, no. That's the Kraken's job.

It's not Space Engineers.

[Torquemadus]

In present day space technology, an "electric" drive is another term for an ion drive. This might be because ion drives sound like something out of a science fiction movie, so the name might not sit well with aerospace executives.

Solar electric drive uses solar panels to provide power. The power output offered by the panels is quite small compared to their weight, leading to the situations we see with the KSP ion engine. If a more powerful electric drive were added to the game, players would need to add very large arrays of solar panels to their ships. The mass of these arrays would be considerable, leading to poor thrust to weight ratios and long burn times. Despite being heavy, the saving in fuel would lower the overall mass required, especially on high dV interplanetary transfers. This could make solar electric drives competitive with nuclear thermal rockets.

An alternative would be to use nuclear electric drive. This would be powered by a small nuclear reactor, which would weigh a lot less than the huge array of solar panels. The thrust to weight ratio would still be quite poor, but it would still be a considerable improvement over solar panels.

IRL Electric drives such as VASIMR have been proposed as ways to speed astronauts through space to reduce their exposure to radiation and zero gravity. This all sounds fine until you start looking at how much electricity these things need!

[Frozen_Heart]

Haven't you heard of a K-drive...

If you are talking about electric propellers then I completely agree!

If you are talking about EM drives then no. Unless it is proved to work in real life then it has no place in KSP.

[Azimech]

Same as above :-)