Regarding LV-Ns in1.0

[AlexinTokyo]

So, the LV-N has been modified in 1.0 to only require liquid fuel, removing the need for oxidizer.

Has anyone seen on any of the streams (or would an experimentals person care to comment if allowed) whether there are now non-air/space plane pure-LF tanks for use in NTR-only stages, or if the only option is to drain the oxidizer from existing tanks?

Hopefully we can use, for example, an orange tank of LF only, instead of carrying two with the oxidizer drained.

I haven't noticed one way or the other on the YouTube videos, but I haven't been following Twitch at all.

[Radam]

Well there are airplane parts with only LF in them, and they are actually even lighter for what they carry...

[Renegrade]

Well there are airplane parts with only LF in them, and they are actually even lighter for what they carry...

They HAD favorable mass ratios (at least in the Mk3 scale). In 0.90. That could very well be different now. Part balance pass coulda changed 'em.

Anyhow this is all rather silly speculation until we actually play 1.0 and can see the stats in non-potato-like resolutions.

[TheXRuler]

I certainly hope they do provide us with more Liquid Fuel only tanks, I like to design my spacecraft to look awesome and I just can't imagine sticking jet fuselages on my rockets just for som LF.

[Rastaman]

Since you don't burn Oxidizer in the nuke anymore, you need more tank volume for the same deltaV now!

[Tex_NL]

I'm pretty sure there will be mods very soon after release that can fill the tank completely with fuel after you've removed the oxidizer.

[TheXRuler]

How do you figure that Rastaman? As far as I know pur LF tanks usually have a better fuel to mass ratio. Although I think they might finally split up fuels into H2/O2, Pure H2 or whatever else for the Nukes and Kerosene for turbojets and rapiers.

[Red Iron Crown]

As far as I know pur LF tanks usually have a better fuel to mass ratio.

They do if you're only considering LF mass. If you go with propellant mass in total (LF+O), only the Mk3 LF tanks have mass ratios as good as the LFO tanks currently. Having to tweak out oxidizer means poorer mass ratios, which to some degree negates the LV-Ns high Isp.

I'm really hoping we get at least one 2.5m LF tank at some point, that's the only size that seems neglected.

[Rastaman]

How do you figure that Rastaman? As far as I know pur LF tanks usually have a better fuel to mass ratio. Although I think they might finally split up fuels into H2/O2, Pure H2 or whatever else for the Nukes and Kerosene for turbojets and rapiers.

If you use the normal LF/OX tanks I mean. So you need more tank volume, and more tank structural mass. It's pretty cool actually, since LH2 density is only a 16th of that of LOX in real life (rho_LH2 = 71 kg/m^3 ; rho_LOX = 1141 kg/m^3, Source: Wikipedia).

So nuke tankage should be much larger, but not more massive. The mass ratio in normal fuel tanks should be 1/8, not 0.9/1.1.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Rastaman

[TheXRuler]

Oh well, if we have to remove Ox and still use LFO tanks that'd be ridiculous. If that is the case It's just one more reason to stick with 0.90.

I must say while there are many cool things coming, I am not planning to switch to 1.0 in the forseeable future (not only due to a heavily modded install)