Real ISRU Development Thread

[Adam_]

Hi.

I don't know what I am doing wrong but the liquefaction array does not work for me, I am trying to liquefy oxygen It says on the array 'operational' but oxygen doesn't get liquefied. And also what to do with 'ore' I cant see any part that can change 'ore' to anything useful.

[Guest]

Dr. Jet, looks great! I'll try to get back on this weekend or next week, life's been hectic. I thought I accidentally the ice drill but it turns out it just wasn't copied from the development install to the repository folder, so that'll be in the next commit. Hopefully I can get the tank scripts finished up here.

Hi.

I don't know what I am doing wrong but the liquefaction array does not work for me, I am trying to liquefy oxygen It says on the array 'operational' but oxygen doesn't get liquefied. And also what to do with 'ore' I cant see any part that can change 'ore' to anything useful.

Ore isn't used in this mod; it's an unrealistic resource.

As for the array, make sure you have liquid oxygen storage onboard. If so, I'll have to test and fix. If not, get some.

[Adam_]

I had every storage needed, oxygen in one tank and empty tank for liquid oxygen. I tried it also with methane. And it didn't work.

[Guest]

Okay, I'll check it out.

[Adam_]

And also You say that ice drill wont supposed to collect ore?

[Guest]

No, of course not. "Ore" is a made-up resource; you don't see NASA speculating on how to refuel a spaceship by mining and refining ore, do you?

[jonrd463]

And also You say that ice drill wont supposed to collect ore?

"Ore" is an abstract resource stock KSP uses as a comprehensive stand-in for the various minerals and elements that exist in the real world. KSP eschews those complexities for gameplay purposes, while realism mods such as this one focus on breaking the concept of KSP's "ore" into it's real world components and explores the intricacies, complexity, and difficulty that comes with it. As has been said several times, there are plenty of mods that use a basic approach, such as stock, Karbonite, and Kethane. Rather than re-invent the wheel, regex and company are building something that can happily and plausibly exist in a Realism Overhaul environment.

[Adam_]

Ok thx. And one more question. Are You planning to change stock fuel cells so they don't use liquid fuel and oxidizer?

[Dr. Jet]

Some fresh screenshots of retextured parts. All hex parts including hex base and tanks share the same one texture to save memory.

I'm still racking my mind over the composition of other units, Sabatier being the major headache. I need to comprehend parts they are assembled from IRL to be able to recompose and fit em into hex segment.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Dr. Jet

[Guest]

Dr. Jet, can't say it enough, looks fantastic. Thank you.

I have finished up the fuel tank support, sorry I was away from this project for so long.

For Real Fuels:

Added our resources to the tank types that needed them, but in the main Real Fuels was the easiest thing to handle. Service Module tanks are your best bet for ISRU setup.

For Modular Fuel Tanks:

Added our resources and the required CRP resources to Structural, RCS, Xenon, and Service Module tank types.

For both Real Fuels and Modular Fuel Tanks, Dr. Jet's Hex Tank system is implemented as Service Modules.

For Interstellar Fuel Switch and Firespitter Fuel Switch:

Any part that has ONLY MonoPropellant or Ore as a resource and that is not a command module or docking port will be switchable for our resources. We make one additional copy of the part and configure it for the resources we use. This prevents it our scripts from being used on odd service-module type parts that may contain multiple different resources. I have not extensively tested the interaction between FFS or IFS and our scripts using full installs, but with the core plugins for these mods it works fine.

For no fuel mods:

If you have no fuel mods, we duplicate any part that has ONLY MonoPropellant or Ore as a resource and that is not a command module or docking port, and create a tank for each of our resources. This is the "Tank Spam" method. This method is the reason you should pick up FFS or IFS or MFT, or just use RealISRU as intended with the Realism Overhaul suite.

Now I need to repair the asteroid mining. I messed up my process and also deleted some of my KSP installs, losing what I had. I have revised my process and should be good for the future no matter what happens in the volatile section of my drive, but that still means I have to duplicate some earlier work. Fortunately, there isn't much. I am also going to be removing the resource definitions for Kerbol system now that RSS is up and running; CRP should handle anything you need and, if it doesn't, please consider making a pull request to CRP with the definitions that are missing. Or talk to RoverDude about it in the CRP thread. Either way, it's not RealISRU's problem because this mod is intended for Real Solar System. After that, clean up and plugin-writing will commence.

[Guest]

Some interesting information for asteroid/comet mining. Monoethylamine? Ethylamine? Organics and carbon mon/dioxide. This means big things for sustained space missions. Deimos, Phobos, and Ceres could be prime refueling stations for all sorts of craft.

http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2015/08/The_organic_comet

[nalfz]

Any plans for basic off-world construction? Plastics should be fairly accessible ( 2CO + 4H₂ → C₂H₄ + 2H₂O then polymerise by exposing the ethylene to a catalyst) which would help for simple pressurised habitats

Aluminium can be extracted from lunar and martian regolith

I can't really imagine a way to do something like EPL in this fashion (building a rocket engine and computer components from scratch off-world is a bit much) but I feel like it would be really great if there were a few habitats that could be produced on another body

A few proposals for lunar habitats use this approach, although it tends to be more along the lines of using several feet of lunar regolith as radiation shielding...

[Guest]

No plans for that at this time. Construction is a bit out of scope.

[jonrd463]

Hi Regex. Is there any updates worth mentioning? I've been really getting into RO over the last few weeks, and I'm finally getting comfortable with putting things into LEO, and I've got my own version of a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the moon. My next step is my version of an Apollo program, to lead into a Lunar colony. ISRU will be a big part, and obviously I want to use this mod.

Just wondering how things are going since the thread's been quiet lately.

[Guest]

I haven't done anything lately besides the tank fixes. Sorry I work slow.

[AngelLestat]

Nice to see this so expected mod in alpha.

I dont have time lately to give it a try, maybe next month. Congrats.

[nalfz]

No plans for that at this time. Construction is a bit out of scope.

Fair enough

Any chance to be able to extract hydrogen from hydrazine?

I've just got to reenact the Martian in RSS

Edited August 26, 2015 by nalfz
Best to be on the safe side

[Autochton]

nalfz: Strictly speaking, that process is a controlled burn of hydrazine, followed by condensing out the ensuing water vapor. Then electrolyzing the water to hydrogen and oxygen. (Then realizing that this is a huge explosive risk and running like a punk.) Potentially you could allow engineers to rig up simpler (much, much more dangerous) versions of ISRU processes... But that sounds more like a separate mod, honestly.

[nalfz]

nalfz: Strictly speaking, that process is a controlled burn of hydrazine, followed by condensing out the ensuing water vapor. Then electrolyzing the water to hydrogen and oxygen. (Then realizing that this is a huge explosive risk and running like a punk.) Potentially you could allow engineers to rig up simpler (much, much more dangerous) versions of ISRU processes... But that sounds more like a separate mod, honestly.

Hydrazine as a monopropellant doesn't give off water vapour, does it? I was under the impression that gives off only nitrogen, hydrogen and ammonia

Certainly would have saved watney some time getting water, seeing as in the novel

he just exposes the hydrazine to the catalyst, burns the exhaust in oxygen and waits for the humidity regulator to pull the water vapour out of the environment

[Autochton]

Right, yes. That's what he does. I had it in my head that he uses hydrazine/HTP, but you're right, not only is there no reason with the catalyst, it's tremendously more dangerous to do that way.

As spoilers for The Martian go I'd name that one a very minor one.

[nalfz]

Right, yes. That's what he does. I had it in my head that he uses hydrazine/HTP, but you're right, not only is there no reason with the catalyst, it's tremendously more dangerous to do that way.

As spoilers for The Martian go I'd name that one a very minor one.

More danger = more fun, of course

And about spoilers, you never know what someone's gonna complain about

[Dr. Jet]

Any ideas about Sabatier reactor composition? Anyone?

Photos already posted here are illegible and totally not inspiring.

[Ravenchant]

Dr. jet, I think this is the carbon dioxide compressor part for the one on ISS.

Then there's this:

And this,

although neither is very detailed.

[tmikesecrist3]

What do they do with the methane?

[Red Iron Crown]

Methane is commonly proposed as a rocket fuel that can be created with ISRU.