parts [1.12.x] 'Project Orion' Nuclear Pulse Engine

[Weywot8]

Small note - if the Medusa doesn't work, try flipping it 180 degrees ("A" twice) and attaching it on the other end of the ship so it's facing 'up'. Didn't realize that would make a difference but haven't checked on a fresh, clean install to see if it's a mod interaction thing or by design.

[magnemoe]

I have an issue with large ships using the orion breaking up on load. 

This ship breaks up on load, station in middle has landed on Mun. the orion and the huge rover on top survives the 4g from the orion. station is stock + planetary bases mod. 
Unbreakable jonts+ no crash damage + pause on unpack don't help. 


This even longer ship faced an explosion in the center on load a few time, loading with the alarm clock worked al the time for some reason. 
An difference is that the huge cross shaped base has an larger fuel tank and its full. 

Think the problem is might be the heavy orion engine and magazine in one end of an long stack causing an compression on load, the ship end up with and 2 m/s forward speed after breakup. 
It will break up without the rover docked too. Trying to secure the cross arms with KAS struts don't help. 
Will do dome more testing with an more strutted base with shorter arms. 

[RoverDude]

0.2.4 - (KSP 1.1.3)
------------------
Dependency Updates
 

[magnemoe]

Found the reason why my ship disintegrated. I used KAS struts to strap down stuff, this does not work well with the orion or medusa. 
Solution is not to use them, docking ports are more robust than they look. 
This might be resolved in 1.13 then KAS get updated.  
@dakhr this might be your problem too?

[RoverDude]

Ahh good to know.

[Jasseji]

My KSP Install slowly turns into an RSP install (RoverDude Space Program)

Anyways, another great mod, though i suggest adding somewhere in the description, that the Orion/Medusa Engine needs to be staged, simply activating it doesn't work as is for any other engine

 

PS: I know that fact is mentioned here in the thread but only after reading through all pages i found this

Edited July 2, 2016 by Jasseji

[Jasseji]

@RoverDude Any chance that you maybe stumbled upon such an issue, when the whole craft rotates out of control the moment any of the 2 pulse drives is activated ?

I cant seem to get behind the problem, tried adding 5M SAS from FTT but no change :/

[Jasseji]

nevermind, the rotation is caused by bad CoG...

Edited July 6, 2016 by Jasseji

[FreeThinker]

Question, why was choosen the Orion that the Isp of the Orion to be 15000s? I'm asking because many sources report different Isp for smaller vessels. Is the Isp of the Orion  static of the or dynamic (depending on atmospheric condition and nuke strenth) and 15000 is just an upper limit, or does it become better with unlocked technology?

Edited July 6, 2016 by FreeThinker

[RoverDude]

That's not the actual ISP, it's just a placeholder to cover the wearing out of the engine and to enable the throttle.

[delta wee]

When I attach the orion engine to a pod I get a positive delta-v value, but no thrust. What could be causing the engine to produce no thrust?

[damerell]

On 05/07/2016 at 9:11 AM, Jasseji said:

@RoverDude Any chance that you maybe stumbled upon such an issue, when the whole craft rotates out of control the moment any of the 2 pulse drives is activated ?

It's often worth deactivating or limiting the travel of the gimbal.

[RoverDude]

4 hours ago, delta wee said:

When I attach the orion engine to a pod I get a positive delta-v value, but no thrust. What could be causing the engine to produce no thrust?

See the post immediately above yours.  DV readouts simply don't work for this engine, it kinda does its own thing.

[Guest]

deleted, redundant post

Edited August 13, 2016 by Guest

[delta wee]

12 hours ago, RoverDude said:

See the post immediately above yours.  DV readouts simply don't work for this engine, it kinda does its own thing.

When I try to launch the rocket with the engine I hear the explosion sounds but the rocket goes nowhere. I'm using RSS, but not Realism Overhaul if that helps.

[RoverDude]

Pic of craft, pic of gamedata folder, ksp version?

[delta wee]

I figured out the problem. I was only attaching the engine to the command module, and not the part that holds the nuclear bombs. It works now, but for some reason I don't get any sound when the bombs explode.

[captainradish]

This engine is...uncanny.

Amazingly enough, Mechjeb doesn't have too much trouble with it (at least with the lower-power explosives). DeltaV calculations go straight out the window, though.

The first time I used it I laughed my ass off. I haven't done that in KSP for quite some time. Good job!

[RoverDude]

Glad you dig it

[damerell]

On 14/08/2016 at 0:15 PM, delta wee said:

I figured out the problem. I was only attaching the engine to the command module, and not the part that holds the nuclear bombs. It works now, but for some reason I don't get any sound when the bombs explode.

I've hit this (the earlier issue, bangs but no shove). It seems like a fuel flow issue, but it seems odd to begin with that the engine can be in a state where it makes a noise but doesn't actually do anything. (Indeed, a quick peek in USI_PulseDrive.cs leaves me no better informed).

The problematic vessels seem to have a procedural fairing between magazine and drive (with crossfeed on). This may be working as designed, although it's odd since LFO can feed through a pfairing and they don't seem to have differently organised resource definitions...

I notice it does this:

return broker.AmountAvailable(part, res.name, 1, "") > 1;

in HasFuel() - doesn't that make it impossible to blow the last unit of fuel?

Edited August 15, 2016 by damerell

[Spaceception]

I tried downloading it, but nothing showed up, did I do something wrong?

[Spaceception]

Wait....

I think I installed the wrong thing, gimme a sec.

It installed

[DStaal]

BTW: RoverDude, what do you think of these EL recipes for bombs?  Would you like a PR with them?  (I've been meaning to test if I could set it to require more than 100% mass of EnrichedUranium - reactor grade vs. weapons grade being the thinking, but I haven't gotten around to it and don't really care, as it would probably be confusing.)

EL_ResourceRecipe:NEEDS[Launchpad] {
    name = NPU-250
	Resources {
		EnrichedUranium = 0.7
		MaterialKits = 0.2
        SpecializedParts = 0.1
	}
}

EL_ResourceRecipe:NEEDS[Launchpad] {
    name = NPU-500
	Resources {
		EnrichedUranium = 0.7
		MaterialKits = 0.2
        SpecializedParts = 0.1
	}
}

EL_ResourceRecipe:NEEDS[Launchpad] {
    name = NPU-1000
	Resources {
		EnrichedUranium = 0.7
		MaterialKits = 0.2
        SpecializedParts = 0.1
	}
}

EL_ResourceRecipe:NEEDS[Launchpad] {
    name = NPU-2500
	Resources {
		EnrichedUranium = 0.7
		MaterialKits = 0.2
        SpecializedParts = 0.1
	}
}

EL_ResourceRecipe:NEEDS[Launchpad] {
    name = AblativeOil
	Resources {
		MaterialKits = 1
	}
}

 

[RoverDude]

Sure, works for me @DStaal

[Kenobi McCormick]

1 hour ago, Spaceception said:

Wait....

I think I installed the wrong thing, gimme a sec.

It installed

But do the engines actually function?