How to deal with nukes(KSP hiatus, getting back to it)

[SlabGizor117]

So I know nukes cause heat problems, but I don't remember how or how to deal with that. I remember someone saying the radiators don't work very well, I'm not sure.

My idea is just to have a Mun/Minmus bus that will dock with a payload, take it to, for example, the mun, and then either drop it and let the payload complete munar orbit and landing or complete orbit itself, then drop the payload, and then break orbit and aerobrake(maybe) back at kerbin and wait ready again in LKO to be refueled and take the next payload. So, that said, my idea is to just have a nuke, 2-ish tanks of jet fuel, a pod, RCS and SAS, and a docking port. What more do I need to add to get rid of the heat, since, as I said I don't remember radiators working very well.

[legoclone09]

Slap a radiator on, they magically suck up heat. And only large clusters of nukes that are on for >20 min make a lot of heat. And re-entry.

[Red Iron Crown]

What more do I need to add to get rid of the heat, since, as I said I don't remember radiators working very well.

Nothing, really. The heat generated by LV-Ns was greatly reduced in 1.0.4, so much so that if you directly attach it to a jet fuel tank you are very, very unlikely to overheat anything.

[ForScience6686]

I second reds comment. In building my nuke transport I struck the large radiators on. However testing showed I didn't generate enough heat to need them, even with 4 nukes at 6 minute burn times and connected to the 1.25m liquid fuel tanks.

[technion]

The bigger issue with nukes that I ran into was the new fuel. A large grey tank drained oxidiser with two radial nukes doesn't have a significant improvement over a large grey tank with a poodle on the bottom.

[Streetwind]

You'll probably be fine without them, but if you really are worried about heat, mount a pair of Thermal Control System (Small) somewhere - the position doesn't matter for them, as opposed to passive radiator panels (which are not recommended).

They'll weigh almost nothing while helping to siphon heat away from the engine. Unless you go absolutely crazy with nukes, you won't need more than that.

[Red Iron Crown]

The bigger issue with nukes that I ran into was the new fuel. A large grey tank drained oxidiser with two radial nukes doesn't have a significant improvement over a large grey tank with a poodle on the bottom.

It has less than half the propellant mass to work with, and the mass ratio on the tank is worse then. Try using dedicated LF-only tanks, like the Mk2 or Mk3 parts, for better performance.

[eddiew]

Perhaps oddly, I've found that using the tiny nuclear engine from Atomic Age does require radiators... May just be a balance issue and may not affect the OP at all, just throwing it out there

The bigger issue with nukes that I ran into was the new fuel. A large grey tank drained oxidiser with two radial nukes doesn't have a significant improvement over a large grey tank with a poodle on the bottom.

Have a go with Modular Fuel Tanks - will let you dump fill the space the oxidiser was using with LF. One of those 'should be stock' mods, imho ^^

[moogoob]

Size 2 round LF tanks are on my parts wishlist. That said, the Mk3 parts look really cool when making multi-nuke interplanetary transfer stages.

[technion]

It has less than half the propellant mass to work with, and the mass ratio on the tank is worse then. Try using dedicated LF-only tanks, like the Mk2 or Mk3 parts, for better performance.

Yeah - the problem there is either using 1.25m parts jet fuel parts, or the Mk2/3 parts which are a totally different shape and have a hugely negative impact when I attempt to use them as one stage on a rocket built from round tanks.

[CaptainArchmage]

I need to check other situations, but outside of reentry, on 100% heating, I think the problems will be close to the sun or running a lot of clustered engines for a long time. Use the small radiators that are directional, the biggest arrays appear bugged (source: people who tried them, please confirm) compared to the medium and small ones.

Liquid fuel only = use a liquid fuel spaceplane and attach nukes as a switchover from the turbojet engines. I had a 0.90 spaceplane to Jool powered by those, probably would have gone further in 1.0.4.

[Red Iron Crown]

I agree, the game really needs at least one 2.5m LF tank. If 2.5m tanks are what fit best in the rocket then nukes are likely not the best choice.

[Norcalplanner]

Fuel Tanks Plus will give you a wide selection of fuel tanks, including many which can be set to be LF-only. For extra nuclear goodness, load up MRS Lite and use the quadnuke, a 2.5m LV-N with four times the weight and four times the thrust in a single part.

[SlabGizor117]

Cool, thanks guys! By the way since I have been away from the game, what's the plan for 1.1?

[Red Iron Crown]

Cool, thanks guys! By the way since I have been away from the game, what's the plan for 1.1?

Unity 5 for better performance and 64-bit goodness, plus an implementation of AntennaRange/RemoteTech-like functionality for uncrewed craft.

1.0.5 is bringing some new jet engines and a rocket engine, a reworked Mk1 cockpit, plus a ton of bugfixes and refinements to contracts (I think the last is in 1.0.5 and not 1.1, might be wrong).

[DancesWithSquirrels]

I've had to build (mid-career) some ugly looking bundles of Mk1 liquid fuel fuselages - 6 around 1, lots of fuel ducts - to get around missing 2.5m tanks. They have a good weight fraction, just a lot of parts.

A royal pain to refuel, too, as it's difficult to highlight the center tank as a target. I'm considering adding the TAC fuel balance mod just for this reason.

[stratvox]

My way of handling that is to use the 2.5M-> quad 1.25m adaptor to bundle four (or eight) of the Mk 1 LF fuselages together. I use four of the box girders to attach another pair of Mk 1 LF fuselages to each, put four fuel ducts coming out from the centre to each of the four outboard tanks, and attach nukes to those. TWRs aren't so awesome but man you get boatloads of dV. Ends up being very stable and you can easily end up with 4-5 km/s of dV for your payload.

That said, 2.5m LF tanks would be most welcome.