KSPI Extended

[Antuas]

I recently downloaded this add-on and would like to use it, only it seems fairly complicated. I tried the wiki and it explains things about as clearly as a hammer to the side of the head. Is there a guide or tutorial out there that doesn't require someone to understand the finer ponits of thermodynamics and nuclear fusion?

[Nansuchao]

The wiki is still in development. You can learn a lot watching the Interstellar Quest by Scott Manley on YouTube, otherwise, just experiment by yourself and, if you need help for a specific part, just ask in the relative thread, someone is always ready to help.

[GreeningGalaxy]

KSPI has already been a fairly dense mod. Figuring out the finer details is probably best done through trial and error, but here are a few points to push you in the right direction:

- Reactors make heat; they do not make electricity. This is what generators are for (last I looked, you had to attach them directly to the reactor, but I think Freethinker may have given more wiggle room there). Some reactors, namely fusion ones, will [I]require[/I] electricity in order to make heat, and therefore must have a generator in order to run at all.
- Generators make electricity. "Megajoules" is effectively the same thing as ElectricCharge, just [I]more.[/I] Megajoules will freely convert to ElectricCharge at a 1:1000 exchange rate, but the conversion doesn't currently go the other way as far as I know.
- Generators will not work without radiators. If you're building a small atmospheric ship, you can get away with a few of the small radial ones, but if you're making something that will need to run at full power for long periods in space, you'll need to add big radiators (the folding ones are generally the most effective) until the numbers in the VAB thermal helper (press T last I looked, or use the toolbar button) turn green.
- Thermal rocket nozzles are like generators, but they make heat into thrust instead of electricity. The specific impulse depends on the core temperature of the reactor they're attached to, and the total thrust power (thrust * specific impulse * ½ * 9.8) is [SIZE=2]ideally[/SIZE] something close to the reactor's total thermal output. Note that this means more thrust is gained by reactors that produce [I]more[/I] power but at a [I]lower[/I] core temperature.
- Fission reactors, unlike fusion ones, don't have internal controls - a kerbal will need to EVA, fly close to the reactor, and right-click on it before it can be started up or shut down. Reactors will likely be started by default before being put on the launchpad, so you shouldn't have to worry about this unless you need to shut the reactor down at some point.
- Some reactors, mostly fusion ones, have two different kinds of output: heat and "charged particles." Fusion reactions produce both charged and uncharged products, both of which will form heat when they strike the reactor's shielding. However, the charged products have the added bonus of being able to be redirected by magnetic fields. If you use a "direct conversion generator" instead of a "KTEC solid state generator" or "Brayton cycle generator" (I don't know what names are still in use), the generator will use the charged products of the fusion reaction to make electricity at higher efficiency than a thermal generator. Note that different fuel schemes for a fusion reactor produce different amounts of power and different ratios of charged products - the standard deuterium-tritium setup will make the most power, but a fairly low percentage of the reaction products will be charged particles. Deuterium and helium-3 will produce less power but more charged particles, and pure helium-3 is completely "aneutronic" meaning that it produces [I]only[/I] charged particles, at the expense of rather lower power compared to other fuels. Unused charged particles will be thermalized by the reactor and turned into heat.
Hint: if you use a thermal rocket nozzle with a fusion reactor, use deuterium-tritium mode and a direct conversion generator. The charged particles will power the reactor, while leaving the thermal power to run the rocket nozzle.
- Magnetic nozzles are somewhat similar to thermal nozzles, except they use charged particles only instead of thermal power. This generally gives them very low thrust and very high specific impulse. Magnetic nozzles also have the added bonus of being "gearable" meaning that throttling down will [I]not[/I] alter the power output of the reactor, only the rate of propellant flow, meaning that as thrust decreases, specific impulse will increase. (The DT VISTA inertial fusion engine also has this property.)
- Antimatter is really powerful. Antimatter reactors provide colossal amounts of power, much of it as charged particles, which makes them pretty much the ultimate power source for KSPI ships. To get it, you'll need to fly an antimatter containment unit and one of those antimatter collectors out to somewhere like Jool, where the magnetosphere traps anti-particles, and wait around for a while to let the container fill up. When the container's full, don't let it lose power, or it will explode and take your whole ship with it!
- The "Antimatter Initiated Reactor" can be thought of as a mash-up of all the reactor types - it burns fission fuel, fusion fuel, and antimatter all at once to make power. The disadvantage is that it requires a lot of different fuels (uranium nitride, helium-3, deuterium, and antimatter), but the advantage is that it uses all of these at extremely low rates - modest tankage of the fusion and fission fuels and a few grams of antimatter will last the reactor many years.


In general, test your reactor configurations on the launchpad before you toss them into space - KSPI is a bit finnicky with some setups and isn't good at providing information about why they don't work, so you'll want to make sure everything is actually functional before spending a lot of time (or money, if you play career) getting it into space. For some fusion setups, you may find it useful to have a "pilot reactor" on board - a smaller reactor than the one that powers your main engine to provide power to other systems while the engine is off, and, in the case of fusion reactors, to provide the first boost of power to get the main reactor going.
Also note that many fuels/propellants, such as liquid hydrogen (and the isotopes used as fusion fuels) will boil off if not kept very cold, and so their tankage will need to be powered at all times to prevent the fuel from escaping.


If I left anything out that wasn't self-explanatory, let me know and I'll do my best to explain it.

[Nansuchao]

Beautiful!!!! You must be the one to update the wiki! The only thing I can add to your explanation, is that if you have a good microwave web, you can almost ever avoid the "pilot" reactor, but just to be finicky. Great job!