K.E.R. cannot "see" thermal rocket nozzle?

[NeverEnoughFuel!!]

Well i'm trying to build Mun capable SSTO, with a small Mun "jumper" in cargo bay with science apparatus on it... in career mode... I made it to LKO relatively easy but I'm still about 800 delta V short of getting to the Mun... if we add orbital, docking, and departure maneuvers delta V inflates to about 1000 more... but all of it would be OK if KER could calculate it in advance... this way I had to guess so any advices? Does McJeb "see" thermal rockets?

[Randox]

KER depends on the root part to calculate things correctly. My guess is that you have a command pod on the rocket set as the root (if you don't change it with the root tool, the root is whatever part you placed first, usually a command module of some sort). As far as I can tell, KER "follows" the root part and assumes that you will always be controlling that part (or rather, whatever vessel that part is attached to) through all stages, and calculates dV accordingly. Setting a part on your jumper as the root of the combined vessel should solve it.

If not, a workaround is to build your jumper as a subassembly, and add it's dV to your launch vehicle with manual addition. It's a bit of a pain, but at least you won't need to guess.

[NeverEnoughFuel!!]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough... Mun jumper is not the problem, problem is nuclear thermal rocket nozzle on SSTO... it comes from Interstellar mod (or was it NFT?), and must be attached directly to a reactor to give any thrust... in SPH I get 0 delta V in KER display... it works pretty well... but still swallow nice amount of fuel and its ISP doesn't  look as much... or do I need stronger reactor? http://postimg.org/image/lmz11whon/c0c49653/

[theend3r]

KER really can't cope with this. Stronger reactor is always better of course and afaik, there should be some kind of plasma thruster that has infinite dV since it uses space particles or what. Get that in space and you've won.

My Interstellar SSTOs were usually completely propellantless, working on  thermal jets in atmo and on plasma in space.

[NeverEnoughFuel!!]

7 minutes ago, theend3r said:

KER really can't cope with this.

My Interstellar SSTOs were usually completely propellantless, working on  thermal jets in atmo and on plasma in space.

That's all I need to know... McJeb can't calculate either? Doesn't plasma requires huge infrastructure, microwave transmission, i.e. nuclear plants in orbit or gigantic solar plants in sun's orbit? I really hate planting satellites and babysitting them... especially if I had to wait for them to reach sun...

[theend3r]

31 minutes ago, NeverEnoughFuel!! said:

That's all I need to know... McJeb can't calculate either? Doesn't plasma requires huge infrastructure, microwave transmission, i.e. nuclear plants in orbit or gigantic solar plants in sun's orbit? I really hate planting satellites and babysitting them... especially if I had to wait for them to reach sun...

No, just run everything on antimatter. I've made a huge collector ship that warped to/from Jool with AM and a large SSTO brought the supplies to the runway.

I don't use Interstellar anymore but this is from a few versions ago:

 

Edited December 7, 2015 by theend3r

[NeverEnoughFuel!!]

Is that in sandbox or carrier? I still didn't opened warp nodes in tech tree, and when I do... they still cost a hefty sum... but for now my science labs around Mun are working and there are other ways to deliver them data... I just tried to lower the costs a bit... thanks for the info ;-) anyway... 

[sal_vager]

Moved to Addons.