[1.12.x] Kerbal Atomics: fancy nuclear engines! (August 18, 2024)

[FiiZzioN]

On 3/1/2016 at 2:20 AM, PanzerAce said:

So.....what fuel is it going to be using? Are we going to get yet another fuel (NSW)?

If that does happen we may just as well start using Real Fuels

Edited March 5, 2016 by FiiZzioN

[PanzerAce]

3 hours ago, FiiZzioN said:

If that does happen we may just as well start using Real Fuels

Don't know what RF has really, but yeah, we'll have LF, LOX, LH2, Lithium, Zeon, Argon, and NSW....

[Table]

How do I add in the hydrogen tanks?

[hab136]

I built a hydrogen transport ship with the Poseidon engine and a bunch of hydrogen tanks.  A few solar panels to keep the boil-off away, and two "Thermal Control System (large)" (the expanding ones).  I managed to blow it up a few times, so I have some questions:

Is the integrated reactor supposed to work before the engine is staged? (a decoupler was still attached below it)  It didn't for me.  I wanted to use the reactor to help avoid boil-off before I got into space and could expand my solar panels.

I started the reactor, and it climbed up to 3300k, or whatever the max temp was, and stayed there.  Did a long burn, and the temperature was fine.  The instant I shut off the engine or throttled down, the temperature climbed.  The Thermal Control Systems never turned red, the temperature climbed too high, and it auto-shut off (after removing some core health).  I finally figured out that I had to immediately shut off the reactor as soon as I went less than full throttle.  Did I not have enough cooling, or is it supposed to work this way?  It's really annoying to micro-manage the reactor after every burn, and non-trivial burns at anything less than 100% were impossible.

 

@Table in the download should be a folder "GameData" and then a bunch of folders inside (CommunityResourcePack, CryoTanks, DeployableEngines, InterstellarFuelSwitch, KerbalAtomics).  You should be installing all of them.  The hydrogen tanks are in the CryoTanks folder.

[Table]

12 hours ago, hab136 said:

I built a hydrogen transport ship with the Poseidon engine and a bunch of hydrogen tanks.  A few solar panels to keep the boil-off away, and two "Thermal Control System (large)" (the expanding ones).  I managed to blow it up a few times, so I have some questions:

Is the integrated reactor supposed to work before the engine is staged? (a decoupler was still attached below it)  It didn't for me.  I wanted to use the reactor to help avoid boil-off before I got into space and could expand my solar panels.

I started the reactor, and it climbed up to 3300k, or whatever the max temp was, and stayed there.  Did a long burn, and the temperature was fine.  The instant I shut off the engine or throttled down, the temperature climbed.  The Thermal Control Systems never turned red, the temperature climbed too high, and it auto-shut off (after removing some core health).  I finally figured out that I had to immediately shut off the reactor as soon as I went less than full throttle.  Did I not have enough cooling, or is it supposed to work this way?  It's really annoying to micro-manage the reactor after every burn, and non-trivial burns at anything less than 100% were impossible.

 

@Table in the download should be a folder "GameData" and then a bunch of folders inside (CommunityResourcePack, CryoTanks, DeployableEngines, InterstellarFuelSwitch, KerbalAtomics).  You should be installing all of them.  The hydrogen tanks are in the CryoTanks folder.

Ah, thanks mate

[Buster Charlie]

Can you give me some hints on writing a module manager config to convert other mods NTR to be inline with your tweaks (Ie you modifed the LV-N) since I'd like all my NTR to be balanced against each other so I dont just pick the 'best' one and never use the other designs (even if just for visual variety). 

[Nightside]

23 minutes ago, Buster Charlie said:

Can you give me some hints on writing a module manager config to convert other mods NTR to be inline with your tweaks (Ie you modifed the LV-N) since I'd like all my NTR to be balanced against each other so I dont just pick the 'best' one and never use the other designs (even if just for visual variety). 

Check the examples in KerbalAtomic->Patches->NTR. In fact if you have an NTRs not included already, you should mention it here and they might get patches in the next version

 

[Buster Charlie]

I love all your mods, I'm was grumpy about dealing with a whole new resource (I enjoyed the simplicity of liquidfuel even if it wasn't realistic) but your liquidfuel patch nerfs the NTR (and that ain't going to happen on my watch!) and I guess it synergies well with the cryogenic engines and you are very reliable with updates and improvements so I feel captured by your vision! 

 

I've been playing with this mod which adds a deployable NTR for an orbital tug.

I really like the utility (it reduces my parts count for tugs a lot) But i'm in a situation now where it uses liquidfuel (or monopropellant  with a different profile interesting enough) Any chance to address this mod also in your NTR Patch? The core grabber carries fuel for the engines, and it does generate power (IIRC) so it shouldn't be an issue to have it have a bleedoff prevention? I will try and contact the author of that mod if you feel this is too much work on your're part.

Also, I noticed that when I built a without a reactor the hydrogen tank drained my battery even while on launch clamps? I use fusebox to track my electric usage but for whatever reason it doesn't recognize your liquidhydrogen tank drain so I was caught by surprise with an empy battery while waiting for a launch window. Anyway to buff launch clamps so they can keep tanks topped off on the pad?

 

 

[hab136]

>I started the reactor, and it climbed up to 3300k, or whatever the max temp was, and stayed there.  Did a long burn, and the temperature was fine.  The instant I shut off the engine or throttled down, the temperature climbed.  The Thermal Control Systems never turned red, the temperature climbed too high, and it auto-shut off (after removing some core health).  I finally figured out that I had to immediately shut off the reactor as soon as I went less than full throttle.  Did I not have enough cooling, or is it supposed to work this way?  It's really annoying to micro-manage the reactor after every burn, and non-trivial burns at anything less than 100% were impossible.

To answer myself - use the "Power setting", duh.  Everything works fine if it's set to 5-10%.  If you're impatient, set to 100% to warm up, then drop it back down when it gets near full temp.  The only reason I see to use above the bare minimum (5%) is if you need a little extra electricity.  Lots of big H₂ tanks when in the dark can draw a lot of electricity!

No need to power off the reactor between multiple burns (which was my main complaint), but if the ship is going to be parked (or coasting) for a while, shutting off the reactor seems to extend its lifetime.

Mostly posting so nobody else makes the same noob mistakes.

[hab136]

On 3/19/2016 at 5:43 PM, Buster Charlie said:

Also, I noticed that when I built a without a reactor the hydrogen tank drained my battery even while on launch clamps? I use fusebox to track my electric usage but for whatever reason it doesn't recognize your liquidhydrogen tank drain so I was caught by surprise with an empy battery while waiting for a launch window. Anyway to buff launch clamps so they can keep tanks topped off on the pad?

Each launch clamp generates 1 EC/s.  If you need 1,000 EC/s, just add 1,000 launch clamps.

If you just want to make the launch clamps deliver more power, you can use this MM config:

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[LaunchClamp]]{
  @MODULE[ModuleGenerator] {
    @OUTPUT_RESOURCE[ElectricCharge] {
      @rate = 1000
    }
  }
}
@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ExtendingLaunchClamp]]{
  @MODULE[ModuleGenerator] {
    @OUTPUT_RESOURCE[ElectricCharge] {
      @rate = 1000
    }
  }
}

Save it as "launchClampEC.cfg" (or anything that ends in .cfg, really) and put it in your GameData directory.  Requires ModuleManager, which you should already have.  Works with modded launch clamps too:

 

 

The in-game way would be to attach power generation to the launch clamps (solar panels, fuel tank+fuel cell array, RTG, whatever).  If they're attached to the launch clamps and not your ship, they stay on the ground, and get refunded 100% (minus the fuel you spent, if any).

I used to use this same trick to attach a small jet fuel tank to the launch clamps, which I used to feed my jet-powered first stage while it was still spooling up on the launchpad.

[Table]

Hey Nertea, I would love to see a 3.75m engine for this mod!

[Rayder]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I can't seem to figure out where I'm going wrong.

I'm trying to use Kerbal Atomics together with Near Future Electrical, specifically the patch which gives each NTR its own nuclear reactor. The NFE reactors seem to work fine, but the reactors inside the engines do not. The reactor stats in the tweakables window are all blank and the activate/deactivate button don't do anything either.

I noticed there's the "dummy" patch in there. Should I be replacing that patch with the actual one?

EDIT: I also noticed that the reactor inside the engine still does consume Uranium if you activate it, but there's no other indication that the reactor is doing anything.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Rayder
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[aniron]

On 20/03/2016 at 9:36 PM, Table said:

Hey Nertea, I would love to see a 3.75m engine for this mod!

A page or so back is Nertea's WIP of a 3.75m NSWR...

I think you're about to get your wish granted and then some.

[Table]

6 hours ago, aniron said:

A page or so back is Nertea's WIP of a 3.75m NSWR...

I think you're about to get your wish granted and then some.

[DDE]

On ‎29‎.‎02‎.‎2016 at 7:25 PM, Nertea said:

Yup, it's a 3.75m NSWR. Everything except the approximate plumbing is totally a guess, doesn't seem to be many concepts hanging around.

Nuclear winter is coming...

[Temeter]

Coming from wikipedia, am I understanding correctly that a NSWR basically creates a continuous nuclear reaction inside of it's nozzle?

Could be ridiculously OP. You know, judging by the stats...

Edited March 30, 2016 by Temeter

[aniron]

On 30/03/2016 at 10:53 PM, Temeter said:

Coming from wikipedia, am I understanding correctly that a NSWR basically creates a continuous nuclear reaction inside of it's nozzle?

Could be ridiculously OP. You know, judging by the stats...

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php#id--Nuclear_Thermal--Gas_Core--Open_Cycle--Nuclear_Salt_Water

Will tell you all you need to know. Basically it's the Orion drive, but with a liquid, continously detonating bomb.

[Temeter]

21 minutes ago, aniron said:

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php#id--Nuclear_Thermal--Gas_Core--Open_Cycle--Nuclear_Salt_Water

Will tell you all you need to know. Basically it's the Orion drive, but with a liquid, continously detonating bomb.

Thanks, that's a bit more understandable than the wikipedia definition.

 

I think I'm ready for having an interplanetary fleet driven by nuclear devastation. Sounds like the 50's kind of scifi: Deus Ex Nukina.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Temeter

[DDE]

7 hours ago, Temeter said:

Thanks, that's a bit more understandable than the wikipedia definition.

 

I think I'm ready for having an interplanetary fleet driven by nuclear devastation. Sounds like the 50's kind of scifi: Deus Ex Nukina.

All nuclear rocketry is pretty much 1950s. "As God and Heinlein intended".

NSWRs should be effortless vertical SSTOs. Atomic Rockets classifies them as a possible torchship (high ISP, high thrust). However, they will require highly specialized tankage and tens of tons of highly refined nuclear fuel per launch.

[Sudragon]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

All nuclear rocketry is pretty much 1950s. "As God and Heinlein intended".

NSWRs should be effortless vertical SSTOs. Atomic Rockets classifies them as a possible torchship (high ISP, high thrust). However, they will require highly specialized tankage and tens of tons of highly refined nuclear fuel per launch.

And a planet you don't really care about...

[DDE]

20 hours ago, Sudragon said:

And a planet you don't really care about...

So, it should definitely come with Kerbinside for that extra gut punch.

[Temeter]

In the worst case you might just use them as high orbit transport vessels. Think that's how i'm gonna do it, while using conventional ships ferrying around stuff from low orbit or surface to the NSWR transports. Will balance out the op'ness a bit and add some cool synergies to design around. Gonna set up some USI kolonies now that performance permits it, so that's gonna be fun all around.

 

That's not to say I'll refrain from building an 80s style rocket ship for jebediah and his crew as my spacefleet's flagship! Just to fly around, save kerbals in danger (or hunger strike), and generally doing fun stuff. ~

Edited April 10, 2016 by Temeter

[iZim]

Thanks Netrea, another great mod. Youre really a king of modelling One thing. Density of LH2 and volume of tanks. I mean, upper stage should not be bigger than booster stage, right?

P.s engines from RLA, Atomic Age, KSPX is working fine.

P.s2 How to make those awesome tanks start using Liquid Fuel?

Edited April 13, 2016 by iZim

[Temeter]

4 hours ago, iZim said:

Thanks Netrea, another great mod. Youre really a king of modelling One thing. Density of LH2 and volume of tanks. I mean, upper stage should not be bigger than booster stage, right?

Why not? LH2 got super low density.

[iZim]

28 minutes ago, Temeter said:

Why not? LH2 got super low density.

IRL, of course. But in game it means you need 4X more tank volume, so that big atomic cruisers i build(150 tons and more) will look like a nonsense, because of enormous size of a tanks, and will be a very problematic to launch. So using LF is the only option for me.

Edited April 13, 2016 by iZim