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Some ISRU questions

Waxing_Kibbous
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Waxing_Kibbous

Waxing_Kibbous

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I'm about to set up my first ISRU operation and have some questions:

1)I have contracts that state I have to mine X amount of ore from Y body- do these get completed even if I am converting them to fuel, or do I need X amount of stored ore?

2)Speaking of storing ore, can I use any old empty fuel tank or do I have to use the black containers?

3)It appears that fuel can travel through the mining equipment, eg if I have a LFO tank on top, the mining gear in the middle, and an engine on the bottom the engine will get fuel from the top tank. Is this a valid setup?

4)Fuel cells- do they shut off automatically if solar panels are providing enough EC, or do they run constantly?

Thanks!

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SnakyLeVrai

SnakyLeVrai

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well,

1) no idea :)

2) only the black containers can store ore, fuel tanks won't store it.

3) it doesn't matter where you put the tanks (fuel, ore, monoprop...), your drills can also be attached to the fuel tanks, it's ok

4) they only work when needed, if your solar panels provide 100% of the needed EC, fuel cells won't work. If they only provide 50% of needed EC, fuel cells will provide the rest. They only provide the required EC (when you right-click on them the menu shows what they provide -- when they don't provide anything they show something like "95% capacity", not sure why).

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Snark

Snark

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Regarding question #1: just literally read exactly what the contract says. Ignore the title of the contract (it's "chatty" and can be misleading), just focus on the exact wording of the success criteria.

In general, there are two types of criteria that pop up in various combinations for these contracts:

"Extract <number> units of ore from <body>": just that. You don't have to keep it or store it, just extract it.

"Have <number> units of ore on your ship": just that. Obviously this means you have to have enough capacity in your black ore tanks to hold that much. Note that it doesn't matter where the ore came from.

Also, note that the contracts that want you to bring ore from A to B only require being in B's SoI, not necessarily landing there.

For example, if a contract supposedly wants you to bring N units of ore from the Mun to Kerbin, you don't actually have to do that, if you read the fine print. Just mine N units on the Mun (don't have to keep it around or move it anywhere), then launch a new ship on Kerbin that has N units already on board at launch. Contract completes the moment it hits the launchpad, don't even need to take off!

 

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Snark

Snark

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Also: Fuel cells run any time your stored EC is below 95% of your full capacity. So for example, if you do something that uses up a lot of electricity suddenly (like transmitting science), the fuel cells will kick in even if you have plenty of solar power, to recharge you faster.

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