Nuclear Engin

[Miro Beero]

Is KSP looking at somehow allowing fuel tanks to be pre-set with a % or something so you can specify how much of the tank contains Fuel and the other oxidizer?

Example:  Setting the tank to 100% fuel, would mean no oxidizer is stored.  Perfect for the nuclear engine.

I find it such a waist to have to build big clunky interplanetary ships and drain the oxidizer out of them.

Is there any mod out there that does this?

Or do most of you just use the preset sizes and just drain the oxidizer?

 

[UmbralRaptor]

There are mods for it (eg: tweakable everything). For stock, you'll want to use aircraft tanks, as they are already all fuel and have better mass ratios than rocket tanks with the oxidizer drained.

[Scotius]

Of course there is a mod for that Our modding community is best there is. Here you go.

 

[Snark]

There's also Porkjet's Stock Fuel Switch.

If you're looking for a non-mod solution and want big tanks that hold lots of LF, there are some large (though awkwardly-shaped) LF-only tanks among the Mk3 airplane parts.

[Red Iron Crown]

A bunch of mods for this, I like Taniwha's Modular Fuel Tanks.

[Fearless Son]

Well, you can specify via tweakables in the VAB that you want 0% of a LF/O tank's oxidizer supply to be filled (subtracting the mass of that oxidizer from the tank) and click the little green arrow next to the gauge to set it to "disable".  That means that no oxidizer will ever be put in the tank unless you uncheck the option during a mission.  

Of course there is probably a little less "bang for the buck" mass-wise by using LF/O tanks like that, but you can always use (as has been mentioned) airplane parts which only contain liquid fuel.  When designing a nuclear heating propulsion driven craft, I typically use mostly airplane parts for fuel, with some oxidizer-drained LF/O parts for aesthetics.  

[Nich]

I think it is 3.8:1 ratio which is so bad it barely out performs the poodle with the same tank.  I stick with packs of aircraft tanks.  3-4 tanks per nuke is decent TWR and 4-5 km dv for interplanetary but I don't mind PE kicking so generally go heaver.

[Red Iron Crown]

2 hours ago, Nich said:

I think it is 3.8:1 ratio which is so bad it barely out performs the poodle with the same tank.

Not just the ratio, but less than half the total propellant mass to use.

[Miro Beero]

On ‎3‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 10:18 AM, Scotius said:

Of course there is a mod for that Our modding community is best there is. Here you go.

 

Isn't this for Modding and not a mod itself?