Solar Panels at Dres?

[Ultimate Steve]

Just a quick question. Sorry if it's been asked before.

Are solar panels better or worse than RTG's (E/C per ton) out at Dres? I am planning to go there soon with a Dresteroid miner.

Will solar panels still work, even if they are less efficient?

Also, my ship has an ISRU and two drills, in case you need that info.

[FullMetalMachinist]

I don't have numbers right now to back this up (on mobile), but I think Jool is about the break-even point for solar vs RTG for mass-per-EC. 

[Geschosskopf]

15 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Just a quick question. Sorry if it's been asked before.

Are solar panels better or worse than RTG's (E/C per ton) out at Dres? I am planning to go there soon with a Dresteroid miner.

Will solar panels still work, even if they are less efficient?

Also, my ship has an ISRU and two drills, in case you need that info.

In general....

At Duna, solar panels produce about 50% the power they do at Kerbin (Gigantor produces about 9 EC/sec)

At Dres, they produce about 25%. (Gigantor produces about 4.5 EC/sec)

At Jool, the produce about 5% (Gigantor produces about 0.9 EC/sec)

Running an ISRU requires 30 EC/sec.  Plus a few more for probe core, lights, and radiators.  Call it 35.  This means you'd need about 8 Gigantors at Dres.  Do you even have space on the ship to mount them?  But OTOH, if you run it off RTGs (0.75 EC/sec), you'd need 47 RTGs, which is also problematical.

This is why Squad gave us fuel cells.  Then no problem, EXCEPT that this whole concept flagrantly violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.  If that bothers you, then you need to get a mod that provides nuclear reactors for any mining at Dres and beyond.  But if you don't care, then use fuel cells.

 

[Ultimate Steve]

@Geschosskopf, I have plenty of space to mount the solar panels on my ship. Thanks for the answer! I think I actually have 16 on it already

 

[Wcmille]

According to the Wiki, here's the solar multipliers for various planets:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Electric_charge

Here's the electricity generation per mass (figures are Kerbin)

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Parts#Generators

[max_creative]

53 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

@Geschosskopf, I have plenty of space to mount the solar panels on my ship. Thanks for the answer! I think I actually have 16 on it already

There is a reason I don't really use solar panels on my stuff. I think that many solar panels should be able to handle it though. 

3 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

This is why Squad gave us fuel cells.  Then no problem, EXCEPT that this whole concept flagrantly violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.  If that bothers you, then you need to get a mod that provides nuclear reactors for any mining at Dres and beyond.  But if you don't care, then use fuel cells.

I just cram as many rtgs as I can into a service bay. Fuel cells use fuel! Fuel is important! And breaking thermodynamics is bad! Although, 32 rtgs sitting right next to the command pod would probably kill the crew in real life... 

Edit: Wait a second... Why are you going to be mining with the Intrepid on Dres?... What are you up too @Ultimate Steve?

Edited July 3, 2016 by max_creative
Hmm...