KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[SpaceMouse]

Working on magnetodynamakoengsegggeggggeeee generator. I'm using the texture from the large one so it should look consistent.

[SpaceMouse]

I'll add some greeebles on the top and bottom, (probably the little cylinder bulges to look consistent) and the texture on the MHD is really temporary. This texture didn't work as well on the MHD as i thought it would have.
Doubt I'll have much use for this outside of KSPI so comments? suggestions? @FreeThinker?

Edited October 25, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[FreeThinker]

5 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

I'll add some greeebles on the top and bottom, (probably the little cylinder bulges to look consistent) and the texture on the MHD is really temporary. This texture didn't work as well on the MHD as i thought it would have.
Doubt I'll have much use for this outside of KSPI so comments? suggestions? @FreeThinker?

I prefer a more inside out look, like you did with your reactor, showing some intresting technical details that teaches player a story. It should say, I'm a Magnetohydrodynamic generator

[SpaceMouse]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

I prefer a more inside out look, like you did with your reactor, showing some intresting technical details that teaches player a story. It should say, I'm a Magnetohydrodynamic generator

Hmmm.  I was actually gonna try to get away from that because it was inconsistent with all the other kspi parts. Wanted to reuse the texture for lower ram use as well but, i can certainly do the structural thing and recycle parts I've made. 

[Amnesy]

Alright folks, the first part of my tutorial series is done! 

Link

The next videos will focus on each engine group and show you how to use them. 

lmk if you have questions or additional things you would like me to talk about. 

[KAL 9000]

I old like to help out with this mod, so I'm working on a part for you! It's my own little idea, which I call a dual-step RTG. Basically, water pipes coil around an RTG. Any heat that escapes the RTG's heat-to-electricity conversion boils the water into steam, which drives a turbine, which drives a generator. The steam goes into a tank where it condenses back into water, and the cycle repeats. So, you can get rid of any waste heat that an RTG produces and get more power out of it. So I guess it's a tiny nuclear power plant, but the reactor part is replaced by an RTG.

[Refax]

do i have to take EM Drive to the Space first? and which reactor and generator is the best for this engine?

[SpaceMouse]

3 minutes ago, Refax said:

do i have to take EM Drive to the Space first? and which reactor and generator is the best for this engine?

Yes. EM Drive doesn't have the power to weight to take off from planets. You'll need to send it to space with a normal rocket and while you can power it with anything, a large reactor and large radiators are very helpful.

[Refax]

1 minute ago, SpaceMouse said:

Yes. EM Drive doesn't have the power to weight to take off from planets. You'll need to send it to space with a normal rocket and while you can power it with anything, a large reactor and large radiators are very helpful.

aight, thanks ;D

[KSPNerd]

Might I recommend adding a series of laser-based communication devices that would provide more range and higher science transfer rates than antennae, but use much, much more power? I think that these would be extremely useful for long distance communications, e.g. with OPM. Also, maybe a quantum-entangled particle communications utility, have 2 identical parts tuned to each other, have one of them on one ship, and one on another, and they can communicate back and forth. This would be useful for interstellar communications.

[Refax]

3 hours ago, KSPNerd said:

Might I recommend adding a series of laser-based communication devices that would provide more range and higher science transfer rates than antennae, but use much, much more power? I think that these would be extremely useful for long distance communications, e.g. with OPM. Also, maybe a quantum-entangled particle communications utility, have 2 identical parts tuned to each other, have one of them on one ship, and one on another, and they can communicate back and forth. This would be useful for interstellar communications.

You can use radialy mounted comms on your docked rockets to the ship which you control as main, it should improve your signal and transfer rates as well at any distance, but remember to mount more energy suppliers

[SpaceMouse]

Did more fiddling. I'd like to keep this one consistent with the other generators, Has generators and turbines now Reactor return tubes. I might add some wires and, I'd like to do something with the extrusions on the sides Scaling fiddling has made them not quite fit right. I blocked out the bottom intake corners, i can rotate the magnetothingys, but it looks like it would be easier to deal with huge exaust flow this way.

[FreeThinker]

10 hours ago, KSPNerd said:

Might I recommend adding a series of laser-based communication devices that would provide more range and higher science transfer rates than antennae, but use much, much more power? I think that these would be extremely useful for long distance communications, e.g. with OPM. Also, maybe a quantum-entangled particle communications utility, have 2 identical parts tuned to each other, have one of them on one ship, and one on another, and they can communicate back and forth. This would be useful for interstellar communications.

I intend to make all suitable dishes capable of long range communications, some will even be able to do it from extra solar systems

 

 

 

[FreeThinker]

19 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

I old like to help out with this mod, so I'm working on a part for you! It's my own little idea, which I call a dual-step RTG. Basically, water pipes coil around an RTG. Any heat that escapes the RTG's heat-to-electricity conversion boils the water into steam, which drives a turbine, which drives a generator. The steam goes into a tank where it condenses back into water, and the cycle repeats. So, you can get rid of any waste heat that an RTG produces and get more power out of it. So I guess it's a tiny nuclear power plant, but the reactor part is replaced by an RTG.

How much Megajoule is such "RTG reactor" supposed to produce?

 

 

 

10 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

Did more fiddling. I'd like to keep this one consistent with the other generators, Has generators and turbines now Reactor return tubes. I might add some wires and, I'd like to do something with the extrusions on the sides Scaling fiddling has made them not quite fit right. I blocked out the bottom intake corners, i can rotate the magnetothingys, but it looks like it would be easier to deal with huge exaust flow this way.

Yes, this looks much better! I love the external details they give it real character, and give it a more realsitic look Is it symetric?

Edited October 26, 2016 by FreeThinker

[SpaceMouse]

53 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

How much Megajoule is such "RTG reactor" supposed to produce?

 

 

 

Yes, this looks much better! I love the external details they give it real character, and give it a more realsitic look Is it symetric?

Thanks! It's definitely symmetric, i only usually model 1/4, mirror modifier is my friend.

I'm probably going to scale down the MHD's again, i can't imagine any reactors would have reactor outputs this big, and then super- high velocity exaust doesn't need to make a right- angle turn at the top.

[KAL 9000]

Well, do you want Megajoules/second or Megajoules/hour?

[KAL 9000]

17.532 MJ/hour 

I'm terrible at modeling and texturing, could someone make a model/texture for this?

You could switch it to ElectricCharge generation, it would make 4.5 ElectricCharge per second.

[Nansuchao]

7 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

17.532 MJ/hour 

I'm terrible at modeling and texturing, could someone make a model/texture for this?

You could switch it to ElectricCharge generation, it would make 4.5 ElectricCharge per second.

Are you sure that the heat of a RTG can make a turbine work and produce all this energy?

[FreeThinker]

50 minutes ago, Nansuchao said:

Are you sure that the heat of a RTG can make a turbine work and produce all this energy?

Well it depends if 4.87 KJ/second is enough ...  seems a little on the low side. ...

It think the best you can hope for is to use thermal electric converter, which is at best 10% efficient.. meaning it can generate a whooping 0.87 kW = 0.87 Electric Charge, which perhaps is just enough to keep the small life support of a 3 man can active on Mars ..

Edited October 26, 2016 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

5 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Well it depends if 4.87 KJ/second is enough ...  seems a little on the low side. ...

It think the best you can hope for is to use thermal electric converter, which is at best 10%.. meaning it can generate a whooping 0.87 kW = 0.87 Electric Change, which perhaps is just enough to keep the small life support of a 3 man can active ..

0.87 EC*S? In this case, the stock one is better.

[KAL 9000]

5 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Well it depends if 4.87 KJ/second is enough ...  seems a little on the low side. ...

It think the best you can hope for is to use thermal electric converter, which is at best 10%.. meaning it can generate a whooping 0.87 kW = 0.87 Electric Change, which perhaps is just enough to keep the small life support of a 3 man can active ..

Well, the turbines and stuff are all miniaturized, and the heat energy of the RTG can boil all water in the small tank in ~46 seconds. That could drive a very small turbine.

[FreeThinker]

4 minutes ago, Nansuchao said:

0.87 EC*S? In this case, the stock one is better.

I don't think most players grasp how powerful they are, they even work forever!

[KAL 9000]

2 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

I don't think most players grasp how powerful they are, they even work forever!

, oh well. I'll think of another idea to contribute...

Edited October 26, 2016 by KAL 9000

[Nansuchao]

21 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

, oh well. I'll think of another idea to contribute...

I would not discourage you in your idea, just trying to understand the power of this device.

[Nansuchao]

38 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

I don't think most players grasp how powerful they are, they even work forever!

You're right, the issue in KSP is the low EC capacity per part. If you try to make a replica of any real probe, you'll find yourself unable to transmit back to the KSC any experiment except the most basic ( thermometer, barometer)ones, unless you add a tremendous amount of batteries.