KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[raxo2222]

It seems like titanium radiators max temp reacts to dynamic pressure.

Also what makes it hold together at >3000 K?

Graphene radiator max temp is now 4500 K too.

 

Also you can burn off your radiators when going into deep atmosphere too fast.

 

Apparently max operational temperature of radiators now is only little over 1000 K, same as intake precooler with deadly reentry

Edited October 4, 2018 by raxo2222

[ThePixeledFox]

Hello , I hope this is the correct place to post ,  ive just been deep in testing with 1.20.3 somthing is wrong , when i go to warp my craft starts darting around all over the place and my navball is going haywire , i don't understand, it wasnt doing this in 1.20.2 and ive not changed anything on my test build which is just the positron reactor-thermal generator-small warp drive, i removed the mod and tested both versions its definately somthing inside 1.20.3, i hope you can help , thank you for a great mod

ksp version 1.4.5

no other mods installed.

update : just tested with warp turning on and off , same thing

update never mind false alarm ive only just realised i think i accidently ended up using the latest KSPIE but for ksp 1.3.1 not 1.4.5 argh lol

another update: ive been playing all night , with the correct version lol, yup , somthing not right , when i target and go to warp my navball flicks around all over the place , and when im in map view i can see my blue orbit line darting around all over the place so i was semi correct yesterday lol. Seems to only be on the first warp too , if i warp then cut it - then retarget and warp again it behaves fine , so a little bug in latest snuck in ? is anyone else having this issue ? again no other mods , ksp 1.4.5, correct KSPIE version , same test craft. Thank you

updates : more deep tests, out of the corner of my eye noticed when warping the engines glitched when they touched ! they rip through the craft at lightspeed had to seperate them slightly haha, waste heat has changed to that is more of a challenge, also thermal power output has indeed changed my ship now i forgot the cryogenic tanks cannot run out of power - kabooms, once id sorted a few of these things ? i turned all the torque for the warp engines off and auto struted them , forced to invent a new cooling system, happy to report warps seem to be smooth now all night but i need an overall bigger build my ship is pushing at warp 1.6  - god i love this mod thank you so much for all the hard work freethinker !

more update : still getting lock on fails when i warp navball going haywire doesnt do it when i remove KJR but then the warp drive collides with the reactor, when i look at console im getting this

my craft also pixelates into a glitch while warping (wish i could screen grab it quick enough) its like i cant lock onto a target and just warp and my craft clitching apart till explosion a problem with KJR perhaps ? i thought it might have been persistant rotation or my other mods, removed everything tried clean same glitchi dont know what im doing wrong ? just done another jump to eeloo with all parts autostruts off and no rigid attatchment to see if that was mabye playing with KJR, got rid of the really nasty glitch before but cant be 100 sure warp turning off somtimes helps but obviously i cant lock on i took some shots to try and explain it better

a little shot of the internals of my ship (canopy off) to give you an idea of my cooling and warp system

 

 

thank you again for this mod

Edited October 7, 2018 by ThePixeledFox
updates and testing

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, raxo2222 said:

Also what makes it hold together at >3000 K?

Tungsten which has a melting point of 3695K

1 hour ago, raxo2222 said:

It seems like titanium radiators max temp reacts to dynamic pressure.

That might actually not be such a bad thing, I'm thinking about reducing non graphene maximum tempurature at 1 atmosphere down 1 tech level, which would be 2698K (which is still higher than 2616 it used to)

Edited October 4, 2018 by FreeThinker

[tomoyo]

I had a KSPI-E problem. My KSPI-E science labs stopped being able to scan their surroundings and generate data. I thought I had messed up my mod installation or something, but after over half an hour of tracking it down, I found the KSPI-E commit that says, "removed science generator from science lab module". 

1. Why? This is kind of a massive change, and the consequences of this change make me sad.

2. Is there a way to get summaries of changes like this without reading through each individual commit on github or each message on the forum?

3. Can we PLEASE update the text of the upgrades for this parts so that future users don't need to go poring over the source code figuring out where this very useful functionality has disappeared to unexpectedly?

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.20.4 for Kerbal Space Program 1.4.5 is now available from here

Released on 2018-10-06

• Added Surface area cost scaling for reactors
• Added ability to use KSPIE reactors as power source for Radio telescope contract
• Balance: gives LiquidFuel the same cryogenic cooling effect on engine heat production as Liquid Hydrogen
• Balance: Restored heat production NERVA to same level as Stock NERV
• Balance: limit Nuclear Ramjet to neutral an oxidizing propellants
• Balance: Reduced Maximum temperature of non graphene radiator in oxygen rich atmospheres
• Fixed Photovoltaic Powered Beamed Power distribution
• Fixed issue of dropping out of time warp when running out of beamed power on Electric Engines
• Fixed inconsistencies Photovoltaic efficiencies
• Fixed Triangle Photovoltaic beamed power receive coverage

[FreeThinker]

@ss8913

notice you can help tweak heat production on reactors using

	engineHeatProductionMult = 1 			// keep thermal nozzle thermalheat production at 100%
	engineWasteheatProductionMult = 1		// keep thermal nozzle wasteheat production at 100%

	plasmaHeatProductionMult = 1			// keep plasma engine thermalheat production at 100%
	plasmaWasteheatProductionMult = 1		// keep plasma engine wasteheat production at 100%

 

Edited October 8, 2018 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.20.6 for Kerbal Space Program 1.4.5 in now available from here

Released on 2018-10-13

• Added Spanish localization (by Janderklander)
• Added ability of using Lithium and LithiumHydride to Discovery Fusion Engine, which minimizes Neutron Embrittlement
• Balance: increased mass and power output Discovery Fusion Engine
• Balance: Reactor Neutron Embrittlement rate depends on local lithium-6
• Balance: Plasma nozzle now always use propellant base isp
• Balance: re-allow Gas Core reactor and engines to use LiquidFuel
• Balance: Increased core temperature and power output Plasma Jet Fusion Reactor
• Balance: Limited Plasma Jet Fusion Reactor to to Plasma Nozzle and Plasma Electric Generator (aka MHD Generator)
• Balance: Scale power and mass electrostatic Dawn Ion Engine by surface area
• Balance: increase gimbal range Nuclear Lightbulb
• Balance: Increase upgrade requirements of Timberwind, Nuclear Lightbulb , Positron Antimatter Reactor
• Fixed Magnetic Confinement Fusion reaction power balance issues
• Fixed Magnetized Target Fusion Reactor power issues
• Fixed for beamed power from airless celestial bodies
• Fixed animated radiator visual heat scaling 
• Fixed issue with clover radiator not being active when initially deployed

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.20.7 for Kerbal Space Program 1.4.5 is now available from here

Released on 2018-10-14

• Fixed loss of power of thermal receiver / ablative nozzle after launch decoupling
• Fixed Gas core ability to use regular propellants including LiquidFuel

[tobimai]

On 10/2/2018 at 10:20 AM, FreeThinker said:

Wait, at what tech level is your heat control? Also, do you have any mods installed that alter maximum part temperature?

Sorry that I didn't answer, I was busy in real life. 
With the newest updates it works normally, thanks
 

[Omeran]

Looks like KSP 1.5 navball displays "start burn in..." for maneuver nodes for stock engines.

Any chance for this to work with Interstellar engines as well? (or maybe that will happen automatically when it's compiled against 1.5?)

[FreeThinker]

15 hours ago, Omeran said:

Looks like KSP 1.5 navball displays "start burn in..." for maneuver nodes for stock engines.

Any chance for this to work with Interstellar engines as well? (or maybe that will happen automatically when it's compiled against 1.5?)

It's not clear to me how this burn calculation is different from stock original estimation and from the better burn mod. Any clarification on this issue would be useful

[Omeran]

11 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

It's not clear to me how this burn calculation is different from stock original estimation and from the better burn mod. Any clarification on this issue would be useful

Actually, I only saw it on their screenshot. I didn't see it in the actual game when using stock engines.

[FreeThinker]

KSPIE Version 1.20.9.2 is now available for KSP 1.3.1,  KSP 1.4.5 and KSP 1.5.1

Released on 2018-11-05

• Balance: Added Surface attaching to Pebble Bed and Positron Antimatter reactor
• Balance: increased fuel storage Pebble Bed reactor
• Balance: Magnetic field strength is affected by presence and height atmosphere
• Fixed issue where power production would not decrease after it was no longer used
• Fixed number display issue power management window
• Fixed Surface attachment of surface attachable reactors
• Fixed overheating issues ablative nozzle
• Fixed Positron Antimatter reactor to use all propellants available by nozzles
• Fixed nozzle sound explosion at startup
• Fixed switching to Hydrogen for incompatible nozzles
• Fixed static radiator not activating at startup
• Fixed missing plume effect on Thermal Turbojet VTOL nozzle
• Fixed spamming of Magnetic Field Instrument
• Fixed power instability Solar Panels
• Fixed power stability iHall

[FreeThinker]

KSPIE Version 1.20.10.2 is now available for KSP 1.3.1,  KSP 1.4.5 and KSP 1.5.1

Released on 2018-11-09

• Fixed Positron Antimatter Reactor ability to function with any thermal or plasma nozzle and respond without delay

[FreeThinker]

KSPIE Version 1.20.11 is now available for KSP 1.3.1, KSP 1.4.5 and KSP 1.5.1

Released on 2018-11-11

• Added active prograde and retrograde steering during timewarp to all Interstellar Persistent thrust capable engines
• Added Persistent thrust to Toroidal Aerospike
• Balance: Reduced power requirement Daedalus Fusion engine by 90%
• Balance: Increased thermal transport efficiency of Molten Salt Reactor to 99% and other reactors to 90%

Edited November 12, 2018 by FreeThinker

[Sresk]

Hey guys, it's been a year or two since I last played this mod and I wanted to say thanks for continuing to develop/support it.

I'm currently playing career mode and am just starting to get into the kspi content. I have many of the basic parts unlocked but am not deep enough into the tech tree for the upgrades or advanced parts. Anyways I'm not sure if this should be posted here or in the support thread but I have a question on setting up beamed power.

When I last played the distance that you could beam power wasn't a huge concern it was possible to send up a few sats with huge tweaked solar panels drop them in a low solar orbit (nontrivial but doable) and get ample beamed power back to ksc for thermal nozzle launches. The power dropped a fair amount out at duna but still with a relay or two setting up a beamed power network was pretty easy(too easy?)

I'm trying to do something similar now. And am experimenting with the different emitter types. I've set up three power generating sats in a high kerbin orbit and useing either the laser emitter or the HUGE microwave dish as transmitters gives a very acceptable amount of power and a small enough spot size to make acceptable thermal nozzle usage.

However when I send similar stats out past minus into kerbal orbit the spot size gets so huge that the power transmitted drops to 1% or less. I'm not claiming this is a bug or imbalance. Things are different now. And while I think the new system is a little needlessles complex I do appreciate the added level of difficulty.

Additionally I mostly have access to microwave and infrared transmitters. So with all the preamble out of the way. What is the optimal/easiest/design vision way of beaming power long distances, ie. interplanetary distances. Are there parts or frequencies I haven't unlocked yet that are intended for this purpose? Is there any updated wikis/guides that has documention on the nee system? Everything I could find is several years out of date.

For people that do use beamed power what setups have you found to be most effective?

What is considered to be an acceptable target for megajoules and spot size and what types of emitters and out relays do you use to achieve that?

Do you use relays and shorter hops?

Lastly I may have discovered a bug? On of my sats since i was experimenting and trying to figure out how the parts interacted I kinda put one of everything on it. The sat generated about 30-40 mj of solar power and is orbiting kerbin at about 500km. It has an inline microwave transceiver set to relay/transmit, the 100m microwave transmitter and a laser diode generator + transmitter. Anyways the relay says 0/3 relays connected not the bug but I dont understand it. I know I'm generating about 40mj. But my wall to beam power is in 60mj range. And on the ground it shows 87mj available of which I can usually access 40-60% depending on facing and losses. So I think I've magically multiplies power output because I have multiple transmitters on the same set. Thoughts?

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, Sresk said:

Additionally I mostly have access to microwave and infrared transmitters. So with all the preamble out of the way. What is the optimal/easiest/design vision way of beaming power long distances, ie. interplanetary distances. Are there parts or frequencies I haven't unlocked yet that are intended for this purpose? Is there any updated wikis/guides that has documention on the nee system? Everything I could find is several years out of date.

There is a very simple rule, the shorter the wavelength, the less diffraction and therefore the longer you can transmit your power. Sounds simple? The catch is that the shorter range, the less efficient the beam production, which creates more wasteheat and therefore the harder. Therefore based on your intended distance, there is an  optimal wavelength. For Duna and Eve,  You need to transmit at least transmit with a big dish in the visible or better ultraviolet spectrum, any further and I recommend you go X-ray. Of course you need some serious technology both on the transmitting and receiving to make it work. There are several receiver methods, X-ray is the hardest to receive. Soft X-ray can still be receiver reasonably well with Ultra Violet receivers, but anything more penetrating needs heavy duty thermal receivers or thick X-ray receivers.

More can be fount at the wiki

and on the kspie support page which is intended for questions

Edited November 13, 2018 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, Sresk said:

Lastly I may have discovered a bug? On of my sats since i was experimenting and trying to figure out how the parts interacted I kinda put one of everything on it. The sat generated about 30-40 mj of solar power and is orbiting kerbin at about 500km. It has an inline microwave transceiver set to relay/transmit, the 100m microwave transmitter and a laser diode generator + transmitter. Anyways the relay says 0/3 relays connected not the bug but I dont understand it. I know I'm generating about 40mj. But my wall to beam power is in 60mj range. And on the ground it shows 87mj available of which I can usually access 40-60% depending on facing and losses. So I think I've magically multiplies power output because I have multiple transmitters on the same set. Thoughts?

Possibly one of the parts is receiving, creating more power to transmit. Another possibility is that you put one of the receivers in link mode and other in transmit mode, effectively allowing toy to pumb power into the network.

Edited November 13, 2018 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

On 9/24/2018 at 9:18 PM, Titan 3001 said:

@FreeThinker I have a request that the "Discovery" Magnetic Confinement Fusion Rocket can function as both a magnetic nozzle and a plasma nozzle. This way the Discovery has a unique role among the parts in KSPI extended. Also if you are up for a challenge you could implement a third option which atomic rockets calls Dual Mode, here is what Atomic Rockets says about each mode: 

• Pure fusion rockets use just the plasma thermal energy, and just the fusion products as reaction mass. The neutron and bremsstrahlung radiation energy is considered to be waste.
  This mode has the highest exhaust velocity/specific impulse and the lowest thrust/propellant mass flow of the three fusion engine types.
   
• Fusion afterburners use just the plasma thermal energy, but adds extra cold reaction mass to be heated by plasma energy. Again neutron and bremsstrahlung are wasted.
   
• Dual-mode use the neutron and bremsstrahlung radiation energy to heat a blanket of cold reaction mass which thrusts out of separate conventional exhaust nozzles. In addition a Dual-mode can switch into Pure Fusion mode.
  This mode has the highest thrust/propellant mass flow and the lowest exhaust velocity/specific impulse.

The pure fusion rockets is modeled by the magnetic nozzle, the Fusion afterburners are modeled by the plasma nozzle, the third would be be more akin to a really good solid core NTR. Would have all three come out the same nozzle with different exhaust types. The ISP would be around 1,000 sec. and there is calculation for how much thrust it would provide from atomic rockets 

the harvesting mode engine will create thrust of 1 newton per 7,000 watts of neutron + bremsstrahlung power

The latter is more of a cool but rather extraneous idea but giving the Discovery to be both a Magnetic and plasma nozzle would prevent it from being redundant.

like to hear back from you.

Next release the Plasma Nozzle  and especially the Discovery will get a big upgrade

Plasma Nozzles connected to a charged particle capable reactor  will get access to a new Isp Throttle slider

When at 0%, it will use all available thermal and charged power on the reactor, acting as Duel mode

When between 0 and 100% it will only use charged particles power and variable amount of cold propellant allowing it to increase isp up to 20 times the minimum isp, acting as a Fusion Afterburner

And on the Discovery when set to 100%, it will only use the fusion charged particles, which will not cost propellant, acting as a Pure fusion rocket!

To compensate for the added capability, plasma nozzle will now need to be powered to function correctly

Edited November 14, 2018 by FreeThinker

[Sresk]

10 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

There is a very simple rule, the shorter the wavelength, the less diffraction and therefore the longer you can transmit your power. Sounds simple? The catch is that the shorter range, the less efficient the beam production, which creates more wasteheat and therefore the harder. Therefore based on your intended distance, there is an  optimal wavelength. For Duna and Eve,  You need to transmit at least transmit with a big dish in the visible or better ultraviolet spectrum, any further and I recommend you go X-ray. Of course you need some serious technology both on the transmitting and receiving to make it work. There are several receiver methods, X-ray is the hardest to receive. Soft X-ray can still be receiver reasonably well with Ultra Violet receivers, but anything more penetrating needs heavy duty thermal receivers or thick X-ray receivers.

More can be fount at the wiki

and on the kspie support page which is intended for questions

I read that wiki and saw the math on the wave length. But If I understand you correctly there are parts further into the tech tree that allow transmitters in those shorter wavelengths? I'm curious then what is the optimal usage of the longest wavelengths? Just surface lanches or lko beaming sats only?

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, Sresk said:

I read that wiki and saw the math on the wave length. But If I understand you correctly there are parts further into the tech tree that allow transmitters in those shorter wavelengths? I'm curious then what is the optimal usage of the longest wavelengths? Just surface lanches or lko beaming sats only?

Distances can become pretty big fast when a destination get on the other side of the sun. Ideally, you time your arrival at a distant planet with having the home planet nearby but this is not always possible. For maximum flexibility, you could apply thermal receivers, which are available early, but they have the worst efficiency and are heavy. Rectennas are the mirror image of thermal receivers, they are configured for a very specific bandwidth and are very light. Photovoltaic is somewhere in the middle it has an average mass and a reasonably wide spectrum, note there is a distinction between infrared (aka solar cells), ultraviolet and  x-ray photovoltaics

[kmMango]

Would not be surprised if it had been suggested already, but has there been any consideration of adding a Nuclear Salt Water Rocket? It would fit well in the Exotic Fission node, and it could be balanced by not being usable on Kerbin, having obscene heat production, and having expensive fuel (Uranium Nitride and such, would also require lots of water to run). Maybe give it really rapid neutron embrittlement of the nozzle, and alter the reactor coding so that embrittlement of the nozzle reduces thrust, ISP and waste heat capacity, so after a few days of continuous runtime, the engine is basically useless. Perhaps allow toggling of radioactive salt concentrations, with higher ones giving better ISP and thrust, but more heat and faster degradation, as well as faster consumption of Uranium. Maybe keep the higher concentrations that give insane ISP locked behind later techs.

For the baseline, maybe an engine with a very high TWR and an ISP around 5,000? This would give it advantages over other nuclear engines in terms of thrust, but be balanced by the cooling, fuel cost, and nozzle failure issues.

[FreeThinker]

17 hours ago, kmMango said:

Would not be surprised if it had been suggested already, but has there been any consideration of adding a Nuclear Salt Water Rocket? It would fit well in the Exotic Fission node, and it could be balanced by not being usable on Kerbin, having obscene heat production, and having expensive fuel (Uranium Nitride and such, would also require lots of water to run). Maybe give it really rapid neutron embrittlement of the nozzle, and alter the reactor coding so that embrittlement of the nozzle reduces thrust, ISP and waste heat capacity, so after a few days of continuous runtime, the engine is basically useless. Perhaps allow toggling of radioactive salt concentrations, with higher ones giving better ISP and thrust, but more heat and faster degradation, as well as faster consumption of Uranium. Maybe keep the higher concentrations that give insane ISP locked behind later techs.

For the baseline, maybe an engine with a very high TWR and an ISP around 5,000? This would give it advantages over other nuclear engines in terms of thrust, but be balanced by the cooling, fuel cost, and nozzle failure issues.

Yes I would like to do that, but the main limiting factor is the availability of a suitable model with an open license.

[kmMango]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

Yes I would like to do that, but the main limiting factor is the availability of a suitable model with an open license.

I actually have a friend who might be able to help over the holidays. Not sure how much experience he has with Unity, but I know he has some. Also, as for nozzle shape, would a plug nozzle or a bell shape be what you are looking for? Zubrin's concept had a bell IIRC.

[FreeThinker]

3 hours ago, kmMango said:

I actually have a friend who might be able to help over the holidays. Not sure how much experience he has with Unity, but I know he has some. Also, as for nozzle shape, would a plug nozzle or a bell shape be what you are looking for? Zubrin's concept had a bell IIRC.

Yes, it should have Bel Shaped Nozzle