KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[gary85]

15 hours ago, Profit- said:

While I do not have a (well ok I made one but not a good one) tutorial, You can use very careful warping and a strong gravity well or a very shallow series of atmospheric braking maneuvers to bring your craft inline with the speed of the planet you are trying to match. 

The gravity well solution only works well on Jool.  Atmospheric braking obviously requires an atmosphere, and very high speeds are extremely hard to pull off without craft destruction. 

To match speeds the closest  wait till planets align (around the circle anywhere) like this and then warp directly across, like in this image. I think you will be going faster than DUNA at this point so you will want to be behind it) You will only have to burn off about 2.5K with this maneuver if you do it right from Kerbin to Duna, and that is manageable with an aerobraking maneuver. 


 

so same side of the star and same plane. thx that what i need.

[Profit-]

7 hours ago, gary85 said:

so same side of the star and same plane. thx that what i need.

Yeah.

[123nick]

Guys, you just passed 4000 (4000!) replys to this post, apparently. good job, love this mod  

[ss8913]

5 hours ago, Profit- said:

Yeah.

That's the easiest way anyway.  After you get the hang of using the star to match velocities you can do it with any alignment, although it may take 3 or more jumps to get it just right.  Take a lot of fuel.   You can also generate hydrazine (or water, which is also pretty good as a source of ejection mass for nuclear propulsion) on any planet with an atmosphere.  Let me know if you want the magic formula to build a hydrazine refinery for kerbin/duna/eve/laythe, I have it figured out

[123nick]

hey the dumbo and dusty plasma reactors, when clicked, and being placed, spam to the log: there is more than 255 polygons. this is invalid" or something during placement, and when placed i cant access the rightclick menue. running on 64bit linux, any help?

[FreeThinker]

 

20 hours ago, 123nick said:

Guys, you just passed 4000 (4000!) replys to this post, apparently. good job, love this mod  

Thanks

6 hours ago, 123nick said:

hey the dumbo and dusty plasma reactors, when clicked, and being placed, spam to the log: there is more than 255 polygons. this is invalid" or something during placement, and when placed i cant access the rightclick menue. running on 64bit linux, any help?

the models needs to be fixed, but I don't know how

[Profit-]

13 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

The models needs to be fixed, but I don't know how

I do not know either =(  

If I did I would make a cylinder with a texture that says what it is on it as a temporary replacement. =/  I know it would look bad but it would at least work. 

 

[Profit-]

On 12/22/2015 at 7:49 AM, gary85 said:

so same side of the star and same plane. thx that what i need.

I forgot something, you need to be in the HIGHEST orbit possible or leave the SOI of the planet.  You can also tweak your orbits in theory and use that speed to help correct your trajectory without expending delta V but that is a lot harder although if you did it perfect from Kerbin you could match duna's speed exactly and you would need 0 delta V... I have NEVER done it though

Here is how that maneuver could work in theory... 


 

Edited December 23, 2015 by Profit-

[silversliver]

2 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

the models needs to be fixed, but I don't know how

I know, but PartTool isn't working for me.

 

[Nansuchao]

2 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

 

the models needs to be fixed, but I don't know how

I have a simple idea about that (if I find enough free time I'll try). Maybe we can use a working model and just change the texture, like delete the AKULA name from the original texture and place DUMBO or something like that. So we'll have the same model used for more reactors different just in texture. What do you think about?

Edited December 23, 2015 by Nansuchao

[silversliver]

2 hours ago, Nansuchao said:

I have a simple idea about that (if I find enough free time I'll try). Maybe we can use a working model and just change the texture, like delete the AKULA name from the original texture and place DUMBO or something like that. So we'll have the same model used for more reactors different just in texture. What do you think about?

It's the same thing that I and Freethinker made for capacitors (the model is from Near Future Electric) and that is an idea.

The problem is which model to use.

[Nansuchao]

 

54 minutes ago, silversliver said:

It's the same thing that I and Freethinker made for capacitors (the model is from Near Future Electric) and that is an idea.

The problem is which model to use.

Pebble bed?

[silversliver]

14 hours ago, Nansuchao said:

 

Pebble bed?

Ok, it can be done.

 

[123nick]

On 12/23/2015 at 0:30 PM, FreeThinker said:

 

Thanks

the models needs to be fixed, but I don't know how

i think its about too many modelling things, like polygons are sorta like triangles, so maybe if you make the model less detailed it would be fixed? but the other idea, with you making it a retextured, already working model, thats also great

[AeroGav]

Hey guys, 

I just installed this because I figured thermal turbojets/rockets were just the thing my space program needed, as well as something worth researching once i'd got to Minmus.                It's a career game,  here's a list of mods i am also using -

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

TacFuelBalancer

Modular Fuels

Kerbal Engineer

One of my missions just returned and I bought the following Interstellar techs - 

Nuclear Power (Molten Salt Reactor)

Improved Nuclear Propulsion (Thermal Rocket Nozzle, Thermal Turbojet)

High Efficiency Nuclear Propulsion (Hybrid Thermal Rocket)

So,  I want to build a mark 3 space plane based around a Molten Salt Reactor and Hybrid Thermal Rocket.

 

First problem -  I cannot find a "Hybrid Thermal Rocket" in the list of engines.   However, after purchasing the "High Efficiency Nuclear Propulsion" tech I've noticed that the Thermal Rocket Nozzle now allows you to use the switch fuel button and select "Atmosphere".   The Thermal Turbojet can also now select from a variety of liquid propellants,   and i prefer the look of this part, so I ultimately ended up building with the Molten Salt and Thermal Turbojet.

Things seemed normal enough on the test rigs, but the finished plane really confuses me.   The only thing I can think i did wrong, was to use Modular Fuels to swap all the tanks to liquid hydrogen.  Is this not compatible with interstellar?   The reason was partly for realism, and also because the wing loading of my design was too high with LF.

The problem is that in Atmosphere node, it burns through fantastic amounts of LH2 (and produces crazy power too, honestly, climb angle over 60 degrees off the basic salt reactor!) and doesn't seem to care if I close off my one and only intake.   OTOH if i switch fuels to "Liquid Hydrogen", I get zero thrust, though it continues to use small amounts of LH2?

Furthermore, if I do fly this up above 20km,  thrust declines in "Atmosphere" mode and "% Propellant Requirement Met" drops below 30.  And if I switch to "LH2" mode, this does now start to  produce some thrust, where before it did nothing.

I've either completely misunderstood the mechanics of this modded resource system, in which case i'd really appreciate someone setting me right, or is it displaying abnormal behaviour, and i need to start reinstalling stuff?

 

[EnigmaG]

Liquid Hydrogen seems only to work on higher power output, Pebble Bed or 3,5 Molten Salt works for me in sandbox mod, 2,5 not.

Try CO2 it is my  favorite Propellant.

[123nick]

1 hour ago, AeroGav said:

Hey guys, 

I just installed this because I figured thermal turbojets/rockets were just the thing my space program needed, as well as something worth researching once i'd got to Minmus.                It's a career game,  here's a list of mods i am also using -

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

TacFuelBalancer

Modular Fuels

Kerbal Engineer

One of my missions just returned and I bought the following Interstellar techs - 

Nuclear Power (Molten Salt Reactor)

Improved Nuclear Propulsion (Thermal Rocket Nozzle, Thermal Turbojet)

High Efficiency Nuclear Propulsion (Hybrid Thermal Rocket)

So,  I want to build a mark 3 space plane based around a Molten Salt Reactor and Hybrid Thermal Rocket.

 

First problem -  I cannot find a "Hybrid Thermal Rocket" in the list of engines.   However, after purchasing the "High Efficiency Nuclear Propulsion" tech I've noticed that the Thermal Rocket Nozzle now allows you to use the switch fuel button and select "Atmosphere".   The Thermal Turbojet can also now select from a variety of liquid propellants,   and i prefer the look of this part, so I ultimately ended up building with the Molten Salt and Thermal Turbojet.

Things seemed normal enough on the test rigs, but the finished plane really confuses me.   The only thing I can think i did wrong, was to use Modular Fuels to swap all the tanks to liquid hydrogen.  Is this not compatible with interstellar?   The reason was partly for realism, and also because the wing loading of my design was too high with LF.

The problem is that in Atmosphere node, it burns through fantastic amounts of LH2 (and produces crazy power too, honestly, climb angle over 60 degrees off the basic salt reactor!) and doesn't seem to care if I close off my one and only intake.   OTOH if i switch fuels to "Liquid Hydrogen", I get zero thrust, though it continues to use small amounts of LH2?

Furthermore, if I do fly this up above 20km,  thrust declines in "Atmosphere" mode and "% Propellant Requirement Met" drops below 30.  And if I switch to "LH2" mode, this does now start to  produce some thrust, where before it did nothing.

I've either completely misunderstood the mechanics of this modded resource system, in which case i'd really appreciate someone setting me right, or is it displaying abnormal behaviour, and i need to start reinstalling stuff?

 

liquid hydrogen slowly being used might be due to boiloff, im not sure if its a feature, but i think that if you have a reactor, and not enough radiators for the reactor, or maybe even with a reactor, liquid hydrogen seems to get slowly used up. ive noticed that on my LVs, if the actual payload has a reactor, small ammounts of liquid hydrogen will slowly dissipate, so that may be reason for your liquid hydrogen slowly being used.

edit: you seem to have a precooler, which have built in intakes, i think. check if you have 2 intakes, the intake on the precooler, and the precooler itself.

Edited December 25, 2015 by 123nick

[AeroGav]

11 minutes ago, EnigmaG said:

Liquid Hydrogen seems only to work on higher power output, Pebble Bed or 3,5 Molten Salt works for me in sandbox mod, 2,5 not.

Try CO2 it is my  favorite Propellant.

That's truly 24/7 support !

How do i get other size of reactor / thermal turbo / rocket?  I can only see the 2.5 items in the part list... or do i have to install tweakscale?

You think it's a problem with the reactor then?

I do get very different behaviour with the open cycle Gas Core.   A good burst of power lasting a few seconds,  then thermal power drops right down as does thrust.   Throttling down restores things, but when i crack it open again we quickly loose power after a few seconds.  That's despite it having a much higher thermal output than the basic salt,  though given buoyancy effects and the not quite-EPA compliant exhaust emissions i am glad it does NOT perform well in a launcher.

I have removed all my other mods and tried sticking to the basic liquid fuel.

Staying with liquid fuel, and not using ModularFuels to swap the contents of the tanks, solves one problem -

 Atmosphere mode does not consume propellant.

However, it still acts wierd in that i get the same thrust if i close all my intakes.     And thrust-weight ratio for the non-upgraded molten salt reactor is ridiculous - a single 2.5m engine pushing a 35 ton plane up in a 70 degree climb at mach 0.8 to 20km !

I was quite up for the challenge of trying to eke a plane up to altitude on really low thrust,  the aircraft was built for low induced drag and to need as little power as possible to stay airborne in very thin iar.

[AeroGav]

45 minutes ago, 123nick said:

liquid hydrogen slowly being used might be due to boiloff, im not sure if its a feature, but i think that if you have a reactor, and not enough radiators for the reactor, or maybe even with a reactor, liquid hydrogen seems to get slowly used up. ive noticed that on my LVs, if the actual payload has a reactor, small ammounts of liquid hydrogen will slowly dissipate, so that may be reason for your liquid hydrogen slowly being used.

edit: you seem to have a precooler, which have built in intakes, i think. check if you have 2 intakes, the intake on the precooler, and the precooler itself.

Don't think it is boiloff, it lags behind throttle opening but definitely rises and falls in proportion to it, while in nuclear turbojet mode.   By liftoff i was using LH2 at 258/sec,  despite the unbeleivable climb rate this thing was getting, i was out of LH2 by 25km.   BTW you'll notice in the above pic it uses far less LH2 when in non airbreathing mode.     Also if i shut down and sit on the runway i don't use any?

Are there any special installation instructions for this mod?  There's no README file so i just unzipped into the GameData folder..  perhaps i should reinstall the game and download the mod with nothing else in place?

[123nick]

Just now, AeroGav said:

Don't think it is boiloff, it lags behind throttle opening but definitely rises and falls in proportion to it, while in nuclear turbojet mode.   By liftoff i was using LH2 at 258/sec,  despite the unbeleivable climb rate this thing was getting, i was out of LH2 by 25km.   BTW you'll notice in the above pic it uses far less LH2 when in non airbreathing mode.     Also if i shut down and sit on the runway i don't use any?

Are there any special installation instructions for this mod?  There's no README file so i just unzipped into the GameData folder..  perhaps i should reinstall the game and download the mod with nothing else in place?

warpplugin should be folder in gamedata, or its warp something. about lh2, idk, i havent tried that other seeing some boiloff (i think) one or two times.

[EnigmaG]

50 minutes ago, AeroGav said:

How do i get other size of reactor / thermal turbo / rocket?  I can only see the 2.5 items in the part list... or do i have to install tweakscale?

Yes. Is´t it compulsive for KSP Interstellar Extended

50 minutes ago, AeroGav said:

You think it's a problem with the reactor then?

I do get very different behaviour with the open cycle Gas Core.   A good burst of power lasting a few seconds,  then thermal power drops right down as does thrust.   Throttling down restores things, but when i crack it open again we quickly loose power after a few seconds.  That's despite it having a much higher thermal output than the basic salt,  though given buoyancy effects and the not quite-EPA compliant exhaust emissions i am glad it does NOT perform well in a launcher.

I have the same behave. Bug or Feature i do´t now.

50 minutes ago, AeroGav said:

I have removed all my other mods and tried sticking to the basic liquid fuel.

Staying with liquid fuel, and not using ModularFuels to swap the contents of the tanks, solves one problem -

ABTB´s mod makes interstellar fuel available for all tanks.

50 minutes ago, AeroGav said:

 Atmosphere mode does not consume propellant.

However, it still acts wierd in that i get the same thrust if i close all my intakes.     And thrust-weight ratio for the non-upgraded molten salt reactor is ridiculous - a single 2.5m engine pushing a 35 ton plane up in a 70 degree climb at mach 0.8 to 20km !

Yes, it is heating up (no combustion) intak-atmosphere, a separate interstellar-resource from intakes, the closing of them seems not by implement

Quote

That's truly 24/7 support !

It´s 20:00 in my country

Edited December 25, 2015 by EnigmaG

[Profit-]

1 hour ago, AeroGav said:

Don't think it is boiloff, it lags behind throttle opening but definitely rises and falls in proportion to it, while in nuclear turbojet mode.   By liftoff i was using LH2 at 258/sec,  despite the unbeleivable climb rate this thing was getting, i was out of LH2 by 25km.   BTW you'll notice in the above pic it uses far less LH2 when in non airbreathing mode.     Also if i shut down and sit on the runway i don't use any?

Are there any special installation instructions for this mod?  There's no README file so i just unzipped into the GameData folder..  perhaps i should reinstall the game and download the mod with nothing else in place?

The issue is you're using liquid hydrogen as a fuel which has very low mass to volume ratio. If you use something with a higher molecular weight such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide your tanks will last much longer and you probabl to get to space.   The other issue is the thermal turbojet usually works best on atmosphere instead of using a propellant for the first twenty kilometers.   My personal favorite single stage to orbit ship usually uses nitrogen with air processing scoops to gather nitrogen from the atmosphere, with either MHD or arc jet engines.  If you are careful with your angles and acceleration you can reach orbit with nearly full tanks using the MHD configuration and a fusion power source.

[EMPeror]

On 11/10/2015 at 2:13 AM, Nansuchao said:

Ok, so here's what I found until now:-  <snip>

Orbital Supercollider doesn't works except for the "Deploy" anymation (and it creat a massive lag when loaded, in VAB-SPH and in flight too);

 

Supercollider is still unusable.

How is this supposed to be used?  I launched it, it does create data, but I have no way of taking the data off the collider and putting in my lab so I can do research.  Right-click when in EVA only gives the Deploy option.  And as above MASSIVE LAG.  Switching focus to the craft with one, Warping with focus , or orbital rendezvous ... < 1 fps.

[AeroGav]

25 minutes ago, Profit- said:

The issue is you're using liquid hydrogen as a fuel which has very low mass to volume ratio. If you use something with a higher molecular weight such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide your tanks will last much longer and you probabl to get to space.   The other issue is the thermal turbojet usually works best on atmosphere instead of using a propellant for the first twenty kilometers.   My personal favorite single stage to orbit ship usually uses nitrogen with air processing scoops to gather nitrogen from the atmosphere, with either MHD or arc jet engines.  If you are careful with your angles and acceleration you can reach orbit with nearly full tanks using the MHD configuration and a fusion power source.

I think you misunderstood my post completely.

The main point was that i was in airbreathing mode on the hybrid thermal powerplant, so it should not have been using any propellant at all.  With LF, it does not, but after using modular fuels to swap tank contents to hydrogen, consumption becomes astronomical.       Ironically, when told to go closed cycle, this engine greatly reduces its consumption of LH2, but also makes next to no thrust.

I'd designed the aircraft with a lot of wing area expecting to have to make a low thrust weight ratio climb on the early nuclear powerplants , and the large wings hold a lot of fuel.   The type 3 to 2.5m adapter also has huge fuel volume.   With liquid fuel, my ship weighs 65 tons, on hydrogen, 35.   If the airbreathing mode was working correctly that would still be more than enough propellant to get to orbit.   65 tons of LF makes it too heavy and also messes up the CG.

Will try adding tweakscale as suggested, see if that fixes it..

[Profit-]

59 minutes ago, AeroGav said:

I think you misunderstood my post completely.

The main point was that i was in airbreathing mode on the hybrid thermal powerplant, so it should not have been using any propellant at all.  With LF, it does not, but after using modular fuels to swap tank contents to hydrogen, consumption becomes astronomical.       Ironically, when told to go closed cycle, this engine greatly reduces its consumption of LH2, but also makes next to no thrust.

I'd designed the aircraft with a lot of wing area expecting to have to make a low thrust weight ratio climb on the early nuclear powerplants , and the large wings hold a lot of fuel.   The type 3 to 2.5m adapter also has huge fuel volume.   With liquid fuel, my ship weighs 65 tons, on hydrogen, 35.   If the airbreathing mode was working correctly that would still be more than enough propellant to get to orbit.   65 tons of LF makes it too heavy and also messes up the CG.

Will try adding tweakscale as suggested, see if that fixes it..

That is weird, so weird i did miss understand. did you try swapping to atmospheric propellant mode by clicking the propellant button it should say atmospheric.   Also are you sure you're using the KSP I extended Thermal turbojet.

Edited December 25, 2015 by Profit-