KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[FreeThinker]

26 minutes ago, TwinKerbal said:

Hello,

How do I use the Warp drive in KSP Interstellar?  It seems like it requires way too much electricity to be efficient. 

Actually, it is extremely efficient, it's the only vessel which allows you to travel light years away in few hours, but but you you have to understand a few basic rules of how it operate it. It main parameters are power to mass ratio , gravity wells and input power. You should read the explanation on the OP

1 hour ago, Hypercosmic said:

Suggestion: Two Daedalus engine size: one for first stage (And thus larger one, 5 m) and another for second stage (smaller, 2.5 m)

Well you can always scale it up to full Daedalus size and use the 5m on to yo create an stage.

Edited July 30, 2016 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.9.9 for Kerbal Space Program 1.1.3

Released on 2016-07-30

• Improved Realism Daedalus Fusion Engine, acceleration and Isp are correctly affected by Relativity (thanks to @Boris-Barboris )
• Improved Control Daedalus Fusion Engine, added Fuel and Light-speed limiter
• Added Liquidfuel and LFO to Interstellar Liquid FuelTanks with Stock mass ratio's
• Balance: Reduced Power output Dusty Plasma Reactor, which was too powerful compared with other reactors
• Fixed issues with Real Plume
• Fixed issue with Realism Overhaul

Edited July 31, 2016 by FreeThinker

[raxo2222]

7 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Version 1.9.9 for Kerbal Space Program 1.1.3

Released on 2016-07-30

• Improved Realism Daedalus Fusion Engine, acceleration and Isp are correctly affected by Relativity (thanks to Boris-Barboris)
• Improved Control Daedalus Fusion Engine, added Fuel and Light-speed limiter
• Added Liquidfuel and LFO to Interstellar Liquid FuelTanks with Stock mass ratio's
• Balance: Reduced Power output Dusty Plasma Reactor, which was too powerful compared with other reactors

Hmmm so when my storage suggestions and ultimate electric engine are going to be added?

 

BTW since kerbalism has announcements on researched technology, that improves for example manufacturing quality or scrubber efficiency, what about announcements when we research upgrade tech for reactors/engines/radiators/generators?

Edited July 30, 2016 by raxo2222

[FreeThinker]

21 minutes ago, raxo2222 said:

Hmmm so when my storage suggestions and ultimate electric engine are going to be added?

It's under development, most likely next patch

Edited July 30, 2016 by FreeThinker

[SymbolicFrank]

Ok, I understand that nobody really cares and everyone wants cool and shiny toys, but I do have a good example to show how things work: the Bussard ramjet.

 

Forty years ago, space travel was a bit in decline, because the only potentially interstellar ship, Orion, was banned. Which was a big bummer. And, Orion is great because it has an exceptional thrust-to-weight ratio: it can lift very heavy stuff into orbit. But the delta-V is not great.

They're called torchships: spaceships that can go everywhere, fast. They don't need to wait for a Hohmann transfer window.

But, without Orion, we couldn't lift, say, 1000 metric ton of stuff into orbit. So, we didn't have enough fuel to do anything interesting. Just boring and slow stuff.

Enter the Bussard ramjet: it gathers hydrogen atoms from interstellar space, which it uses for fuel as well as reaction mass. Problem solved!

 

So, everyone wanted one. Every SciFi author used them. NASA wanted them. Everyone expected them to solve the problem. Everyone believed in them.

Ok, there were (and still are) a few questions about it. Like, if there are enough hydrogen atoms in interstellar space (no), and if the gathering and channeling of those particles doesn't slow the craft down too much (yes), or if you needed to boost it to a preposterous high speed before it starts working (yes, about 0.12c), or if you can get p+p+p+p fusion working, but problems can be solved! Just take the fuel with you, use the captured hydrogen only as reaction mass, and all is well! (Nope. But nobody cared.)

Then again, how do you capture those hydrogen atoms? With a huge, electromagnetic field (a few hundred kilometer in diameter). Eh, hmm. Ok. You need massive amounts of power and superconductors. It sounds quite unfeasible. But, whatever

.

"But, how do you get those hydrogen atoms to react to that electromagnetic field? "

"Oh, that's simple: you ionize them with a high-powered laser."

"Really? You want to shine a powerful laser on every bit of a volume that is hundreds of kilometers across, all the time? To hit all the hydrogen atoms? That's your plan?"

"Yes. Why? You're the first one to complain about that part! Nobody else even asks about that or mentions it! Don't you want it to succeed?"

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by SymbolicFrank

[Hypercosmic]

15 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

Well you can always scale it up to full Daedalus size and use the 5m on to yo create an stage.

What if I don't have TweakScale? (Actually, I have it.)

I think it is quite essential. Currently I still can't build a Daedalus though, just a grapeship using Daedalus' engine.

11 hours ago, SymbolicFrank said:

Ok, I understand that nobody really cares and everyone wants cool and shiny toys, but I do have a good example to show how things work: the Bussard ramjet.

 

Forty years ago, space travel was a bit in decline, because the only potentially interstellar ship, Orion, was banned. Which was a big bummer. And, Orion is great because it has an exceptional thrust-to-weight ratio: it can lift very heavy stuff into orbit. But the delta-V is not great.

They're called torchships: spaceships that can go everywhere, fast. They don't need to wait for a Hohmann transfer window.

But, without Orion, we couldn't lift, say, 1000 metric ton of stuff into orbit. So, we didn't have enough fuel to do anything interesting. Just boring and slow stuff.

Enter the Bussard ramjet: it gathers hydrogen atoms from interstellar space, which it uses for fuel as well as reaction mass. Problem solved!

 

So, everyone wanted one. Every SciFi author used them. NASA wanted them. Everyone expected them to solve the problem. Everyone believed in them.

Ok, there were (and still are) a few questions about it. Like, if there are enough hydrogen atoms in interstellar space (no), and if the gathering and channeling of those particles doesn't slow the craft down too much (yes), or if you needed to boost it to a preposterous high speed before it starts working (yes, about 0.12c), or if you can get p+p+p+p fusion working, but problems can be solved! Just take the fuel with you, use the captured hydrogen only as reaction mass, and all is well! (Nope. But nobody cared.)

Then again, how do you capture those hydrogen atoms? With a huge, electromagnetic field (a few hundred kilometer in diameter). Eh, hmm. Ok. You need massive amounts of power and superconductors. It sounds quite unfeasible. But, whatever

.

"But, how do you get those hydrogen atoms to react to that electromagnetic field? "

"Oh, that's simple: you ionize them with a high-powered laser."

"Really? You want to shine a powerful laser on every bit of a volume that is hundreds of kilometers across, all the time? To hit all the hydrogen atoms? That's your plan?"

"Yes. Why? You're the first one to complain about that part! Nobody else even asks about that or mentions it! Don't you want it to succeed?"

 

Bussard ramjets can't operate with our current knowledge due to drag of the scoop being way too high. Can be used for deceleration though.

[FreeThinker]

6 minutes ago, Hypercosmic said:

What if I don't have TweakScale? (Actually, I have it.)

I think it is quite essential. Currently I still can't build a Daedalus though, just a grapeship using Daedalus' engine.

So what is missing?

[Hypercosmic]

10 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

So what is missing?

Pretty much everything apart of the miniaturized engine and the spherical fuel tanks which are way too small. I'm expecting this:

(Of course, not as large as the real one.)

So we'll need more Daedalus engine+spherical fuel tanks size (at least two size), the supporting pads (at least two size) that the fuel tanks are placed on, the payload box, and the kinetic shield.

[Nansuchao]

10 minutes ago, Hypercosmic said:

Pretty much everything apart of the miniaturized engine and the spherical fuel tanks which are way too small. I'm expecting this:

(Of course, not as large as the real one.)

So we'll need more Daedalus engine+spherical fuel tanks size (at least two size), the supporting pads (at least two size) that the fuel tanks are placed on, the payload box, and the kinetic shield.

Well, more or less you can build this exact ship in KSP with just Interstellar Extended (and dependancies) and stock. The KSPI-E Daedalus is way smaller than the original one, so you need just the parts ratio to be right.

[Nansuchao]

Just eyeballing

 

http://imgur.com/8PczGqy

Edited July 31, 2016 by Nansuchao

[FreeThinker]

4 minutes ago, Nansuchao said:

Just eyeballing

 

http://imgur.com/8PczGqy

What are you using as the flat sphere under the fuel tanks?

[Fairin]

can we have a "wing" that is also a microwave reciever, or panels flat on the hull. ie. thermal reciever, this giant sphere is making my ssto look silly.

also what am i doing wrong with the open core gas reactor, i got it in a stable orbit around kerbin but its only generating around 500mw of power, which is less than the molten salt at first start through atmo. just cant get the reactor to produce energy ><

[Nansuchao]

55 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

What are you using as the flat sphere under the fuel tanks?

It's the Umbrella Radiator up down and deployed in the VAB. Inside the Spherical tanks there is a 3.5m Antimatter Reactor and some Structural parts where the spheres are attached.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Nansuchao

[Hypercosmic]

1 hour ago, Nansuchao said:

Well, more or less you can build this exact ship in KSP with just Interstellar Extended (and dependancies) and stock. The KSPI-E Daedalus is way smaller than the original one, so you need just the parts ratio to be right.

Very imaginative.

But for those w/o TweakScale, this is not possible. This is my point. I'm waiting for the update.

[Nansuchao]

6 minutes ago, Hypercosmic said:

Very imaginative.

But for those w/o TweakScale, this is not possible. This is my point. I'm waiting for the update.

TweakScale is a dependency of KSPIE, so if you use it you'll have it. In the past without TS we had 3 or more parts for the same model just to have different sizes. Now try to multiply not less than three size for every KSPIE parts.

[MonoLyth]

5 hours ago, Fairin said:

can we have a "wing" that is also a microwave reciever, or panels flat on the hull. ie. thermal reciever, this giant sphere is making my ssto look silly.

also what am i doing wrong with the open core gas reactor, i got it in a stable orbit around kerbin but its only generating around 500mw of power, which is less than the molten salt at first start through atmo. just cant get the reactor to produce energy ><

The open core gas reactor has been changed from a thermal rocket engine reactor to thermal power only with buoyancy effect. This means you can't use it for anything other than power generation/transmission outside a significant gravity well. 

I can confirm that while landed the gravity is too great for the reactor to generate power. In orbit out of atmo it works fine, however the 500mw power output is because it's thermal power so really not efficient.

Edited July 31, 2016 by MonoLyth
Testing in game

[SymbolicFrank]

5 hours ago, Hypercosmic said:

Bussard ramjets can't operate with our current knowledge due to drag of the scoop being way too high. Can be used for deceleration though.

After you are able to create the required electromagnetic field and ionize the interstellar hydrogen? Yes, in that case I suppose you could use it for deceleration. But wouldn't a solar sail be far simpler for that? For starters, it would actually work.

[FreeThinker]

3 hours ago, MonoLyth said:

The open core gas reactor has been changed from a thermal rocket engine reactor to thermal power only with buoyancy effect. This means you can't use it for anything other than power generation/transmission outside a significant gravity well. 

I can confirm that while landed the gravity is too great for the reactor to generate power. In orbit out of atmo it works fine, however the 500mw power output is because it's thermal power so really not efficient.

The  main intended usage for Open Cycle Gas Core Reactor Is High Isp thermal propulsion coupled with decent Thrust suitable for maneuvering large vessels in orbit. Power production realy is a secondary application. The Fission Fragment reactor with Direct energy converter  is much better for this purpose.

Edited July 31, 2016 by FreeThinker

[secretly_asian]

I have a feeling that this latest update borked the interstellar x48 liq. fuel tank.

 

http://imgur.com/a/xWs68

 

Interstellar Fuel tank x48 holds only ~4000 units of LqHydrogen, and any bi-propellant mesh is missing the liquid oxygen. This was as of the most recent update

Edited August 1, 2016 by secretly_asian

[FreeThinker]

4 hours ago, secretly_asian said:

I have a feeling that this latest update borked the interstellar x48 liq. fuel tank.

 

http://imgur.com/a/xWs68

 

Interstellar Fuel tank x48 holds only ~4000 units of LqHydrogen, and any bi-propellant mesh is missing the liquid oxygen. This was as of the most recent update

Indeed,resourceAmounts contains some wrong numbers. To fix it, simple remove the first 3 numbers including ';'

[FreeThinker]

On 31-7-2016 at 1:00 PM, Fairin said:

can we have a "wing" that is also a microwave reciever, or panels flat on the hull. ie. thermal reciever, this giant sphere is making my ssto look silly.

also what am i doing wrong with the open core gas reactor, i got it in a stable orbit around kerbin but its only generating around 500mw of power, which is less than the molten salt at first start through atmo. just cant get the reactor to produce energy ><

Well an entire wing would be inpractical.  However, we could convert a flat / curved radiator panel into microwave phased array reciever, allowing you to put it under the wings or hull  of your winged SSTO.

Edited August 2, 2016 by FreeThinker

[Fireheart318]

Beamed power isn't working! It doesn't give me the option to transmit, receive, or relay power!

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, Fireheart318 said:

Beamed power isn't working! It doesn't give me the option to transmit, receive, or relay power!

Are you using the microwave Transmitter part?

[FreeThinker]

On 31-7-2016 at 5:37 PM, SymbolicFrank said:

After you are able to create the required electromagnetic field and ionize the interstellar hydrogen? Yes, in that case I suppose you could use it for deceleration. But wouldn't a solar sail be far simpler for that? For starters, it would actually work.

Indeed , but I think an electronic sail would be more mass effective, we just need a lot of power, which we have plenty off. I just need a part model that could spread a few teters 1 Km in each direction . Technically a antanna with exteme lenth

Edited August 2, 2016 by FreeThinker

[Fairin]

just unlocked the tri alpha colliding beam fusion reactor, im a little underwhelmed by the 341 mw of power it generates, thats like... 5 candle engines? (default size)

6 hours ago, Fireheart318 said:

Beamed power isn't working! It doesn't give me the option to transmit, receive, or relay power!

there is a USI colony part called a microwave power tranceiver that is for ground level bases to share power. not beamed power from kspie (looks like a box with a rod on top with a circle ontop of that.)