KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[Weywot8]

I believe it is a molten salt feature because there can be vacuum distillation of the salts. This is for a LFTR but a MSR breeder would be nearly the same.

(There is technically no need for 238 reduction, just keeps it from being weapons grade u-233)

A nice point from the literature not highlighted in the very cool diagram is that after self-sustaining fission is kick-started, it's a breeder reactor where one can top up new thorium and extract new 233U without shutdown. 1 unit of thorium produces enough 233U that can convert up to 1.07 units of new thorium to MOAR 233U . It's a bit low versus the potential 1.2x conversion for 235/238U in classical Uranium-Plutonium reactors but it's still >1. Looks like the batch nature of pyroprocessing means the equipment is also relatively small http://pnanson.angelfire.com/Pyroprocessing.html

Also, nuclear engineers have looked into the burnup thing: a 233U-Th salt mix (the fission core can also run on 233U-Th instead of pure 233U, safer breeder design because less neutrons weaken the core-blanket wall and even less escape the blanket but complicates pyroprocessing though) appears to be more efficient/releases more energy versus 235U-Th burnup.

Then things became rapidly complicated and I'll stop right here:P

[FreeThinker]

A nice point from the literature not highlighted in the very cool diagram is that after self-sustaining fission is kick-started, it's a breeder reactor where one can top up new thorium and extract new 233U without shutdown. 1 unit of thorium produces enough 233U that can convert up to 1.07 units of new thorium to MOAR 233U . It's a bit low versus the potential 1.2x conversion for 235/238U in classical Uranium-Plutonium reactors but it's still >1. Looks like the batch nature of pyroprocessing means the equipment is also relatively small http://pnanson.angelfire.com/Pyroprocessing.html

Also, nuclear engineers have looked into the burnup thing: a 233U-Th salt mix (the fission core can also run on 233U-Th instead of pure 233U, safer breeder design because less neutrons weaken the core-blanket wall and even less escape the blanket but complicates pyroprocessing though) appears to be more efficient/releases more energy versus 235U-Th burnup.

Then things became rapidly complicated and I'll stop right here:P

Alright, I trying to turn this into something workable here. Are you proposing a fuel mode with a mix of Thorium, Uranium and Anticides?

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I've had it happen once when i did a rendezvous. As soon as the other craft entered physics range there was an explosion and all the radiators on the other craft were gone. I'm guessing waste heat does weird things in timewarp.

Well technically, there is code that will blow up a radiator when they they reach full wasteheat for several seconds. Possibly this is what blowed them up.

[Nansuchao]

Probably, if you look in your persistence file, you'll find that every parts of that ship has the two temp values settled to "Infinity". Change Infinity with 0, and the heating system return to work properly.

[FreeThinker]

Probably, if you look in your persistence file, you'll find that every parts of that ship has the two temp values settled to "Infinity". Change Infinity with 0, and the heating system return to work properly.

Stock temp?

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A nice point from the literature not highlighted in the very cool diagram is that after self-sustaining fission is kick-started, it's a breeder reactor where one can top up new thorium and extract new 233U without shutdown. 1 unit of thorium produces enough 233U that can convert up to 1.07 units of new thorium to MOAR 233U . It's a bit low versus the potential 1.2x conversion for 235/238U in classical Uranium-Plutonium reactors but it's still >1. Looks like the batch nature of pyroprocessing means the equipment is also relatively small http://pnanson.angelfire.com/Pyroprocessing.html

Also, nuclear engineers have looked into the burnup thing: a 233U-Th salt mix (the fission core can also run on 233U-Th instead of pure 233U, safer breeder design because less neutrons weaken the core-blanket wall and even less escape the blanket but complicates pyroprocessing though) appears to be more efficient/releases more energy versus 235U-Th burnup.

Then things became rapidly complicated and I'll stop right here:P

What about gas core reactors? I'm not sure they are able to use thorium. From what I read they always seem to use Uranium only.

[Nansuchao]

Yes, it's a stock bug, it happens on stock temp, and heavy RAM mods made happens this more often. That's the only solution at the moment, but probably someone will create a patch for this sooner or later.

[FreeThinker]

Yes, it's a stock bug, it happens on stock temp, and heavy RAM mods made happens this more often. That's the only solution at the moment, but probably someone will create a patch for this sooner or later.

intresting. This might also explain I had similar issues with fins near the exaust blowing up whenever I switch to trajectory screen after lauch.

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Yes, it's a stock bug, it happens on stock temp, and heavy RAM mods made happens this more often. That's the only solution at the moment, but probably someone will create a patch for this sooner or later.

If you can fix it with a save edit, it should also be to detect (infinite) it on the part itself

Edited July 13, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

Would be possible to create a simple MM patch that change every Infinity with 0 automatically? Something like

@modulemanager

if   part temp... Infinity
           temp....Infinity

then  part temp... 0
               temp....0

I'm not a coder, but if this can solve (more or less) the problem, it will be great for all community

[FreeThinker]

Would be possible to create a simple MM patch that change every Infinity with 0 automatically? Something like

@modulemanager

if   part temp... Infinity
           temp....Infinity

then  part temp... 0
               temp....0

I'm not a coder, but if this can solve (more or less) the problem, it will be great for all community

Not with module manager, but a simple partmodule could. It would simply have to veryfy all part on a vessel for infinite temperature.

[Nansuchao]

I'm not able to make this. Can you do it?

[ABZB]

I'm not able to make this. Can you do it?

I'll request it on the stock bugfix thread - they do this kind of thing

[Nansuchao]

Thanks a lot!

[raxo2222]

How to get highest TWR possible from quantum plasma thruster?

[Profit-]

Stock temp?

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What about gas core reactors? I'm not sure they are able to use thorium. From what I read they always seem to use Uranium only.

Gas core and technically even thorium reactors really only fission uranium. Thorium MUST first absorb neutrons to make it TH-233 then it decays to Protactinium-233 and finally to uranium 233 which is used as fuel.

Gas core reactors COULD in THEORY support thorium, however their design makes neutron capture breeder blankets EXTREMELY hard to create.

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How to get highest TWR possible from quantum plasma thruster?

Max it's energy, burn Xenon.... NOT COST EFFECTIVE.

You can use argon for significantly less cost and not much less TWR.

I personally use Liquid nitrogen for obvious reason that it can make it to 15,000 alt with only air scoops then switch to stored reaction mass, but the TWR is considerably worse, however I believe it is made up for by carrying 1/8th the fuel weight (It is amazing how much a little tweak can save in fuel weights, because you dont need fuel to move the fuel and have to overcome all that extra fuel weight)

Edited July 13, 2015 by Profit-

[raxo2222]

Gas core and technically even thorium reactors really only fission uranium. Thorium MUST first absorb neutrons to make it TH-233 then it decays to Protactinium-233 and finally to uranium 233 which is used as fuel.

Gas core reactors COULD in THEORY support thorium, however their design makes neutron capture breeder blankets EXTREMELY hard to create.

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Max it's energy, burn Xenon.... NOT COST EFFECTIVE.

You can use argon for significantly less cost and not much less TWR.

I personally use Liquid nitrogen for obvious reason that it can make it to 15,000 alt with only air scoops then switch to stored reaction mass, but the TWR is considerably worse, however I believe it is made up for by carrying 1/8th the fuel weight (It is amazing how much a little tweak can save in fuel weights, because you dont need fuel to move the fuel and have to overcome all that extra fuel weight)

I clearly said fuel less mode - as in quantum vacuum >.>

[FreeThinker]

I clearly said fuel less mode - as in quantum vacuum >.>

Quantum vacuum is the least efficient mode for obvious reasons, but it has the highest theoretical ISP since it is only limited by the mass of the reactor fuel you spend OR infinite is you use Microwave Power. This is the best way to maximize quantum vacuum plasma propulsion. But instead of propellant, you will need a lot of radiators to get rid of all waste heat as the whole process is only ABOUT 3% EFFICENT

[Profit-]

I managed to get a picture of the radiators acting odd.

I clearly said fuel less mode - as in quantum vacuum >.>

No you clearly referenced the upgraded part name that can use a multitude of fuels... (If you wanted to reference the mode say "Quantum Vacuum" mode) ->

How to get highest TWR possible from quantum plasma thruster?

However Since you asked nicely again, the TWR from the thruster is entirely based on how efficient you can make your energy and dissipate the heat.

The thruster itself is fairly light weight, however you are going to need a massive amount of radiator Support, and if you do not send energy via microwave, the only realistic energy option is Anti-matter or maybe long duration thrust with upgraded fusion reactors.

Edited July 13, 2015 by Profit-

[Balto-the-Wolf-Dog]

Are there any known compatibility issues with the USI warp drive in the current version? I cntrl-f'd back a few pages to no avail. The stock interstellar drives work fine for me, but the USI drives, collapsible and otherwise, have no option to generate exotic matter. By gluing a stock drive behind the USI drive and using it to generate and contain the matter I was able to use the USI drive, and in the process some exotic matter bled to the USI drive, but once there it boiled off in a seemingly random manner despite massive radiators and an antimatter reactor.

[FreeThinker]

I haven't even tested with the KSPI USI warp engines yet. They might be broken after the 1.0 update

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I managed to get a picture of the radiators acting odd.

http://s17.postimg.org/t8m4mwnkf/image.png

It appears the calculation of the WasteHeat ratio got confused somehow. Exactly what did you do to achieve a Wasteheat ratio of > 1.8 ? It apppears you are docking or just undocked.

[Profit-]

I haven't even tested with the KSPI USI warp engines yet. They might be broken after the 1.0 update

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It appears the calculation of the WasteHeat ratio got confused somehow. Exactly what did you do to achieve a Wasteheat ratio of > 1.8 ? It apppears you are docking or just undocked.

I had docked about 186 days before bringing a load of metal and ores to the offworld construction platform. This was on switching to that platform with the harvester ship docked, and I had switched to it multiple times before.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Profit-

[Weywot8]

Alright, I trying to turn this into something workable here. Are you proposing a fuel mode with a mix of Thorium, Uranium and Anticides?.

Sorry for not getting back to this sooner, been caught up trying (and failing) to create a contact binary star system in KSP.

Was thinking along the lines of "no need to cool down to refuel" benefits

• automatic pulling of thorium from anywhere on the ship if a high-level engineer is present, engineer also lets reactor run for a longer time (number chosen to maintain gameplay balance) before needing to shutdown for refueling because of actinide buildup
  
• if high level engineer + ISRU present, actinides will not shutdown the reactor so it'll run forever as long as thorium is somewhere on the ship.
  

Should keep balance intact and gives engineers something to do.

Agree gas core with thorium would be complicated IRL but KSPI has antimatter harvesting running in grams. GRAMS!!!

[FreeThinker]

Was thinking along the lines of "no need to cool down to refuel" benefits

• automatic pulling of thorium from anywhere on the ship if a high-level engineer is present, engineer also lets reactor run for a longer time (number chosen to maintain gameplay balance) before needing to shutdown for refueling because of actinide buildup
  

Seems Thorium is tricky by definition. It might be an idea to add a minimum Engeneer level to Fuel modes. This will make Uranium the default Mode which would not require any enenering expertese. For example Uranium Burnup fuel mode would require an engeneer of at least a few levels to activate. Thorium burnup would require even higher enerering skill. Another way to Link engenering skill with Energy lifetime would to make Reactor minimum utilisation be affected by engenering skill. Up to 3 engeneers could be used for this which monitor the reactor in shifts of 8 hours. A vessel with a full crew of skilled engineers would be able to keep utilisation to a minimum, signifiantly extending it's lifetime. Edited July 14, 2015 by FreeThinker

[BFEL]

So noticed a few updates for the new versions, do Interstellar radiators actually radiate stock heat away now?

Relatedly, how effective is Liquid Nitrogen at cooling parts down? I had an idea to use it instead of heat shields but I didn't get to see its effectiveness as the craft it was stuck to had TWR problems.

[FreeThinker]

Relatedly, how effective is Liquid Nitrogen at cooling parts down? I had an idea to use it instead of heat shields but I didn't get to see its effectiveness as the craft it was stuck to had TWR problems.

Density * Evaperation energy / Specific Energy . What makes Nitrogen so good for cooling s that it has a high density for a crygenic liquid.

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So noticed a few updates for the new versions, do Interstellar radiators actually radiate stock heat away now?

Currently not, but I'm currently investigating how to implement this.

Edited July 14, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Balto-the-Wolf-Dog]

After poking around a bit I think they're still set up to use regolith, which is likely the problem. Can't confirm because I'm not very familiar with the inner workings of interstellar haven't figured a way to change it.

[FreeThinker]

After poking around a bit I think they're still set up to use regolith, which is likely the problem. Can't confirm because I'm not very familiar with the inner workings of interstellar haven't figured a way to change it.

Sorry, what exactly are you refering to. To my knowledge, KSPI currently does not use Regolith

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Agree gas core with thorium would be complicated IRL but KSPI has antimatter harvesting running in grams. GRAMS!!!

The Antimatter Harvesting indeed seems over powered right. For starters, they require no power at all to function, which seems odd. Any suggestion for power consumption requirments?

Edited July 14, 2015 by FreeThinker