Eeloo spacestation

[bjerrang]

Got a comnet with complete coverage on Eeloo and planet is inspected.

Im ready for the spacestation insertion.

On jool system i use 14 xl solarpanels (bit overkill) , what is needed for eeloo to run 1 science module at furtest distance from sun.

Ill add a lander and a ore craft aswell.

 

[Guest]

Here's a table of solar panel efficiency at varying distances from the Sun:

So you need about 3 times as many panels on Eeloo as you do on Jool. Minimum is about 12 Gigantors, 100 OX-STAT-XL's, 150 OX-4s, or 800 OX-STATs (assuming you can point all of them at the sun all the time, which you can't).  

Put another way, they barely work at all. Have you considered putting the science lab on the surface and running it on fuel cells supplied with fuel from an ISRU unit?

Edited March 5, 2018 by Guest

[Snark]

Solar panels at Eeloo don't do much.  Kilogram for kilogram, you'll do a lot better with RTGs out there.  (Yes, those are insanely pricey, but out at Eeloo they're worth it IMO.)

[bjerrang]

1 hour ago, Brikoleur said:

Here's a table of solar panel efficiency at varying distances from the Sun:

So you need about 3 times as many panels on Eeloo as you do on Jool. Minimum is about 12 Gigantors, 100 OX-STAT-XL's, 150 OX-4s, or 800 OX-STATs (assuming you can point all of them at the sun all the time, which you can't).  

Put another way, they barely work at all. Have you considered putting the science lab on the surface and running it on fuel cells supplied with fuel from an ISRU unit?

Will try to get a spacestation on each planet before i move to the ground.

1 hour ago, Snark said:

Solar panels at Eeloo don't do much.  Kilogram for kilogram, you'll do a lot better with RTGs out there.  (Yes, those are insanely pricey, but out at Eeloo they're worth it IMO.)

How many RTG is needed ?

[Snark]

1 minute ago, bjerrang said:

Will try to get a spacestation on each planet before i move to the ground.

How many RTG is needed ?

As many as it takes.  Depends on what you have on your craft.  If you're running high-power devices like a science lab or mining drills, though, you'll need a lot of them.

It's all available on the info pane for the parts panel in the VAB.  Every part lists its requirements, just add them up.  Each RTG produces 0.75 EC per second (45 EC per minute), so just add up your power requirements per second, and divide by 0.75, and that'll tell you how many RTGs you need.

If you can land on a reasonably rich vein of ore and have a reasonably high-level engineer, though, it would probably be worthwhile to set up a miner/refiner to generate LFO, which you can then use to power fuel cells, as @Brikoleur suggests.  Fuel cells are a nice high-power source, as opposed to the relatively low-powered RTGs.

[Gargamel]

Well then.... been playing a long time, but I haven't been to the outer planets since this nerf apparently.

My Eeloo probe is in for a nasty surprise then, and my Jool expedition is in trouble too.  Luckily the mothership is nuclear powered, but all the rest.....

[Gilph]

If you are using mods, there are some small nukes you can use. USI Tools (or USI Core) has some small nukes that need need EU to run, but cores do not decay. Near Future Electrical has the same, but the cores decay over time. If you use NFE, make sure you have enough RTGs to maintain idle power during the trip to save core life, and then turn on the nukes to power whatever you need.

[Zhetaan]

@bjerrang:

The table given earlier is rather cumbersome.  Also, whatever a given solar panel's rated output, the EC produced is dependent on the same power source for all panels, so the distance-intensity relationship means that solar panels will see a percentage drop in output depending on distance that holds true for all panels.

There are other factors, as well:  I know that atmosphere affects power output and I think temperature may affect it also.

The summary is this:  a solar panel produces its rated output at Kerbin's orbital distance from the sun.  We'll call that 100%.  For other planets:

Planet	Intensity
Moho	667.7%  (May be affected by temperature)
Eve	191.3%
Kerbin	100.0%
Duna	43.06%
Dres	11.09%
Jool	3.910%
Eeloo	2.277% (average:  this is for orbital distance 90.1 Gm)

You need not quite double the number of solar panels at Eeloo to match the output at Jool.  Call it just about seven panels at Eeloo for every four at Jool.

Put another way, a Gigantor at Eeloo produces approximately 33.34 EC/min compared to the RTG's output of 45 EC/min.  You'll need approximately two RTGs for every three Gigantors.

That being said, don't necessarily drop the idea of solar panels completely.  You can still scrape a bit of sunlight off the face of Gigantors, and they do produce plenty of power to run reaction wheels and the like when you are making your embarkation burn in the inner system.

It's also not a bad idea to try using RTGs as maintenance-level power--just enough to keep the probe core warm and the radio on--and having fuel cells for the rest of it.  Fuel cells make a marvellous backup power supply; they will supply power only when it is needed and shut off as your batteries fill.  That keeps you from spewing fuel even when no one is occupying the station.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Zhetaan