KSP Interstellar Extended Support Thread

[FreeThinker]

3 minutes ago, fizy45 said:

Here is how you can replicate the situation just put a command pod put monotank 5 way rcs block electric generator dusty plasma reactor and dadalus engine after that use try using the rcs (engine is off) and see how much heat your ship will get from just rcs trusters.

TEST SHIP FOR YOU TO SEE WHATS HAPPENING JUST ENGAGE RCS AND TURN AROUND YOU SEE !


 

where are your radiators?

[fizy45]

Oke now I just made another test but results are more confusing. I just removed the engine but kept everthing in place. Now RCS is not creating any heat its just acting like it should be. So I can confirm that when engine is attached thats when heating starts. But its still confusing because even I put the engine that engine is off.

Also I made three tests while and seen strange results.

Test 1: Engine full throttle creates heat thats perfectly normal I know I need radiators heating is stable and couple good radiators can handle it perfectly.

Test 2: Engine is off Rcs is on ship is turning around with fuel is monopropellent and this actually creates more heat compared to full throttle engine I mean wow.

Test 3 : Engine is off RCS is off there is no heat problem only minial amount generated.

So basicly for whatever reason when I use RCS while I have an engine things got out of hand. About radiators well in order to cool ship like this couple big radiators are enough but in order to cool the ship when RCS  is on I was forced to use 7 full size umbrealla graphite radiators. I am basiclly trying to save my ship not the engine heat or the reactor but the heat generated by the RCS trusters while they are making small maneuvers for 10 seconds.

So to sum up this problem is not about cooling the engines beacause thats easy to solve it is about cooling the ship when using RCS with this engine setup while the engine is off.

Note: Please replicate the ship I made and see it foryourself cooling the engine is easy (couple radiators will do) try to cool the ship with while using RCS and you see what I am talking about.

Edited July 9, 2020 by fizy45

[fizy45]

Oke I just made another test and found some stranger results but also a solution too there are two "5 way RCS" trusters in my game and one of them is the problematic.

1) 5 Way MK3 RCS Truster

2) Heavy 5 way RCS Truster

If I use the first one I mean the one named "MK3..." RCS trusters are not generating any waste heat on the other hand if I use the second one the problem I talk about happens. Its strange because these two RCS trusters stats are exactly the same.
 

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, fizy45 said:

So basicly for whatever reason when I use RCS while I have an engine things got out of hand. About radiators well in order to cool ship like this couple big radiators are enough but in order to cool the ship when RCS  is on I was forced to use 7 full size umbrealla graphite radiators. I am basiclly trying to save my ship not the engine heat or the reactor but the heat generated by the RCS trusters while they are making small maneuvers for 10 seconds.

Perhaps you didn't realize by the KSPIE RCS are technically High power Electric Engines that require a lot of power and themselves also produce wasteheat.

[fizy45]

3 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

Perhaps you didn't realize by the KSPIE RCS are technically High power Electric Engines that require a lot of power and themselves also produce wasteheat.

Check my last post I have found the reason two exactly same RCS trusters (same stats same model isp etc) one is creating massive amount of heat and other is not problem solved still thx for your input.

[niceundtidy]

I might just be missing something but i am using the Wyvern Thermal Ramjet Nozzle. I have upgraded the nozzle to be able to use propellants. I can choose a number of propellants in the vehicle designer (I have tried with oxidizer, Liquid Argon, Liquid Xenon and Liquid Helium). When i get out of the Vehicle designer though, the engine will not take the fuel. I am using the IFS Cryogenic Dual tanks and i have tried to place them most places on the ship, including touching the reactor directly so fuel->reactor-nozzle. When i switch to atmospheric mode, i get thrust, when i change to a propellant type, the thrust goes to 0 immediately. Can someone explain how to use propellants with the thermal ramjet? And as a bonus, what is a good way to get the craft off the runway? My craft gets 0,5kn of thrust when standing still, but way over 200 at 150m/s in atmospheric mode. Am i missing something or is the wyvern supposed to give almost 0 thrust at no speed?

I am using v. 1.25.22.5 from CKAN.

Thanks alot

Edited July 10, 2020 by niceundtidy

[AntaresMC]

On 7/9/2020 at 8:59 AM, FreeThinker said:

I see. Well what happens is that the Pebble Bed Reactor creates washeat when it produces wasteheat because it conversion efficiency depends on the amount of radiators. When using the  Pebble Bed reactor, I recommend using a MHD or Charged Particle Power Converter which will produce significatly less wasteheat.

Can the PBR use MHD or CP generators?

Edited July 13, 2020 by AntaresMC

[kspnerd122]

how do you disable radiation on engines

[AntaresMC]

 .

Edited July 13, 2020 by AntaresMC
Long story, but I cant delete a post

[AntaresMC]

On 7/10/2020 at 3:59 PM, niceundtidy said:

I might just be missing something but i am using the Wyvern Thermal Ramjet Nozzle. I have upgraded the nozzle to be able to use propellants. I can choose a number of propellants in the vehicle designer (I have tried with oxidizer, Liquid Argon, Liquid Xenon and Liquid Helium). When i get out of the Vehicle designer though, the engine will not take the fuel. I am using the IFS Cryogenic Dual tanks and i have tried to place them most places on the ship, including touching the reactor directly so fuel->reactor-nozzle. When i switch to atmospheric mode, i get thrust, when i change to a propellant type, the thrust goes to 0 immediately. Can someone explain how to use propellants with the thermal ramjet? And as a bonus, what is a good way to get the craft off the runway? My craft gets 0,5kn of thrust when standing still, but way over 200 at 150m/s in atmospheric mode. Am i missing something or is the wyvern supposed to give almost 0 thrust at no speed?

I am using v. 1.25.22.5 from CKAN.

Thanks alot

The wyvern needs quite a lotta speed to work with atmo.

With propellants its a matter your exhaust pressur, aka thrust, that dependes on the reactor power output and molecular weight of the propellant.

[PlotVitalNPC]

Is the Muon Catalyzed Fusion reactor suitable for thermal engines?

[FreeThinker]

36 minutes ago, PlotVitalNPC said:

Is the Muon Catalyzed Fusion reactor suitable for thermal engines?

No, its for power production only

[Mandella]

Once again I suspect I am missing something obvious.

I am attempting a basic ISRU production to produce cryo H2 from hydrates. All was going well until I hit the step of trying to use the ISRU Refrigerator to convert my Hydrogen to liquid H2. Everything looks good. There is ample power, my H2 tank is empty while my Hydrogen tank is full. But I am getting no activity. The only buttons I see are to "toggle Refinery Window" and  "produce fusion pellets". Toggling the refinery window only brings up the options to use atmospheric extraction or solar wind. Atmospheric extraction when toggled does start producing H2 in small quantities, as I am testing on Earth (using RSS).

My understanding is that the Refrigerator should just automatically start producing the liquid version of the selected gas in question, right?

Using latest version of KSP-E with KSP 1.8.1 and RSS.

[Omeran]

15 hours ago, Mandella said:

Once again I suspect I am missing something obvious.

I am attempting a basic ISRU production to produce cryo H2 from hydrates. All was going well until I hit the step of trying to use the ISRU Refrigerator to convert my Hydrogen to liquid H2. Everything looks good. There is ample power, my H2 tank is empty while my Hydrogen tank is full. But I am getting no activity. The only buttons I see are to "toggle Refinery Window" and  "produce fusion pellets". Toggling the refinery window only brings up the options to use atmospheric extraction or solar wind. Atmospheric extraction when toggled does start producing H2 in small quantities, as I am testing on Earth (using RSS).

My understanding is that the Refrigerator should just automatically start producing the liquid version of the selected gas in question, right?

Using latest version of KSP-E with KSP 1.8.1 and RSS.

The refrigerator doesn't exactly "automatically" converts anything.
If you have both liquid H2 and (gaseous) H2 tanks, then the refrigerator would have a slider that determines the direction of the conversion.

[Mandella]

2 hours ago, Omeran said:

The refrigerator doesn't exactly "automatically" converts anything.
If you have both liquid H2 and (gaseous) H2 tanks, then the refrigerator would have a slider that determines the direction of the conversion.

The slider? Sigh..  I knew it was something obvious. I thought the slider determined the size of the tanks, I guess. It never occurred to me that the "refrigerator" would work as a heater too.

*facepalm.jpg*

Thanks! Now I can get my fuel depot going again.

[shifty303]

Hello, I have found a bug with fuel switching and a specific setup that gives me an insane amount of dV. I've been able to reproduce it multiple times.

KSPIE: 1.25.22.5
KSP: 1.9.1.2788

This craft uses the Plasma Nozzle, Beam Core AM Reactor, Charged Particle Generator and HTP as the fuel. I assume the normal dV value is correct and it's very good. However, when I press the next propellant button it switches to the very small amount of monopropellent (120 units) I have on board and gives me about 35k dV which is insane. I also tested burning off all the normal fuel and then switching to mono and I get the same result and can burn off all 35k worth of additional dV.

Normal HTP Mode:


Very likely glitched monoprop mode:


Let me know if you need anything else!

EDIT: I don't know if the bug is specific to monopropellant or to switching the fuel type, but am happy to test some additional setups if you want.

Edited July 23, 2020 by shifty303

[theicon32]

So just a dumb basic question, I'm reading about this mod before downloading to make sure I'm competent enough to make the jump and I see the recommendation to rescale Kerbin. That seems like a huge change to my game (I've only been playing for a couple months) so before I do anything like that, I'm just wondering how that would impact KSP-IE vs regular scaling, or how it will impact the base game. I'm assuming it makes it quite a bit more challenging to launch, but I'm just wondering about any unexpected consequences I should anticipate. 

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, I'm also still trying to learn how this community and forum works.  

[FreeThinker]

4 hours ago, theicon32 said:

So just a dumb basic question, I'm reading about this mod before downloading to make sure I'm competent enough to make the jump and I see the recommendation to rescale Kerbin. That seems like a huge change to my game (I've only been playing for a couple months) so before I do anything like that, I'm just wondering how that would impact KSP-IE vs regular scaling, or how it will impact the base game. I'm assuming it makes it quite a bit more challenging to launch, but I'm just wondering about any unexpected consequences I should anticipate. 

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, I'm also still trying to learn how this community and forum works.  

Many KSP modders have considered that while the stock parts (namely, engines) are overpowered for stock scale, they are tuned just right for 2.5x scale

[OOM]

7 hours ago, theicon32 said:

So just a dumb basic question, I'm reading about this mod before downloading to make sure I'm competent enough to make the jump and I see the recommendation to rescale Kerbin. That seems like a huge change to my game (I've only been playing for a couple months) so before I do anything like that, I'm just wondering how that would impact KSP-IE vs regular scaling, or how it will impact the base game. I'm assuming it makes it quite a bit more challenging to launch, but I'm just wondering about any unexpected consequences I should anticipate. 

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, I'm also still trying to learn how this community and forum works.  

Just play with the x2.5 scale, which is considered the best in terms of optimal difficulty / realism The planets are now the size of real moons and no longer look so cartoonist. The DeltaV demand is approaching the limit of many chemical liquid fuel rocket engines, which allows for a better understanding of why rockets are built in 2-3 stages, and SSTO is a more complex option.

[AntaresMC]

18 hours ago, theicon32 said:

So just a dumb basic question, I'm reading about this mod before downloading to make sure I'm competent enough to make the jump and I see the recommendation to rescale Kerbin. That seems like a huge change to my game (I've only been playing for a couple months) so before I do anything like that, I'm just wondering how that would impact KSP-IE vs regular scaling, or how it will impact the base game. I'm assuming it makes it quite a bit more challenging to launch, but I'm just wondering about any unexpected consequences I should anticipate. 

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, I'm also still trying to learn how this community and forum works.  

For KSPIE it shouldnt be a huge matter, I mean, the engines are damm beasts. Probably the beam power stuff would be more difficult from the ground (more atmo to absorb it) but i dont think anything huge... If you have little exp wiith the mod you should ask a lot, its (probably too) complex and there isnt a lot of documentation outside the forums

[PlotVitalNPC]

So screwing around in sandbox mode, I've had a good time with the SURGE engine/reactor - flying around on Kerbin for awhile, then deciding that instead of beefing up my intakes I'm gonna get into the stratosphere by screwing around with an alcubierre drive, then ultimately ditching the craft far from any planets in the kerbol system to prevent kessler syndrome after realizing I had no way to deorbit it.

It's a nice, reliable engine as long as you have an atmosphere to stand in for the remass you definitely aren't carrying enough of, and a worthy powerplant if you don't.

What confuses me more is the SAGE engine - what sort of humungous machine are you meant to install that on, to get even the slightest utility out of its absurd pushing power without overgeeing your antimatter storage (especially since you need two of them in order to guarantee symmetry, since it doesn't snap to nodes at all)? Plus, you know, the whole thing to do with how it's an antimatter powered jet engine, an inherently scary concept.

[FreeThinker]

14 hours ago, PlotVitalNPC said:

What confuses me more is the SAGE engine - what sort of humungous machine are you meant to install that on, to get even the slightest utility out of its absurd pushing power without overgeeing your antimatter storage (especially since you need two of them in order to guarantee symmetry, since it doesn't snap to nodes at all)? Plus, you know, the whole thing to do with how it's an antimatter powered jet engine, an inherently scary concept.

Yes, that is the trade off, powerfull but dangerous and limited endurance. Your choice

Edited July 29, 2020 by FreeThinker

[etmoonshade]

5 hours ago, PlotVitalNPC said:

So screwing around in sandbox mode, I've had a good time with the SURGE engine/reactor - flying around on Kerbin for awhile, then deciding that instead of beefing up my intakes I'm gonna get into the stratosphere by screwing around with an alcubierre drive, then ultimately ditching the craft far from any planets in the kerbol system to prevent kessler syndrome after realizing I had no way to deorbit it.

It's a nice, reliable engine as long as you have an atmosphere to stand in for the remass you definitely aren't carrying enough of, and a worthy powerplant if you don't.

What confuses me more is the SAGE engine - what sort of humungous machine are you meant to install that on, to get even the slightest utility out of its absurd pushing power without overgeeing your antimatter storage (especially since you need two of them in order to guarantee symmetry, since it doesn't snap to nodes at all)? Plus, you know, the whole thing to do with how it's an antimatter powered jet engine, an inherently scary concept.

Hah, I can answer this with a screenshot:

I ended up building this in a later version with a single SAGE engine and far less absurd-looking intakes.

I also have this, which is a far more reasonable build:

 

The trick is that you need to set your max thrust to something way lower - if I remember right, this was set to something like 5%, which gave me a cruising speed of ~1.5km/s @ 35km.

(quick edit: As for the antimatter storage, put it in a cargo bay so you only need one)

On 7/26/2020 at 5:11 PM, AntaresMC said:

For KSPIE it shouldnt be a huge matter, I mean, the engines are damm beasts. Probably the beam power stuff would be more difficult from the ground (more atmo to absorb it) but i dont think anything huge... If you have little exp wiith the mod you should ask a lot, its (probably too) complex and there isnt a lot of documentation outside the forums

The problem with rescaling is that you don't get the really good KSPI-E stuff until ~550 science. You need some pretty chunky rockets to get the 7.4km/s dV you need to reach orbit in a 10.625x rescale.

If you go for a more reasonable 2.5x or 3.2x, you should be fine as long as you're reasonably experienced at stock scale rocket building (IMHO)

Edited July 28, 2020 by etmoonshade

[AntaresMC]

On 7/28/2020 at 8:57 PM, PlotVitalNPC said:

What confuses me more is the SAGE engine - what sort of humungous machine are you meant to install that on, to get even the slightest utility out of its absurd pushing power without overgeeing your antimatter storage (especially since you need two of them in order to guarantee symmetry, since it doesn't snap to nodes at all)? Plus, you know, the whole thing to do with how it's an antimatter powered jet engine, an inherently scary concept.

Its probably meant for huge stuff and thrust limiting. Or just a cheat drive with an absurd thrust so you tweak it at will.

I certainly dont like that it should be more heaty. Like, a lot more. A good fraction of a terawatt that would (actually make some sense) balance it and give an useful gameplay choice as it would need too many rads to put it in a small plane. Also, why I cant open a FFR in atmo but there is no problem with this radioactive monstruosity, @FreeThinker?

[helliwolf]

Is there a compatibility issue between this and CryoTanks/NearFuturePropulsion?

I've finally decided to install KSPIE and now all of my tanks that used to hold LH2/O can only hold LH2 or Oxidizer, but no option for both, which breaks some of my craft, which no longer have oxidizer and therefore can't be flown.