KSP Interstellar Extended Support Thread

[wkwied]

I've replicated the craft, but I'm not understanding how it works.

 

My craft contains, like yours, a singularity, trialpha, scoop, fridge, and a cryo tank with liquid hydrogen.

 

When I move my craft to Kerbin orbit at ~1800k, yes, I'm able to recoup more hydrogen than the singularity is burning.

However if I move my craft into solar orbit (at the same height as Kerbin), it does not. Higher, or lower (as low as the game will let you set the orbit) to the sun and I do not recoup hydrogen. Likweise if I try to pop it into Eve or Moho orbit.

How does this dang thing work?

 

Also, I do not understand how starting the singularity reactor is supposed to work. I understand it needs to be in a zero-g environment and that is all well and dandy, but the power requirements to start it? What defines that? LKO (86km) requires 171.6GW. Low Munar orbit (15k) requires 911GW. Going into a higher Kerban orbit of 986k, it requires 912GW, and it will not charge. It seems like, if the required charge is some oddly high number, I can not start to charge it. Am I required to have the ability to 'store' the whole of the required charge to start this reactor?

[uscdade]

Currently, I'm having problems using the inline thermal receivers on thermal engines. My current setup involves the Thermal Rocket Engine with hydrazine as the propellant. When I use a reactor, the engine works perfectly. However, when I connect the engine to a thermal receiver in place of a reactor I get no thrust even though the engine status displays as "nominal". My receiver says it is getting 150MW of power from my beamed power network and it shows the "Thermal Power" bar going up when I activate it as well. Any ideas as to what's going wrong? Thanks.  

[flyguybc]

@wkwied Go to my guide on the front page.  Then in my guide look for the video on the quantum singularity reactor.  Should answer any questions you have.

[FreeThinker]

12 hours ago, wkwied said:

I've replicated the craft, but I'm not understanding how it works.

 

My craft contains, like yours, a singularity, trialpha, scoop, fridge, and a cryo tank with liquid hydrogen.

 

When I move my craft to Kerbin orbit at ~1800k, yes, I'm able to recoup more hydrogen than the singularity is burning.

However if I move my craft into solar orbit (at the same height as Kerbin), it does not. Higher, or lower (as low as the game will let you set the orbit) to the sun and I do not recoup hydrogen. Likweise if I try to pop it into Eve or Moho orbit.

How does this dang thing work?

I don't understand, just outside of kerbin SOI you should see something like this

Notice it is process  35 g/hour of solar wind which is processed into 19 gram/hour of LqdHydrogen

When moving closer to the sun it should look something like this

As you can see, I collect 1325 gram of solar wind per hour from which 717 gram is processed into LqdHydrogen

Could you post some screen dumps so I can see what might be gong wrong? Also can you tell me if are you using any planets or universe packs? I'm starting to think thee are external influences

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

On 6/10/2019 at 12:34 AM, wkwied said:

Also, I do not understand how starting the singularity reactor is supposed to work. I understand it needs to be in a zero-g environment and that is all well and dandy, but the power requirements to start it? What defines that? LKO (86km) requires 171.6GW. Low Munar orbit (15k) requires 911GW. Going into a higher Kerban orbit of 986k, it requires 912GW, and it will not charge. It seems like, if the required charge is some oddly high number, I can not start to charge it. Am I required to have the ability to 'store' the whole of the required charge to start this reactor?

The best way it start the QSR reacor is low in orbit near a strong gravity well. (Kerbin works but Jool works better). A similary sized Tri Aplha does the trick.

The power requirements for start the QSR are indeed very high, but perhaps we need an alternative. I'm thinking about additing the ability of the SQR to be ignited using external X-rays with beamed X-ray power. This is theoreticly how a singularity are re created, where you focus the energy of a lot of energy in a tiny region of space. THe QSR is supposedly have build in X-ray lasers to create a singularity, but it could also be create externally, that would problably also be the prefrered way as it saves on reactor mass on the vessel.

Step one build, one ore moe a X-Ray Power stations, configure them to Hard - X-Ray and activate the X-Ray FEL transmitter (and it will be automaticly transmitted)

Step 2, switch to QSR and make sure you have line of sight to the X-Ray transmitter

Then just charge up and profit

 

 

Edited June 12, 2019 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

11 hours ago, uscdade said:

Currently, I'm having problems using the inline thermal receivers on thermal engines. My current setup involves the Thermal Rocket Engine with hydrazine as the propellant. When I use a reactor, the engine works perfectly. However, when I connect the engine to a thermal receiver in place of a reactor I get no thrust even though the engine status displays as "nominal". My receiver says it is getting 150MW of power from my beamed power network and it shows the "Thermal Power" bar going up when I activate it as well. Any ideas as to what's going wrong? Thanks.  

What you should verify is the amount of received power on the thermal reveiver. Make sure you are transmitting in an atmospheric compatible wavelength when receiving or transmitting beamed power in at atmosphere. Also make sure the beamed power beam hits the thermal receiver from the sides, it cannot receve any from the top or bottom.

Edited June 10, 2019 by FreeThinker

[Dollehz]

Can someone help me out to figure out how much electrical power I can expect from my engine.

In the VAB the info states total power = 300MW
It also states that 8% is used for electrical power (24MW)

In flight the numbers are totally different.
I only get 4.9KW out of the generator.

The engine gives 300MW
Of these 300MW, 75KW goes to the LANTR (elec generator?)
Then only 4.9KW of power is available. (6.5% of 75KW)

Am I missing something here?

[Sean D]

When Lithium6 is selected as the propellant for the Plasma Nozzle, it uses Lithium7 instead. It doesn't run on Lithium6 at all. If no Li(s) is present onboard, it switches to other propellants. The ELF thruster and Plasma Wakefield engine also seem to have this problem.

Edited June 12, 2019 by Sean D
At first I thought the ELF and Plasma Wakefield didn't have this problem as they showed a deltaV in VAB, but the DeltaV reading was wrong and was corrected to 0 after detaching and reattaching the engines.

[uscdade]

On 6/10/2019 at 4:24 AM, FreeThinker said:

What you should verify is the amount of received power on the thermal reveiver. Make sure you are transmitting in an atmospheric compatible wavelength when receiving or transmitting beamed power in at atmosphere. Also make sure the beamed power beam hits the thermal receiver from the sides, it cannot receve any from the top or bottom.

https://imgur.com/a/15CooO9

Here's an image of my setup, including the various important windows ^

I have tried using the Long Infrared and D-band wavelengths, and while I don't know for sure I think they both work in atmosphere given that the receiver is getting power. In the picture I'm using D-band. My power station is positioned about 4km inland of the launchpad so angle shouldn't be an issue. I'm fairly certain that the engine is getting power since disabling the receiver causes the engine to shut down due to lack of fuel. Also, the engine slowly becomes hotter and redder over time which I think is a good sign. Thanks for the response!

[FreeThinker]

5 hours ago, uscdade said:

https://imgur.com/a/15CooO9

Here's an image of my setup, including the various important windows ^

I have tried using the Long Infrared and D-band wavelengths, and while I don't know for sure I think they both work in atmosphere given that the receiver is getting power. In the picture I'm using D-band. My power station is positioned about 4km inland of the launchpad so angle shouldn't be an issue. I'm fairly certain that the engine is getting power since disabling the receiver causes the engine to shut down due to lack of fuel. Also, the engine slowly becomes hotter and redder over time which I think is a good sign. Thanks for the response!

Alright, what I think what is happening here is the noozle is producing too little thrust to overcome atmospheric pressure. Your nozzle is fairly large while the amount of power you receive is fairly low (only 100 MW). So the obvious soltion here is to either increase the amount of transmitting power (add more transmitters) or shrink the rocket.

10 hours ago, Dollehz said:

Can someone help me out to figure out how much electrical power I can expect from my engine.

In the VAB the info states total power = 300MW
It also states that 8% is used for electrical power (24MW)

In flight the numbers are totally different.
I only get 4.9KW out of the generator.

The engine gives 300MW
Of these 300MW, 75KW goes to the LANTR (elec generator?)
Then only 4.9KW of power is available. (6.5% of 75KW)

Am I missing something here?

The Electric Power generator uses a Thermal Electric Generator, which is fairly inefficiencient converting only about 6.5% into effective electric power.

What wrong here is that  the VAB display should have shown the correct expected maximum power

Edited June 12, 2019 by FreeThinker

[Dollehz]

So how can I know only 0,25% of power wil be used for electricity? And why will it be converted with an efficiency of 6.5% while it states 8%?

[FreeThinker]

12 minutes ago, Dollehz said:

So how can I know only 0,25% of power wil be used for electricity? And why will it be converted with an efficiency of 6.5% while it states 8%?

8% is the maximum theoretical efficiency when having infinite radiators. Also note all of the 75kW heat is available for power conversion, most of it is lost to the environment.

Edited June 12, 2019 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

8 hours ago, Sean D said:

When Lithium6 is selected as the propellant for the Plasma Nozzle, it uses Lithium7 instead. It doesn't run on Lithium6 at all. If no Li(s) is present onboard, it switches to other propellants. The ELF thruster and Plasma Wakefield engine also seem to have this problem.

It appears the display name is incorrect, it should have been Lithium or Lithium-7. Lithium-6 is mainly used for Tritium breeding. Thanks for reporting

[Dollehz]

7 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

8% is the maximum theoretical efficiency when having infinite radiators. Also note all of the 75kW heat is available for power conversion, most of it is lost to the environment.

That clears things up. 

How will i know the theoretical max of 8% will be of only 75kW.

In other words, were can I find the info that 75kW of the 300MW will be used for power conversion, and

How can I know how much of the theoretical max 8% will get?

Basically is there a way to know/calculate the actual elec power provided by the engine in the VAB

[flyguybc]

Hey gang!  My first video.  I don't cover too much of the KSPIE stuff, but I do have a setup for refueling HTP using robotics and tweak scaled drills.

[FreeThinker]

5 hours ago, Dollehz said:

That clears things up. 

How will i know the theoretical max of 8% will be of only 75kW.

In other words, were can I find the info that 75kW of the 300MW will be used for power conversion, and

How can I know how much of the theoretical max 8% will get?

Basically is there a way to know/calculate the actual elec power provided by the engine in the VAB

75kW is simply the minimum amount of thermal power produced by this reactor, from this number at best 8% can be converted into electric power, meaning you produce 6 kW of power when you have enough rdiators. In practice its usual a bit less 5/6 of max power is  reasonable, which is about 5 kW.

Edited June 12, 2019 by FreeThinker

[uscdade]

17 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

Alright, what I think what is happening here is the noozle is producing too little thrust to overcome atmospheric pressure. Your nozzle is fairly large while the amount of power you receive is fairly low (only 100 MW). So the obvious soltion here is to either increase the amount of transmitting power (add more transmitters) or shrink the rocket.

Yep, this was it. Thanks for the help! 

[Turbo Ben]

I'm in need of advice again...

Is there anything I can look at, or can someone advise where I should start with reprocessing nuclear fuels? I'm looking at setting up some infrastructure around Jool and would like to be able to keep it running indefinately. I am taking a science lab, and see that has the facility for processing nuclear fuels, but have no idea where to start using it. I take it I need depleted fuel to reprocess, and would need storage tanks to store it. Do I need any other raw materials? I have 3 different nuclear fuels that I need to be able to replenish, Uranium Nitride, Uranium-233 and Plutonium-238. Can these all be processed in the science lab? I've also seen mentioned things like reactor embrittlement/actinide build up. Where do I begin dealing with that?

Any advice much appreciated!

 

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, Turbo Ben said:

I'm in need of advice again...

Is there anything I can look at, or can someone advise where I should start with reprocessing nuclear fuels? I'm looking at setting up some infrastructure around Jool and would like to be able to keep it running indefinately. I am taking a science lab, and see that has the facility for processing nuclear fuels, but have no idea where to start using it. I take it I need depleted fuel to reprocess, and would need storage tanks to store it. Do I need any other raw materials? I have 3 different nuclear fuels that I need to be able to replenish, Uranium Nitride, Uranium-233 and Plutonium-238. Can these all be processed in the science lab? I've also seen mentioned things like reactor embrittlement/actinide build up. Where do I begin dealing with that?

Any advice much appreciated!

 

The Keep Nuclear Reactor fueled, te only thing you need is a reprocessor capable part (like the Science Lab) and a source of Enriched Uranium (or Thorium), a part to store the waste DepletedFuel, and a few Kerbals to do the work of replacing actinides by fresh Nuclear Fuel.

[Synoxys]

I've been having a bit of an issue with the electric generators and I'm not sure exactly what's causing it. Basically, I made a station with two 5 meter Stellarators on it, with a 5 meter MHD generator on each. Using the thermal helper, I added radiators so that the amount of cooling (according to the thermal helper, at least) would exceed the total heat produced by the generators. However, after launching it, putting it orbit, and starting up the transmitter, the MHD generators rapidly begin losing efficiency and my radiators can't seem to keep up. Eventually, the two gigantic reactors are barely making 5% of the advertised power. What can I do about that? Do I simply need to add more radiators? How will I know how many radiators to add?

I should also add that I am using career mode currently. The Stellarators are using Deuterium-Tritium fusion and the MHD generators have a base efficiency of 0.7. I am trying to power a Free Electron Laser with the large Multi Bandwidth Dish Transceiver.

[FreeThinker]

3 hours ago, Synoxys said:

I've been having a bit of an issue with the electric generators and I'm not sure exactly what's causing it. Basically, I made a station with two 5 meter Stellarators on it, with a 5 meter MHD generator on each. Using the thermal helper, I added radiators so that the amount of cooling (according to the thermal helper, at least) would exceed the total heat produced by the generators. However, after launching it, putting it orbit, and starting up the transmitter, the MHD generators rapidly begin losing efficiency and my radiators can't seem to keep up. Eventually, the two gigantic reactors are barely making 5% of the advertised power. What can I do about that? Do I simply need to add more radiators? How will I know how many radiators to add?

I should also add that I am using career mode currently. The Stellarators are using Deuterium-Tritium fusion and the MHD generators have a base efficiency of 0.7. I am trying to power a Free Electron Laser with the large Multi Bandwidth Dish Transceiver.

Having just enough radiators to get rid of all reactor power is enough when using plasma or thermal propulsion but if you want to convert it into usefull electric power you going to need a multitude of radiators. I would advice to get in the green numbers with the VAB thermal helper. Also notice that in campaign, your efficiency will initialy be lower than optimal but MHD conversion efficiency will improve after unlocking more advanced plasma tech.

Edited June 14, 2019 by FreeThinker

[Nantares]

I trying to use a positron reactor and I hear about making it with Free Electron Laser, but can it beamed to other vessel and how?

(or I have to make it as refuel station and dock to it?)

[Turbo Ben]

20 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

The Keep Nuclear Reactor fueled, te only thing you need is a reprocessor capable part (like the Science Lab) and a source of Enriched Uranium (or Thorium), a part to store the waste DepletedFuel, and a few Kerbals to do the work of replacing actinides by fresh Nuclear Fuel.

Thanks for the reply. At least I was on the right track, but I'm still a bit confused (it doesn't take much!) I think I have more questions now than I did when I started, so here goes...

First, is depleted fuel needed to produce new fuel at the science lab, or is it simply a waste product that needs a place to be stored?

Second, I will be taking a reactor, open cycle gas core engines, and candle engines, all using different nuclear fuels. Can the fuels for all 3 be produced in the science lab? Do I need a seperate nuclear storage tank for each type of fuel, or can the fuel type of a tank be changed once out the VAB?

Third, if I need raw materials to produce the fuels (you mention enriched Uranium and Thorium), how do I produce these? I've only used the vanilla ISRU because I've only ever needed liquid fuel and oxidiser.

Sorry for so many questions but this is going to be a massive mission. I'm looking at taking everything I need in one go and need to get things right. I don't want to get years down the line when my reactors run out of fuel and realise I've forgotten or misunderstood something. I normally don't mind going through the learning process by trial and error, but I don't think that's possible in this case.

Thanks again

 

[FreeThinker]

59 minutes ago, Turbo Ben said:

First, is depleted fuel needed to produce new fuel at the science lab, or is it simply a waste product that needs a place to be stored?

currently , Its simply the waste product, but in the future it might become a fuel for a Fusion Nuclear Hybrid reactor

59 minutes ago, Turbo Ben said:

Second, I will be taking a reactor, open cycle gas core engines, and candle engines, all using different nuclear fuels. Can the fuels for all 3 be produced in the science lab? Do I need a seperate nuclear storage tank for each type of fuel, or can the fuel type of a tank be changed once out the VAB?

Currently only the Molten Salt Reactor is mend to be refueled but other reactor can be fed with a smply stockpile like the Pebblebed and the Gas Core reactor which simply need an enriched uranium source

59 minutes ago, Turbo Ben said:

Third, if I need raw materials to produce the fuels (you mention enriched Uranium and Thorium), how do I produce these? I've only used the vanilla ISRU because I've only ever needed liquid fuel and oxidiser.

Enriched Uranium can be created from Uranite and,

UF4  is created from Enriched Uranium and Fluorine

ThF4 is created from Thorium and Fluorine,

Thorium  is created from Mopedantte

Fluorine is created from Fluorite

Edited June 14, 2019 by FreeThinker

[Turbo Ben]

@FreeThinker

Thanks for the reply.

I'm still really having trouble though...

I've used console to dock with a station I have around minmus that has a science lab on board. I have a supply of uranite and liquid flourine and an empty enriched uranium tank. When I click reprocess nuclear fuel, the antenna pops out and then immediately retracts and nothing happens. I hadn't got far enough on the tech tree for nuclear fuel processing, but even after activating the tech tree node, nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?

Also, I stuck a half fuelled, half depleted fuel candle engine on the side of my docked ship. I can't seem to do anything with it. I've shut down the reactor and waited for it to cool off (showing offline), I have a kerbal on eva and have options to refuel or switch fuels, but again, nothing seems to happen. I have an empty depleted fuel tank and an enriched uranium and plutonim 238 (candle fuel) supply with me.

I love this mod, but it's a steep learning curve!