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Protonium v0.3 Liquid hydrogen engines and fuel tanks


MrSystems

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I've seen some discussion on the forum regarding liquid hydrogen in the context of nuclear engines. I was inspired to put a series of patches together that:

  • Use realistic engine stats
  • Use realistic chemistry and physics in terms of volume, density, etc
  • Play nicely with CommunityResourcePack (required)
  • Don't break saved games

To that end, I built Protonium, a series of configs that:

  • Make all the stock & expansion tanks switchable to LF/Ox (same as default), LF-only, LH2/LOX, and LH2-only, using B9PartSwitch, which is required
  • Copy all the stock & expansion engines with real-life LH2/LOX counterparts to create LH2/LOX versions with their upgraded, real-life stats
  • Copy of all the stock nuclear engines (okay, that's just the Nerv) to run on LH2 instead of kerosene and hides(not overwrite or delete) the original
  • Do the same, mutatis mutandis, for the Missing History fuel tanks and nuclear engines
  • Change no graphics and contain no DLLs

Liquid hydrogen has more energy density than kerosene, so hydrolox engines are more efficient in thrust per fuel mass (that is, they have higher velocity of exhaust and therefore higher ISP). On the other hand, liquid hydrogen has much less density in the ordinary sense of mass per volume (about 0.07 kg/L, as opposed to 0.81 kg/L for kerosene). On the third hand, by mass a set quantity of oxidizer needs much less LH2 to react with than kerosene. We're used to an 11 LOX : 9 LF ratio by mass; with hydrogen the ratio by mass is closer to 8 LOX :1 LH2.  

Engine changes include:

  • Rhino, based on real-life J2-X, upgraded to 448s vacuum ISP
  • Vector, based on real-life SSME, upgraded to 452s vacuum ISP
  • Poodle redesign, based on real-life RL10-B2, upgraded to 465s vacuum ISP (no, really!)
  • Making History Bobcat, based on real-life LR-87 LHC, upgraded to 451s vacuum ISP
  • Making History Skiff, based on real-life J2, upgraded to 421s vacuum ISP
  • Nerv, based on real-life NERVA, upgraded to 950s vacuum ISP (you'll need it with the change to the fuel type)
  • Missing History KANDL and BKN-7 changed as well

To put some numbers to the effects these changes have, here's what you get with a Rockomax 16 and one engine:

Configuration Wet Mass Dry Mass dv with ____ engine
LF/OX 9.000 1.000 4,679 w/ stock Poodle
LH2/OX 4.521 1.000 3,354 w/ modded Poodle (4,685 with 9 tons wet mass)
LF 7.720 1.000 7,734 w/ stock Nerv
LF/OX emptied of OX 4.600 1.000 5,036 w/ stock Nerv
LH2 0.772 0.184 1,579 w/ modded Nerv (7,409 with 7.72 tons of wet mass)

Feedback is appreciated.

Download link for v0.3.0:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nb_d6R7ewn9YsJJSZcAxvu0KAQf7AGTy
requirements: Module Manager, B9PartSwitch, and CommunityResourcePack
warning: if you have any other mods that use B9PartSwitch to add moduleID fuelSwitch to the stock fuel tanks, this will crash your game in the VAB

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