KSP2 Hype Train Thread

[i dont know how to forum]

Ooh, those Duna shots are gorgeous. 

What do you all think these engines are? Hard to tell due to the low resolution, but they don't look like nuclear engines to me. We've seen those big gold tanks used for nuclear engines before, but if these are Methalox engines, things might be looking good for fuel switching.

[GoldForest]

1 hour ago, Missingno200 said:

Firstly, I didn't say it was new to the forums. What I DID say was that it had happened before, but it's been a long time since it's been seen here.
Speaking of which, since my remark relied on ME seeing it, that means that I can be in err here, which seems to be the case. My bad.

I apologize, I did realize I use the wrong phrasing, but I was on my phone at the time, and my phone hates the forums for some reason. Well, my phone hates the comment box. Whenever I go to write a reply, it won't stop highlighting what's written. I have to literally keep typing without stop or it highlights.

1 hour ago, i dont know how to forum said:

Ooh, those Duna shots are gorgeous. 

What do you all think these engines are? Hard to tell due to the low resolution, but they don't look like nuclear engines to me. We've seen those big gold tanks used for nuclear engines before, but if these are Methalox engines, things might be looking good for fuel switching.

Some type of nuclear fission engine obviously. Probably some type of 'afterburner' engine considering it looks like they brought oxygen. (The giant white tank). The hydrogen tank is inside the truss segment. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by GoldForest

[i dont know how to forum]

6 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

Some type of nuclear fission engine obviously. Probably some type of 'afterburner' engine considering they brought oxygen. (The giant white tank). The hydrogen tank is inside the truss segment. 

What makes you say the white tank is LOX? Could be, although I think it would be strange for the craft to have more volume dedicated to LOX than LH2. I have been wondering about how NTRs with afterburners like the SWERV will work, since they would require some oxygen storage but not methane.

[GoldForest]

1 minute ago, i dont know how to forum said:

What makes you say the white tank is LOX? Could be, although I think it would be strange for the craft to have more volume dedicated to LOX than LH2. I have been wondering about how NTRs with afterburners like the SWERV will work, since they would require some oxygen storage but not methane.

Because the gold tank is hydrogen, so the white tank most likely is oxygen. They must be running the engine oxygen rich, instead of fuel rich. This would make it burn hotter, meaning more thrust, IIRC. 

[i dont know how to forum]

1 minute ago, GoldForest said:

Because the gold tank is hydrogen, so the white tank most likely is oxygen. They must be running the engine oxygen rich, instead of fuel rich. This would make it burn hotter, meaning more thrust, IIRC. 

Correct me if I'm wrong (my understanding of rocket science is extremely limited), but doesn't the super low density of liquid hydrogen mean that, even running the engine oxygen rich, you would still want a higher volume of LH2 storage than LOX?

[GoldForest]

7 minutes ago, i dont know how to forum said:

Correct me if I'm wrong (my understanding of rocket science is extremely limited), but doesn't the super low density of liquid hydrogen mean that, even running the engine oxygen rich, you would still want a higher volume of LH2 storage than LOX?

No. Oxygen rich means you use more oxygen than hydrogen, so you need a bigger oxygen tank than hydrogen tank.

For example, Atlas V. The RD-180 runs oxygen rich, so needs a bigger lox tank. 

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

5 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

No. Oxygen rich means you use more oxygen than hydrogen, so you need a bigger oxygen tank than hydrogen tank.

For example, Atlas V. The RD-180 runs oxygen rich, so needs a bigger lox tank. 

 

Sorry, no offense intended, but this is not correct. The RD-180 runs on RP-1 and LOX, not Hydrolox. It's proportions of fuel to LOX is completely different. RP-1 is super dense compared to Hydrogen, which is why that tank is so small. An engine that runs oxygen rich simply runs with more oxygen than the optimal stoichiometric ratios- regardless of if it is Hydrolox or RP-1. So they are correct, In a hydrolox engine, the hydrogen tank should pretty much always be bigger than the LOX tank.

[GoldForest]

Just now, xXIndestructibleEVAXx said:

Sorry, no offense intended, but this is not correct. The RD-180 runs on RP-1 and LOX, not Hydrolox. It's proportions of fuel to LOX is completely different. RP-1 is super dense compared to Hydrogen, which is why that tank is so small. An engine that runs oxygen rich simply runs with more oxygen than the optimal stoichiometric ratios- regardless of if it is Hydrolox or RP-1. So they are correct, In a hydrolox engine, the hydrogen tank should pretty much always be bigger than the LOX tank.

I was just using the RD-180 as an example. I wasn't implying that the RD-180 was hydrolox. I was thinking the concepts were similiar, my mistake then. 

Hmmm. Doesn't LOX boiloff faster than hydrogen though? IF so, that might be the reason for the giant LOX tank. 

Oh god... does this confirm boil off in KSP 2? NOOOOOOOOO! 

[i dont know how to forum]

7 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

I was just using the RD-180 as an example. I wasn't implying that the RD-180 was hydrolox. I was thinking the concepts were similiar, my mistake then. 

Hmmm. Doesn't LOX boiloff faster than hydrogen though? IF so, that might be the reason for the giant LOX tank. 

Oh god... does this confirm boil off in KSP 2? NOOOOOOOOO! 

Personally I doubt it's a LOX tank, it would be odd to have such a large LOX-only tank in the game given its only real use would be for afterburner NTRs. It could perhaps be a methalox tank with all the methane removed, though it would be a bit disappointing if the only way to use the NTR afterburner is by using a half-filled methalox tank, hence the desire for fuel switching. Actually, I'm curious, does it make sense to have a spherical tank containing two fuels? To my understanding, the benefit of a spherical tank is that is has the smallest surface area and therefore the lowest dry mass, but is this still true if the tank has to be bifurcated to store two separate fuels?

[GoldForest]

2 minutes ago, i dont know how to forum said:

Personally I doubt it's a LOX tank, it would be odd to have such a large LOX-only tank in the game given its only real use would be for afterburner NTRs. It could perhaps be a methalox tank with all the methane removed, though it would be a bit disappointing if the only way to use the NTR afterburner is by using a half-filled methalox tank, hence the desire for fuel switching. Actually, I'm curious, does it make sense to have a spherical tank containing two fuels? To my understanding, the benefit of a spherical tank is that is has the smallest surface area and therefore the lowest dry mass, but is this still true if the tank has to be bifurcated to store two separate fuels?

You can't afterburn a nuclear hydrogen engine using methane. You can only use oxygen, afaik. It makes no sense to combine hydrogen and methane. It has to be an oxygen tank. Nothing else it could be. 

And again, if boiloff is in game, and if oxygen boils off faster than hydrogen, you'd want a larger oxygen tank so that you have enough oxygen to use during your trip to and from Duna. 

As for combing two fuels into one tank, common bulkheads do exist, but I've never heard of an idea of combing spherical tanks with common bulkheads, though to be fair, no one has ever used spherical tanks. They're always pill shaped, with a few exceptions such as the Shuttle ET and Energia main tank. 

[i dont know how to forum]

Just now, GoldForest said:

You can't afterburn a nuclear hydrogen engine using methane. You can only use oxygen, afaik. It makes no sense to combine hydrogen and methane. It has to be an oxygen tank. Nothing else it could be. 

And again, if boiloff is in game, and if oxygen boils off faster than hydrogen, you'd want a larger oxygen tank so that you have enough oxygen to use during your trip to and from Duna. 

As for combing two fuels into one tank, common bulkheads do exist, but I've never heard of an idea of combing spherical tanks with common bulkheads, though to be fair, no one has ever used spherical tanks. They're always pill shaped, with a few exceptions such as the Shuttle ET and Energia main tank. 

Sorry if I was unclear, I meant that it could be a tank designed to contain both liquid methane and liquid oxygen (as most KSP tanks are), but with all the methane removed leaving only the oxygen. I highly doubt boiloff will be in the game. As for spherical tanks, I've mostly heard of them used for theoretical extremely large craft that would be built entirely in space (Project Daedalus for instance), since you would want to minimize the dry mass as much as you possibly there. I'm just curious if that advantage still exists if you're storing two different fuels in the same tank, though I suspect that it doesn't.

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

I see no reason to assume the big white tank is for LOX. I just assumed it was like, the largest possible size H2 tank- especially since its similar to some tanks from Nertea mods lol. I'm most interested in the engine- afaik, we were only aware of one new NTR before this, in addition to the NERV. So if this is indeed a new NTR it seems like big news to me!

[i dont know how to forum]

6 minutes ago, xXIndestructibleEVAXx said:

I see no reason to assume the big white tank is for LOX. I just assumed it was like, the largest possible size H2 tank- especially since its similar to some tanks from Nertea mods lol. I'm most interested in the engine- afaik, we were only aware of one new NTR before this, in addition to the NERV. So if this is indeed a new NTR it seems like big news to me!

Yeah, this seems the most likely option. I still think it looks more like a traditional chemical rocket than an NTR, but that's just because it doesn't look like what I'm used to for an NTR. Very curious about it either way. Are we looking at one engine with five nozzles, or five engines clumped together? The structure makes it look like it might be all one part, but it's hard to tell.

Edited January 24, 2023 by i dont know how to forum

[GoldForest]

18 minutes ago, i dont know how to forum said:

Sorry if I was unclear, I meant that it could be a tank designed to contain both liquid methane and liquid oxygen (as most KSP tanks are), but with all the methane removed leaving only the oxygen. I highly doubt boiloff will be in the game. As for spherical tanks, I've mostly heard of them used for theoretical extremely large craft that would be built entirely in space (Project Daedalus for instance), since you would want to minimize the dry mass as much as you possibly there. I'm just curious if that advantage still exists if you're storing two different fuels in the same tank, though I suspect that it doesn't.

Yeah, no reason to common bulkhead the spherical tank. I imagine it is just a one fuel type tank. 

And if they're wanting to make it realistic, they would add boiloff.

13 minutes ago, xXIndestructibleEVAXx said:

I see no reason to assume the big white tank is for LOX. I just assumed it was like, the largest possible size H2 tank- especially since its similar to some tanks from Nertea mods lol. I'm most interested in the engine- afaik, we were only aware of one new NTR before this, in addition to the NERV. So if this is indeed a new NTR it seems like big news to me!

Hmmm. You could be right. It may be just another hydrogen tank. Though, there is still the possibility that the nuclear engines are afterburning type, which would make the white tank an LOX tank. We'll have to wait 31.5 days to find out. 

As for the engines themselves, we know of 2 (Possibly 3) nuclear engines (NERV and SWERV (And LANTR-N (Think I spelled that right)), but that doesn't mean they've told us all the nuclear engines they've added. 

6 minutes ago, i dont know how to forum said:

Yeah, this seems the most likely option. I still think it looks more like a traditional chemical rocket than an NTR, but that's just because it doesn't look like what I'm used to for an NTR. Very curious about it either way. Are we looking at one engine with five nozzles, or five engines clumped together? The structure makes it look like it might be all one part, but it's hard to tell.

5 engines held together by a truss. You can see the truss structure around the outer engines. So, it's 1 engine, but modeled to be 5. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by GoldForest

[Wheehaw Kerman]

5 hours ago, GoldForest said:

Oh god... does this confirm boil off in KSP 2? NOOOOOOOOO! 

*chuckles evilly in realism*
 

I wouldn’t complain if it was… another fun challenge to overcome!

[GoldForest]

6 minutes ago, Wheehaw Kerman said:

*chuckles evilly in realism*
 

I wouldn’t complain if it was… another fun challenge to overcome!

[magnemoe]

10 hours ago, Ashandalar said:

Some new images from the Discord screenshots channel:

  Hide contents

nice, it show the new 3.75 meter command module in details and a 3.75 meter habitation module who looks a lot like one from the in the stockalike station parts mod. 
As for the tanks, its probably two hydrogen tanks, one large and one small, as I understand, the round tanks are for hydrogen. 
Else we see an 3.75 meter monopropellant tanks, an 3.75 meter reaction control wheel and various struts. 

Also the engine  engine is an 5 pack with nuclear thermal reactors, don't think we seen it before. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by magnemoe

[Royalswissarmyknife]

So close to KSP 2 I can imagine my Dres mission already. 

[The Aziz]

Everyone talks about engines and tanks, but all I see are cylindrical structural parts in different sizes and forms.

[Vl3d]

10 hours ago, Ashandalar said:

Some new images from the Discord screenshots channel:

  Reveal hidden contents

So.. what's the point of the long truss body if not to protect crew from radiation?

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

10 hours ago, Ashandalar said:

Some new images from the Discord screenshots channel:

  Reveal hidden contents

Beta players have access to orbital class parts?  Looks like it. 

 

I'm betting that orb at the back and the scaffolding are not in Sandbox 

[GoldForest]

10 minutes ago, Vl3d said:

So.. what's the point of the long truss body if not to protect crew from radiation?

It looks kool. 

3 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Beta players have access to orbital class parts?  Looks like it. 

 

I'm betting that orb at the back and the scaffolding are not in Sandbox 

It is in game. Everything shown since the 1st is in game and everything that will be shown will be in game. Confirmed. 

Source/Proof: 

Edited January 24, 2023 by GoldForest

[GoldForest]

You know, thinking about it, that ship seems a little big to be launched piece by piece, I see no docking ports.

So either:

A) Cheats are confirmed as they would have used the Cheat to Orbit cheat.

or

B) They gave us a launch site that's in orbit around Kerbin. (Not saying an orbital construction yard, but just a launch point)

Either option I will gladly accept.

Edited January 24, 2023 by GoldForest

[The Aziz]

I think I see a docking port just behind the solar arrays, why else would there be such shape and change in diameter.

[GoldForest]

5 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

I think I see a docking port just behind the solar arrays, why else would there be such shape and change in diameter.

After looking at the images, yeah, there does seem to be docking ports.