Resource Decay

[Aelipse]

Hello everyone,

I was thinking about setting a production chain from lithium-6 to helium-3 in my KSP build. In real life physics, lithium-6 would be irradiated with neutrons, possibly in a fission reactor, and broken into helium-4 and tritium. Tritium is unstable and decays spontaneously into helium-3 with a half life slightly over 12 years.

I was wondering, purely out of curiosity, if it was possible so set a converter module of whatever tritium / helium-3 holding tank in such a way that it would permanently convert tritium into helium-3 without the option of stopping it. I suspect the conversion rate will have to be constant and not exponential like in real life, but that's fine. Still, having radioactive materials that spontaneously decay into other materials with no way of stopping or preventing that would be a nifty mechanic to have that would open doors for some fresh in game obstacles to overcome.

Would such a process be possible in the game mechanics?

[Nightside]

3 hours ago, Aelipse said:

Hello everyone,

I was thinking about setting a production chain from lithium-6 to helium-3 in my KSP build. In real life physics, lithium-6 would be irradiated with neutrons, possibly in a fission reactor, and broken into helium-4 and tritium. Tritium is unstable and decays spontaneously into helium-3 with a half life slightly over 12 years.

I was wondering, purely out of curiosity, if it was possible so set a converter module of whatever tritium / helium-3 holding tank in such a way that it would permanently convert tritium into helium-3 without the option of stopping it. I suspect the conversion rate will have to be constant and not exponential like in real life, but that's fine. Still, having radioactive materials that spontaneously decay into other materials with no way of stopping or preventing that would be a nifty mechanic to have that would open doors for some fresh in game obstacles to overcome.

Would such a process be possible in the game mechanics?

You could probably configure the stock generator/converter config to convert X -> Y without requiring electricity. There may even be an "Always On" setting, and options to produce heat. 

I haven't played with those for a while though. In terms of exponential production, the converts do have efficiency curves related to heat, I believe. Maybe you could use that to your advantage.

[JadeOfMaar]

I don't know better (I don't code) but I think this is among the much easier of plugin mods to do. I've seen prototypes or proposals for such mods so definitely this could happen. But I can't help you to make this mod a reality. It's up to you, if you're willing and able, to learn to do C++ (or if you already can) to find plugin mod makers who can spare the time to teach you.

[DStaal]

You might want to take a look at this as a base to work from:

Near Future Electrical also has a similar feature.