Renewable xenon

[imcute]

the only un renewable propellants are rcs fuel,solid fuel,and ion fuel.

rcs is only needed in docking so its not a huge problem

solid fuel,if u make it renewable,has no way to get to the engines,plus it is designed as a one use booster

but xenon is really useful and consumed

just bc we can't collect xenon from the atmosphere of laythe or kerbin,it is not used on sstas

so make some type of xenon making things(except kal underclocking dawns)at least in ksp2?or someone make a mod abt it?

[Hotel26]

I have a project on the drawing boards to make a part that produces Xenon (from ore).  As far as I've gone, I think I have to make a part .cfg for this.

Converters (consuming ore) can make MP (monopropellant) for RCS.

You're right about Solid Fuel except that solid boosters effectively contain Solid Fuel in a tank and you can transfer solid fuel from a huge unused booster (e.g. buried into an aircraft carrier), from which landing aircraft with spent retro-solids can "refuel" once docked (I've done this).  If my Xenon technique works for xenon, it can be made to work for solid fuel and thereby fill a reservoir from which to refuel other things.  Solid fuel may be simpler to produce than xenon but I haven't made any study of this yet.

I'm being vague (intentionally) at this point, I know, but I think it is doable in KSP 1 and without code.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Hotel26

[jimmymcgoochie]

First of all, you can make monopropellant in an ISRU as far as I remember.

Xenon refineries were one of the first things to be revealed in the show and tells. That said, xenon isn’t a very common gas in real life and so actually making the stuff is rather difficult- with an abundance of 87 parts per billion extracting it from air is an energy-intensive process. Other noble gases are more abundant (and so cheaper to produce) and are also suitable for ion propulsion- hence SpaceX using krypton in some Starlink satellites to cut costs over the more expensive xenon, and a number of ion and plasma propulsion ideas that would use argon, which incidentally makes up about 1% of Earth’s atmosphere and is far easier to get hold of.

[The Aziz]

Sigh. https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/200486-show-and-tell-colony-fuel-factories/

[imcute]

2 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

can make MP

oh right i forgot

2 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

you can transfer solid fuel

wow okay that would make my kal solid  more convinient

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

would use argon

whoops mixed up argon and zenon which ik that argon is very abundant atleast in kerbin atmosphere

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

with an abundance of 87 parts per billion

but planets with no hydrogen or oxygen in their crusts have even lower lf/ox than xenon in earth atmosphere

50 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

Sigh.

whoops

[Pthigrivi]

Im also interested in Xenon as a nuclear reactor byproduct. Any physics nerds know if this actually makes sense or if it's negligible? Nate also mentioned Cesium doped MH engines so it'll be fun to see how different processing byproducts can be re-looped into the resource chain.

Edited July 8, 2022 by Pthigrivi

[JadeOfMaar]

On 7/5/2022 at 3:46 AM, Hotel26 said:

you can transfer solid fuel

I'd like to know the details by which you're able to say this. As far as anyone knows, you cannot transfer it because of how it's put into the solid rocket IRL. It is pumped in and molded like freshly mixed concrete and given time to dry. You can't casually relocate such a material by any stretch, and re-melting it is an absolute no-go as you might sooner ignite it (or waste a lot of energy) than actually re-melt it. Perhaps you have an MM patch that enables this convenience and you've forgotten that it's there.

20 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

Im also interested in Xenon as a nuclear reactor byproduct.

NF Electric's nuclear reprocessor produces Xenon from DepletedFuel. There's some related info in this part of its Wikipedia page.

If you ask me though, it might be better if KSP2 defaulted to Krypton or Argon since these are less rare and are easier to grab and KSP2 is being made by pro nerds. Xenon makes sense for KSP1 because it's the heaviest noble gas (before Radon which is radioactive, and Oganesson which is radioactive and synthetic) and heavy resources are part of the deal with everything being supermassive in KSP1 to be balanced with the system scale being so small.

Wikipedia also mentions that Jupiter happens to have an excess of Xenon in its atmosphere so +1 to diving and skimming (some) gas planets...But that excess is relative, not an asbolute, and still not something to party about.