Kethane Pack 0.9.2 - New cinematic trailer! - 1.0 compatibility update

[firegeek83]

The idea is that it uses its little engines to lift itself up onto the mining rig's docking port. I've tested it, and it still needs a bit of weight balancing, but it will work properly once that's sorted out. Actually, it already works properly on Minmus: the magnetic force is sufficient to overcome Minmus' minimal gravity and pull it right up to the docking port on the bottom of the fuel tug. You just have to get the tug properly over the top of the mining rig, and let magnetism do its thing!

Interesting. I take it the tug ferries the fuel up to orbit after it's topped off and the mining rig hangs on for the ride (in case of relocation for kethane)?

[SkyRender]

Interesting. I take it the tug ferries the fuel up to orbit after it's topped off and the mining rig hangs on for the ride (in case of relocation for kethane)?

It can! The actual idea is to hook up to the fuel tug, drill/convert/store as much fuel as possible into the tug's tanks, then re-release the miner and return the tug to the orbiting fuel depot. Taking the mining unit along would add unnecessary weight to the voyage, which is why it's been split off into that tiny little unit. It's in a compact form factor because it means you can get the entire Kethane mining operation up and fairly efficiently running with only one launch this way.

Edited May 17, 2013 by SkyRender

[firegeek83]

Hmm, I may have to try something like that then.. What's your method of moving the mining rig about on the surface? Do you try to hop to the next site or pull a low orbit and set down?

[SkyRender]

Hmm, I may have to try something like that then.. What's your method of moving the mining rig about on the surface? Do you try to hop to the next site or pull a low orbit and set down?

If it's close enough, it can do a suborbital hop. The dV of that little rig isn't great (I think it can just barely get to Minmus orbit if it really needs to; sure as heck can't get back, though!), so odds are good that any site hops will have to be done via re-connecting it to the fuel tug and then taking both of them to the new site. Relocation is its main Achilles' Heel, a trade-off I was willing to make to get the mining operation down to as best a combination of streamlined, efficient, and self-contained within a single launch as possible.

EDIT: I put a Kerbal Engineer Redux on a prototype of the mining unit just now. 635dV, enough to orbit and re-land on Minmus with fuel to spare. Just barely enough to reach orbit on the Mun if you're super-efficient about it, but then you'd be stuck in a ridiculously low Munar orbit.

Edited May 17, 2013 by SkyRender

[firegeek83]

If it's close enough, it can do a suborbital hop. The dV of that little rig isn't great (I think it can just barely get to Minmus orbit if it really needs to; sure as heck can't get back, though!), so odds are good that any site hops will have to be done via re-connecting it to the fuel tug and then taking both of them to the new site. Relocation is its main Achilles' Heel, a trade-off I was willing to make to get the mining operation down to as best a combination of streamlined, efficient, and self-contained within a single launch as possible.

Makes sense, I see how you're doing this now. I'll try this out and see how it does out at the Minmus test site.

[SkyRender]

Makes sense, I see how you're doing this now. I'll try this out and see how it does out at the Minmus test site.

Let me know how it works out for you! Also I should note that if you use MechJeb, hooking up the fuel tug to the miner unit on later landings may well be the best time to use MJ's Land at Target feature. As I understand, it takes that so literally that it will land ON the target, which is pretty much exactly what you want in this case.

[firegeek83]

Let me know how it works out for you! Also I should note that if you use MechJeb, hooking up the fuel tug to the miner unit on later landings may well be the best time to use MJ's Land at Target feature. As I understand, it takes that so literally that it will land ON the target, which is pretty much exactly what you want in this case.

will do, thanks for idea! As for MJ, I can definitely confirm that Land at Target feature works. I almost landed right on top of my other rig earlier. Talk about panic when I saw where I was headed right before the suicide burn.

[SkyRender]

So I decided to run my lean Kethane mining operation to see if it would work for Minmus. The answer, as it turns out, is very much "yes"! I was able to put up a fairly functional fuel depot (with an array of 5 total docking ports, lights, power, the works; everything but Kerbal crew), a polar-orbiting Kethane scanner, the fuel tug, and of course, the mini-miner. As predicted, it only took one launch.

If you didn't guess from the sun's position and relative fuel levels, it takes a while to fill this bad boy up! The whole thing landed basically running on fumes (around 350 liquid fuel and equivalent oxidizer), and the station above hasn't got a drop to spare. It was a very "close" mission, but that was how it was intended to work out anyway.

[lyndonguitar]

I just dl'ed this and im currently scanning the mun, However the thread is lacking infos, such as changelogs, bugs, etc, The question is, are there any serious bug in the current version?

also, how do I get more info from the maps, It currently shows the last deposit only, the rest are just green dots on the map.

and how do I know which is which on the map? Do I have to use other mods that will show the map coordinates?

Edited May 18, 2013 by lyndonguitar

[SkyRender]

I just dl'ed this and im currently scanning the mun, However the thread is lacking infos, such as changelogs, bugs, etc, The question is, are there any serious bug in the current version?

also, how do I get more info from the maps, It currently shows the last deposit only, the rest are just green dots on the map.

and how do I know which is which on the map? Do I have to use other mods that will show the map coordinates?

The largest outstanding bug with Kethane is that you must attach converters directly to fuel tanks to be able to convert Kethane into fuel. You can also route fuel lines from fuel tanks into the converter to bypass this problem, but it's counterintuitive to say the least.

As it stands, Kethane maps are a bit limited in how helpful they are. They only explicitly record deposit locations found; the size is only told to you when you're actually over it. This is probably because you can change the contents of a deposit by mining it and the detection system won't properly pick that up until you activate a detector over that spot again; it'd give false readouts otherwise.

The map should show your current position at all times now. You basically have to make educated guesses as to where you're going to land when setting up your mining operation. It may help, if you're the visual sort, to also use ISA Mapsat so you have a visual representation to compare with your Kethane map and thus have a definite idea of where a given deposit is on the surface.

[HoY]

To scan effectively you need to babysit the probe while it orbits Mun with the scanner active. As long as your power never runs out it will scan in clean lines, but if you are using an underpowered source (one RTG for instance) after your battery runs out you will start to get a dotted line on the map instead of a solid line.

You get the coordinates by mousing over the green area on the newly scanned map, it will read the coordinates out to you in the "hover box"

About finding those coordinates on the ground however, I've always used mechjeb for that so I don't know if the stock map system shows coords??

[lyndonguitar]

Thanks guys, I shall use mechjeb for the coordinates landing perhaps, I thought ISA Mapsat has bugs and is not really designed for 19.1 so I don't use it yet.

this is my scan so far, I think its pretty good, also I found a deposit containing 300000L+ of kethane, might keep me busy for a while

[HGGundamReviews]

The largest outstanding bug with Kethane is that you must attach converters directly to fuel tanks to be able to convert Kethane into fuel. You can also route fuel lines from fuel tanks into the converter to bypass this problem, but it's counterintuitive to say the least.

As it stands, Kethane maps are a bit limited in how helpful they are. They only explicitly record deposit locations found; the size is only told to you when you're actually over it. This is probably because you can change the contents of a deposit by mining it and the detection system won't properly pick that up until you activate a detector over that spot again; it'd give false readouts otherwise.

The map should show your current position at all times now. You basically have to make educated guesses as to where you're going to land when setting up your mining operation. It may help, if you're the visual sort, to also use ISA Mapsat so you have a visual representation to compare with your Kethane map and thus have a definite idea of where a given deposit is on the surface.

Actually there is one other outstanding bug. The Drill's collision Mesh for VAB construction. Placing drills is a PAIN because they never want to attach with out fighting with them constantly.

[lyndonguitar]

Actually there is one other outstanding bug. The Drill's collision Mesh for VAB construction. Placing drills is a PAIN because they never want to attach with out fighting with them constantly.

I think part clipping solves that

[Majiir]

In two hours (8PM BST / 9PM CEST / 3PM EDT / 12PM PDT) I'll be on Kerbal Space Pod to discuss the future of Kethane. And possibly other ramblings.

[HoY]

All I can say is, hopefully the mod isn't discontinued! Even with stock mining it sounds like that will need a lot more complicated setups to make fuel, which won't be appealing to some people

[SkyRender]

No matter what mining options get added to KSP in the future, Kethane will always have a place on my vessels. We wouldn't even be getting a resource mining system if not for the popularity of the Kethane mod, I suspect.

[HoY]

So, either that site doesn't work properly from an iPhone and I missed it, or it didn't happen. Anyone have the details on what was discussed?

[HGGundamReviews]

So, either that site doesn't work properly from an iPhone and I missed it, or it didn't happen. Anyone have the details on what was discussed?

Here is the link to the video, skip ahead to 12 minutes in http://www.twitch.tv/kerbalspacepod/b/405652010

[Arrowstar]

So Majiir, any idea if you're going to restart full Kethane development? I love Kethane and would love to see it get more work!

[HoY]

Thank you

[firegeek83]

Let me know how it works out for you! Also I should note that if you use MechJeb, hooking up the fuel tug to the miner unit on later landings may well be the best time to use MJ's Land at Target feature. As I understand, it takes that so literally that it will land ON the target, which is pretty much exactly what you want in this case.

Here's what I've been working on so far.. Decided to go for a light tug to get the feel of using LVNs. Once I test this out, I'll size out additional tanks.

the first round of tests...if it can make it to 5000km, it passes

[Mokmo]

Here's what I've been working on so far.. Decided to go for a light tug to get the feel of using LVNs. Once I test this out, I'll size out additional tanks.

I don't get how the lower stage can work, it has no solar panels and the four SP-A panels on the top stage can barely keep one drill running if they have perfect illumination...

Am i missing something ? (cool setup, btw)

[SkyRender]

I don't get how the lower stage can work, it has no solar panels and the four SP-A panels on the top stage can barely keep one drill running if they have perfect illumination...

Am i missing something ? (cool setup, btw)

He's in the testing phase of the micro-Kethane drilling unit I devised, so it's not surprising it still has a few technical issues to be engineered out. Speaking of testing phases, my 4-in-1 Mun Kethane mission was a smashing success:

Only problem with it: no RCS fuel tanks on the miner unit. D'oh! Oh well, I can bring along one via my upcoming reusable Mun lander.

[Audiopulse]

I had to redownload my KSP when i broke it a few days ago - and with it my savegames. Well - I started with the KethaneSatellites again:

The original Design didnt have feet and chemical Engines, but 4 Iondrives - but I thougt it might be funny if they could actually land on low-gravity-planets. Landing has yet to be tested, though.

I made them so that they have dockingports on their roof and bottom, so you could stack them in orbit to ship them off to anywhere with a Tugship - unfortunately - they tend to get all wobbly an create phantomforces ... probably because of the legs sticking over the Docking port