[0.25]KSP Interstellar (Magnetic Nozzles, ISRU Revamp) Version 0.13

[Einarr]

Hey Fractal, any reason you can think of that the KSPI Science Lab would be incompatible with having the stock science lab module added to it with MM? I was getting some NREs when I tried the resulted in the right click menus being unavailable to a particular craft in flight after attempting to right click on the KSPI Science Lab. The issue applied to all parts on said craft. Before right clicking on the KSPI Sci Lab, the right click menus for the other parts worked just fine.

Here's an excerpt from the related output_log.txt:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at ModuleScienceLab.updateModuleUI () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at ModuleScienceLab.onPartActionUI (.Part p) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at EventData`1[Part].Fire (.Part data) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at UIPartActionWindow.CreatePartList () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at UIPartActionWindow.Setup (.Part part, DisplayType type, UI_Scene scene) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at UIPartActionController.CreatePartUI (.Part part, DisplayType type, UI_Scene scene) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at UIPartActionController.SelectPart (.Part part, Boolean allowMultiple) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at UIPartActionController.HandleMouseClick (UnityEngine.Camera cam, Boolean allowMultiple) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
at UIPartActionController+	.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

(Filename:  Line: -1)

I no longer have this particular output_log.txt as KSP overwrote it when I disabled my MM config and the problem vanished (and does not extend to the stock science lab part that has the module)

[undercoveryankee]

Oops, meant Kerbol. Fixed. Anyway...

Figured it out... I was still in Phys Timewarp x2. Dunno why it halves the output, but it does.

Anyway, here's the design:

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e146/_VaporTrail_/screenshot84_zps941f4ca5.png

Needs about 3x the EcC to make it actually work fully at that altitude... 214 parts on launch right now... But I should be able to tack on enough.

6 Large Hexcan Batteries should do the trick.

Unity itself doesn't know about time acceleration, so Unity continues to send the FixedUpdate event every 0.02 real-time seconds. KSP implements acceleration by scaling up the amount of resource produced or consumed per event. So at 2x time acceleration, it's asking for two real-time ticks worth of charge in each event. Since you're only storing one tick's worth of charge, you get throttled when you accelerate.

[undercoveryankee]

According to the KSP Wiki, at 0 AU solar panels will produce 10x their regular power output, however, in one of scott manleys IQ videos, he has a solar station produce about a gigawatt. Does KSPI use the IRL Inverse square law instead of stocks curve?

Yes, Interstellar replaces whatever curve is configured on the panels with an inverse square curve.

[Ruahrc]

I have a suggestion for new feature, but I'm not sure it will go over that well since it will likely break most users' "infinite free power" setups. You see I think the strict application of inverse square law solar panels seems a little OP. Then again I don't really use KSPI other than to model waste heat from solar panels, and also to have a magnetometer to put on my space probes .

There are a couple ways to address this:

1) In reality, solar panels will saturate at some point and further light intensity will not produce more power. I think if the inverse curve were modified such that there was an upper limit on the amount of power you get by distance (say 100x Kerbin's output or something) it would balance things out a bit.

2) The other idea I think would be cool to have is radiation damage affect solar panel output. This would also introduce a "closer to the sun but less longevity" system where the closer you are to the sun (or say in a high radiation orbit) the faster your panels would degrade. You could adjust the radiation damage curve so that panel output would not go to zero, to prevent craft from being totally dead in orbit, but that one would at least need to consider spacecraft longevity when planning missions, or how close to park that mega solar factory to the sun in order to decrease radiation damage.

I looked through the source code, it seems like all the infrastructure to actually implement both 1 and 2 are already in place. The radiation damage system is already all there, even with radiation belts around each planet from the ORS data. All one would need to do is to extend dose tracking to solar panels, and then provide some kind of "output reduction" multiplier curve based on how much dosage the panel has received. If I interpret it correctly, it would even work to accumulate radiation damage for panels that are not on the active craft (so time warp would still realistically decay the panels). #1 could be a simple tweak to the formula used to generate the inverse power curve.

I've actually thought about trying to write a small mod that included stuff like solar panel radiation damage, RTG power decay, and battery capacity degradation as a function of spacecraft life and exposure. This way probes and spacecraft would have a finite lifetime in the Kerbal universe, or at least suffer a performance penalty for extended duration in orbit. Long duration mission planning would need to account for things like RTG decay, battery capacity loss, etc. Missions to Eeloo would need to factor in low solar flux at that distance, but equally so, missions to Moho would need to account for accelerated decay of panel output due to high radiation levels. The point is that in reality space is quite a harsh environment for spacecraft and I wanted to try to incorporate some of those factors in KSP so that you would need to consider some of these factors. Unfortunately while implementing RTG decay seems very straightforward (calculation based on mission time) and battery decay similar (could approximate usage-based wear with another decay based on total mission time... more advanced implementation would also be to try and incorporate temperature extremes into this somehow), the solar panel part was quite a bit more complex. Then I realized KSPI had all the radiation exposure modeling already done . Not to mention that with only CS101 level background in programming, it would be very challenging for me to try to code such mod up. I still might try someday.

Anyway thought I would throw it out there and see what people thought

Ruahrc

[Ruahrc]

P.S.

I saw back on page 500 of this thread you posted a sample code to enable the RTG decay module you wrote, I played around with trying to add the RTG module to the stock RTG part, but had some trouble and got confused. I'm not sure if it is because the module was not fully implemented or if I am doing something wrong.

First, seems like FNModuleRTG Thermal Power of 0.000075 MW seems to be the correct value to get electric charge generation equivalent to the stock RTG's eC output... although that does not seem consistent with my math. If RTG converts heat to charge at 10% efficiency as you stated on page 500, then shouldn't it be 0.0075 MW = 07.5 kW * 10% efficiency = 0.75 kW = 0.75 eC/sec? Using 0.0075 as ThermalPower seems to make the RTG much too powerful. Maybe my unit conversions are off?

I did not totally understand your formula of 2000 * ThermalPower for Pu238 amount. What exactly does this control? Changing this value only seems to affect RTG mass since it's the amount of Pu238, however, what is the purpose in adding/subtracting Pu238? Shouldn't the amount of Pu238 remain constant as it is not consumed persay, only thermal output decays? Does RTG life/power output go up or down if this is altered? I tested a little with 100,000x time warp and saw Pu238 amount slowly decrease, does this decay linearly to 0 (making the RTG more like a binary state battery and not an RTG with exponentially decaying output) and does vessel lose mass as Pu238 is consumed?

The RTG does not actually seem to produce electricCharge unless there is a ThermalPower resource present. The problem is, the RTG slowly generates ThermalPower with no outlet. When ThermalPower reaches maxAmount, the RTG shuts down and no further eC is generated. I think in a system with an attached electric generator, (which constantly consumes the thermalPower) it would work OK but I am installing this on a probe with no generator part (I want to use the internal thermocouple of the RTG). Given that the rate of ThermalPower generation is so low per above, I could just add a large sink of ThermalPower like 100000 or 1000000000 but that seems like a kludge. I tried adding a "FNGenerator" module with 10% carnot efficiency to consume ThermalPower and simulate the 10% efficient thermocouples, but it said the generator was inoperable since KSPI does not "see" a FNReactor on the vessel (the FNModuleRTG module must not count as one). This may just be incomplete implementation since I don't know how to get around this. The way I see it, the RTG part should be a totally self contained "black box", running off an internal "fuel" supply of Pu238 that degrades with time and simply outputting eC at some decaying rate. WasteHeat could also be included, however given that the RTG part already has fins on it, I would also think it reasonable to assume its radiating needs are already taken care of internally and no external radiators are required (I suppose one could just add an FNRadiator module onto the part too, and adjust the parameters so that it is just enough to dissipate its own heat, but this seems like unnecessary complexity).

Here is the ModuleManager cfg I made. Is there something I am missing?

@PART[rtg]
{
	!MODULE[ModuleGenerator] //Removing stock generator functionality
	{
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = FNModuleRTG
		ReactorTemp = 450
		ThermalPower =  0.000075
	 	radius =  0.3125
	}
	RESOURCE
	{
		name = Plutonium-238
		amount = 0.15
		maxAmount = 0.15
	}
	RESOURCE
	{
		name = ThermalPower 
                amount = 0
                maxAmount = 100
	}
}

[Graploos]

Is there list that shows the mod compatibility with KSPI? I want to try this mod with some other mods but i don't know if they will gives problems.

[Rabada]

Is there list that shows the mod compatibility with KSPI? I want to try this mod with some other mods but i don't know if they will gives problems.

Your best bet is the Scott Manleg Interstellar Quest mod list.

here.he also has a video explaining how to install all those mods together.

[G'th]

Figured I'd ask this here.

I've been having an issue with Interstellar and Rasterprop monitor. Namely' date=' with Interstellar installed, all RPM screens go grey and are not able to be interacted with. Now, I have searched for a solution to this already, but the only thing I could find was to delete Open Resource System (Which comes from Interstellar) which does fix the issue, but then Interstellar breaks. The same thread I read also said that Active Texture Management might have been mucking things up, but it didn't say what to do with that that might fix the issue.

So what can be done?

This is what I'm getting:

[url']http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/576771829469369802/22CA1496268B4AE4FAC5E40DCCC470A5B2C6DB50/

From the way it looks, it could be that its ATM thats doing it, but again, I have no idea what to change or add to that mod to fix it.

I have already tried the blacklist from ALCOR but it didn't do anything to fix it.

[Cetera]

I need some help with the Interstellar mod. There are a few things that aren't working, and for the life of me I can't figure out why.

1.) I have an infrared telescope deployed in high Kerbin orbit. It has 5 tanks of the liquid helium, and it seems to be running just fine. It tells me that it should be generating .49 science per day. However, no matter how long I let it run, I never get any science out of it. I've switched back to it after days, I've clicked on ever part, I've stopped the deep field survey and restarted it, and nothing seems to work. Any ideas? I'm not finding any troubleshooting for this anywhere.

2.) I'm trying to start a beamed power network. I have two reactors parked at the space center for testing.

a.) One is an Akula 3.75m fission reactor using UF4, with an inline refinery and a KTEC generator. It did produce quite a bit of power for a number of days. However, it has run out of fuel. I could not, and cannot, get the inline refinery to reprocess spent fuel.

b.) I have roughly 20 spare UF4 cannisters attached to the "vessel", and I pumped depleted fuel into them, and good fuel into the reactor. The reactor is shut down, and says EVA maintenance required. I've sent ol' Bob out there in a utility rover, and he can't do anything. The reactor is very low to the ground, almost touching, and he can certainly "reach" it to do anything with it. Right-clicking just says "no damage", same for the inline reactor.

c.) Since I was having no luck with the Akula, I build a similar vessel using the Aegletes 2 fission reactor. Same story. I can't reprocess fuel. I'm also using UF4 'cause I didn't know how to take care of the actinides, but I'm still building them up with this reactor anyway when I'm not using ThF4.

Any help on any of these would be very appreciated.

Edited May 30, 2014 by Cetera

[Cairan]

I've been trying to figure out a bug with an antimatter spaceplane I've made and an orbital antimatter-gathering station that goes with it... After undocking and redocking, the plane's antimatter reserves do not get replenished, yet before initial separation, they work... Is it possible we still need to string KAS fuel lines to bypass the docking port for antimatter flow?

[Northstar1989]

@FractalUK

It seems like there have been a lot of posts on this, but I haven't seen any specific responses (maybe you missed the posts), so...

Is there any chance of including some form of asteroid-mining in KSP-Interstellar. It would be interesting (and realistic) for at least some asteroids to contains small but usable amounts of water-ice...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/asteroid-24-themis/

http://www.space.com/9292-water-ice-common-asteroids-discovery-suggests.html

(though, the comment on "comet water is different than normal water, the configuration of its atoms is different" made me face-palm. The authors of the article *DO* realize that water is two Hydrogen molecules and an Oxygen molecule, and that there is *only one* potential configuration of the atoms, the only variation at all coming from isotopes, right? )

Regards,

Northstar

P.S. Further research makes it look like the article simply simply didn't understand a recent study showing high Deuterium content in a comet, and suggesting that other comets might be similar... (in itself a dangerous assumption) Still made me face-palm that they didn't know what an isotope is...

Edited May 31, 2014 by Northstar1989

[undercoveryankee]

I need some help with the Interstellar mod. There are a few things that aren't working, and for the life of me I can't figure out why.

1.) I have an infrared telescope deployed in high Kerbin orbit. It has 5 tanks of the liquid helium, and it seems to be running just fine. It tells me that it should be generating .49 science per day. However, no matter how long I let it run, I never get any science out of it. I've switched back to it after days, I've clicked on ever part, I've stopped the deep field survey and restarted it, and nothing seems to work. Any ideas? I'm not finding any troubleshooting for this anywhere.

It's a known issue. Gets reported a few times a month. Best workaround I know is to edit the save file to give yourself the science it should have been producing until we get a version of the plugin that doesn't have the problem.

2.) I'm trying to start a beamed power network. I have two reactors parked at the space center for testing.

a.) One is an Akula 3.75m fission reactor using UF4, with an inline refinery and a KTEC generator. It did produce quite a bit of power for a number of days. However, it has run out of fuel. I could not, and cannot, get the inline refinery to reprocess spent fuel.

The green fissions (SAFE/Kiwi/Aegletes) produce Actinides as waste. Reprocessing converts Actinides into new fuel and DepletedFuels. One of the limitations of the Sethlans/Akula series is that their waste goes straight to DepletedFuels without any opportunity to reprocess.

b.) I have roughly 20 spare UF4 cannisters attached to the "vessel", and I pumped depleted fuel into them, and good fuel into the reactor. The reactor is shut down, and says EVA maintenance required. I've sent ol' Bob out there in a utility rover, and he can't do anything. The reactor is very low to the ground, almost touching, and he can certainly "reach" it to do anything with it. Right-clicking just says "no damage", same for the inline reactor.

If you have uranium nitride in it and the status is "EVA Maintenance Required", you should be able to start it. I think the control range of 3 meters is calculated from the center of the reactor, and there may be some points or directions where it's hard to get the center of Bob inside that radius of the big reactor. See if you can get up level with the center and approach it from the side.

c.) Since I was having no luck with the Akula, I build a similar vessel using the Aegletes 2 fission reactor. Same story. I can't reprocess fuel. I'm also using UF4 'cause I didn't know how to take care of the actinides, but I'm still building them up with this reactor anyway when I'm not using ThF4.

The green reactors' waste is in the form of actinides regardless of which fuel you're using. If you'll post a screenshot of the setup you're trying to reprocess with, someone might be able to spot why you're not reprocessing.

[Pds314]

One of the things Fractal has said the current radiation levels take into account is the level of thorium in the ground. There may be a hot deposit near KSC. How do the numbers change elsewhere on the surface?

They seem to be constant and decrease slightly with altitude. I.E. The oceans, the icecaps, etc, seem to have the same level.

Either way, 1.67 Seiverts/year is as much radiation in 2 months as a normal person receives over their entire life. It isn't even remotely close to being safe. One accumulates more radiation in one Day than what they would normally receive in a year on the real Earth.

If there were land with such rich Thorium deposits, the ground would look like raw Thorium ore and it would be uninhabitable. Cancer rates among Kerbals would approach 100%.

Edited May 31, 2014 by Pds314

[KerbCo]

Every time i install KSPI on my mac (10.9) my KSP (0.23.5) always crashes. it replaces all the textures with a clowny texture (i assume that means it can not load any of the textures) please help me i can't wait to use this mod again.

A Question for the mod author

I was wondering if you would be alright if i put your mod download link on a forum download backup website (so the next time the forums go down you can go to my webpage and download any mod on it) i am asking permission of the mod owner for every mod URL i am adding to it .

From

KerbCo

[Xenon2462]

how do you upgrade parts i'm stuck on that

[kiwiak]

Fractal_UK, can you hint us wht will be added in 0.12 version?

[Asidem]

@KerbCo

This is an issue I have on Mac too. This doesn't seem to be related to KSPI but to KSP itself ; I think it's related to RAM usage. Dimming my texture resolution (turned to half-res or quarter-res) solved it for me. Installing ATM may help too, haven't tested though.

[niceundtidy]

This mod is awesome!

I am already working on a bigass orbital refinery

One thing though, that i'm having trouble with:

How do you refuel a reactor? I have a nuclear reactor that is almost out of fuel, so i docked a transport with a couple of radial uranuim containers(Those 800 capacity ones), but when i right click mod-right-click it's not allowing me to move the fuel?

How do i move the fuel? Do i need a kerbal to do it for me?

[niceundtidy]

First of all: Love the mod.

Secondly:

I am having a very annoying problem. I currently have a transport docked at my orbital reactor. The transport is carrying fresh uranium fuel for my reactor. I am trying to move the uranium like i would normally move fuel, by right clicking and mod-right clicking, but i am not getting the in/out transfer buttons.

How do you move fuel?

[nli2work]

I am having a very annoying problem. I currently have a transport docked at my orbital reactor. The transport is carrying fresh uranium fuel for my reactor. I am trying to move the uranium like i would normally move fuel, by right clicking and mod-right clicking, but i am not getting the in/out transfer buttons.

How do you move fuel?

For UF4 and ThF4 fission reactors, you have to EVA and manual shutdown the reactor, wait for it to cool (about 3 days), then Refuel or change fuel type with Kerbal EVA, then manual start the reactor in EVA.

[Kerbal01]

what is the best design for a power satellite? transmitter surrounded by panels and batteries or something else?

[niceundtidy]

For UF4 and ThF4 fission reactors, you have to EVA and manual shutdown the reactor, wait for it to cool (about 3 days), then Refuel or change fuel type with Kerbal EVA, then manual start the reactor in EVA.

Awesome. Thanks for the quick reply.

Can you describe how you manually refuel the fission reactor?

I would hate to bring a rig into orbit only to discover that i'm missing some stupid little part:)

[Asidem]

what is the best design for a power satellite? transmitter surrounded by panels and batteries or something else?

It's really simple : put a maximum solar panel surface around a transmitter (the foldable one and the static one are the same while it's about transmitting) and with enough radiators to cool the whole down. You can go simple with a central fuselage (transmitter w/ radiators + stack batteries ?) with two "wings" of Gigantor XL solar arrays, or go complex and powerful and very classy like Scott Manley did in

. You'd better get the whole thingy as close to the Sun as possible, after having checked that your radiators can handle the heat at your desired distance from Kerbol.

Anyway, building a gigantic nuclear plant on-wheels and plopping it near the KSC is still the most efficient method for getting large amounts of power Although it will become far less attractive once a budget is implemented.

[BigD145]

Anyway, building a gigantic nuclear plant on-wheels and plopping it near the KSC is still the most efficient method for getting large amounts of power Although it will become far less attractive once a budget is implemented.

Still the best way as you would recycle the entire thing or refuel it without leaving the safety of Kerbal Command.

[Asidem]

Still the best way as you would recycle the entire thing or refuel it without leaving the safety of Kerbal Command.

I guess Fractal_UK would make nuclear fuels and nuclear reactors very expensive, giving such a base a high maintenance cost, and a high building cost. So the only viable solution for a ground power base would be dropping it on a nuclear fuel deposit, which implies transportation to such a deposit, which limits the size or increases tremendously the difficulty of assembling. Some single-cost solar satellite near Kerbol would be an efficient investment.