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

[oktav]

I have taken pictues or the issues I am having with tritium and He-3 decay.

I have a clean install with just Interstellar and I tried generating tritium in background and he-3 decay.

I tried with both a vessel that never leaves the ground and then with one that launches and land (same spot though).

I can't get the deuterium to be generated in the background and the he-3 to decay in both cases at all. it stays absolutely the same. Am I doing something wrong?

https://imgur.com/a/pTOfl

[Northstar1989]

@FractalUK

One last thing:

What are the chances I could convince you to integrate a EC --> MJ converter into the solar panels module (using Module Manager, like is already done for WasteHeat production from solar), so that I could power my plasma thrusters with the NearFuture solar blanket panels, or ISRU refineries at a low rate with Gigantors built right onto the spacecraft?

There was a hackish fix to implement this using the KethaneConverter module posted on this thread a while back, but I don't know if it still works with this version of Interstellar...

Warning: Tangent Follows

Whatever converter module you develop might also theoretically be useful for an Ec --> Thermal Power module that could be added to Thermal Receivers (no need to build a separate part for this) at some point in the future as well, so we can build Solar Thermal Rockets (without having to rely on Microwave Power transmission networks- even if this improves performance) if we so desired... Internally these work in real life (though never yet deployed on a spacecraft, these technologies are well-tested on the ground) either by heating a highly resistive material with electricity produced from photovoltaics in a heat exchanger fuel can flow through, or by heating absorptive materials and the fuel stream itself with lasers, or a combination of both- which tends to allow even higher temperatures to be reached... (the electricity can also come from a nuclear reactor *NOT* exposed directly to the fuel stream)

Another version of Solar Thermal uses mirrors focusing light on a heat exchanger- possibly this could be implemented using the mirror parts talked about for thermal solar power satellites. Simply re-use the Solar Sail texture (possibly thickened a little) or re-texture solar panels to be shiny (and upsize them) for the mirrors, and re-name the Thermal Receiver parts to "Heat Exchanger" parts (to reflect what they actually do, and that heat exchangers be heated with electricity of mirrored light as well as Microwaves- although obviously real ones would only be designed for one of these three applications, not all of them at once...) and you've got an instant Solar Thermal Rocket system.

Solar Thermal Rockets, like Nuclear Thermal Rockets, can potentially heat up to very high temperatures- even higher than that which can easily be achieved with Microwaves, due to the materials limitations of microwave-absorptive materials (though the higher ISP comes at the expense of thrust- only a small section of the Heat Exchanger can be heated with light or electricity). Thus they could provide a non-nuclear high-ISP low-thrust fuel mode, and could potentially even be an alternate mode for a spacecraft with both a Thermal Receiver and a Microwave Receiver (turn the Microwaves into electricity first, and you can achieve higher temperatures and ISP- though at the expense of thrust)

Keep in mind that all Solar Thermal propulsion systems tend to be rather limited in thrust. Thus, they would tend to form a middle-ground between electrodynamic/electrothermal propulsion systems and Microwave Thermal rocketry, as a higher-ISP but much lower-thrust option than Microwave Thermal (the efficiency is also lower, and there is a lot more generation of waste heat). TWR also suffers if the electricity is locally-generated or mirrors are used to concentrate light on the HX, due to having the solar mirrors/PV's on the spacecraft, rather than a "stationary" solar microwave beamed-power satellite that simply shoots lasers at a lightweight Thermal Receiver.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited September 27, 2014 by Northstar1989

[fordskydog]

I am having a problem starting the fusion reaction in the larger sizes. The two small reactors work. The two large ones just wont fire. I put on the launch pad a 3.75 m fusion reactor and generator, stacks and stacks of 2.5 m batteries, and three of the large black triangular radiators. The gen is set to solid state, but i have tried with two generators, one set to each mode also. I have tried smaller fission reactors and microwave power from fission power stations to start the reaction to no avail.

I have many mods installed but i used the Mod Admin to install all of them.

I feel like this is a bug or a broken install somewhere, but am I just missing something?

[Fractal_UK]

I am having a problem starting the fusion reaction in the larger sizes. The two small reactors work. The two large ones just wont fire. I put on the launch pad a 3.75 m fusion reactor and generator, stacks and stacks of 2.5 m batteries, and three of the large black triangular radiators. The gen is set to solid state, but i have tried with two generators, one set to each mode also. I have tried smaller fission reactors and microwave power from fission power stations to start the reaction to no avail.

I have many mods installed but i used the Mod Admin to install all of them.

I feel like this is a bug or a broken install somewhere, but am I just missing something?

You might be missing fuel? The large fusion reactors only have Lithium now, they need an external supply of Deuterium/Tritium fuel. If you right click on the reactor, it should tell you if you are missing fuel.

[MaLuS]

@Fractal_UK I am wondering if you seen my post of "More Bugs" 2 pages back? Particle FX issues with the Plasma and ATTILA Engines (pictures in the post). My mod list can be found in the description of my stream, im live now btw if you wanted me to show what i see live.

[Magion]

Hello and welcome back Fractal_UK! (Yeah, I know you are here for almost two weeks already, but still)

I would like to report a problem.

I'm experiencing an issue with a Nuclear Fission Reactor and Thermal Turbojet. The problem is, that when I attach the reactor with turbojet in double symetry, the reactor is not symetrically controling the output power. The first one is OK, but the second one is just stucked at 25.000% of the 500MW power, which should be available, which is then causing asymetrical thrust and that doesn't improve controlability too much. It happens to me since I updated to 0.12 from the WaveFunctionP's version (that before Lite).

Furthermore, I suggest a tweak to the system for making the radiators glow. Now, the whole radiator is turning red, not just the radiation section.

I thing images will make it more clear.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited September 27, 2014 by Magion

[kc8hnz]

I'm having an issue where the loading screen stops at WarpPlugin\Spaces\sci\model. I downloaded and replaced the TGA files with the high res ones provided from Fractal but its still freezing. any insights?

[Nittany Tiger]

I'm not sure if this bug has been reported, or if it is a bug, but when playing science mode, when you unlock KSP Interstellar parts, you get them upgraded from the start instead of the base versions (e.g. Unlocking the first fission reactor node gets you Gas Core Reactors, not Molten Salt Reactors).. It's not a huge deal, but it takes the fun out of unlocking upgrades for the parts. I wonder if this issue is going to be addressed in a future release.

[Thorbane]

Fractal, I'm having a problem getting the alternate fuel modes on the inertial fusion reactors to work. The D-He3 shuts down instantly, and the He3 mode produces no power.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Thorbane
He3 not H

[Atrius129]

I'm having an issue where the loading screen stops at WarpPlugin\Spaces\sci\model. I downloaded and replaced the TGA files with the high res ones provided from Fractal but its still freezing. any insights?

RAM limit? You may try Active texture management but that just defeats the purpose of using the High Res version. You may just need to us Low Res

[Atrius129]

I'm not sure if this bug has been reported, or if it is a bug, but when playing science mode, when you unlock KSP Interstellar parts, you get them upgraded from the start instead of the base versions (e.g. Unlocking the first fission reactor node gets you Gas Core Reactors, not Molten Salt Reactors).. It's not a huge deal, but it takes the fun out of unlocking upgrades for the parts. I wonder if this issue is going to be addressed in a future release.

Do you have the right tech tree installed? Did you copy the one from the WarpPlugin folder into your save?

Fractal, I'm having a problem getting the alternate fuel modes on the inertial fusion reactors to work. The D-H shuts down instantly, and the H3 mode produces no power.

Do you have D/T or H3 Cryostat on your vessel?

[Lotabeer]

@Magion: I've had some weird issues with reactors not outputting to their full abilities too, not even in an asymmetrical setup like that. Usually switching fuel modes to LFO or something briefly and then back helps. Sometimes I need to have the reactor shut down instead, which is easier said than done with the fission reactors.

@Thorbane: I had my 2.5m fusion reactor work like a charm on a long mission with all fuel modes the other day... Can I ask what size you are using and if you have been sure to add H3 cryostats to your craft?

[AetherGoddess]

Fractal, I'm having a problem getting the alternate fuel modes on the inertial fusion reactors to work. The D-H shuts down instantly, and the H3 mode produces no power.

the reactors don't have D/T in them anymore. do you have a source of Deuterium on the ship?

Helium-3 is a byproduct of Deuterium and Tritium, or can be bred from Lithium. do you have lithium on the ship?

Edited September 27, 2014 by AetherGoddess
use the right name

[Thorbane]

the reactors don't have D/T in them anymore. do you have a source of Deuterium on the ship?

Helium-3 is a byproduct of Deuterium and Tritium, or can be bred from Lithium. do you have lithium on the ship?

Yes, I have fuel. These are the smaller 1.25 and .625 meter reactors that do this.

Pure He3 mode does this.

He3-D mode deactivates instantly.

Edit: And the D-T fuel mode works fine except it shuts down when you timewarp.

Edit2: Oh and the 0.625 meter Plasma thruster does this, while inactive.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Thorbane

[undercoveryankee]

ORSX integration pack is up. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/94876-0-24-2-Community-Resource-Pack-integration-for-KSPI-0-12-%28ORSX-version%29

[jbernady8]

Tried installing the add-on and nothing is showing up in the tree loader and I get a box saying that there's an update to interstellar. Checked the FAQ and tried searching this thread for answers already, I haven't seen any posted.

[NeoAcario]

Fractal_UK,

Even though I'm currently taking a break from KSP at the moment.. I just wanted to take a second and thank you for coming back. Sincerely... thank you. I don't think I can play KSP without this mod, and I am ecstatic to see that when I do play again... KSP Interstellar will be here.

~Steve

[Lotabeer]

Have to copy the tree.cfg file from the WarpPlugin folder in the mod file directly into your save file and delete the notree.cfg file. Not sure why Fractal hasn't put this on the front page/FAQ since it's been this way since 0.12. Any way about it, it's a quick fix. Ignore the treeloader update stuff. Apparently Treeloader is still needed for the mod to work right, even though it doesn't load the tree cfg at all, if I understnad correctly.

[undercoveryankee]

Have to copy the tree.cfg file from the WarpPlugin folder in the mod file directly into your save file and delete the notree.cfg file. Not sure why Fractal hasn't put this on the front page/FAQ since it's been this way since 0.12. Any way about it, it's a quick fix. Ignore the treeloader update stuff. Apparently Treeloader is still needed for the mod to work right, even though it doesn't load the tree cfg at all, if I understnad correctly.

Treeloader is what reads the tree.cfg in the save folder and applies it to the in-game tree. So even though the retrieve/update part is broken, we still need the plugin around for that other part that works.

[Haifi]

I'd be happy to make something like that at some point, though getting my hands on suitable 3D models for that could be tricky!

This is just an idea, but the solar sail is basically a mirror, and the inline radiators are heat exchangers, you could even use them for both microwave and solar rays by simply extending the part config...

[jordanjay29]

Has anyone successfully converted from Interstellar Lite back to this Insterstellar? I shamefully jumped ship when I thought this mod was going to languish, and now that it's back I find I'm missing some of the depth of the full version. I already added quite a few vessels, including many space stations and probes, with Lite parts and they get destroyed if I load up a save on the full Interstellar.

I'm willing to edit my save file, I just need to know what to edit. Mostly I need to swap out the radiators and the power receiver. I have one power station in orbit that I'll lose otherwise, but I'm not too concerned.

[DianonForce]

Just a question, since treeloader causes weird bug on my game (parts form other mods missing in the R&D if i start with a tree.cfg and reappear if i start with notree.cfg) Will i have access to all KSPI Parts if i use the stock tree?

[AetherGoddess]

Just a question, since treeloader causes weird bug on my game (parts form other mods missing in the R&D if i start with a tree.cfg and reappear if i start with notree.cfg) Will i have access to all KSPI Parts if i use the stock tree?

Kinda? there are certain parts that only work out past the stock tree locations (specifically fusion, antimatter, White-Alcubierre drives) and there are upgrades that look for those trees to be unlocked (like Quantum Vacuum fuel mode on electric thrusters). without the tree adjustments, those things will either be inaccessible or fail to function. in short: go carefully: unsupported grey zone,

[BigD145]

Has anyone successfully converted from Interstellar Lite back to this Insterstellar? I shamefully jumped ship when I thought this mod was going to languish, and now that it's back I find I'm missing some of the depth of the full version. I already added quite a few vessels, including many space stations and probes, with Lite parts and they get destroyed if I load up a save on the full Interstellar.

I'm willing to edit my save file, I just need to know what to edit. Mostly I need to swap out the radiators and the power receiver. I have one power station in orbit that I'll lose otherwise, but I'm not too concerned.

Editing your save file is never recommended. Bad things can happen. Really bad things. Worse than just craft disappearing, like KSP itself not functioning at all in the intro menu. You should copy your KSP install and roll back to Lite. Figure out how you built the craft you want to keep and use a 2nd install with regular Interstellar. Rebuild your craft and use HyperEdit to put them where they were. Or you can start from scratch.

[jordanjay29]

Editing your save file is never recommended. Bad things can happen. Really bad things. Worse than just craft disappearing, like KSP itself not functioning at all in the intro menu. You should copy your KSP install and roll back to Lite. Figure out how you built the craft you want to keep and use a 2nd install with regular Interstellar. Rebuild your craft and use HyperEdit to put them where they were. Or you can start from scratch.

If that would have happened, I had backup saves. Also, I could always just stick with Lite or start with full from scratch. It's not the end of the world if KSP crashes once.

Also, I did a bit of investigating on my own and matched up the radiators with their cousins from the lite version. That and one power reciever, and I was in the clear. A couple of ships have oversized receivers now, but I'll phase them out and replace them eventually. No explosions, no crashes, and KSP is happy as a clam.