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

[SilentFall]

Well, I was thinking just a small amount of electricity, not requiring the included generators. Mayhap one of those small nuclear ones in the stock version could power one or two tanks?

And those emergency ejection systems sound really, really interesting. Especially in an atmosphere. Perhaps a new vision for propellants?

[Scotius]

Well, I was thinking just a small amount of electricity, not requiring the included generators. Mayhap one of those small nuclear ones in the stock version could power one or two tanks?

And those emergency ejection systems sound really, really interesting. Especially in an atmosphere. Perhaps a new vision for propellants?

Like helium-3/deuterium powering fusion reactor and fusion pulse drive? Statistics somewhere between nuclear stuff and antimatter. But fusion fuel would be easier to find, mine and store.

[Fractal_UK]

I tend to play ksp like a 4X game, so here is my take on antimatter production:

it produces about 500 units a day. i would love to build a bigger one, but even my 4770K+770gtx can't keep the framerate up as soon as my 250part ssto comes to collect the antimatter. :/ therefore i would love to see a "factory" option!

That is incredibly neat, it's good to see people using the mod to create some interesting creations.

[dizzysaurus]

it produces about 500 units a day. i would love to build a bigger one, but even my 4770K+770gtx can't keep the framerate up as soon as my 250part ssto comes to collect the antimatter. :/ therefore i would love to see a "factory" option!

Haven't used this mod yet: what's the smallest number of parts you could use to build an antimatter transport ship? 20? 50?

[Ratata]

depends on where you want to go with it, my guess is that you can create a very simple non reuseable transporter, basicly enough boost to get it up and back down. if you use mechjeb 2.0.9 it can further help you, because it uses fuel very efficiently. if you design your ship in a way where only your atm tank on a parachute comes back, i guess you can do plenty with about 30 parts, including stages. after reaching orbit you will need about 600m/s more to get where your collector should be plus about 450 m/s to get it back to kerbin.

(if you want it as easy and reliable as possible, use bobcats great historic spacecraft mod, replace the soyuz cargo part with an atm tank and you are set with very low part count.)

Edited August 8, 2013 by Ratata

[Fractal_UK]

You could use even fewer parts if you're happy to return the antimatter to LKO, rather than actually returning it to the surface of Kerbin. If you brought back a few full tanks of antimatter just to LKO, that would give you enough capacity to move some pretty impressive payloads around the Kerbin system and hopefully sustain your antimatter economy.

[Ratata]

if you have access to kethane you could even go as far as setting up a complete supply base in LKO. thats usually what i do, and set up "tradelines" because you could use a very small freighter to transport atm and a bit bigger one to get kethane from minmus ( the best place for it imho). still everything could be done with relatively few parts. (atm freighter~20 kethane freighter~30-40 station ~10-50 depending on provided service)

Edited August 8, 2013 by Ratata

[Avalant]

Looks very interesting! Really like the concept! Will there be unique models in the foreseeable future?

[Ratata]

sorry, i just couldn't resist....

can't wait for my warp ssto to eve (witch i totally think would be THE spot to mine something like antimatter because its super hard to get off again and the eve sea could be used as an antimatter trap. yeah i know it would be alchemy not science, but so is kethane )

(there already is, only the title should now say 400 hours of ksp ;-) http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/36000-333-hours-of-KSP)

Edited August 9, 2013 by Ratata

[Fractal_UK]

sorry, i just couldn't resist....

can't wait for my warp ssto to eve (witch i totally think would be THE spot to mine something like antimatter because its super hard to get off again and the eve sea could be used as an antimatter trap. yeah i know it would be alchemy not science, but so is kethane )

If you keep going like this you're going to have start a thread on the spacecraft exchange with all your creations!

I do plan to do something with regard to ISRU on Eve, it seems the sensible thing to do given that its oceans are supposed to be full of radioactive elements but I haven't decided exactly what yet. At present, I'm still working on making these engines that use generic propellants work correctly and squashing assoicated bugs.

[Ryugi]

I just wanted to pop in and say that, barring some tweaks and changes to my own parts for proper fuel consumption, I've managed to get my reactors producing the Megajoules needed to power your Warp Drive. As a first proof of concept test, I set my sights on Eloo, farthest planet and one to which I've never been. In a matter of a couple minutes I was warping across the Kerbol System and refining my orbit around Eloo after arriving near it. Once that was done, I decided I'd stop by Moho. That finished, I returned to Kerbin and managed to land without killing myself.

That said, the whole time I was reminded of the comment in Star Trek Generations when the captain of the Enterprise B talks about how their trip would take them out past Neptune and back for a run around the block. You, sir, have given me my sense of interest and adventure back again. Thank you so much for this mod.

[Tyren]

It still Needs some eye candy. i wish i could model and render things

[wasmic]

On two of the previois pages, people have uploaded iCandy for this mod.

[Fractal_UK]

More development work:

I've decided that I don't want to keep on adding more and more parts because there is an inevitable clutter that results. When you have a bunch of mods installed, things can rapidly get rather messy. I'm also presented with a problem in that I don't want to create parts that are vastly more powerful than stock parts that are simply useable from the start.

Since I have opted to balance the game through resources, this presents a problem. Were I to decide to create new nuclear engines like the gas core nuclear lightbulb, which has specific impulses in the ~2500s range, it would be strictly better than alternative stock parts. I can't balance these parts through resources since they're likely powered by Uranium Hexaflouride, the very same substance that is found within my solid core reactors.

Thankfully, I believe I have found a solution to both problems. I simply use the parts I have already created more intelligently.

A 2.5m nuclear reactor starts out as a 400MW solid core nuclear reactor - combined with the thermal rocket nozzle, using liquid fuel, it provides 66.8KN of thrust and a (vacuum) specific impulse of 917s (exactly as the 2.5m nuclear reactor does in the mod at the moment). Then we add this little button:

And when we click the button, behold!

We now have a 900MW gas core reactor. With the thermal rocket nozzle, using liquid fuel, it now produces 65.7KN of thrust at a (vacuum) specific impulse of 2,797s.

At the present stage of development, this is a magical little button that simply upgrades your engine for zero cost which hardly meets my object of making such superior engines unavailable from the start. However, it is easy to restrict the circumstances under which it is possible to actually push that magic button.

I am going to implement science modules: these will be orbital or surface facilities which generate a science resource. The amount of science generated will be determined by the number of kerbals in the module and the celestial body that you are orbiting. You won't generate much science at Kerbin but might generate huge quantities at Moho. When you have generated enough science, simply dock a ship at your science lab and push the magic button.

The science lab will also be capable of nuclear fuel reprocessing - turning Depleted Uranium Hexaflouride (DUF6) into useable Uranium Hexaflouride (UF6) and will also likely become the module necessary for whatever types of in-situ resource utilisation on celestial surfaces I decide to implement.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Fractal_UK

[Fractal_UK]

Some progress on the science modules:

In Kerbin orbit, science generates very slowly:

The reactors require a certain amount of science to be upgraded, as you can see here:

Different planets have different science rates but Jool is 10x faster than Kerbin:

...But once you have enough science, the magic button appears.

[Blaylock1988]

How to SCIENCE!

Edited August 10, 2013 by Blaylock1988

[Shadoworgon]

Finally put up a small unmanned AM collection station in Kerbin orbit to act like a fuel depot

And after a very long time trying to rendezvous, got my warp tug docked with it

it was only after i docked it and got some AM and went to try out the thermal rocket thing that i discovered it still needs fuel and oxidizer (at least thats what i think since it doesnt work )

oh and on that note i would like to submit a bug at least i think its a bug), if you look in that second pic you see i have 2 nuke engines on the sides. Well when i activate the thermal rocket and throttle up (and it then says it needs fuel) the throttle then locks up, and never lets me re-engage the nuke engines (yes even after i deactivate the thermal rocket). The only way i fixed it was to quicksave. Just thought i would let you know about this I still love this mod nice job

Edited August 10, 2013 by Shadoworgon
used the engines real name :P

[Scotius]

Wow. Fractal, you are on a roll I love the idea of science stations. In fact, i would gladly see option to upgrade all your parts. Like three tiers of advancement: starting, moderate and advanced. Each costs more than previous level, but gives noticeable improvement. Really - science stations give so much possibilities my mind asplodes

[Pigbear]

We will generate science! Even if its only a concept!

[SpaceK531]

working on a custom model for the nuclear reactors.

in case you wanted to math the balance, the reactor is 1 meter in radius, and the part is 2.3 meters tall, with 8 diagonal braces set to 20 degrees, 45 degrees apart. The part is meant for 2.5 meter parts but can be smaller if it needed to be.

Texture is unfinished.

Here's another, smaller one that I'm planning, I'll try to combine the files to use the same texture file somehow:

Edited August 10, 2013 by SpaceK531

[Mekan1k]

When all these new parts are done, I will download. Maybe orbitusII and I can adapt the alcubierre function to add an animation, so that it would look like an alcubierre drive.

[Fractal_UK]

it was only after i docked it and got some AM and went to try out the thermal rocket thing that i discovered it still needs fuel and oxidizer (at least thats what i think since it doesnt work )

oh and on that note i would like to submit a bug at least i think its a bug), if you look in that second pic you see i have 2 nuke engines on the sides. Well when i activate the thermal rocket and throttle up (and it then says it needs fuel) the throttle then locks up, and never lets me re-engage the nuke engines (yes even after i deactivate the thermal rocket). The only way i fixed it was to quicksave. Just thought i would let you know about this I still love this mod nice job

Yeah, this bug has been fixed now so that fix will appear in the next version of the plugin. You'll also need to worry less about having the right propellant in the next version as you'll have options for using Liquid Fuel + Oxidiser, Liquid Fuel or Kethane as propellant.

[Fractal_UK]

Getting closer to a new update:

So, we are gong to have some new options for the science lab, we have a nuclear reprocessing option as I said there would be. This option begins a reprocessing cycle that takes a few hours to complete and converts 90% of your Depleted Uranium Hexaflouride into fresh and useable Uranium Hexaflouride.

I have also integrated the antimatter factory into the science lab. The antimatter factory requires huge amounts of power, 5GW (1000x the 5MW that the science lab requires for its other current purposes), but the output you will get from it is enough to compete with all but the best collection locations in the solar system. The antimatter factory is 1% efficient at producing particle/antiparticle pairs so is effectively 0.5% efficient at producing antimatter.

I've also tweaked science such that it takes into account not only what celestial body you orbit but how high your orbit is. You need to orbit the body at less than the body's radius to get the maximum research value (e.g. <600km for Kerbin) and research scales down fairly slowly above this limit. The science labs don't have to be in orbit though, you can put them on the surface of a celestial body to get the maximum research value too.

Science labs are not artificially intelligent and require at least 1 Kerbal in order to function. The lab has a capacity of 2. One Kerbal can reprocess nuclear fuel and run the antimatter factory just fine but if you have only one Kerbal performing research, your research rate will be halved.

(The astute will notice that my vessel here is totally pointless! It uses an antimatter reactor to power an antimatter factory and consumes vastly more antimatter than it produces but hey, it proves the concept.)

[Kerbal01]

Are you working on new models?

[Seeker89]

So this is my first post. I decided to try out this mod. I haven't gotten really to the warping yet, more the Space Solar transfer.

Here we have 9 sat around the sun. All with transmitters, to hold my power needs...... (insert evil laugh here)

P.S. I haven't ever added pictures to a forum post before so lets hope it works....