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

[SeventhArchitect]

I'm STILL having problems figuring out how the freak to get some of these parts working, but as I had seen in another post, this pretty much only requires a bit of energy to work.

Using lazor systems so that I can develop the needed resources nearby the launch pad, then fill up any acubierre drives when launching. And now, I want to make it possible to use the acubierre drives within the atmosphere. That way, I can make maybe a small colony thing, and launch it into space at any given moment. Oh god, it's like stargate atlantis all over again.

someone definitely needs to make a mod that adds more solar systems to explore, and you've already got the FTL drives made and working.

BTW, got a new challenge for you, Fractal_Uk, make a new kind of FTL drive, like the acubierre drive, except this one can be used for instantaneous movement. Much like a subspace drive, if you ever did watch Stargate Atlantis.

Thign about subspace, is it lets you travel through things.

BTW, how do I make it possible to use the acubierre drive in the atmosphere?

[Fractal_UK]

Hi again Fractal,

Alt + f2 gives me the debug window where this is spammed constantly:

[Log]: https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/kspstore/dp/patcher/releases/production/win/Patcher.exe -> C:/Program Files (x86)/KSP/KSP_Data/../Patcher.exe

[Warning]: [updater] Patcher does NOT exist! Redownloading.

Ahh, that is a known problem. Try installing the game in something like "C:\Games\KSP" rather than in "C:\Program Files (x86)\KSP", this problem is related to file permissions in windows.

[Fractal_UK]

BTW, got a new challenge for you, Fractal_Uk, make a new kind of FTL drive, like the acubierre drive, except this one can be used for instantaneous movement. Much like a subspace drive, if you ever did watch Stargate Atlantis.

Thign about subspace, is it lets you travel through things.

I have indeed seen Stargate/Stargate Atlantis. I don't have anything more than the vaguest of plans for alternative FTL drives at the moment, if I did do something else though, it would probably be some kind of wormhole drive that took large amounts of exotic matter to instantly transport you from one location to another - like the alcubierre drive, it wouldn't cause momentum changes so getting into orbit of the destination would be similarly expensive in terms of delta-v.

It's definitely not a high priority until we have more places to go though and even then, I don't know how achievable it would be in programming terms.

BTW, how do I make it possible to use the acubierre drive in the atmosphere?

Unfortunately, you can't. If, theoretically, you could, the atmosphere would instantly slow you down massively such that when you dropped out of warp, you wouldn't return to your original speed. Plus the rapid deccelaration would kraken the ship to pieces anyway. If you kept the ship "on the rails" instead so the atmosphere didn't affect your travel, the ship would be instantly removed by the game for travelling too close to a planetary body while on the rails.

[7499275]

If I may ask a few questions on how this works...

I've dropped the research module with nuclear reactor and electric generator on some planets, and it does science. What happens when I click transmit science? What does it do? How do I use it to upgrade parts?

Also, on what planets can I collect anti-matter and what exactly is the purpose of anti matter?

MJ ( Megajoules) what ALL can they be used for?

Thanks in advance guys!

[Ratzap]

BTW, got a new challenge for you, Fractal_Uk, make a new kind of FTL drive, like the acubierre drive, except this one can be used for instantaneous movement. Much like a subspace drive, if you ever did watch Stargate Atlantis.

If you want to teleport, just use Hyperedit rather than get some poor guy to make you a part

[Scotius]

Heh, i wanted to propose Hyperedit too. I love Stargate: Atlantis to bits, but Wormhole Drive was too much "Deus ex machina" for my tastes. Anyways, i'm kinda disappointed you did not chose Fusion Driven Rocket model for fusion engine. Thanks to lithium foil liners serving as supplemental propellant, this engine theoretically will have better thrust. 30 days to Mars with FDR sounds great.

[SeventhArchitect]

Unfortunately, you can't. If, theoretically, you could, the atmosphere would instantly slow you down massively such that when you dropped out of warp, you wouldn't return to your original speed. Plus the rapid deccelaration would kraken the ship to pieces anyway. If you kept the ship "on the rails" instead so the atmosphere didn't affect your travel, the ship would be instantly removed by the game for travelling too close to a planetary body while on the rails.

You see, the idea was to not just, ya know, move something or move somethign to another planet. As you said, momentum, atmosphere, and yes, that seems legit now that I think of it. But the whole thing about using the acubierre drive was so that I could just get a large platform off the ground, and send it somewhere, but with next to 0 momentum (if how I understand the Acubierre drive works), it'd just go straight towards the nearest gravity well, IE, celestial body. I wasn't going to use JUST the acubierre drive, though.

In fact...I still have yet to figure out how the antimatter collection works. So far, this forum thread says nothing to me, and by the experiment that I jsut finished conducting (created 16.7 antimatter units! Woohoo), it stopped antimatter production altogether after entering a certain altitude. I desperately need to save time on this, but I like exploring on my own. All I really need to know right now, is how the instrument (magnetometer) works, and how to read the results as "this area will have a great/bad antimater production."

Btw, would having something orbit the sun at a low altitude be a good idea for antimatter production? And how do I produce Exotic matter in the first place?????

Edited September 8, 2013 by SeventhArchitect

[Ratzap]

Btw, would having something orbit the sun at a low altitude be a good idea for antimatter production? And how do I produce Exotic matter in the first place?????

Read back a few pages, I posted a list. Good luck getting to a low solar orbit, it's not cheap.

[SeventhArchitect]

Read back a few pages, I posted a list. Good luck getting to a low solar orbit, it's not cheap.

Best AM collection, 392,000km from the Sun 3.06 e-2.

I've been busy. I have actually rewritten the xenongas electric engine. It outputs 120 thrust, produces more xenongas than used, but is still one hell of a thing to get a ship moving. So many panels needed, so much energy.

So, I sent out a satellite known as the power flower, which sends microwave energy to Kerbin. Use that to power the newgen engines, and then deploy the solar sails once it's out of orbit, etcetera etcetera.

I've had such a problem getting my electric/fuel powered vessels into space, but with the power flower up in orbit, I just have to wait till it's above, during the day, and it's a breeze to launch.

BTW, how exactly do I get a nuclear reactor and thermal engine to work efficiently? Because so far, the most I've been able to do is make it work. Flight, though, is a near impossibility, because it just doesn't generate enough thrust...

Power Flower:

Edited September 8, 2013 by SeventhArchitect

[Jasmir]

Hi there, i tested a little around with this mod. Overall, it's a good thing but one thing needs hardy a tweak in my eyes:

Antimatter-Production in the Science-Lab:

- The production seems not going on while the producing "ship" is out of focus. I think, this should be changed.

- The production is _way_ to cheap in my eyes: I put a lab, two large reactors + 4 large Generators on a rover near the launchpad and this thing manage to fullfill the large AM-Container withhin a few ingame-hours.

[Hremsfeld]

You see, the idea was to not just, ya know, move something or move somethign to another planet. As you said, momentum, atmosphere, and yes, that seems legit now that I think of it. But the whole thing about using the acubierre drive was so that I could just get a large platform off the ground, and send it somewhere, but with next to 0 momentum (if how I understand the Acubierre drive works), it'd just go straight towards the nearest gravity well, IE, celestial body. I wasn't going to use JUST the acubierre drive, though.

The way an Alcubierre drive theoretically works is by compressing space in front of the drive and expanding it behind the drive. It doesn't actually provide any impulse, but it means that a ship moving, say, 2km/s in its own reference frame (needs a better description) could be moving 302,000km/s in the reference frame of Kerbin - to an outside observer, this breaks the speed limit that is c, but internally they're subluminal. The point I'm working towards is that, if you were to use this on Kerbin, the edge of the atmosphere would be a lot closer, but you still wouldn't be moving. Also the planet would probably be destroyed, which is bad.

In fact...I still have yet to figure out how the antimatter collection works. So far, this forum thread says nothing to me, and by the experiment that I jsut finished conducting (created 16.7 antimatter units! Woohoo), it stopped antimatter production altogether after entering a certain altitude. I desperately need to save time on this, but I like exploring on my own. All I really need to know right now, is how the instrument (magnetometer) works, and how to read the results as "this area will have a great/bad antimater production."

Antimatter exists naturally, a few atoms at a time, in planetary-sized magnetic fields and possibly thundercells. What the antimatter collectors do is harvest these particles and move them to a storage container for later use. Stronger magnetic fields will mean more anti-particles, hence Jool and the Sun being great places to harvest them. Magnetic fields themselves fall off with the inverse-square law, which means that if you double the distance you are from the center of the field, the strength of the field is reduced to one-quarter, so collecting from lower altitudes is more efficient. However, I'm guessing that at lower altitudes the magnetic field itself pushes away the particles, so you want to find the sweet spot where the Antimatter Flux is highest; as ratzap pointed out, that's at around 900km on Kerbin and probably right where its own Van Allen radiation belts would be.

Btw, would having something orbit the sun at a low altitude be a good idea for antimatter production? And how do I produce Exotic matter in the first place?????

For the first: Yes, very much so, the only problem would be getting it back to Kerbin. Also, in a move that should surprise absolutely no one, it's a wonderful place to put a solar farm.

As for making exotic matter, I don't think I've got the latest version installed, so you may want to either wait for another answer, check the documentation if it's in it, or try things until it works. Cheers!

[SeventhArchitect]

And figured it all out. Made a small prototype vessel outfitted with the small Acubierre drive, and it was fully charged within less than 6 in game days. I'd say thats perfect.

Now...To test it...

[Kerbinator24]

So even though im not a programmer at all, after I finally got KSP to make a log file I can even see what I "think" is causing my problem (don't hold me to it though )

http://pastebin.com/LaM55CUF

Line 1374 is where it starts I believe

[Fractal_UK]

So even though im not a programmer at all, after I finally got KSP to make a log file I can even see what I "think" is causing my problem (don't hold me to it though )

http://pastebin.com/LaM55CUF

Line 1374 is where it starts I believe

There is obviously a limit on pastebin to how much you can include on a single page, so you've pasted the start of the file but not the end. There is nothing in the section you've posted that could be causing any problems, usually anything of interest appears near the end of the file.

Did you move the game to a new location? Is that how you got the log file to be produced?

[Kerbinator24]

Yeah it is in a new location and yeah the log file appeared like magic

Heres the part I was on about:

http://pastebin.com/wUcY7HCS

How's this?

[Fractal_UK]

Yeah it is in a new location and yeah the log file appeared like magic

Heres the part I was on about:

http://pastebin.com/wUcY7HCS

How's this?

This part was included in the previous file that you pasted, it's perfectly normal. You need to go back to the KSP.log file, go to the very bottom and copy the parts that aren't included in the pastebin page.

[Kerbinator24]

it shows me all of what is in my log file in the first pastebin link I posted...this is a first time run of the game so that might be why there is very little in there

My log ends on: [LOG 23:43:07.895] Reference Frame: Rotating

and that's all that's in there:/

If you can't figure out what is wrong here, I'd be happy to do a remote access session if you want and you can have a look, if you have time ofc

[Kerbinator24]

Check that, I may off just managed to make it work

[Fractal_UK]

BTW, how exactly do I get a nuclear reactor and thermal engine to work efficiently? Because so far, the most I've been able to do is make it work. Flight, though, is a near impossibility, because it just doesn't generate enough thrust...

You have some options, if you need more thrust, you can use LiquidFuel+Oxidiser which will give you double the thrust, fortunately because you're getting some thrust from a chemical reaction as well as from the heat of the nuclear reactor - that means that doubling your thrust doesn't half your specific impulse, you actually get to keep 3/4 of that. If you don't need really need thrust, you can get more efficiency by using LiquidFuel. Basically, make full use of the "toggle propellant" button.

Hi there, i tested a little around with this mod. Overall, it's a good thing but one thing needs hardy a tweak in my eyes:

Antimatter-Production in the Science-Lab:

- The production seems not going on while the producing "ship" is out of focus. I think, this should be changed.

- The production is _way_ to cheap in my eyes: I put a lab, two large reactors + 4 large Generators on a rover near the launchpad and this thing manage to fullfill the large AM-Container withhin a few ingame-hours.

Do you have the latest version of the mod? Antimatter production in the lab should be working while the ship is unfocused in this version, provided that you leave your generators turned on. The rate of antimatter production should be of the order a few units per day, not a full tank in a matter of hours. The science lab should tell you the rate it's currently producing at. What is that number reading?

I've dropped the research module with nuclear reactor and electric generator on some planets, and it does science. What happens when I click transmit science? What does it do? How do I use it to upgrade parts?

Transmitting science simply lets you receive that scientific data at another lab in some other part of the solar system. You upgrade parts by either docking a ship with a science lab or including a science lab as a part of your ship, then click "retrofit" on the part you want to upgrade.

Also, on what planets can I collect anti-matter and what exactly is the purpose of anti matter?

You can collect antimatter in orbit of any planet. What it does is it lets you fuel the antimatter reactors, which produce massive amounts of power and make ridiculously powerful rockets when you connect the thermal rocket to one.

MJ ( Megajoules) what ALL can they be used for?

They can be used by the Alcubierre Drive to create the Exotic matter needed to form the warp bubble, to power the plasma thrust, to run the science lab - either performing research, generating antimatter, doing electrolysis, etc.

All I really need to know right now, is how the instrument (magnetometer) works, and how to read the results as "this area will have a great/bad antimater production."

You only need the bottom line of the magnetometer data ("particle flux") in order to find good locations for harvesting antimater, the other lines are purely for scientific interest, they have no game effect. They're just fun things to investigate.

And how do I produce Exotic matter in the first place?????

The alcubierre drive will produce ExoticMatter automatically if you have available megajoules.

[Fractal_UK]

it shows me all of what is in my log file in the first pastebin link I posted...this is a first time run of the game so that might be why there is very little in there

My log ends on: [LOG 23:43:07.895] Reference Frame: Rotating

and that's all that's in there:/

If you can't figure out what is wrong here, I'd be happy to do a remote access session if you want and you can have a look, if you have time ofc

Check that, I may off just managed to make it work

Ah, my mistake, I guess it just looked incomplete near the bottom because it's a very simple ship.

Everything looks fine in the log though, there *shouldn't* be any problems.

[Kerbinator24]

Well needless to say I have managed to make it work \o/

I put both the receiver and transmitter on the same ship and magically the options appeared:D

Plus it now works all the time

[SeventhArchitect]

Alrighty now. So, I've gotten jsut about everything to work. Now I jsut need to find a way to make Antimatter useful on a rocket....

[SeventhArchitect]

Seriously. I can very easily make Antimatter now, just, how can it be USED? Cause the most I've got is using the antimatter to power an antimatter reactor (I think it's a reactor), and that could be used to power something else. Only, it creates thermal power, and no actual fuel goes through, so I can't use a thermal rocket, but it can be used to power a regular electric generator, which can then be used to power a plasma thruster, but I tried that. It only gives out 2.1 KN when I try.

I don't know what to use anymore, because antimatter can't be used as hard fuel for anything at all, and that kinda disappoints me...

[Seeker89]

To my understanding. Antimatter -> Thermal Power -> MJ -> Warp Core, Computer Core, and Science Laboratory. Antimatter will also give a bigger boost to Thermal Engines, then just using a Nuclear Reactor.

P.S. I'm sorry if I'm horribly wrong, or missed something

Edited September 9, 2013 by Seeker89
P.S.

[SeventhArchitect]

I've tried antimatter to thermal, to thrust, but it's still so much less efficient, and so much less thrust than regular liquidfuel engines.

Please, someone PLEASE, explain to me a way to use antimatter that would BENEFICIAL! D: I'm starting to get frustrated.

The only thing that I can make, that flies, and is self-sufficient, is my Only living prototype, which I powered by electrical engines, and slapped on a small alcubierre drive, small reactor, and small megajoule generator. Anything that I try thats bigger just won't work!