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

[Imca]

Finaly got to the final bit of the tech tree.....

Ummm how do I make exotic mater?

[BlazingAngel665]

Start charging your warp drive. With copious quantities of power it will make exotic matter

[AlchemicalAgent]

I was curious, since I don't think I've seen it brought up yet...

What's the current definition of the function of antimatter collectors?

Do they "suck up" or "catch" antiparticles naturally generated in the magnetic fields of celestial bodies?

Or are the devices designed instead to create otherwise ideal conditions for the manifestation of antiparticles while within the influence of sufficient magnetic field strengths?

If the first case is true, then would not the second case be a potentially far more effective method in the long run? Then again, would such a device even be possible? Considering the apparent properties of "magnetricity" (a better name is really needed) and metamaterials (is there anything they CAN'T do), I would have to say such a device is completely possible...but still, would it be effective?

Just musing out loud. Maybe it'll spark inspiration.

I'd imagine it's modeled as an antiproton trap, making it your first case. Antiprotons are generated from interaction of cosmic rays with the atmosphere of a planet. These stream from the Sun as well as interstellar space. The magnetic fields of planets just serve to trap the generated particles which can then be collected to power your rocket.

[SorensonPA]

Can someone please tell me what ship-based factors modify antimatter gathering speed? I've got a ship with one scoop and one science lab but it's only producing ~2.78e-4/s which doesn't seem to vary no matter the antimatter flux and I can't tell if it's my design or something in the background that's hosed up.

[Cairan]

On the subject of antimatter collectors ... they are quite difficult to stack, as they get very wobbly... I'm going to try a radial approach for an upgrade to my collector array on my deep space mothership, using structural girders radiating from the central core out to collectors arranged in a midship belt.

[Skoot]

Something seems to be off with the Xenon comsumption rate of the plasma thruster... like by a factor of 100 or something. I got everything fully upgraded, and I use a small antimatter reactor + generator and a 1.25 plasma thruster. When I run the plasma engine on Argon, it looks fine: I can get a decent amount of DeltaV out of the 1080 Argon that's in your mod's tank. But when I use XenonGas, it sucks through it at 100 times the rate of the Argon and I can't run the engin for more than a couple of seconds. What am I missing here?

[Skoot]

Can someone please tell me what ship-based factors modify antimatter gathering speed? I've got a ship with one scoop and one science lab but it's only producing ~2.78e-4/s which doesn't seem to vary no matter the antimatter flux and I can't tell if it's my design or something in the background that's hosed up.

For the science lab, the factors are the number of scientists (1 or 2) and the amount of power you can get them (you need 5GW of power to run it at full capacity). 2.78e-4/s is the max you can get out of a science lab.

You don't need a scoop for the science lab to produce antimatter, they use the onboard particle accelerator. Scoops produce antimatter on their own, and the amount vary depending on where your ship is. You can have multiple scoops to speed things up. Here's my antimatter factory:

It weight 734 tons, has 16 kerbals in it, and it required 11 (succesful) launches to put it into orbit.

[SorensonPA]

Something seems to be off with the Xenon comsumption rate of the plasma thruster... like by a factor of 100 or something. I got everything fully upgraded, and I use a small antimatter reactor + generator and a 1.25 plasma thruster. When I run the plasma engine on Argon, it looks fine: I can get a decent amount of DeltaV out of the 1080 Argon that's in your mod's tank. But when I use XenonGas, it sucks through it at 100 times the rate of the Argon and I can't run the engin for more than a couple of seconds. What am I missing here?

Density, I think. Xenon has a density of .0001 per unit vs. .005 for LFO, so even the biggest containers from the spherical/toridial tanks mod will hold an absolute pittance. Though I did notice too that Xenon has an extremily small energy cost for its use (15.67 Mj vs 2536 for Argon) so that might be the big factor as well. I'm gonna' edit out that decimal and see how she goes.

EDIT: Oh wow, I thought the science lab was necessary for antimatter production. Thank goodness those side adapters from the S/TT mods are the right size for gatherers, gonna' put like six of the damn things on my next AM farmer.

Edited October 30, 2013 by SorensonPA

[Tobyz28]

If you have questions, probably the best thing to do is just to ask here, I or someone else will be able to help you.

The wiki is open to contribution by anyone, it wasn't all written by me, there are some large sections that weren't so you're welcome to help out as you discover things.

Cool will do, thanks Fractal

I may have found a bug with the Microwave Receivers, unless this is by design. I've found the small receivers are highly efficient when spammed vs using the huge receiver (Phased Array Micro Transmitter). I've setup a large array of the small ones and it vastly out-powers (and i think has more MW received than what is being transmitted).

Edited October 30, 2013 by Tobyz28

[Tharios]

Do you mean Electromagnetism?

Technically, yes. I'm referring to the specific property of either artificial (spin ice) monopoles, or tetrahedral structures made of true monopoles to "transmit" or "conduct" a magnetic field from one point to another by being unable to attain a rest state where the fields balance out.

I'm not well-versed in it. It would basically be like arranging a series of magnetic structures so that no matter how they align, one of them will always be flipped the wrong way, automatically forcing the others out of alignment continuously.

I imagine looking up "spin ice" or magnetricity will at least let you know what I'm referring to. You might even find the published papers that I can't get to because I'm unable to pay for copies.

[QuixoticKoala]

I've been having some trouble with the science labs. I put three of them in orbit with the resources to power them and they say they are generating science (about .14 per day); I then switched to another ship and time accelerated for ten days and then switched back to the science station, but I didn't get any science from it. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

[Thourion]

I've been having some trouble with the science labs. I put three of them in orbit with the resources to power them and they say they are generating science (about .14 per day); I then switched to another ship and time accelerated for ten days and then switched back to the science station, but I didn't get any science from it. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

...theres no science bar anymore, it just keeps adding it to the KSC when you fly it. If you leave the ship and fly somthing else, it will keep track from the time you left it, and when you return, it will calculate and give the total again to KSC.

A) So you fly the LAB (im gonna call it the lab, no matter whats going on, at least it has Labs that work).

You switch to another ship (many ships no matter, do stuff).

C) You go back to LAB, just for loading the actual ship/craft/construction.

D) Leave go back to KSC = Profit

Specifically in your case, take note that (unless something terrible is happening within my head), you got 0.14 science per day, for 3 labs = 0.42, you had them for 10 days = 4.2 science. Thats 4 science, if you had 1000 now you have 1004, so maybe you missed it going up.

[QuixoticKoala]

So I followed your steps A-D exactly, using time acceleration during step B so that forty days elapsed and I still got no science. Is there a minimum altitude that the labs must be above in order to work?

[Lalwcat]

Quickie, what's with the Vacuum Plasma fuel option on the plasma thrusters? It's not on the wiki for any kind of data for thrust/isp. The engine comes with 10 units of it, but no idea how to get more of it either

[forsaken1111]

Quickie, what's with the Vacuum Plasma fuel option on the plasma thrusters? It's not on the wiki for any kind of data for thrust/isp. The engine comes with 10 units of it, but no idea how to get more of it either

It refuels itself in space.

[stevron]

Quickie, what's with the Vacuum Plasma fuel option on the plasma thrusters? It's not on the wiki for any kind of data for thrust/isp. The engine comes with 10 units of it, but no idea how to get more of it either

Let's you pilot in a vacuum with out the need for any form of fuel and will not run out for as long as you remain in a vacuum. Has the same thrust as lone Liquid Fuel.

[Thourion]

So I followed your steps A-D exactly, using time acceleration during step B so that forty days elapsed and I still got no science. Is there a minimum altitude that the labs must be above in order to work?

Well i dunno about minimum altitude, only thing i think counts is if the LAB shows the rate when you right click it, then it should add it up.

Of course theres different rates depending on where you are. (Link for chart from earlier post) (Cheers Tharios)

Now other than that, are you sure that

a) You have the 2 required kerbals inside, and dont remove them when you leave the ship alone.

The ship doesnt run out of power at some point? Maybe theres not enough radiators to remove the heat buildup dunno. Of course you can check its performance while flying it to make sure.

c) Last check is always to make sure you got the latest version of this mod, and properly installed.

Cant think of anything else. Well unless you time reverted the new flight you were on after you've switched ships, that as well reverts the whole time duration of the initial Lab of course, resulting in 0 science generated. I doubt that you did but i just had to get it out

Edited October 30, 2013 by Thourion
Grammar is killing me with a hammer. Plus wrongly mixed up existing chart, with "i-wish-i-had-that-chart"

[Tharios]

(Link for chart from earlier post)

That's for antimatter collection, not science generation.

[rosenkranz]

So, playing around with this, I've been unable to build a rocket worth flying. Am I correct in that you can only attach two heat consumers to a reactor? (one on the top node and one on the bottom?) Thus you can have generator>reactor>generator or generator>reactor>nozzle.

Sorry, I'm just having some trouble figuring out how to make a rocket with these parts. I may need an KSPI for dummies book

[forsaken1111]

So, playing around with this, I've been unable to build a rocket worth flying. Am I correct in that you can only attach two heat consumers to a reactor? (one on the top node and one on the bottom?) Thus you can have generator>reactor>generator or generator>reactor>nozzle.

Sorry, I'm just having some trouble figuring out how to make a rocket with these parts. I may need an KSPI for dummies book

You can't attach two generators to a reactor iirc. ONE generator and/or ONE nozzle per reactor.

As for a rocket worth flying, what do you mean? Nuclear reactors aren't really intended as launch solutions but are very good for long duration flights since the reactor can last for literally years, longer still if you include a science lab to reprocess the fuel.

[EpsilonIndustries]

You can't attach two generators to a reactor iirc. ONE generator and/or ONE nozzle per reactor.

You can attatch multiple generators to a reactor as far as I know. The only caveat is that they will burn through the heat of the reator twice as fast meaning the reactor will not be able to keep up. You can also have an engine on one end and a genorator on the other though you may have to disable the genorator for the engine to be usefull. I don't know how 2 engines would react but I would assume that as long as you only have one fireing at a time it would be fine (don't know why you would want to fire your foward and reverse engines at the same time anyway but whatever).

[Thourion]

... don't know why you would want to fire your foward and reverse engines at the same time anyway but whatever...

Simple!

You make a Z configuration, and .. spiiiiiiiin! Plus you could make it a nice washing machine for the long trip to Jool, minor caveat is that you are inside it, but that could work as a wake up call for regular craft maintenance or whatnot. Excitment factor because 1000 games of Kahnjong dont cut it anymore?

I can think a million ways, but after only login about 4-5 hours of real life sleep during the past 48hrs, i can safelly assume that "Think" is a very optimistic function for me to perform.

[EpsilonIndustries]

Simple!

You make a Z configuration, and .. spiiiiiiiin! Plus you could make it a nice washing machine for the long trip to Jool, minor caveat is that you are inside it, but that could work as a wake up call for regular craft maintenance or whatnot. Excitment factor because 1000 games of Kahnjong dont cut it anymore?

I can think a million ways, but after only login about 4-5 hours of real life sleep during the past 48hrs, i can safelly assume that "Think" is a very optimistic function for me to perform.

I did think of that but if the engine is off center can it really be considered a forward or reverse engine? Eh, semantics. The important thing is that would be a lot of fun!

[forsaken1111]

You can attatch multiple generators to a reactor as far as I know

Last time I tested this it did NOT work. Have you actually tested any of this or are you just talking about how you believe it should work?

[EpsilonIndustries]

Last time I tested this it did NOT work. Have you actually tested any of this or are you just talking about how you believe it should work?

This is based on my experiences, though it may have changed since I did this. With 2 generators on one reactor I got 2 times the mj/s untill they used up the heat then it dropped back to the max output of the reactor. I don't remember which had priority but I have also done, for example, a reactor with a generator on one side and a thermal jet on the other. I will test again later today to see if I can still do this stuff.