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

[VorpalHerring]

Hi guys,

Just curious, I'm trying to work out the requirements for fusion power, what works and what doesn't.

What didn't work was putting a fission reactor on a decoupler and letting it go before takeoff, just giving me a "starter". It runs but the generator, elsewhere on the ship doesn't detect it and won't start. I tried fuel lines, they didn't seem to do anything...

So, I put a fission reactor with its own gen, that runs fine, but the generator I want to start on my ship is still giving me the "no reactor found" message... Even when I start the fusion reactor with the acquired megajoules from the fission set, the ship gen still doesn't see the fusion reactor as a valid "reactor", and won't start, even if it is right next to it. How does one do this?

Next, If I want to attach say 8 fusion reactors to a 2.5m generator, if I attach them using the "fake docking port" part (which has fuel crossfeed enabled) to the SIDE of the generator, they don't pass their MW/th energy to it. Attach on the top, works fine for the FIRST layer, but if I put another lot on top of them (without the fake d-port), they aren't seen by the generator.

Is that the fake d-port acting weirdly, or is there some sort of rule, "how far the reactors can be from the generator"?

To save me hours of testing, I thought I'd just ask! Thanks again for all the updates Fractal!

generators have to be attached directly to the reactor, with nothing in between.

[BelgarionNL]

You could make a mothership with an abundance of reactors and generators and a microwave transmitter. Then your scout plane just needs a 1.25m plasma engine and some fuel of choice, with a ring of microwave receivers pointing in various directions.

Thanks! that's what I'll do!

And thank you fractal, got them resized! This mod is definately in the top 10. love it

[VorpalHerring]

Thanks! that's what I'll do!

And thank you fractal, got them resized! This mod is definately in the top 10. love it

I forgot to mention: The microwave receivers won't take more power than your radiators can handle, so to get max thrust out of it you need to have enough radiators.

[Lightwarrior]

BTW why will you need plane to scout mun?

You can just make rocket with thermal turbojet and it will start from kerbin without any problems. Wings + all other plane parts are just additional weight and parts.

And with those beamed power... there are some complications. At least when ship with transmitters will go to the other side of the mun you will have no power.

I tried it myself and came to conclusion that simple rocket with 1.25 fusion reactor, generator, thermal turbojet, single intake and T400 or even T200 fuel tank will be better.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Lightwarrior

[BelgarionNL]

because the mun is just the testing! I am also using it with kethane and I want to go to every planet but before I try to land on top of a kethane deposit that happens to be on a slope I like to recon the site first and then decide if I can land there!

Fractal: I can't weld interstellar mod parts together! probably because you have a weird mod folder structure???

this mod: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/38577-0-22-UbioZur-Welding-Ltd-2-0-Playtest-4-Now-In-Game-Tool?highlight=weld

[pasty2k2]

generators have to be attached directly to the reactor, with nothing in between.

OK, makes sense, but how then do you get more than two fusion reactors onto one generator (top and bottom)? They can't be radially attached far as I could work out, without something to hold it...

[VorpalHerring]

OK, makes sense, but how then do you get more than two fusion reactors onto one generator (top and bottom)? They can't be radially attached far as I could work out, without something to hold it...

I guess you could just use several smaller generators?

[Lightwarrior]

OK, makes sense, but how then do you get more than two fusion reactors onto one generator (top and bottom)? They can't be radially attached far as I could work out, without something to hold it...

When generator is attached to single reactor it will get maximum power based on reactor, then you can have as many reactors as you want, and can place them anywhere you want, they will produce ThermalPower which will be used by generator. I am not sure that it is intended behavior, but this is how it works now.

For example you can use fusion reactor+generator, and then use fission reactor on decoupler (without generator) to jumpstart it, and this will work.

[Hremsfeld]

You can put a generator and fission reactor on a launch stabilizer. Let it build up a few MJ, start up the fusion reactor (may take several clicks), and launch. The fission reactor will stay put, and your fusion reactor will merrily plug away.

You can also put Uf₄ and Thorium hex cans onto the launch pads and build a rigging to swap out the fission reactors, if that's more your style. I found that building a car in the SPH and driving it over worked best.

[Kabloosh]

This is such a great mod. Love the new concepts it brings to the game. However, I have no idea how to "upgrade" parts. It seems it'a rather difficult to find a tutorial on how to do this as well. It's either hidden, broken, or I'm just too oblivious on how to do this. :/

[egreSS]

Hi Fractal - found a little bug I think with the receiver and possibly transmitter. I can't get any faster than 12m/s in atmo with 4 receivers attached (on satellites). Possibly it has something to do with its reported area, and the fact I'm using FAR maybe?

Try deploying and redeploying the receivers - Cargobay door's on B9 used to have this bug with FAR

[red_prime]

I have this mod installed and while using my stock deployable solar panels i noticed that they had an additional attribute called waste heat generated.

I didn't pay much attention to it but then i noticed that once the heat generated filled up, the solar panels folded back up!! And now my satellite is a floating piece of junk

Do i need to add radiators even to stock satellies with solar panels?

[Eadrom]

I have this mod installed and while using my stock deployable solar panels i noticed that they had an additional attribute called waste heat generated.

I didn't pay much attention to it but then i noticed that once the heat generated filled up, the solar panels folded back up!! And now my satellite is a floating piece of junk

Do i need to add radiators even to stock satellites with solar panels?

I have usually been able to get by on early and mid-tech ships using small amounts of solar power on short missions and not using radiators.

You can solve the problem you had two ways. Either use stock RTG's or put one of those tiny radial radiators on your satellites.

[simmy2109]

I have this mod installed and while using my stock deployable solar panels i noticed that they had an additional attribute called waste heat generated.

I didn't pay much attention to it but then i noticed that once the heat generated filled up, the solar panels folded back up!! And now my satellite is a floating piece of junk

Do i need to add radiators even to stock satellies with solar panels?

Yes. All means of power generation generate 'waste heat' in this mod. You must destroy it with radiators or you satellites become junk. In the early part of the game, before you have radiators, plan ahead and realize that those satellites have limited lifespans. You can extend them only having as many panels deployed as are needed at any given time (eg. don't send you satellite to the Mun with all it's panels deployed).

[ExEvolution]

Does the science lab require someone piloting the ship in order to work?

[Fractal_UK]

Yes. All means of power generation generate 'waste heat' in this mod. You must destroy it with radiators or you satellites become junk. In the early part of the game, before you have radiators, plan ahead and realize that those satellites have limited lifespans. You can extend them only having as many panels deployed as are needed at any given time (eg. don't send you satellite to the Mun with all it's panels deployed).

There shouldn't be any period where you have solar panels but don't have radiators good enough to deal with the heat they produce. I was fairly careful to put radiators in the same tech nodes as the electrical generating equipment that required them.

Does the science lab require someone piloting the ship in order to work?

It needs Kerbals inside the lab, yes. Be careful when creating them in the VAB because the game won't fill secondary crewed modules by default.

[BelgarionNL]

I posted this:http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/38577-0-22-UbioZur-Welding-Ltd-2-0-Playtest-4-Now-In-Game-Tool?p=820185&viewfull=1#post820185 in the welding topic about your mod NOT being compatible! is this something he needs to fix or you?

[K3-Chris]

Errm, how do you upgrade parts in 0.8.2? it's not documented how and it's not in the right-click menu like before.

[pasty2k2]

When generator is attached to single reactor it will get maximum power based on reactor, then you can have as many reactors as you want, and can place them anywhere you want, they will produce ThermalPower which will be used by generator. I am not sure that it is intended behavior, but this is how it works now.

For example you can use fusion reactor+generator, and then use fission reactor on decoupler (without generator) to jumpstart it, and this will work.

Thanks for clarifying that - it does indeed work. I am therefore a noob, how it got it so backwards! But this leads me to one final query:

Is there a cutoff to the amount of reactors you can put on a gen does anyone know? I've tried the following - all reactors can provide their MW/th to the generator (tested), but it can only seem to make ~913 MW/e, for the 3.75m variant even. I reckon it should be about 1.5GW/e? I thought that thing could do up to 4.5GW/e with a nuke?

1 fusion

8 fusion

15 fusion

I can detach the fission reactor, and I lose about 75MW/th as expected, but my reported Maximum on the generator stays the same.

By the way this is with 0.8.1, so if it is known/sorted in 0.8.2, then no worries - I am about to re-upgrade to it. Currently on the older one because of the FAR issue and the transceivers, but will try previous suggestions of putting it in a fairing or deploy/undeploy before launch - thanks all for the tips! I'll help contribute to the guide if I can!

[Fractal_UK]

Errm, how do you upgrade parts in 0.8.2? it's not documented how and it's not in the right-click menu like before.

I haven't changed anything for part upgrades, are you sure you haven't just unlocked a tech that gives you some automatic part upgrades? Or not unlocked a tech required for the upgrade option to appear?

Is there a cutoff to the amount of reactors you can put on a gen does anyone know? I've tried the following - all reactors can provide their MW/th to the generator (tested), but it can only seem to make ~913 MW/e, for the 3.75m variant even. I reckon it should be about 1.5GW/e? I thought that thing could do up to 4.5GW/e with a nuke?

Using one generator with one reactor is the only supported combination. Other combinations may provide some limited functionality.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Fractal_UK

[Donziboy2]

I posted this:http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/38577-0-22-UbioZur-Welding-Ltd-2-0-Playtest-4-Now-In-Game-Tool?p=820185&viewfull=1#post820185 in the welding topic about your mod NOT being compatible! is this something he needs to fix or you?

Not all parts can be welded, there is alot going on with the parts in this mod and im not sure how they combine the parts.

[K3-Chris]

I'm using the interstellar tech tree, not seen any nodes that enable upgrades.

[NotCoach]

You don't need a science module on any ship, upgrading parts is done based on the tech tree, or, in the case of manual upgrades, done by spending science from the R&D centre to complete an upgrade.

What are the plans for tweakables in this mod under 0.23? I personally would like to see the option to pick fuels and upgrade state before building something.

[forsaken1111]

What are the plans for tweakables in this mod under 0.23? I personally would like to see the option to pick fuels and upgrade state before building something.

I'd love that. Being able to pick the reactor/generator type depending on the intended mission would be excellent.

[Donziboy2]

I'm using the interstellar tech tree, not seen any nodes that enable upgrades.

The tect tree ingame does not actually say it, the picture is on the first post of this thread.