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

[Fractal_UK]

I tried to improve the organization of the main wiki page by adding a table of contents, but the links don't work. Does anyone know how to do a proper link to a named anchor? Currently it's mangling the fragment identifier so that it doesn't match the named anchors on the page. The result is a properly-formed link that doesn't go anywhere.

Fixed it. Just use wiki#item instead of #item. The preview doesn't always work brilliantly for the wiki unfortunately, sometimes links that work in the preview don't work in the final version and vice-versa.

[db48x]

Fixed it. Just use wiki#item instead of #item. The preview doesn't always work brilliantly for the wiki unfortunately, sometimes links that work in the preview don't work in the final version and vice-versa.

Ah, I guess that's one way to do it. It's annoying to have to do that though.

And yes, I've noticed the problems with links in the preview, but in this case it was broken in both cases

Thanks

BTW, I put up a first draft of a guide to nuclear aircraft. https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/wiki/Long-duration-nuclear-airplanes

I'm not very experienced with aircraft in KSP, so I don't get into any real details. I welcome everyone's suggestions. I've got a craft I designed a while back which I'll take a screenshot of, but feel free to add your own. The more we have the better the page will be.

[Lightwarrior]

Actually you can take stock Aeris 3A, replace fuel tanks with reactor + inline radiator, replace engine and it will fly.

Generator is not really needed, but can be added too.

And this is good example for newbies IMO.

Edited December 7, 2013 by Lightwarrior

[BigD145]

I would love to see a super simple example craft with color coded Interstellar parts and legend go up on the wiki.

[SilentWindOfDoom]

I understand a lot of work is being done to improve the wiki, which is a lot of work but at the same time desperately needed. I just picked up the mod and frankly, even with the "wiki" as it exists now on github i scarcely know where to begin.

There is talk of upgrading things like the thermal generator, but how do I upgrade components?

When i begin mining resources, must i physically connect craft to transfer the resources or make use of mods like KAS?

[db48x]

I understand a lot of work is being done to improve the wiki, which is a lot of work but at the same time desperately needed. I just picked up the mod and frankly, even with the "wiki" as it exists now on github i scarcely know where to begin.

There is talk of upgrading things like the thermal generator, but how do I upgrade components?

When i begin mining resources, must i physically connect craft to transfer the resources or make use of mods like KAS?

See https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/wiki#technology

When you research Fusion Power at the R&D center, any thermal turbojets that you construct are automatically upgraded to Hybrid Thermal Rockets, able to use internal fuel in addition to atmospherics. Any thermal turbojets that are on craft already in flight are not automatically upgraded; you can right click on them and upgrade them individually.

You can use KAS or docking ports, whichever you prefer.

[SilentWindOfDoom]

See https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/wiki#technology

When you research Fusion Power at the R&D center, any thermal turbojets that you construct are automatically upgraded to Hybrid Thermal Rockets, able to use internal fuel in addition to atmospherics. Any thermal turbojets that are on craft already in flight are not automatically upgraded; you can right click on them and upgrade them individually.

You can use KAS or docking ports, whichever you prefer.

Thank you for the swift answer.

Another question, i rely on kerbal engineer and mechjeb to notify me of TWR and Dv numbers, it doesnt seem like those mods can make sense of the plasma thruster or the thermal rocket, which i suppose has something to do with the multiple fuel types and modular engine design (reactor x + generator y + nozzle z + fuel A .. etc) I dont suppose there is any way to get around that?

[db48x]

Actually you can take stock Aeris 3A, replace fuel tanks with reactor + inline radiator, replace engine and it will fly.

Generator is not really needed, but can be added too.

And this is good example for newbies IMO.

That's a great observation. I'll add that to the wiki.

[Donziboy2]

Thank you for the swift answer.

Another question, i rely on kerbal engineer and mechjeb to notify me of TWR and Dv numbers, it doesnt seem like those mods can make sense of the plasma thruster or the thermal rocket, which i suppose has something to do with the multiple fuel types and modular engine design (reactor x + generator y + nozzle z + fuel A .. etc) I dont suppose there is any way to get around that?

I have a calculator in my KSPI Datasheet that can tell you, or a scientific calculator works to.

Fractal_UK is still working on a way to make it possible for MJ and Kerbal Engineer to work with them.

[Donziboy2]

Ok fellas.

KSPI for Dummies V0.2

Its far from perfect, but thats why im posting it. Take a look and send comments, this is for beginners, I am not making a 50 page guide to every little thing.

Edit.. Ok my brain needs a rest

Edited December 7, 2013 by Donziboy2

[Eadrom]

Thank you for the swift answer.

Another question, i rely on kerbal engineer and mechjeb to notify me of TWR and Dv numbers, it doesnt seem like those mods can make sense of the plasma thruster or the thermal rocket, which i suppose has something to do with the multiple fuel types and modular engine design (reactor x + generator y + nozzle z + fuel A .. etc) I dont suppose there is any way to get around that?

MJ and KE will work just fine with thermal nozzles once you get into space and fire them to full throttle once. KSPI engines have variable thrust AND ISP in atmo, unlike stock engines that only change ISP. I believe that is why MJ and KE have issues predicting TWR and DV in the VAB and at launch.

Plasma thruster has issues still because of the complexity of the engine. It too scales in thrust and ISP in addition to using a mod custom resource (megajoules). KSPI has its own resource manager for its resources, and I'm not sure if MJ and KE are able to hook into that very well. I do know that whenever the engine is running, MJ and KE should be accurate for whatever throttle % you are currently running at. I think. I haven't looked at plasma thruster's much since 0.8 came out. Also keep in mind that with the last research node, the plasma thruster is upgraded to be able to use quantum vacuum as fuel and thus eliminates the need for fuel. So as long as provide it with power (MW), you have infinite DV (assuming you can continue powering the drive).

[forsaken1111]

Ok fellas.

KSPI for Dummies V0.2

Its far from perfect, but thats why im posting it. Take a look and send comments, this is for beginners, I am not making a 50 page guide to every little thing.

Donziboy2 can you throw the document you used to make this up onto google docs? I will help edit and expand it.

[SilentWindOfDoom]

Into space first eh? That's novel, that sounds dangerously close to KSP stock, god forbid I actually experiment! No but really, thanks for the replies and spreadsheet thingy, i will muck about and keep an eye on the wiki progress.

[Donziboy2]

Donziboy2 can you throw the document you used to make this up onto google docs? I will help edit and expand it.

Ive uploaded it 5 times now, every time it gets to the end and says it could not be uploaded.....

Also, Enter Elysium has another episode up, and its got the DT Vista.

Edit. got it...

KSP for Dummies

Im really starting to hate google....

Edited December 7, 2013 by Donziboy2

[forsaken1111]

I think the file is too large for it to convert due to the pictures. In any case I'll work on the doc a bit later today.

[Donziboy2]

It uploads with Google Drive, the preview is screwed up but once opened with Word its fine.

[Swordmaster]

I have a question: I am currently attempting to mimic the refinery set up as illustrated in the first picture (the craft with the four Refineries jutting out and away from the base). I cannot get the radial attachment points to "go green", and I have tried the micro docking ports without success. The attachment point at the bottom of the Refinery works, however. Anyone know why? Appreciate any help on the matter.

[DELTA_12]

is there any way to create megajoles from electricity? Because i dont want to have a nuclear reactor on my space station. Also I would like to see some kind of electricity to thermal power generator.

[pantheis]

These graphs by NA411 show the optimal altitudes to collect antimatter at all the bodies in the Kerbol system.

http://imgur.com/a/g313g#0

I stared at these for hours trying to read them and utterly failing. I have no idea how to read them.

[Donziboy2]

I stared at these for hours trying to read them and utterly failing. I have no idea how to read them.

Its pretty easy, the red parts are the places with highest concentration of AM. The bar on the right is the color to concentration table. At the very top each picture has a number x10-x, that is E-x, so for Kerbol the first picture the most you will see is something like 7.7E-4, or 0.00077 AM/s. And the bottom gives you the altitude, so 400000Km or 400Mm.

[db48x]

I have a question: I am currently attempting to mimic the refinery set up as illustrated in the first picture (the craft with the four Refineries jutting out and away from the base). I cannot get the radial attachment points to "go green", and I have tried the micro docking ports without success. The attachment point at the bottom of the Refinery works, however. Anyone know why? Appreciate any help on the matter.

It's an editor bug in KSP, not specific to the mod; you can see the same problems with the HubMax connector on the structural tab. Apparently it affects parts where the attachment points aren't vertical. It helps if you place the refinery on top of something first, then attach other parts to it. I recommend using the Select Root mod to let you build things like this; first build the leg with the refinery on it, change the root to the connector you've attached to the refinery, then pick up the leg by the connector and attach it with radial symmetry.

[inferno4200]

So I'm having a little bit of a problem. I've got the latest version and I've got a Science Lab up around Kerbin in a station. It has 4 XL solar arrays and a ton of batteries yet when I try to begin research, the lab pulls no power. What am I doing wrong? It does of course have 2 crew in the lab as well.

[Aghanim]

So I'm having a little bit of a problem. I've got the latest version and I've got a Science Lab up around Kerbin in a station. It has 4 XL solar arrays and a ton of batteries yet when I try to begin research, the lab pulls no power. What am I doing wrong? It does of course have 2 crew in the lab as well.

Science lab uses megajoule instead of electric charge, plop down a nuke and generator with several radiators and it will run normally

[Myrten]

Hey Fractal

Here is complete version of my relay routing algorithm with routes optimized for efficiency.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/1k16uz (updated for this dev version: https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/commit/17f5e268461f7abb072bda608dc1c93a2b524cdd)

This zip contains 2 files:

MicrowavePowerReceiver.cs - there are some changes in few places besides primary algorithm so I think it's better to post entire file. If you don't want some changes like extended labels with satellites\relays connected which I've made for testing let me know, I'll remove them.

MicrowaveRoute.cs - This file has to be added to the project, I had to create this class since KSP doesn't support System.Tuple. It's only for storing optimal route when algorithm is processing satellites.

How it works:

Algorithm is in GetConnectedTransmitters method and returns all transmitters towards which there is a line of sight and optimal routes to them in terms of highest efficiency possible given current vessel's orientation and position.

Since effective range of receivers is quite big, algorithm primarily focuses on angle (but since it calculates actual efficiency it will adapt to any changes if for example in future versions of KSPI receiver's ranges get nerfed).

Detailed explanation:

It's design is based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming and these two algorithms adapted to this problem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadth-first_search https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijkstra's_algorithm

I've divided relays into groups in which every relay in group must have line of sight with another relay in previous group:

For example: Receiver can see 4 relays and they form Group 1. Relays from Group 1 together can see 5 other relays which will now form Group 2. Relays from Group 2 can together see 7 other relays so they form Group 3 and so on....

This not only allows it to stop quicker if there are no more relays in sight but groups also constitute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimal_substructure necessary for dynamic programming.

Steps:

1. Create dictionaries for storing optimal routes to each relay\transmitter
   
2. Filter out inactive relays and transmitters with no power
   
3. Compute distances and line of sights between receiver and all transmitters\relay, if there is a direct connection then compute efficiency and store it in step 1 dictionaries. All relays with LOS to receiver are placed in Relay Group 1
   This step has N_r + N_t operations
   
4. Now we precompute line of sight checks and distance calculations for all combinations of relays, transmitters and relays, relays. Since distance and line of sight calculations for (R1,R2) are the same as for (R2,R1) we can limit number of operations in this step to:
   N_t * N_r + N_r*(N_r+1)/2
   All results are put in two dimensional arrays.
   
5. This is primary step: we go through all Relay groups and for each relay in particular relay group we:
   
   a)Check for line of sights to all transmitters using pre-computed array from step 4, if there is a connection we check in dictionary from step 1 if this route is more efficient then route which is already stored in dictionary. If that's the case or there is no other route known we put route using this relay in dictionary as optimal.
   
   
   b)Do the same as in step a) but for all other relays. We want to know current (sub)optimal route to each relay in line of sight.
   
   
   c)all relays which have not yet been processed and are in line of sight to any of relays in this relay group are added to next relay group to be processed in next iteration.
   
   
6. Another dictionary containing final results is build from step 1's dictionaries.

   
   

7. 
   

Performance:

Number of line of sight\distance check operations: N_r + N_t + N_t * N_r + N_r*(N_r+1)/2

Number of facing factor calculations: N_r + N_t

Number of efficiency calculations (very pessimistic): N_r+N_t + N_r(N_t+N_r-1)

I've optimized efficiency calculation and in most cases it will just check if distance< penalty-free distance and return 1*facingFactor, if not it's very simple calculation as facing factor is inherited from relay\transmitter on start of this route which is visible from receiver.

I hope this is understandable, I'm a bit sleepy now so sorry if there are any errors in this description

Edited December 8, 2013 by Myrten

[Donziboy2]

Nice Myrten

Ok, so I grabbed a B9 SSTO and had some fun with it, put 8 fusion reactors on it with thermal turbojets. 10 seconds after I took the second picture, I noticed I did not route fuel lines.... almost a full orbit with nothing but hot air