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

[CleverLikeMe]

Thanks for answering my questions. Huge help!

Just for reference I was able to get MJ to display the target phase angle and orbital information, you just have to tweak the custom windows a bit. I'm not sure if engineer would be a better option, but this worked and all of mine are almost exactly 120 degrees, which is good enough.

Now to test the system...!

[AerospaceME]

To those setting up relay networks:

Make sure you match the semi-major axis / orbital period exactly, not the apogee and perigee. That will keep the phase angles from drifting. If the apo/peri doesn't match, you'll have some radial wobble, but if the orbital periods don't match then your phase angles wont be stable and your satellites will drift toward/away from each other, mucking up the network.

[andy1]

Is this incorporated into the stock tree?

[Kaethorin]

I've been using them as a secondary intake and as i said both radial and the stackable one wont work, i haven't tried with the tanks but, id have though they could go straight into the general atmorsphere catagory if i had other intakes already. i generally use the 1.25m setup, and only 2 radial scoops, with 2 Ram Air Intakes. the thing that happens is they state they have no airspeed, as if i'm just sitting still. is it due to nowhere for storing oxygen, nitrogen, etc...? it feels like the items are a bit big to build a working plane just from 1.25 parts then :/

[metalpoetza]

I've been using them as a secondary intake and as i said both radial and the stackable one wont work, i haven't tried with the tanks but, id have though they could go straight into the general atmorsphere catagory if i had other intakes already. i generally use the 1.25m setup, and only 2 radial scoops, with 2 Ram Air Intakes. the thing that happens is they state they have no airspeed, as if i'm just sitting still. is it due to nowhere for storing oxygen, nitrogen, etc...? it feels like the items are a bit big to build a working plane just from 1.25 parts then :/

Yes, you have to add somewhere to store the things you're gathering. For my test I added a standard LT400 fuel tank, used the tweakable option to empty it out - and the scoop (set for oxygen) filled it up with oxidizer - and did so even when I was braked on the runway.

[metalpoetza]

I need a little help guys -I've unlocked the fusion reactors and the DT-Engine now - and they look like awesome technology but I'm struggling to come up with a nice mission to really showcase their abilities and teach users about them. I would love some suggestions/ideas ? How do you use yours ? What do you use them for ?

[RadHazard]

I need a little help guys -I've unlocked the fusion reactors and the DT-Engine now - and they look like awesome technology but I'm struggling to come up with a nice mission to really showcase their abilities and teach users about them. I would love some suggestions/ideas ? How do you use yours ? What do you use them for ?

I used a DT-Vista to get three satellites into low kerbol orbit in one mission. That engine is absolutely insane with it's Isp as long as you stick to 1/2 or 1/3 throttle. I can't think of any other missions with such a high dV requirement, which is where it really shines.

For fusion reactors, it'd be great if you could have a mission dedicated to producing the different fuels for it (deutrium, tritium, and helium-3). Additionally, it would be good if you could showcase the different fuel modes and how they vary in effectiveness (D/T for thermal rockets, D/He-3 for fuel-efficient electricity, Pure He-3 for more electricity). You could also have another plasma engine mission, as a fusion reactor running pure He-3 and powering a xenon-burning plasma engine is probably the first self-sufficient plasma craft you can make that has a decent level of thrust.

[InfinityArch]

Brachistochrone transfers to the moons of Kerbin and back.

[metalpoetza]

I used a DT-Vista to get three satellites into low kerbol orbit in one mission. That engine is absolutely insane with it's Isp as long as you stick to 1/2 or 1/3 throttle. I can't think of any other missions with such a high dV requirement, which is where it really shines.

I used rather more primitive designs to do that - each relay had an LV-919 attached to an LT-800 tank

That said I have already got a basic microwave network mission based on your guide - maybe if you can give me some help (since I haven't the foggiest idea how to do it) a really cool one would be a follow up using fusion/DT engine (can you use a DT engine with a fusion reactor ? I can't quite tell from the wiki and haven't really tried) to expand that into a Kerbol network that will let you use plasma engines interplanetary - even if perhaps initially just for the inner planets ?

Based on the wiki though - the best way to do that would be to use solar panels on your generators, which rather rules out fusion (see my dillema) ?

For fusion reactors, it'd be great if you could have a mission dedicated to producing the different fuels for it (deutrium, tritium, and helium-3). Additionally, it would be good if you could showcase the different fuel modes and how they vary in effectiveness (D/T for thermal rockets, D/He-3 for fuel-efficient electricity, Pure He-3 for more electricity). You could also have another plasma engine mission, as a fusion reactor running pure He-3 and powering a xenon-burning plasma engine is probably the first self-sufficient plasma craft you can make that has a decent level of thrust.

I could see value in this approach - there is an earlier mission (much earlier) to set up a tritium breeding factory - I'm not even sure how you would produce deuterium and He3 yet but building missions to create a complete fusion refuelling factory could be quite cool. Then perhaps follow up missions using the reactors for different jobs to show each fuel mode at it's best. That sounds like a cool mission set - about 6 missions in all probably.

[metalpoetza]

That's actually quite easy to code - if I can get decent estimates on what the real times would be for something to qualify as Brachistochrone on those - since KSPStoryMissions allow you to set timelimits on completing objectives, I could then set objective from Kerbal orbit to say Mun orbit within a timelimit just a tiny bit over the Brachistochrone (to allow some margin for human error) and let players use these engines to try and achieve it.

[Dreadp1r4te]

That's why I was asking as it turns out - my idea is completely impossible. Solar panels do not, apparently, produce MegaJoules and thus cannot power a thruster even if you do get it close to the sun (which I finally managed). Though if I understand the WIKI right, hooking a microwave transmitter up to a solar powered satelite will allow the receivers to get megajoules from it.

Odd little quirk that - it means in theory if you hook up a solar satelite with a receiver right in front of a transmitter you may actually be able to power a plasma thruster (very weakly most likely considering losses in that circular process).

No, solar panels don't generate MJ, which ought be corrected since they DO generate waste heat; in theory a generator could take that heat and convert it into MJ by the same token it does with a reactor's heat. It would obviously generate infinitely less MJ; in fact it might be so trivial an amount that that's why it wasn't included.

That being said, my comment was that as long as the solar panel was generating electricity, the PROBE would function, thus allowing you to reactivate the microwave receiver you mentioned and power your thruster.

[metalpoetza]

No, solar panels don't generate MJ, which ought be corrected since they DO generate waste heat; in theory a generator could take that heat and convert it into MJ by the same token it does with a reactor's heat. It would obviously generate infinitely less MJ; in fact it might be so trivial an amount that that's why it wasn't included.

That being said, my comment was that as long as the solar panel was generating electricity, the PROBE would function, thus allowing you to reactivate the microwave receiver you mentioned and power your thruster.

All true, and I understood the context of your comment. That being said - the WIKI states that KSPI follows the inverse square law with solar panels and that two gigantors at a 500Mm orbit around Kerbol should give an output greater than an upgraded 3.75m fission reactor + 3.75m generator - and this could be used to generate a microwave transmission generator. I assume from this (though I haven't confirm this) that despite solar panels not producing MJ as a resource, the microwave transmitter would use the electrical charge and a receiver would in fact gain MJ.

Has anybody tested this ? It would be an awesome mission to create though quite advanced since it takes massive delta-V to get into low Kerbol orbit. If you drag a generator or a mass of fuel along to do it with and then set up a solar power plant... well yes, it would work but it seems terribly inelegant to me.

Update: I fired up my sandbox, set a satelite with 4 gigantors and a deployable transciever into low Kerbol orbit and fired everything up (I used hyperedit since I was just testing a theory) - then set a small ship nearby - it had no fuel whatsoever, just a whack of recievers and a plasma engine. I verified that the recievers were building up MJ even though the sending ship didn't have any - and the plasma thruster fired just fine.

Edited January 6, 2014 by metalpoetza
Updated information

[Dreadp1r4te]

(snip)

I used rather more primitive designs to do that - each relay had an LV-919 attached to an LT-800 tank

That said I have already got a basic microwave network mission based on your guide - maybe if you can give me some help (since I haven't the foggiest idea how to do it) a really cool one would be a follow up using fusion/DT engine (can you use a DT engine with a fusion reactor ? I can't quite tell from the wiki and haven't really tried) to expand that into a Kerbol network that will let you use plasma engines interplanetary - even if perhaps initially just for the inner planets ?

(/snip)

From what I can tell from looking at the DT, it requires power and lots of it. You could in theory hook it up to fusion reactors, but you'll need at LEAST 6 Upgraded 1.25m Fusions running pure HE3 and 6 1.25m Generators set to Direct Conversion mode. At that point, it may actually be lighter (and earlier to afford) to simply use a 3.75m upgraded Fission reactor with an upgraded 3.75m Generator. This will net you the power you need to initialize the reaction. Since the D/T generates no power on it's own, it needs external power to function, despite being a reactor of sorts unto itself. The standard fusion reactors have the advantage that once they're started (which you can do in the VAB/SPH) as long as they have a generator hooked up to them, the reaction becomes self-sustaining.

Now, for my good news! I finally got some promising results out of the thermal turbojets, strapping an upgraded 2.5m Fission to one of my spaceplane designs instead of my usual B9 SABRE engines. Since I have the Jet upgraded too, I can toggle it over to LFO once I run out of atmo, and woooo this baby is EFFICIENT. This is gonna change my entire take on spaceplane use. Check it out! Sorry it's a bit dark; Kerbol decided it wanted to take a nap I guess.

[Kaethorin]

thank you guys for the help on that and i was actually wondering, i keep having the scoops bug back to full size at launch after they were shrunk via scoop1.cfg, i feel the smaller one is too big for my craft, its the only one i use though so i decided to change it from rescale .75 to .25 (works when i made it as the radial air intake from squad, but doesnt work obviously due to being different parts all together ) but the scale is working in VAB/SPH not once loaded and prepped to launch.

http://i.imgur.com/zMOCIFj.jpg' alt='zMOCIFj.jpg'> This is a pic of what i mean, the larger ones in the backround are the unmoddified size and the closer one is the XMG version that i wish the other would stay at size wise (i reverted the cfg for the picture)

Edited January 6, 2014 by Kaethorin

[Lightwarrior]

From what I can tell from looking at the DT, it requires power and lots of it. You could in theory hook it up to fusion reactors, but you'll need at LEAST 6 Upgraded 1.25m Fusions running pure HE3 and 6 1.25m Generators set to Direct Conversion mode. At that point, it may actually be lighter (and earlier to afford) to simply use a 3.75m upgraded Fission reactor with an upgraded 3.75m Generator. This will net you the power you need to initialize the reaction. Since the D/T generates no power on it's own, it needs external power to function, despite being a reactor of sorts unto itself. The standard fusion reactors have the advantage that once they're started (which you can do in the VAB/SPH) as long as they have a generator hooked up to them, the reaction becomes self-sustaining.

Those 6*fusion reactors are WAY lighter. Here are the numbers:

43T (3.75 fission reactor) + 8T (3.75 generator) = 51T

(1.55T (1.25 fusion reactor) + 0.5T (1.25 generator))*6 = 12.3T

And this is without radiators, which will be heavier for fission reactor too.

Also by the time you get upgraded fusion you can simply use single 1.25m AM reactor which will be just 3.5T reactor+generator+AM storage, but you will need some antimatter.

Also fission reactor will require some maintenance. Refuel (with really heavy fuel + kerbals), removal of waste etc. But fusion reactors can be simply refueled using few light and small tanks, produce no waste, and can be shut down / restarted at will to conserve fuel.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Lightwarrior

[Dreadp1r4te]

thank you guys for the help on that and i was actually wondering, i keep having the scoops bug back to full size at launch after they were shrunk via scoop1.cfg, i feel the smaller one is too big for my craft, its the only one i use though so i decided to change it from rescale .75 to .25 (works when i made it as the radial air intake from squad, but doesnt work obviously due to being different parts all together ) but the scale is working in VAB/SPH not once loaded and prepped to launch.

I'm not 100% sure as I've never done part scaling, but you *MAY* need to remove the scoops from the craft, then put them back on, then save the craft and try launching. Again, though, I have no idea, but I know that in some cases of .cfg tweaking I was unable to use a prior saved craft after the .cfg edits if I wanted the cfg edits to stick.

Those 6*fusion reactors are WAY lighter. Here are the numbers:

43T (3.75 fission reactor) + 8T (3.75 generator) = 51T

(1.55T (1.25 fusion reactor) + 0.5T (1.25 generator))*6 = 12.3T

And this is without radiators, which will be heavier for fission reactor too.

Also by the time you get upgraded fusion you can simply use single 1.25m AM reactor which will be just 3.5T reactor+generator+AM storage, but you will need some antimatter.

Okay so the weight isn't a concern then; it's actually fairly beneficial, but outclassed by the tech you get when you unlock upgraded fusions... well I guess that answers that question!

Edited January 6, 2014 by Dreadp1r4te

[metalpoetza]

I've begun implementing the mission set as we discussed here - doing some fairly simple missions showing the differences between the three fuel modes on small unmanned craft. DT was easy enough, He3 is simple - run a plasma thruster on it, but what has me stumped is how to showcase D/He3 - so it's a little less fuel and a little more electricity... what would you do with that practically ? I could use an example of a use for it to showcase.

[Deredere]

Would be nice to have a way of filling Helium-3 and Tritium tanks in the VAB without TAC Fuel Balancer.

Not really realistic to make a space program produce this stuff when there are lakes of 'em kicking around in the real world.

Antimatter, on the other hand, would probably be produced by the space program or a contractor. What else has a use for ultimate energy density at insanely poor efficiency?

[Lightwarrior]

...

Okay so the weight isn't a concern then; it's actually fairly beneficial, but outclassed by the tech you get when you unlock upgraded fusions... well I guess that answers that question!

Problem with antimatter reactors is that they consume antimatter which require some time and effort to collect. It also limits their usage as long-term power source because you will run out of antimatter and collecting/prodicing it is hard and slow.

But fusion reactors can be used "out of the box", even with He-3 you only need to warp few weeks on the launchpad. And you can carry enough fuel for then to run for years, and/or collect those fuel fast enough for them to run indefenitely long.

[Konnor]

Finally built a fusion-powered SSTO spaceplane, just for the sake of it. I've tried many times before with liquid fuel only, and the thrust was not enogh to leave an atmosphere. But it is enough with LFO, and Isp is still impressive.

Now, this craft does not seem to be particularily useful, and it is not actually designed to be, but I just like the notion of a small fuel-efficient vehicle to transfer kerbals between surface and low orbit stations, and my previous attempt used an LFO tank twice larger plus another LF-only tank.

Looking forward to try out the 2.5m fusion reactor. Maybe it will allow for fuel-efficient cargo spaceplanes with reasonable part count.

[Thahat]

long time lurker and KSP lunatic here

lets start off: thanks for making this mod!

secondary point, i have been reading in the thread a bit and the most people tend to use for warp jump is 'guestimate it' if i may, i would like to make a sugestion for a part:

the warp navigational computer. or also know as "CHEWY,TURN ON THE NAVIGATIONAL COMPUTER, gnnghhhheuyuyyry sound"

because even in KSP if you fly blind, smashing into rogue planets is quite frequent without perfect timing and hotkeys XD.

of coarse, blind warp jumps should still work as usual ('targeting computers are for non-kerbals! splee!') but having some maner of warp jump navigation would be nice. somehow ting it to mechjeb even better, but even a 'look at your compass and do this' kind of trick would help. just my two cents

[rottielover]

Question: How many radiators do you need to keep 2 of the big solar panels from building up waste heat? I've tried up to 4 of the small fold-out rads + a .65m in-line and the are still building waste heat. Has anyone come up with a chart or guide on how many / big of radiators you need per reactor or per solar array ?

[Fractal_UK]

Question: How many radiators do you need to keep 2 of the big solar panels from building up waste heat? I've tried up to 4 of the small fold-out rads + a .65m in-line and the are still building waste heat. Has anyone come up with a chart or guide on how many / big of radiators you need per reactor or per solar array ?

One of any radiator in the mod will do that. They will all build up heat for a while then stop once the radiators heat up sufficiency to dissipate the heat. It shouldn't take long to stabilise.

[rottielover]

One of any radiator in the mod will do that. They will all build up heat for a while then stop once the radiators heat up sufficiency to dissipate the heat. It shouldn't take long to stabilise.

Wow. you really did think of everything with your mod.. kudos!

[TheDude]

Is there any way to add waste heat to another part? I'm tossing around an idea for a part and I want a byproduct of its use is waste heat. (Like solar panels.)