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

[Unreal2004]

Hey all, have a simple question. I do not know what happened but I can not get the Dual Technique Magnetometer to log any science, it used to but now nothing happens, not even a warning that it cannot be done right now. The only options I have are to activate the magnetometer. This is in career mode, I have checked KSP's file integrity and re-installed KSP Interstellar to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Erzengel]

I've noticed that in the VAB there's an action group on the reactors to toggle, shutdown, and start up the reactors. However, they don't seem to do anything. Also, there aren't any action groups for deactivating generators, doing anything in the research module, etc. There's a "toggle" in the research module, but that's not very descriptive? What's it toggle? The lights? Research? The magnetometer doesn't have an "activate" group, either, just a log group. I haven't gotten to any of the higher items yet, but it's somewhat disappointing that I can't action group some of these things.

[Hremsfeld]

For anyone trying to put a science lab on a lander: If you decide to power it with a pair of the upgraded 0.625m reactors/generators for weight/reduced heating purposes, and you use MechJeb, slap a standard RTG or two on there somewhere. The tricklecharge that MechJeb requires is enough to overcome your small surplus of power production when time warping.

Edit: Unreal: Try a quicksave/quickload combo. If you did it at a place where the magnetosphere won't work, the option to log magnetic data is hidden from the right-click context menu. Alternatively, muck with your persistence file to put the log function into an action group; make a backup first if you aren't used to mucking with persistence files.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Hremsfeld

[Fractal_UK]

I've noticed that in the VAB there's an action group on the reactors to toggle, shutdown, and start up the reactors. However, they don't seem to do anything. Also, there aren't any action groups for deactivating generators, doing anything in the research module, etc. There's a "toggle" in the research module, but that's not very descriptive? What's it toggle? The lights? Research? The magnetometer doesn't have an "activate" group, either, just a log group. I haven't gotten to any of the higher items yet, but it's somewhat disappointing that I can't action group some of these things.

The action group options for reactors are there because some reactors are capable of being shutdown and restarted but the nuclear reactors are not capable of this, nuclear reactors will spool down to a minimum of 30% when there is no significant power draw. If they shutdown, they can only be restarted by an EVA Kerbal.

The toggle button on the science lab is for the lights, while the activate and deactive animation names can be changed on a ModuleAntimateGeneric, e.g. to "Lights ON", I don't believe this is the case for the toggle option unfortunately. Maybe someone can correct me on this though. Perhaps I'll integrate the lights animation into the internal science lab animation process at some point.

The magnetometer will have action group options in version 0.8.

Hey all, have a simple question. I do not know what happened but I can not get the Dual Technique Magnetometer to log any science, it used to but now nothing happens, not even a warning that it cannot be done right now. The only options I have are to activate the magnetometer. This is in career mode, I have checked KSP's file integrity and re-installed KSP Interstellar to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks!

When you re-installed, did you delete the old folders? Worth trying if you didn't. Also have a look at the part.cfg and make sure the ModuleScienceExperiment PartModule is in there. I don't know why it wouldn't be, but if you're not getting the option, it's worth checking.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Fractal_UK

[power5000]

Hello, I'm just getting into reactors and generators and everything. I'm curious to how the internal temp, thermal power, and mw affect the use of generators and radiators. I basically want to know how to figure out how much heat my reactor makes compared how much heat my radiators will radiate. and how much thermal power my generator will use/ how much mw it will make. thank you in advance.

[Erzengel]

The action group options for reactors are there because some reactors are capable of being shutdown and restarted but the nuclear reactors are not capable of this, nuclear reactors will spool down to a minimum of 30% when there is no significant power draw. If they shutdown, they can only be restarted by an EVA Kerbal.

In that case, I found a bug. I can click the "lock" button on the UF6 meter (vanilla. For some reason TACFB won't let me lock it.) and the reactor will shut down with 'UF6 starved' and then when I unlock it it starts right up. I only use this to have the reactor shut down at launch (My heat sinks are inside fairings until I get to orbit) and then turn it on once I'm in orbit. I would really like it if I could "force shutdown" of a nuclear reactor, then EVA a kerbal and start it up once I'm in orbit. (and when KSP adds tweakables, it would be nice if I could set it to "shutdown at launch" with the tweakables).

[pantheis]

Here is the picture of my 33 Kerbal, 16 science lab, super science point generating space station. Been on station for almost 2 years and I've only had to reprocess reactor fuel once. There is a docking port on top so I can bring in supplies or whatnot as needed (LOF and in 0.8, uranium fuel). The amount of science this thing generates is insane. I sent it out to Moho with just basic radiators and reactors and generators. Upgraded those parts as I unlocked (rapidly) the tech. All 16 labs are operating at full power and both reactors are still only burning at 30% each. I had to attach an additional module with some extra radiators until I was able to upgrade the ones that came on it, but other than that issue, it has worked brilliantly for me.

I was playing with landing a 16 science module lander on moho but never quite got the craft built the way I wanted. That said, what orbit is the "optimal" science orbit for moho? Don't you generate more on the surface?

[RadHazard]

For every planet, the closer you get, the better. At a certain height above the planet, the amount caps at a maximum value, though I'm not sure what the height is for each planet. Landing on the planet provides a 2x bonus to that maximum.

[Eadrom]

Max science orbit altitude is the radius of whatever body you are orbiting. And yes, you do get double that science rate if you land. I think tylo gives a 3x landed bonus and there is another place that gives 2.5x bonus, but I can't remember which (eve or laythr maybe).

The reason I didn't land 16 labs is the space craft I built was much lighter part and mass wise to just throw 16 labs in a low orbit. I can also dock modules with it for resupplying or crew recovery of whatever.

Edit:

Also, my station generates so much science so fast that it almost ruins the fun of unlocking the KSPI tech tree. Landing that many labs would only make that problem twice as bad.

Edited November 24, 2013 by Eadrom

[Fractal_UK]

Hello, I'm just getting into reactors and generators and everything. I'm curious to how the internal temp, thermal power, and mw affect the use of generators and radiators. I basically want to know how to figure out how much heat my reactor makes compared how much heat my radiators will radiate. and how much thermal power my generator will use/ how much mw it will make. thank you in advance.

The temperature and the various powers and power dissipations have slightly different effects. If you want to be totally safe against overheating, you need to be able to dissipate waste heat equal to your thermal power though in practise you'll always be safe with less than this, especially as you get better generators.

The temperature, on the other hand, effects the carnot efficiency of the generators. The reactor temperature is the "hot bath" and the radiator temperature is the "cold bath". The carnot efficiency is 1 - T_C/T_H. In other words, you want a big difference between the reactor and radiator temperature - hot radiators dissipate far more heat than cool radiators but they also harm generator efficiency if the temperatures are close. The generators don't generate power at the carnot efficiency however, they generate it at a percentage of carnot efficiency and that is the efficiency rating that you see in the VAB. On the generator GUI, the efficiency readout takes both into account.

In other news, 0.8 is almost ready.

[KhaosCorp]

AWESOME!

Really looking forward to 0.8. One of my favorite parts of KSP is industrial stuff.....Kethane and EPLP are among my top mods. Anything that adds to this aspect Im all for =)

Also the changes to the microwave system I am very interested in...that plus a plugin posted by PFlip and Im gonna completely redo how I handle all my space industry!

Also..about your last post...am I reading this right?....to many radiators are bad?

[Fractal_UK]

AWESOME!

Really looking forward to 0.8. One of my favorite parts of KSP is industrial stuff.....Kethane and EPLP are among my top mods. Anything that adds to this aspect Im all for =)

Also the changes to the microwave system I am very interested in...that plus a plugin posted by PFlip and Im gonna completely redo how I handle all my space industry!

Also..about your last post...am I reading this right?....to many radiators are bad?

No no, more radiators are always good. More radiators means that the average temperature of all the radiators goes down, lower average radiator temperature means more efficient generators.

[Eadrom]

The temperature and the various powers and power dissipations have slightly different effects. If you want to be totally safe against overheating, you need to be able to dissipate waste heat equal to your thermal power though in practise you'll always be safe with less than this, especially as you get better generators.

The temperature, on the other hand, effects the carnot efficiency of the generators. The reactor temperature is the "hot bath" and the radiator temperature is the "cold bath". The carnot efficiency is 1 - T_C/T_H. In other words, you want a big difference between the reactor and radiator temperature - hot radiators dissipate far more heat than cool radiators but they also harm generator efficiency if the temperatures are close. The generators don't generate power at the carnot efficiency however, they generate it at a percentage of carnot efficiency and that is the efficiency rating that you see in the VAB. On the generator GUI, the efficiency readout takes both into account.

For something like the plasma thruster, would the optimum # of radiators be so that radiation capacity = the waste heat generated by the generator + the plasma thruster? From what you've posted, the more radiators you have, the cooler they should all function, and the more electricity your generator should make, which means the plasma thruster generates more thrust, and consequently generates more waste heat. Logically, it looks like this relationship could be mathed out to figure out what the optimum number of radiators per reactor is for different applications (my primary interest would be with plasma thrusters). My issue is that I'm not sure where to start calculating this relationship. lol

In other news, 0.8 is almost ready.

amg amg amg! Can't wait! Best mod update ever! :D

[Goonswarm]

Fractal commented on how I could make more science by landing labs on planets and not just in orbit.

Needless to say I don't really enjoy the concept of multiple trips, and as such this was created.

Getting it into orbit was difficult, these were some of my initial trials.

[Eadrom]

Fractal commented on how I could make more science by landing labs on planets and not just in orbit.

Needless to say I don't really enjoy the concept of multiple trips, and as such this was created.

Getting it into orbit was difficult, these were some of my initial trials.

I used to put RCS on everything I sent into orbit. These days, I almost never put RCS on ships that will not be docking to anther ship. Saves you a TON of mass not having to put those big heavy RCS tanks and spamming your ships with RCS thruster blocks. This in turn would give you more delta-v from your launcher and interplanetary stages. If you are going to be docking an interplanetary stage to your research lander, instead put the RCS on the interplanetary stage and in turn dock it with the lander. That way your lander just needs a handful of reaction wheels to control it.

Also, you might try to use small clusters of LV-909's or 48-7S's. Those white radial engines are pretty blah. If you want to use clusters of smaller engines, you might try to attach some engines to a small fuel tank and then you only need to run one fuel line from those large tanks on top of your labs. If you intend on landing on a planet with an atmosphere, a good mix of drogue and regular parachutes can dramatically reduce your thrust needs for landing to the point where they are just assisting with the braking and are not your primary means of slowing your descent. Granted, chutes won't help if you land on something that doesn't have an atmosphere.

You mentioned you don't like making multiple trips. Another option you might consider is a seeder ship. You basically have a core interplanetary ship. Attached radially or whatever are a number of labs, each with their own landing systems. This way you can send a large number of labs to a planet/moon, and then one by one land your labs, "seeding" them across the surface. Think like a dandelion or a maple tree. Would be very easy for someplace like Laythe and Eve since a couple chutes would get the job done. Maybe a small chemical brake and some more chutes could easily let you land a bunch on Duna.

That being said, I like your lander. Has a cool look like a research base.

Edit 1:

I also had the idea that you could launch a large structure, much like what you built, and during descent to a planet or moon with atmo, it splinters into a number of chute landing modules. I just tested the concept and it worked beautifully. I launched 5 probe cores, each with their own chutes. At apoapsis, I staged and the ship splintered into a beautiful shower of parts, 5 of them with chutes open. I was worried that drag and chutes wouldn't work properly, but it appears that as long as they all stay withing physics range, all the pods will land. I'll post a short video later tonight. I would say the advantage of doing this as opposed to using chutes to land a single large structure would be that it is probably easier on structural integrity to land a lab with its power source. The disadvantage would be that each pod has to have its own systems (like you can't use one large reactor to power 5 labs; each lab would need its own power system, radiator, etc). Or you build the scatter separation system into a large lander as a backup. That way if you get a structural failure, instead of 5 labs crashing, you might only lose 1.

Edit 2:

Scatter landing vid postponed so I can play with awesome new 0.8 update.

Edited November 24, 2013 by Eadrom

[Fractal_UK]

Version 0.8 Released

The much awaited update is finally here. The comparitively large gap between updates this time has given me loads of time to cram this update full of new features so I hope you all enjoy them!

Version 0.8
-Added resource system for Uranium and Thorium mining
-Added new nuclear reactor models by Vaporlynx
-Added nuclear reactor thorium fuel options - as well as EVA shutdown/restart and refuel options
-Added Gamma ray spectrometer for resource scanning
-Nuclear reactor temperatures and thermal rocket isp correlation adjusted (doesn't affect engine performance)
-Existing small nuclear reactor repurposed into a fusion reactor - uses Deuterium and Tritium fuel + requires power to maintain
-Added Microwave Thermal Rocket - much of the code and the models by Conti
-Total rewrite of Microwave transmission system, solar and nuclear power can be used together, plus proper relay functionality
-Added methane oxygen rocket and ISRU sabatier process + methane oxygen fuel tank
-Added refinery part to handle resource mining, nuclear fuel reprocessing and electrolysis
-Electrolysis option removed from science labs
-Computer core fixed for Linux
-Computer core science persistence fixed
-Resource manager fixed to avoid free thrust bugs
-Thrust asymmetry fixed
-Liquid Fuel + Oxidiser now provides proper thrust
-Solar Panel inverse square law fixed, works with stock solar system and RSS
-Added science lab notification of amount of science added
-Improved Antimatter storage tank code
-Various GUI fixes

Download links on the first page have been updated

Edit: By the way, don't be surprised if your nuclear reactors have magically refueled themselves, they will do that to preserve compatibility.

Edited November 24, 2013 by Fractal_UK

[Eadrom]

WOOT!!!! Downloading now! Can't wait to test out all the awesome new stuff!! Thank you and excellent work as always!

[Goonswarm]

Version 0.8

-Added resource system for Uranium and Thorium mining

-Added new nuclear reactor models by Vaporlynx

-Added nuclear reactor thorium fuel options - as well as EVA shutdown/restart and refuel options

-Added Gamma ray spectrometer for resource scanning

-Nuclear reactor temperatures and thermal rocket isp correlation adjusted (doesn't affect engine performance)

-Existing small nuclear reactor repurposed into a fusion reactor - uses Deuterium and Tritium fuel + requires power to maintain

-Added Microwave Thermal Rocket - much of the code and the models by Conti

-Total rewrite of Microwave transmission system, solar and nuclear power can be used together, plus proper relay functionality

-Added methane oxygen rocket and ISRU sabatier process + methane oxygen fuel tank

-Added refinery part to handle resource mining, nuclear fuel reprocessing and electrolysis

-Electrolysis option removed from science labs

-Computer core fixed for Linux

-Computer core science persistence fixed

-Resource manager fixed to avoid free thrust bugs

-Thrust asymmetry fixed

-Liquid Fuel + Oxidiser now provides proper thrust

-Solar Panel inverse square law fixed, works with stock solar system and RSS

-Added science lab notification of amount of science added

-Improved Antimatter storage tank code

-Various GUI fixes

I bolded the ones that I understand. Learning curve on this game + mod is real high.

[Fractal_UK]

I bolded the ones that I understand. Learning curve on this game + mod is real high.

There is some more information about the changes in the first post - hopefully nothing in this update is too complicated once you've played it it a bit. Anyway, if you need general help with the mod, check out the wiki. I'll try and get it updated with the new features from 0.8 soon - though I need some sleep first, this update has been a massive job!

Until then, don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it.

[CalculusWarrior]

Thanks Fractal; I squealed with joy when I saw 0.8 had arrived! Get some rest, you deserve it.

[Goonswarm]

There is some more information about the changes in the first post - hopefully nothing in this update is too complicated once you've played it it a bit. Anyway, if you need general help with the mod, check out the wiki. I'll try and get it updated with the new features from 0.8 soon - though I need some sleep first, this update has been a massive job!

Until then, don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it.

Wow, didn't see the wiki! Thank you so much and I think it should be stated again how nice it is to have the mod creator active and helpful. You make this game so much more enjoyable by doing so.

[KhaosCorp]

Awesome Update!!!

The new models look great.

Did notice one thing though, the new refinery part, the stack nodes are messed up, facing the wrong way, also its not in tech tree.

[Eadrom]

Impressions, thoughts, possible bug reports:

* Thank you for the computer core background science generation fix, my massive supercomputer complex at Moho on one of my saves now works splendidly.

* The methane engine looks awesome and its power looks great.

* I wish the uranium and thorium tanks were 50% smaller visually. Also, it takes 8 tanks to completely refuel a 3.75m fission reactor. The current amount per tank is great for the 62.5cm fission reactor, except that the tank is way, way too big for my little probes. The size of the D/T is much more useful. I can see myself using the fusion reactors and keeping a D/T on hand for resupply.

* LOVE LOVE LOVE the little tiny radiators! I really like building small, efficient ships and probes and the new fusion reactors and these new tiny radiators are perfect. They are working at radiating heat as well.

* The fusion reactor's tooltip in the VAB/SPH has the following error: "Laser Power Consumption: MW" - it doesn't tell you how many MW are needed to kick off fusion.

* The 62.5cm fusion reactor has an issue with time warping. When filling up the MJ and Thermal power bars, I can't time warp faster than 50x without the fusion reactor turning off. Once the MJ and Thermal power are filled, I can time warp up to 1,000x, but it again turns itself off on higher time warps.

*Similar issue with the 1.25m fusion reactor. Turns itself off at 10x time warp. When MJ and thermal power are full, turns itself off 1,000x time warp.

* I was able to use a 62.5cm fission reactor attached to launch clamps to start the 62.5cm fusion reactor with a single click. I used a 1.25m fission reactor to start up the 1.25m fusion reactor, but I have to click the activate reactor button several times to get the fusion reactor to actually start up on the larger of the two fusion reactors (yes, I have more than 7 MJ resource bar).

* Physical time warp also turned the fusion reactor off. It seems that as long as I still have some MJ stored up in the fusion reactor's generator, I can still turn the reactor back on.

* Manual D/T transfer between the tank and the fusion reactor works splendidly.

* Love that there is relatively very easy access for mining thorium close to the space center. What is the range on the detector? Anywhere in the SoI?

* I like that you can convert lithium to tritium still with the fusion reactors. Will make filling up a D/T tank early on during a mission easy, then I can just dump the lithium tank once the D/T tank is full. Hope this isn't a bug.

* The GRS says it can detect more common materials as well as the radioactive thorium and uranium. Does this mean it'll show what other stuff is available like aluminum or CO2?

* Refinery looks awesome! Little large for my tastes, but awesome! I like the variety of attachment points as well. I am having some issues getting the top and bottom attachment nodes working. The side attachment nodes seem to be working much better.

* During testing of the microwave receiver system, I set up a little rover with a 1.25m fusion reactor. I'm having issues with the fusion reactor staying on in between scene changes.

* I turned on the transmitter and it just drained the MJ out of my rover, even with the two 62.5cm fission reactors and the 1.25m fusion reactor burning at 100%. Once MJ reaches 0 on the resource bar, the microwave transmitter is not transmitting any power at all. My microwave receiver on my test rocket was receiving power the first try, but when I reverted to VAB, made a tweak, and went to relaunch, the receiver wasn't getting any power at all.

* The transmitter was draining MJ from a 3.75m fission reactor rover w/ microwave transmitter as well.

* I was playing around with the thermal receiver and I was only able to get MW on the receiver by setting the two transmitters to relay mode, but only intermittently. Not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong or if it's a bug. I have a small chemical stage to lift my test rocket up a bit so that the receiver should have a better line of sight/angle to the transmitters, but the one time I did get the transmitters/thermal receiver to work, my power received got WAY worse the higher I got (was only a few hundred meter boost). The thermal receiver says two satellites connected. I'll have to play around with this a bit more and see if I can figure out how to make it work.

All this testing was done in sandbox mode.

All in all this looks to be a GREAT update and well worth the wait!

Edited November 24, 2013 by Eadrom

[CattyNebulart]

Tried building a simple test craft of the new reactor, and I get NaN errors;

This is in a sandbox game. Also the mod doesn't load properly in the x86_64 linux version, giving a random core dump. the 7.4 version loaded fine.

[Eadrom]

Tried building a simple test craft of the new reactor, and I get NaN errors

I built the same ship and did not get NaN errors on my generators. Tried turning stuff on and off, etc and was not able to duplicate.

I do have some different values than you have on your generator. My reactor values are the same as yours.

Generator values that differ are Current and Max power. I have 0.0 KW_e for current power and 313.1 MW_e for max power. Same type and efficiency as you.

Tested in sandbox, same as you. What other mods do you have running?