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

[Fractal_UK]

What is the practical difference between an electrothermal propellant and a non-electrothermal propellant (looking at the electric engine cfg).?

The electrothermal propellants can be used by the arcjet or the plasma thruster, the non-electrothermal propellants can only be used by the plasma thruster.

[smunisto]

I have a question - is it true that you can get all types of fuels in KSPI by simply using the tweakables on their respective fuel tanks? I know about antimatter, but I have seen people discuss various types of fuel and their creation.

What is the point in creating/mining for fuel production processes when you can just fill the tank with the fuel in the VAB? It defeats my motivation to build gathering stations and refineries.

[Fractal_UK]

I have a question - is it true that you can get all types of fuels in KSPI by simply using the tweakables on their respective fuel tanks? I know about antimatter, but I have seen people discuss various types of fuel and their creation.

What is the point in creating/mining for fuel production processes when you can just fill the tank with the fuel in the VAB? It defeats my motivation to build gathering stations and refineries.

You can only do it by editing your resource cfg file to make all the resources tweakable, they aren't by default.

[smunisto]

Ah, that's a relief. Thanks.

[NeoAcario]

Specific scenarios:

1) 10t or-so probe from LKO to a polar orbit on any body or ring Kerbol (I want to map and scan everything).

2) HEAVY probe (40+ ton - colony parts) to Duna or a nearer moon's surface.

1> 1.25m AM Storage, reactor, Solid State Gen, Warp Drive, Plasma, 4 normal sized heat sinks... this will be able to a grand tour of surveys all by itself. You don't need any fuel for the plasma... assuming you have vacuum unlocked. FYI, a full AM reactor and same size storage gives you 6 hours 40 minutes burn time.

This is exactly how I did my grand tour... but I was using a much heavier craft. 30t-50t. For only a 10t probe you REALLY don't need fuel. Just use the vacuum.

*Special note* Make damn sure you plot any Aerobraking to make DAMN sure you don't end up stuck in Atmo. Vacuum plasma will get ZERO vacuum while in Atmo. So if you Aerobrake too shallow... you're screwed.

2> Just doing a single landing? Why bother with high tech (and HEAVY) reactors and thrusters? Just use conventional means. Unless you want to make the transfer super fast and use warp drive.

~Steve

EDIT:

FYI, it helps if we know what tech level you're at.... if you're playing campaign.

Edited April 18, 2014 by NeoAcario

[phoenix_ca]

Unfortunately that assumes having the tech tree completely unlocked, or being in sandbox mode. Personally, I'd love to see some grand-tour missions that use fusion tech at most... I wonder if anyone's done that. I've put any plans of that on hold for myself; not keen on trying until Infernal Robotics is fixed.

[WaveFunctionP]

Unfortunately that assumes having the tech tree completely unlocked, or being in sandbox mode. Personally, I'd love to see some grand-tour missions that use fusion tech at most... I wonder if anyone's done that. I've put any plans of that on hold for myself; not keen on trying until Infernal Robotics is fixed.

My grand tour style ships.

Can land and take off on every body, single stage and refuel anywhere there is water present. It was designed around the radial ISRU. My future iterations will likely be much simpler. As you can see, the design got smaller as I learn more about the capabilities of the craft.

Edited April 18, 2014 by WaveFunctionP

[NeoAcario]

My grand tour style ships.

*snip snip snip*

Can land and take off on every body, single stage and refuel anywhere there is water present. It was designed around the radial ISRU. My future iterations will likely be much simpler. As you can see, the design got smaller as I learn more about the capabilities of the craft.

I'll say it again... it's cool that you got a grand tour in early tech like that.... but SHEESH that's a LOT of mass.

~Steve

[WaveFunctionP]

I'll say it again... it's cool that you got a grand tour in early tech like that.... but SHEESH that's a LOT of mass.

~Steve

Well it is more of a spaceship than it is a just a rocket. Without the energy density of antimatter, you have to resort to drastic measures.

[phoenix_ca]

Interesting. Not how I'd go about it (anything I do will probably be huuuuuuuuuge just for the sake of being huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge and awesome by being so big and having its own plane and crazy stuff like that), but cool.

Question...is there any point to putting two generators on a reactor, one on each side? Say one for charged particles, one for thermal production?

[shynung]

Question...is there any point to putting two generators on a reactor, one on each side? Say one for charged particles, one for thermal production?

You get slightly more power out of your fusion/Sethlan-type reactor, at the cost of reduced delta-v.

Fractal, may I suggest adding a smaller (1.25m, the size of an RT-10 SRB) aluminium hybrid rocket?

[WaveFunctionP]

Interesting. Not how I'd go about it (anything I do will probably be huuuuuuuuuge just for the sake of being huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge and awesome by being so big and having its own plane and crazy stuff like that), but cool.

Question...is there any point to putting two generators on a reactor, one on each side? Say one for charged particles, one for thermal production?

Yes, if your reactor produces both thermal power and charged particles, and you are only concerned about MJ production (not using thermal nozzles/jets), then it is best to use both.

[NeoAcario]

Well it is more of a spaceship than it is a just a rocket. Without the energy density of antimatter, you have to resort to drastic measures.

Granted... yours was a science mission. I just did my grand tour out to have Jeb play around on all of the planets/moons. I wonder how big my grand tour ship would become if I also made it for a science mission.

~Steve

[Ytm]

Doesn't work on 0.23.5.464. Game crashes at the end of the loading. All the files from your archive. Everything according to the instructions.

[bonesbro]

It's not quite a grand tour ship, but it could probably orbit a couple of different planets in one mission and I'm quite pleased with how it looks:

Several more of that ship: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004665953/screenshots/?appid=220200

Jeb, Bill, Bob, and four scientists are on a five-year tour of the Jool system. With only Laythe left to visit (currenly in a polar orbit mapping Pol) it has about 5000/6400 fuel left. I could probably hit Duna, Eve, and Dres on the way back, or swing out to Eeloo.

[bonesbro]

Doesn't work on 0.23.5.464. Game crashes at the end of the loading. All the files from your archive. Everything according to the instructions.

You're almost certainly running out of memory - have a few other mods installed, I'm guessing? Look into one of the memory-reduction mods, like Active Texture Management or the Texture Compressor.

[ABZB]

The electrothermal propellants can be used by the arcjet or the plasma thruster, the non-electrothermal propellants can only be used by the plasma thruster.

Ah, thanks!

Further question:

How do I swap fuels in a fusion reactor? I have both helium-3 and deuterium/tritium loaded in an unupgraded 3.75 fusion reactor, but no option to switch fuel types appears in the right-click menu. Do I have to eva for this, like for fissions? Is there an interaction with another mod that might cause issues?

[Logris]

Doesn't work on 0.23.5.464. Game crashes at the end of the loading. All the files from your archive. Everything according to the instructions.

It's running fine for me on 0.23.5.464.

Looks like you must have some other issue. Perhaps you're running out of memory?

[Ytm]

Yes, have some other mods. Memory? video or system? without "Interstellar" game using about 3150mb ram, and still available ~2gb ram, that is not enough? I'll try Active Texture Management, thanks for the tip

Edited April 18, 2014 by Ytm

[Ytm]

Active Texture Management helped, thanks a lot bonesbro

Edited April 18, 2014 by Ytm

[Makeone]

Ah, thanks!

Further question:

How do I swap fuels in a fusion reactor? I have both helium-3 and deuterium/tritium loaded in an unupgraded 3.75 fusion reactor, but no option to switch fuel types appears in the right-click menu. Do I have to eva for this, like for fissions? Is there an interaction with another mod that might cause issues?

You need to have upgraded fusion in order to swap fuels and that can be then done while out of vab/sph. Its good to remember, that reactors power output drops drastically with improved fuel types. If i recall right, 3.75m fusion reactor that gives 55GW thermal output on D/T-mode, loses a lot on other modes, was it something like less than 20GW on D/He3-mode and under 10GW on He3-only-mode. Last mode produces mainly charged particles so technically it has best efficiency...i think

[phoenix_ca]

Ah, thanks!

Further question:

How do I swap fuels in a fusion reactor? I have both helium-3 and deuterium/tritium loaded in an unupgraded 3.75 fusion reactor, but no option to switch fuel types appears in the right-click menu. Do I have to eva for this, like for fissions? Is there an interaction with another mod that might cause issues?

The wiki says fusion fuels should be swappable at any time. Did you turn the reactor off?

[ABZB]

You need to have upgraded fusion in order to swap fuels and that can be then done while out of vab/sph. Its good to remember, that reactors power output drops drastically with improved fuel types. If i recall right, 3.75m fusion reactor that gives 55GW thermal output on D/T-mode, loses a lot on other modes, was it something like less than 20GW on D/He3-mode and under 10GW on He3-only-mode. Last mode produces mainly charged particles so technically it has best efficiency...i think

Ah, Ok that explains it. I was aiming for He-3, for a power satellite network.

[Overjay]

Hi guys!

I've got a problem. Running Interstellar on 0.23 and I dont have any options in kerbal's context menus. Like "make EVA report" or "take a sample". Instead of those buttons, I have a temperature of a kerbal! Anyone knows how to fix this?

Edited April 18, 2014 by Overjay

[WaveFunctionP]

Hi guys!

I've got a problem. Running Interstellar on 0.23 and I dont have any options in kerbal's context menus. Like "make EVA report" or "take a sample". Instead of those buttons, I have a temperature of a kerbal! Anyone knows how to fix this?

The current version is made for 23.5. If you are still on .23, you may have issues. Although, I've never heard of a problem.

The last time I had issues with context menus was when I was running KJR, which I dropped after the 23.5 release because the stock was now good enough.