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

[Ashtoruin]

Awesome idea! I don't think there is currently a bonus, however.

By the way... anyone think 1,000 tons is too large for an orbital refueling station / AM harvester orbiting at 900km over Kerbin?

Thankfully you launch Kethane tanks empty. Certainly made it easy! Gonna take about 635 days to fill that 80,000AM tank with only 30 collectors though...

~Steve

No, My Orbital Station at Jool is going to be well over 1k tons. Might end up being two stations due to parts count.

[NeoAcario]

No, My Orbital Station at Jool is going to be well over 1k tons. Might end up being two stations due to parts count.

That's why I'm debating designing it bigger. With the awesome sphere tanks from Talisar it stores 384,000 Kethane with only 5 tanks. Also 3 Toroidal tanks. One 84,200 Xenon, one 2240 Monoprop, and one with 1350 Liquid + 1650 Oxy.

Due to these I'm only at 95 parts. I have all the basics covered. Wouldn't take many more to increase the cap. With the 3 2.5m converters I only really need to store Kethane at 96,000 per sphere tank.

I just have a hard time justifying so much fuel in one spot. Sure, I can make a miner that can haul 1 sphere at a time from minmus or something.... but the MOST I'd ever have on a ship is one sphere. So... why make it bigger?

~Steve

EDIT: In case you're wondering... I have the variety of Toroidal tanks so that I can convert Kethane into anything without worry. Sometimes the Kethane code is a bit buggy when trying to convert into a tank that is not directly connected with the converter.

Edited October 11, 2013 by NeoAcario

[Ashtoruin]

That's why I'm debating designing it bigger. With the awesome sphere tanks from Talisar it stores 384,000 Kethane with only 5 tanks. Also 3 Toroidal tanks. One 84,200 Xenon, one 2240 Monoprop, and one with 1350 Liquid + 1650 Oxy.

Due to these I'm only at 95 parts. I have all the basics covered. Wouldn't take many more to increase the cap. With the 3 2.5m converters I only really need to store Kethane at 96,000 per sphere tank.

I just have a hard time justifying so much fuel in one spot. Sure, I can make a miner that can haul 1 sphere at a time from minmus or something.... but the MOST I'd ever have on a ship is one sphere. So... why make it bigger?

~Steve

EDIT: In case you're wondering... I have the variety of Toroidal tanks so that I can convert Kethane into anything without worry. Sometimes the Kethane code is a bit buggy when trying to convert into a tank that is not directly connected with the converter.

Yeah, my big problem right now is figuring out how to get my kethane miner to Bop... apparently KSP doesn't like 1235 part ships...

[NeoAcario]

Yeah, my big problem right now is figuring out how to get my kethane miner to Bop... apparently KSP doesn't like 1235 part ships...

Ok.. that's just silly. I have a pretty damn good PC and I do my best to limit myself to about 500 parts on the launchpad and 750 in space. Heck.. even my most complex miner ever was only around 175 parts. Then again I have a penchant for being a minmaxer. Make things as all-purpose as possible while also as light and few parts as possible. That's partly why I love quantum struts so much.

My Mods:

KSP Interstellar

Kethane

Quantum Strut

Mechjeb

Sphere Tanks

Chatterer

~Steve

EDIT: I need to go grab Kerbal Alarm Clock before I forget again...

Edited October 11, 2013 by NeoAcario

[SeventhArchitect]

Fractal.

This may be a bit of a whine to you, but AFTER exploring the waste heat part that you added on, it begins to concern me.

The first thing I'm going to point out, is that the radiator fins jumped ship upon launch : Your engines are that powerful

Second is how much everything produces. It's way too high. True, convection, conduction, and even the fact that there is a lot going on, says that heat can travel, and build, but thats apart from the generation. True, an engine would produce a MASSIVE amount of heat when active, but I noticed that as I was producing megajoules to start up my vessel, the Jump Jet Mk III, there was an outrageous amount of heat, and I had the small cylinder radiator attached to get rid of heat. Even after upgrading it, it's heat dispersal is VERY low, and inefficient, even for sucha small vessel as a jump jet. (the series goes no larger than MAYBE thirty parts, and none are allowed to be any larger than the small mk1 fuselage.

Way too high, dude. Or are you a gal? Huh...I guess no one has asked that question.

[Ashtoruin]

Ok.. that's just silly. I have a pretty damn good PC and I do my best to limit myself to about 500 parts on the launchpad and 750 in space. Heck.. even my most complex miner ever was only around 175 parts. Then again I have a penchant for being a minmaxer. Make things as all-purpose as possible while also as light and few parts as possible. That's partly why I love quantum struts so much.

My Mods:

KSP Interstellar

Kethane

Quantum Strut

Mechjeb

Sphere Tanks

Chatterer

~Steve

Well the miner is only 108, but the ship to get it into space is another 1100... my miner is kind of a monstrosity... 16 Large miners, two 96k Spherical tanks, One Bundle of fun.

[NeoAcario]

Well the miner is only 108, but the ship to get it into space is another 1100... my miner is kind of a monstrosity... 16 Large miners, two 96k Spherical tanks, One Bundle of fun.

So... it's really more of an orbital refueling station that's capable of landing and refilling itself. Then again... Bop.... 'nuff said.

And why so many damn miners? Is it really THAT important to fill those two tanks in 25 in game minutes? Just seems like a silly thing to rush. Then again, you can only time warp to what.. 1,000x and have the Kethane mod still work?

~Steve

[Xentoe]

So after some experimenting around, I made my first revamp of my Starflight Spaceplane.

With the use of the new transformable warpdrive.

Thought perhaps zzz would like to see how hsis model looks in "use". The runwaylauch process worked great (ignoring the regular Spaceplane problems like trying to drive to one runwayside... but that is not zzz`s fault this is a general problem).

The ship is equiped with part outof the following mods:

Normal Stockparts

B9 Aerospace

KSP Interstellar

Near Future Tec

Nova Punch

It uses 3 "conventional" engenesystems.

1.: Launch:

- 2 Thermal Jet Engenes powered by Intake Air and 2 small AM Reactors

2.: Leaving atmosphere:

- 2 stock 650 thrustpower Rocketengenes

3.: Spaceflight:

- A High Energy Plasma Engene outof the NEar Future Mod. (520 thustpower)

Ok I`m true to experiment I did fill the AM tanks with Hyperedit, but normal this can be too done "legal" with a ground support AM factory.

And natural as 4. it has a 2.5 m Warpengene.

[Scotius]

Fractal should teach modding community how to produce resources while ship is unfocused Then we could leave miner running, send another ship to Duna and return to fully fueled miner.

[Jasmir]

The first thing I'm going to point out, is that the radiator fins jumped ship upon launch : Your engines are that powerful

Yeah, it maybe makes sense to do a very gently launch with lots of fragile parts cluttering around. And put all into fairings to avoid to much drag-forces on these fragile parts. In space, do a soft-start of your engines and maybe limit your max. acceleration.

Second is how much everything produces. It's way too high. True, convection, conduction, and even the fact that there is a lot going on, says that heat can travel, and build, but thats apart from the generation.

Sorry to tell you, mate: Compared with reality, the heatproduction is -in fact- very low due the incredible efficient generators. Till i guess, that bad things will only happen, if the wasteheat-storage is full (or nearly full), the storagecapacity is way to high and the "endless" heat-conductivity of all parts of your ship is also wrong (and make the design much easier). Next thing: The heatradiators itself doesn't need power -with is also a easymode- and the thermal nozzle clear the ship from wasteheat instead of producing some. There will be much other points that describe one thing: The implemented heat mechanic is a easy, sugar-coated shadow of the problems you will suffer if you try to build a multi-megawatt (or even gigawatt) spaceship in real.

So no way to say "it's to high

[Scotius]

Shhhhhh! Don't give Fractal ideas I'm already worried for my 30 ships strewn across the system. Most of those beyond Duna orbit don't have any radiators, and i do not plan to bring them back for refit (if it would even be possible )

[NeoAcario]

Fractal should teach modding community how to produce resources while ship is unfocused Then we could leave miner running, send another ship to Duna and return to fully fueled miner.

I just did a testing run of this. It doesn't work at all for CPU cores. I've got my test craft in Jool orbit with 30 probe cores (all upgraded) and 1 Science Pod. It SHOULD generate 2.45x30 + 1.24 per day. They produces nothing when unfocused during time warp. I've tried at 100,000x, 10,000x, 1000x, and 100x. Nothing. All I get is the 1.24 from the science pod.

Fractal_UK, I thought you said you fixed this for the AM production... is there the same issue with Science from the CPU cores, or am I the only one having this problem? FIX IT PLOX!! I value Kerbal life to much to send dozens of them into to space for years and years at a time! 2 with a couple dozen CPU cores is much preferred by my morality!

~Steve

Edited October 11, 2013 by NeoAcario

[Fractal_UK]

Fractal_UK, I thought you said you fixed this for the AM production..

I have it fixed it but you're not going to see any changes until a new version comes out...

It doesn't work at all for CPU cores

Apparently computer cores have no persistence code at present so they won't work... I thought I added this ages ago but nevermind, I'll do it now.

The first thing I'm going to point out, is that the radiator fins jumped ship upon launch

You didn't open them on the launch pad did you? Flying with them deployed will make them fall off, this is intended behaviour like the deployable solar panels breaking off if you do the same thing.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Fractal_UK

[willow]

I'm thinking about starting from scratch, this time using KSP interstellar, but I could use some tips. How did you guys set up your space program? What kind of missions do you recommend I start with to get things up and running efficiently?

[forsaken1111]

I'm thinking about starting from scratch, this time using KSP interstellar, but I could use some tips. How did you guys set up your space program? What kind of missions do you recommend I start with to get things up and running efficiently?

Depends on how you want to start it. What I did:

Stage 1 - Antimatter production

I made a science vessel and landed it just a bit away from KSP. This had one lab part on it, two of the largest nuclear reactors + generators, an antimatter tank, and two of the least stupid kerbals I could find. This was all on the big tracks you can get from another mod, and I included a pipe outlet on the front of the track base.

I set the lab to produce antimatter and timewarped until I had ~500 units, then made a simple rocket with antimatter reactor + thermal rocket and a bunch of AM collectors. Rolled the science craft over and fueled the rocket with antimatter then launched it into orbit at around 1 million KM. I let that collect while I generate more on the ground for the next launch.

From there I launched a science module into orbit as well, refueled at the collector station and went on to Jool to deploy a science station and additional collectors to work as a fuel depot.

After that you have a decent infrastructure for refuelling craft in the system. I put 12 sats in low orbit around the sun with microwave power transmitters so I could receive power pretty much anywhere I needed to (and now that its possible I also have 12 nuclear powered sats in orbit around kerb with transmitters).

I've been experimenting with making the smallest reactors and generators grabbable via KAS so I can assemble small probes and vessels in-sutu.

[Donziboy2]

You didn't open them on the launch pad did you? Flying with them deployed will make them fall off, this is intended behaviour like the deployable solar panels breaking off if you do the same thing.

I have had some medium and large units break off as soon as physics kicks in on early unstable launcher designs. Usually the rockets fall apart on the pad or halfway up.

Mechjeb is also good at testing rockets when its starts that on off on off crap with the engines.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Donziboy2

[automcdonough]

I did a similar thing, having a AM fuel truck near the pad. I use KAS to transfer the AM to the ship before launch, a connector port at the base of the launch clamps works perfect.

[cy-one]

Heya, I'm still getting into this and having some problems with the Plasma Thruster.

I wanted to build a mobile science station (not fast, but at least mobile) and ended up with this:

Problem, even with 2 Nuclear Reactors and 4 Energy Generators, the Xenon-powered Plasma Thruster has only about 25 kN thrust.

The ship is modular, so I can exchange the machine section with something else... What should I do?

It's not supposed to be fast, but I wanted to put it into a munar orbit, which is... Well, currently out of the question.

[Bibblejw]

I'm thinking about starting from scratch, this time using KSP interstellar, but I could use some tips. How did you guys set up your space program? What kind of missions do you recommend I start with to get things up and running efficiently?

Well, so far, my startups have been (after a few trials to learn some stuff about the mechanics):

1. Assemble a science station (2 sets of 4 modules, power, one x64, and one of my standard propulsion units of 2-4 LKMs around an x32), all lovingly assembled with a super-mobile tug ship.

2. Attempt Jool transfer.

3. Realise that, while I do have sufficient delta-V, the ship is not stable enough to apply that. It wobbles at all times.

4. Rage quit and remove the ship, which is now on an irrevocable re-entry trajectory (I couldn't bear to watch it crumble).

Then, I tried AM instead:

1. Assemble AM collector ship, with tanks, and a few modules of collectors. Again, shuttled along by a little hyper-mobile tug.

2. Get annoyed by the multitude of dumb craft in orbit, so clear them out from KSC, after renaming the main ship.

3. Realise that the rename was transferred on the last assembly manoeuvre, and the sole ship remaining is the remnants of a lifter stage (I realised this when I got the power stage up).

4. Rage quit.

But, realistically, I've now got a decent moderate lifter design (one x64 mainsail, with 6 x64 skippers around it, feeding back) that seems to get about a 20-30t payload to orbit with enough fuel to get close to an assembly. I think my next task will be to install quantum/docking struts. I might try the above method of getting AM on the platform, but I'm not entirely sure how to transfer it to a new ship.

[cy-one]

I might try the above method of getting AM on the platform, but I'm not entirely sure how to transfer it to a new ship.

Only for the struts it would be a little overkill, but the new KAS has its own set of "docking struts", completely grabbable (is that even a word?) and stuff.

You can even retrofit ships with it, as you can put a few in a container (also new KAS), fly it up and assemble the struts in EVA.

[forsaken1111]

Only for the struts it would be a little overkill, but the new KAS has its own set of "docking struts", completely grabbable (is that even a word?) and stuff.

You can even retrofit ships with it, as you can put a few in a container (also new KAS), fly it up and assemble the struts in EVA.

Yeah I've been loving KAS for this mod. Pipe connections 'dock' two vessels together in orbit to affect refueling or resource transfer without true docking, and you can retrofit solar panels and struts and stuff onto old vessels to help with wobble.

[sidfu]

fyi on the radiators if u are in any atsmophere yes any that even means being at 69km around kerbin they radiators will slide off your ship. this is a bug not it breaking due to air. a good example is i struted a radiator to a rocket with 7 220k strength struts and tested it at various hights once u get past 30km around kerbin. before 70km it seems they have a 50/50 chance of falling off when deployed above 30km no matter if struted or not. if u below 45k they seem to have a near 100% chance of comeing off. and all these tests did with them struted even with quatuim struts(with quatium struts they stay on ship but break off and are stuck glued to ship as debris)

[forsaken1111]

Its not a bug. The radiators are meant to break in atmosphere just like solar panels.

[NeoAcario]

I have it fixed it but you're not going to see any changes until a new version comes out...

C'mon, Fractal_UK... I'm not that dumb. I was just mentioning you were just looking at it and ya didn't see it!

Apparently computer cores have no persistence code at present so they won't work... I thought I added this ages ago but nevermind, I'll do it now.

So, Uhm... Fractal_UK.... When ya gonna upload 6.2? ^.^ Kinda sucks my methods for gathering this mod's 2 main resources are currently broken (in the backround). Don't make me beg! I just want to make this mod the best it can be! /cry

~Steve

Edited October 11, 2013 by NeoAcario

[Bibblejw]

Only for the struts it would be a little overkill, but the new KAS has its own set of "docking struts", completely grabbable (is that even a word?) and stuff.

You can even retrofit ships with it, as you can put a few in a container (also new KAS), fly it up and assemble the struts in EVA.

Might have a look at KAS. Not been too long in the KSP modding stuff, so unsure of what's around, but something to prevent my stations wobbling out of existence, and transferring resources without needing both ships to be fully docked would be nice.

Another minor question. Anyone give the approximate lifting power of a simple rocket (small AM, thermal engine, etc.) into standard 100k orbit? What sort of payloads/what are people's preferred configs?