Better RTGs?

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I think the RTGs now should slowly run out of blutionum in them, if you right click on one it says efficantcy:1.00.

It never decreases, I think the one on voyager 1 will run out around 2020, so the stock ones should run out after about 50 years, shorter if put under more power requiments

[Captain Sierra]

I want nuclear reactors for:

Space Stations

Planetary Bases (think dark side of moho or for that matter the mun with the long nights)

Interplanetary Taxi type ships

Is there very little that requires electricity right now? Yes.

Is the electricity generation devices that don't rely on the sun woefully inadequate to power a bank of 20 to 30 Ion drives at full throttle? Yes.

Will the future bring many more things that require electricity? Yes.

WHY!!!! Why on earth do you need a bank of 20-30 ion drives!

[karolus10]

WHY!!!! Why on earth do you need a bank of 20-30 ion drives!

This is KSP, sometimes cool factor out-weights efficiency .

[Whackjob]

This is KSP, sometimes cool factor out-weights efficiency .

I am sure I surprise nobody by agreeing with this.

[Captain Sierra]

This is KSP, sometimes cool factor out-weights efficiency .

True, so true.

[Galacticruler]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/24967-20-X-General-Propulsion%E2%84%A2-Release-Thread

Keep your eyes on my mod, it will be updated soon and contains a large toggleable RTG, however it also eats a heavy fuel, so it might not be for you.

[Haze-Zero]

Korda has these which I love and I have used religiously since I installed the mod: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/more-rtgs/

[Saberus]

Current RTGs are just not up to the task of ion thrusters... even this beastie I made in 0.18.4 (IIRC) needed at least 2 RTGs to run the ion full power without draining the batteries:

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

[KerbMav]

So if you make the part yourself, it's cheating, but if SQUAD added the exact same thing to the game, it isn't?

That's stupid.

Actually it wouldnt be cheating if Squad would add more powerful RTGs - it simply might be bad design, but still stock.

But I agree, between editing the files yourself and letting modders create you a new part - no difference in cheatiness actually.

There is a mod-part-pack for space stations out there that also contains a reactor.

[User Unrelated]

solar panels, my friend.

Keep those generators as backup in case you hit a shadow for a while

[M5000]

OP, I don't mean to sound angry, but what you're asking for is totally out of the intended use of the RTG.

Yes, I know the stock game has a probe that runs on RTGs, but it's also a totally nearly useless craft.

RTGs are low wattage devices. Their power output simply is not designed for power hungry devices to use them. They get their energy from nuclear decay producing heat and causing thermocouples to create electricity. There's no way you can get high wattage unless your RTG is huge, it's that simple. You can only make thermocouples so small.

Really, an RTG should not be called an RTG, I much prefer the term "Nuclear Battery". As that's what it is. It's some amount of nuclear material that produces a reliable, steady, low-wattage electric charge over a long period of time. The amount of electricity produced by an RTG would depend on the heat released during nuclear decay. However, you can only have so much heat before things just start to melt.

Solar panels are much more conducive to high-wattage applications, as their power generation is limited only by the light they receive.

Asking for a compact RTG that can power an ion engine is not really.. Well, possible, outside of basically cheating. If you want, however, constant power at any point, and that is sufficient to power an ion engine, even at full power, consider checking out the Large Structural Components Pack. It has a large, 2.5m stack-based "generator" that we presume is an RTG of size. It can produce 55 units of ElectricCharge per second, and masses 2.5 tons. That's about what you should be lugging around for that kind of power output.

Anyway, that ends my kind of rant on why RTGs can't be used reliably for high-wattage applications.

[PTNLemay]

@ M500

Curiosity managed it reasonably well. And it made sense there because Mars is at that point where you start to get too far from the sun.

To be honest I haven't done tests to see how much solar panels would be hindered as far out as Jool or Eeloo, but that was my worry. That solar power just wouldn't cut it way out there. I'm sorry if my question has offended people, I didn't mean to imply that stock parts should be changed or anything that drastic. I really just wanted to know what kind of part packs might exist already that have bigger RTGs. And this thread has delivered on that (for which I'm grateful).

[M5000]

@ M500

Curiosity managed it reasonably well. And it made sense there because Mars is at that point where you start to get too far from the sun.

To be honest I haven't done tests to see how much solar panels would be hindered as far out as Jool or Eeloo, but that was my worry. That solar power just wouldn't cut it way out there. I'm sorry if my question has offended people, I didn't mean to imply that stock parts should be changed or anything that drastic. I really just wanted to know what kind of part packs might exist already that have bigger RTGs. And this thread has delivered on that (for which I'm grateful).

By no means are you offending anyone, at least that's not the vibe I get. And if someone seriously is getting offended by someone's opinion of whether or not an RTG is powerful enough or not, then they need to have a chill pill. I'm just trying to explain that it really wouldn't be in the spirit of the game, I don't think, to have an overpowered RTG that produces a ton of energy with no real size or mass difference from the standard one. There was actually a guy who made a very large, high output RTG that's a bit smaller than that massive thing I referenced up there, it's still huge but it produced a ton of power. And it actually looks like an RTG.

[KerbMav]

@ M500

To be honest I haven't done tests to see how much solar panels would be hindered as far out as Jool or Eeloo, but that was my worry.

No need to: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Electric_charge

[PTNLemay]

No need to: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Electric_charge

Oh... wow. I didn't realize they'd curbed the inverse square law to such a degree. 50% at Jool is still plenty of juice. I remember hearing that in reality Jupiter gets something like... 4% the amount of light we get at the Earth. So I suppose solar really will cut it wherever I go.

[M5000]

One more thing: These are those RTGs I was talking about. There's three sizes..

It doesn't look like it's been updated for quite some time, but not much has changed with the RTG, and KSP does still accept the legacy architecture for parts and such, so these should still work in the current version. Also, they're very well modeled in my opinion. Also also, there's a big trefoil on the end of each one, on the very tip, so that's cool too, at least IIRC.