Reaction Wheel vs Advanced Stabilizer?

[SaturnV]

Inline Reaction Wheel and Inline Advanced Stabilizer in game have exactly the same torque, same radial size, same max temp, same impact tolerance and same electric consuming rate, both SAS-equipped.

While Inline Reaction Wheel cost like half of IAS (600 to 1100), and it's 40% lighter than IAS!

Is there ANY reason choosing IAS instead of IRW?

Another question, why big fuel tank is SO expensive while they have the same efficiency(dry/full mass ratio)

Say, X200-16 is 1/4 of a Jumbo-64 tank

tank_______cost______fuel____dry/full ratio_____cost/fuel ratio

X200-16____1800____1600_____1/9____________1.125

Jumbo-64___12500___6400_____1/9____________1.953 ??!!!

Edited September 3, 2013 by SaturnV

[T-Pilot395]

Reaction wheels are different from SAS now. Reaction wheels provide additional torque control. SAS is a flight computer that can use the reaction wheels to turn the ship in whatever direction you want it to face.

IAS basicly is equipped with SAS as well as reaction wheels. It's a SAS computer built into a reaction wheel so yeah.

The IRW just gives you more control for maneuvering your rocket, and for SAS you'll need it from somewhere else.

Note that the command pods and probes all come with SAS onboard. So you'd want to use the IAS for rockets that only have seats on them.

[GluttonyReaper]

I think the current situation of the reaction wheels is kinda temporary - Inline Reaction Wheels and Inline Advanced Stabilizers actually both do the same thing. It was kinda necessary to keep both to prevent craft file breakage, and at first they were actually different ... as mentioned above, Inline Advanced Stabilizers used to be SAS equipped, while Inline Reaction Wheels did not, but that was changed in the next patch.

[Levelord]

The Wiki is a bit out of date. When you open up your game, the is actually 0.3 tons and the is 0.5 tons.

Cost isn't an issue at the moment and are just placeholders. They are subject to change and will be rebalanced when money gets introduced into career mode.

On a separate note, in terms of weight, the Advanced SAS module, is 0.2 tons. The lightest of the three. Once again the weight values and prices are contradictory because they are placeholders at the moment.

If you ask me, if you have a mission that requires a lot of torque control, pick whichever looks aesthetically pleasing. If you are trying to be a minimalist and weight is an important factor, choose the lightest.

[sojourner]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the large ASAS pictured above is lighter because it provides no torque/has no reaction wheels.

[Levelord]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the large ASAS pictured above is lighter because it provides no torque/has no reaction wheels.

The large SAS module does indeed provide the same amount of torque as the smaller reaction wheels. 20 units in each axis and it also comes SAS-equipped. I think Squad didn't bother renaming the large part even though it does exactly the same thing as the smaller ones.

Once again, it's all placeholders, so I recommend taking advantage of this until it gets changed again

[SaturnV]

The large SAS module does indeed provide the same amount of torque as the smaller reaction wheels. 20 units in each axis and it also comes SAS-equipped. I think Squad didn't bother renaming the large part even though it does exactly the same thing as the smaller ones.

Once again, it's all placeholders, so I recommend taking advantage of this until it gets changed again

I suppose he means the appearance? It's all empty in that thing, its shell is also very thin and no visible moving unit, it doesn't seem to provide or provide enough torque

Since every ship needs at least one control unit, manned or unmanned, they are all SAS-equipped, I can't think out the use of SAS-equipped reaction wheel or stabilizer

[shand]

@SaturnV: think of it as an evolutionary left-over. theres a lot of balancing to go on, and i'd imagine R&D tech would come into play - kinda you get SAS quite early, but pod SAS comes later. something like that.

I imagine our first few flights will be without SAS, then you'd get the heavy one, then the lighter one. but then again, it could all just be evolutionary left overs that will be removed in due course.

BUT: all three are functionally the same as of the moment: cost and weight are the only difference (i expect large ASAS will get a name change and art-pass soon)

[lajoswinkler]

Inline advanced stabilizer is the brain that also has some muscle. (pitch, yaw, roll torque = 20)

Inline reaction wheel is muscle only.

What I don't understand is why do we need inline advanced stabilizer if every main portion of the craft (capsule, probe box, even remote guidance unit) has a brain already installed? All you need are the reaction wheels for the built in computer to operate.

[DMagic]

Go here if you want to know the specifics about the different SAS/Reaction Wheel parts, the wiki could be out of date: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/41941-New-SAS-functionality-and-You%21

My thinking, is that we only have all of these redundant parts to provide backwards compatibility. I imagine, also, that the odd mass values are just a temporary thing and they will get fixed in the next update. And since the cost is meaningless right now I wouldn't worry about that aspect.

[rkman]

Inline advanced stabilizer is the brain that also has some muscle. (pitch, yaw, roll torque = 20)

Inline reaction wheel is muscle only.

Not exactly. Check the cfg files.

Currently all SAS, ASAS, advanced stabilizers, probe cores and command pods have in their cfg ModuleReactionWheel and ModuleSAS.

title = Inline Advanced Stabilizer
...
MODULE
{
	name = [b]ModuleReactionWheel[/b]

	PitchTorque = 20
	YawTorque = 20
	RollTorque = 20

	RESOURCE
	{
		name = ElectricCharge
		rate = 0.3
	}
}
MODULE
{
	name = [b]ModuleSAS[/b]
}

title = Inline Reaction Wheel
...
MODULE
{
	name = [b]ModuleReactionWheel[/b]

	PitchTorque = 20
	YawTorque = 20
	RollTorque = 20

	RESOURCE
	{
		name = ElectricCharge
		rate = 0.3
	}
}

MODULE
{
	name = [b]ModuleSAS[/b]
}

title = Stayputnik Mk. 2
...
MODULE
{
	name = [b]ModuleReactionWheel[/b]

	PitchTorque = 0.3
	YawTorque = 0.3
	RollTorque = 0.3

	RESOURCE
	{
		name = ElectricCharge
		rate = 0.015
	}
}

MODULE
{
	name = [b]ModuleSAS[/b]
}

title = Mk1-2 Command Pod
...
MODULE
{
	name = [b]ModuleSAS[/b]
}

MODULE
{
	name = [b]ModuleReactionWheel[/b]

	PitchTorque = 2
	YawTorque = 2
	RollTorque = 2

	RESOURCE
	{
		name = ElectricCharge
		rate = 0.15
	}
}

[sojourner]

The large SAS module does indeed provide the same amount of torque as the smaller reaction wheels. 20 units in each axis and it also comes SAS-equipped. I think Squad didn't bother renaming the large part even though it does exactly the same thing as the smaller ones.

Once again, it's all placeholders, so I recommend taking advantage of this until it gets changed again

hmmm, I did some checking and somehow the part in my current game doesn't have torque. It must have been over written when I was copying my mods from the .20.1 to .21. Which means now that I am flying all my craft using the .20.1 versions of the stock parts. Yeah, that could be a pain to straighten out.