[.24.2] Brass Moustache Industrial supply TACLS & EPL supplementaries

[mossman]

I made some models to replace some of the default parts found in TaranisElsu's Life Support mod as well as Extraplanetary Launchpads (maintained by taniwha) for personal use.

Due to popular demand these parts are now available to the public, as distributed by Brass Moustache LLC's Industrial Supplies branch.

Left to right: Air and water filters, configured to function using the TAC Life Support plugin.

This is a smelter designed for use with Extraplanetary Launchpads. My art skills aren't supreme, this I recognize, but it's better than the textured primitives otherwise available for the same part and I had fun creating these. The .cfg it comes with also is designed for use with KSP Interstellar and as such uses the "Thermal Power" resource. You, the user, can of course tailor this to your own preferences.

On balancing: The value I decided upon for the power draw was the heat necessary to heat Hematite (Iron (III) Oxide, Fe2O3) to around 1400K, which is a reasonable estimate for the temperature at which iron reduction takes place in a blast furnace. Since there isn't much in the way of space-coal we're also assuming that you bring along some Carbon Monoxide to do the reduction and keep it in a closed cycle.

According to Wikipedia, large modern blast furnaces with volumes exceeding 5500 m^3 can produce 80,000 tons of steel in a week which would equal about 400 kg per second assuming the furnace was ran 7 days a week, 8 hours a day. I assumed a linear relationship between furnace volume and iron production and extrapolated this to the estimated volume of my model. This download includes a .cfg for 2 sizes of the smelter; the large ones weighs 50 tons and is about 10 meters long, and less than 4 in diameter, and produces about 10 kg of metal per second, drawing 12 MW of KSPI's thermal power (again, this is calculated as the energy needed to heat 10kg of hematite per second, plus a reasonable efficiency loss).

The smaller version is half as large and has 1/8th of the production capacity as the larger one.

Since these are very specific parts that depend on other mods, it might not actually be the best idea to release them here.

I decided to do it anyway. Whoo hoo!

Smelter

Life Support filters

TAC parts are configured to work with TAC 0.9. I added an air filter part (Same model as CO2 scrubber).

The smelter for EPL hasn't been updated since .23 or so. Feel free to try to use it, but you might have to do some config editing to make it work. I'm too lazy to do it myself.

License: Do whatever you want with this stuff, just credit me if you use the models.

Edited September 14, 2014 by mossman

[JeffreyCor]

Nice thank you! Small question, does the smelter have to be connected directly to a reactor the the thermal power like the thermal turbine or thermal rocket?

[mossman]

Nope, as long as your power supply is in the same vessel it'll flow.

I myself use KAS to connect ground bases, and I've found that the smelters work well as anchors during the inevitable Kraken attack due to their prodigious mass.

[JeffreyCor]

Nice! I have lose so many Mun bases because of that Kraken Thank you for releasing these!

[kiwiak]

Cool, i ight use this for upcoming duna mission.

[JeffreyCor]

When trying to set up a Mun base I noticed the smaller smelter keeps sinking into the ground until it's half or more burred. If it is planed on a foundation of some sort (another part to give it a footing) that doesn't happen. I have not tried with the larger one.

[Sokar408]

These looks pretty cool

[Andrewmacor]

For TAC Life Support Can you make like a Space Station Air filter and Water Filtering module or something bigger? I love this parts Keep it up!!!

[Superfluous J]

I never knew this thread existed. I just (manually, because the forum search sucks) searched out your post in the ELP forums

Now that I know you have a thread I can say it here: I love your furnace

[elyz]

According to Wikipedia, large modern blast furnaces with volumes exceeding 5500 m^3 can produce 80,000 tons of steel in a week which would equal about 400 kg per second assuming the furnace was ran 7 days a week, 8 hours a day.

AFAIK, blast furnaces run 24/7 because reheating it every day would need too much energy.

[Tallinu]

The smelter download only appears to contain the smaller, slower version - or at least, the version it contains is only about 15 tons, which doesn't quite seem like the proper mass for the "half-size" version either...

edit: Well, installing that "one" part file actually gives two, so ignore that bit. The sizes and stats are not what was listed in the first post though. And even the big one seems to be much, MUCH slower than the smallest of the smelters that comes with Extraplanetary Launchpads... While I understand that balance should at least be informed by the real world, you have to remember that converters based on the Kethane mod can't just be "left running in the background" while you do other stuff...

Edited March 26, 2014 by Tallinu

[teohoch]

Does the smelter need to be atached to a reactor? or can it have something in between?

[Wadusher0]

Does the smelter need to be atached to a reactor? or can it have something in between?

Doesn't matter as long as its connected to the reactor in some way.

[Josh Hawley]

I really like the look of these smelters compared to the hexagonal block that the other ones are, but with the super slow speed on these they are all but useless. Also, you have to lug a reactor around with it to power the thing.

[Tallinu]

Or a microwave thermal receiver for beamed power. A tiny fission plant would probably be plenty though.

[Senior Slaphead]

I'm using all this stuff. The only slight thing I'd highlight is that it would be nice if the life support parts either didn't have a backplate or it was curved to fit 2m parts. Most of the time these are fitted to the side of a curved rocket rather than a flat surface in which case the backplate doesn't sit flush and therefore looks ugly. I got around it by putting some food supplies either side so you cannot see it... see what you did there... made me use more parts dammit!

Evidence at 21:40

Edited April 20, 2014 by Senior Slaphead

[mossman]

I really like the look of these smelters compared to the hexagonal block that the other ones are, but with the super slow speed on these they are all but useless. Also, you have to lug a reactor around with it to power the thing.

Feel free to modify to your taste. I for one am somewhat of a pedant for realism, and the super fast default EPL converters seemed overpowered. Made life too easy.

ISRU for high-tech industrial stuff should be something of a PITA to do right if you ask me.

I'm using all this stuff. The only slight thing I'd highlight is that it would be nice if the life support parts either didn't have a backplate or it was curved to fit 2m parts. Most of the time these are fitted to the side of a curved rocket rather than a flat surface in which case the backplate doesn't sit flush and therefore looks ugly. I got around it by putting some food supplies either side so you cannot see it... see what you did there... made me use more parts dammit!

Evidence at 21:40

Interesting point, but I for one like to use these on the inside of curved cylindrical surfaces (hollow service module parts), so putting a curve on the backplate would mean it'd be only good for one of many possible placement styles.

I dunno if the parts would be better without the backplate, if I ever get back into the KSP modding mood I might modify them or something.

Don't cross your fingers though, as I'm pretty lazy. Glad to see that some folks like my models though.

Edited June 22, 2014 by mossman

[DauntingFlyer]

When trying to set up a Mun base I noticed the smaller smelter keeps sinking into the ground until it's half or more burred. If it is planed on a foundation of some sort (another part to give it a footing) that doesn't happen. I have not tried with the larger one.

I 2nd this. I dropped the large Smelter on Minmus and it sunk beneath the ground and exploded. Kind of comical in a way.

[Jaxx]

Has this mod been "officially" updated for .24.2?

[aristurtle]

I updated the filters to work with TAC 0.9.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r3kijhbkji48fo6/BrassMoustache-Tac9update.zip

This just contains the part config files, so install it on top of the official release.

[mossman]

I've updated the TAC parts for the latest version. Thanks to aristurtle for the patch in the meantime.

[Cdr_Zeta]

Hello,

I have the gold version...and it works unlike it's predecessor. (for me anyways; you all have good luck with it...I fixed the one I bought !).

Zeta