Oxidizer consumption > fuel consumption ?!?

[James_Eh]

So I would swear that any rocket I have ever launched (playing since .18) consumes fuel and oxidizer in the same ratio and they hit zero at the same time. Complexity of rocket didn't matter. Asparagus didn't matter. So long as there were only rocket nozzles on the ship, they marched together towards zero.

I noticed while launching a massive Jool-5 drive section the other day (10 orange tanks) that at the end of the launch, I had significantly more fuel left than oxidizer. I switched it to 4-sym (20 tanks) and watched in fascination as some tanks ran dry of oxidizer and the ship went into a spin. When I finally managed to make orbit, I had something like 200 units of oxidizer left and 4000 fuel.

The disproportionate consumption seems to be essentially symmetrical. My spin was caused by the slight timing differences in when the rockets kicked out, but honestly we're talking fractions of % here which I put down as floating point errors.

This is a 20-orange tank assembly with 20 skippers. It drains fuel to the skippers from the main tanks. It is designed to hit 120 KM aP, then I transfer around fuel, blow off the skippers, and use the 20 LV-N's to circularize with basically no fuel left. Then I send hundreds of refuel missions. The point is, up until the last 2 launches, which are the first 2 I have done in 23.5, I have never seen the fuel and oxidizer ratio get out of balance.

Can supply pix if needed but this is a more basic question. Did I miss a change? (Also what's up with the auto-correct stubbornly changing the word "ratio" to "ration"? I had go edit each one!)

Edited April 17, 2014 by James_Eh
mark as answered

[StrandedonEarth]

Did you perhaps (accidentally) tweak a tank to be half empty of ox? That's all I can think of offhand. If you were running out of fuel then I would suspect a jet engine on there somewhere. Maybe your kerbals are hyperventilating

[James_Eh]

Did you perhaps (accidentally) tweak a tank to be half empty of ox? That's all I can think of offhand. If you were running out of fuel then I would suspect a jet engine on there somewhere. Maybe your kerbals are hyperventilating

Sigh. Went back and put the same ship on launchpad. Fuel = 68544/72000. Oxidizer = 79522/88000.

Move along. Nothing to see here. (* facepalm *)

I jumped straight from 22 to 23.5. Tweakables still a bit of a mystery to me... Thanks !!!!!

[James_Eh]

And that would make two bonehead questions to the forum in two days. Next I will be asking why parachutes don't work on Tylo. Maybe I should lay off the beer.

[Taki117]

And that would make two bonehead questions to the forum in two days. Next I will be asking why parachutes don't work on Tylo. Maybe I should lay off the beer.

There are no bonehead questions, but yes, Drunken flying is not the best of ideas.

Picture Credit to forum user BobsYerUncle.

[James_Eh]

There are no bonehead questions, but yes, Drunken flying is not the best of ideas.

Heh, yah I laughed at that post also. A while back I posted about a ludicrous experience whereby I had thought that I had left myself in great shape for the morning, only to discover the next day that my awesome Eve aerobrake had been at Jool. (Oops) Wish I could easily link to that but it seems like older post references in your profile no longer show up.

[cantab]

Lol, reminds me of seeing a pic of a ship at Moho - named "Improved Eeloo Lander". My exact thought was go home lander, you're drunk.