Problem with Electricity

[JohnClayborn]

Hey guys, I'm new here. I just started playing a few weeks ago and I'm addicted!

I've been working on trying to assemble a station in low Kerbin Orbit. I've got the core up there and ready. I built some pretty awesome habitat modules that can house 20 kerbals. They're big. It took me 5 redesigns of the rocket to figure out how to to get it into orbit, but I finally can. But now I have a problem. Usually, I run out of fuel. In the case of these habitat modules, I still have half the fuel of the final stage of rockets left...but I'm out of power. I can decouple the rockets from the habitat, but the RCS thrusters aren't nearly enough to intercept the station core. I tried sending up a tug, but it ran out of gas. Then I tried sending up a fuel ship, but it ran out of gas too. So now I have 5 pieces floating around with no movement ability. Great start.

Anyway, my question is, how can I increase the electric capability of the rocket engines? Do I need to mount batters or solar panels to the rockets themselves? Any ideas? Thanks!

Edited April 26, 2014 by JohnClayborn

[Taki117]

Your best option is to mount solar panels and/or batteries to your rocket/payload (Depending on your design) RTGs are also good ideas as you don't need the sun to power anything. Also note that as long as you have a command pod (And not just hitchhikers) you can still control your rocket, you just won't have any SAS capability until you get power.

[Kasuha]

Some engines produce electricity and some don't. You can find that information in VAB/SPH if you right-click on the part icon to display extended information.

To prevent running out of electricity, you can:

- install additional power sources (solar panels, nuclear power sources)

- install more batteries

- make sure you have at least one electricity generating engine on the ship all the time and run it to recharge batteries when you run out of power

- reduce electricity consumption (reduce number of probe cores if you have many of them on your ship, turn SAS off when you don't need your ship positioned, turn lights off when you don't need them, etc.)

[JohnClayborn]

Thanks for the tips! I'll update my rocket today and try it out.

[JohnClayborn]

Update: I added some battery packs to the top stage of the rocket and I had more than enough electricity and fuel to get the habitat modules to the station core!

[Sirrobert]

I always put a few static solar panals on all my rockets, to make sure they are always able to recharge electricity

[Red Iron Crown]

I always put a few static solar panals on all my rockets, to make sure they are always able to recharge electricity

This is especially good advice in 0.23.5 now that there's no penalty except part count.

Another poster in the 0.23.5 Grand Discussion thread mentioned that he always mounts a battery pack and disables it, so that if he forgets to deploy solar panels that battery pack can be enabled and the panels deployed, which I thought was clever.