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[BigD145]

The prettiest drives in all of modding.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Folding drive on top in closed and open positions. Original on bottom. These are the 3.5 versions. The folder is not as tall.

I have my graphics settings turned down and a skin shrinker mod in place.

Someone finally updated the folding warp drive in Interstellar Mod.

[PTTG??]

I'm thinking of making a simple mod by stealing from Kethane. The way it would work is that Asteroids contain a small amount of Slush or something (ideally, it's determined randomly and tied to asteroid size), and then there's a Kethane Melter or something that uses electricity to produce proper Kethane for refinement.

You could use Kethane Melters as an effective bottleneck so that if you want, say, enough fuel to power a Main Sail continuously, you'll need at least four of the things, and if you want to have enough electricity to do that, you might need a lot of solar panels.

[BigD145]

Kethane in asteroids is already being thought about. Hollowing asteroids for storage is being worked on.

[WillowLuman]

Or, better yet, setting up massive space-battles with individual pilots for each fighter. It would be awesome. Some training fights, some copies of FRAPS or something, and then begin a KSP-set war movie. Or something.
With realistic fighters. Ideally, ones designed by the people playing. ("You have $100,000 to design your next fleet and get it into orbit.")

But how many computers could handle both FRAPS and KMP at the same time?

[ank]

Hows that KMP mod coming along?

Because being able to do stuff like nogoodnames with active participants would be awesome.

Actually Squad has announced that adding multiplayer with the same functionality as KMP is their top goal now.
They threw out all the other goals to make multiplayer happen, because the KMP mod convinced them that multiplayer is possible to do in a way that makes sense with time warp.

[BigD145]

I hate Chatterer so much. I hate LPers that use. It's got this beep that comes in out of nowhere and for no reason except it being on a timer. I keep expecting a voice, an "over", and then the beep. But no. It's just a beep for no reason.

[Putnam]

Hows that KMP mod coming along?

Because being able to do stuff like nogoodnames with active participants would be awesome.

Actually Squad has announced that adding multiplayer with the same functionality as KMP is their top goal now.
They threw out all the other goals to make multiplayer happen, because the KMP mod convinced them that multiplayer is possible to do in a way that makes sense with time warp.

And that's why next version is all about improving career mode.

[MarcAFK]

So I'm trying to work out what would be required to move a realistic weighted asteroid using KSP.
Firstly I've determined that the ION engines are vastly overpowered and use a miniscule amount of power.
From what I can find with google:
Engine:                    :mass        :thrust      :power           : propellant use
PB-ION engine           250Kg        2,000N      8.729 E (1)      0.0485Kg/s
SMART-1                  29Kg         .068N        1200W            0.01611Kg/h
NEXT(2)                   ?          .236N        6900W           
200 Kw VASIMIR(3)    1200Kg       5N           200Kw             5000isp
Mw VASIMIR(4)         1200Kg             1000KW           2000isp

(1) Power requirement of kerbal technology can be determined by analysis of solar panel output, a Gigantor has an area of approx 14 square meters and produces 18 E/s, with 30% efficiency this comes out to 60 E/s solar output at one KAU(kerbin astronomical unit), This becomes 216,000 E per hour, If we assume that Kerbin receives the same amount of light as Earth which gets approx 1366 Watts (per hour) then approx 11.295 E are worth 1 watt. Therefore a OX-stat produces 238 watts(an unreasonably high number) and a Gigantor produces 5.7 Kilowatts (a realistic number, but considering the calculation was based on this panel then It should definitely be)
(2) I couldn't find data on the mass or the fuel use of the NEXT, however the ISP was around 4200seconds which matches the PB-ION and a simple calculation would tell me the actual fuel usage
(3) An actual working test engine, However using solar panels for this kind of engine is considered unfeasible in real life, AD astra assumes a capability of producing working space capable nuclear reactors in the range of 1 kilogram per watt in order to run this kind of engine, however the soviet TOPAZ reactor had a weight of 100 kilos per watt, NASA were hoping on producing a 65 kilo per watt reactor for Prometheus and Robert Zubrin who seriously doubts the capabilities of VASIMIR, assumes a best case estimate of 20 kilograms per watt being possible. Note that solar panels can easily achieve 2 kilograms per kilowatt using current technology, but they're very expensive, I'm assuming however that mass production for an asteroid capture mission would reduce costs untill they're far below that of a nuclear reactor, also the development time for said reactor might be rather high compared to merely producing panels. Also note that a gigantor weighs 61 kilograms per kilowatt. Finally a note on RTGs(Radioisotope
Thermoelectric Generators) the RTG recently sent to mars on a rover weighs 45 kilograms and produces 110 watts, which is 409 kilos per watt, And the PB-NUK produces 239 watts and weighs 80 kg which equates to 334.7 kilos per watt
(4) The data I can find for the megawatt VASIMIR is terribly conflicting and doesn't match up with the observed capabilities of the 200 KW VASIMIR, particularly annoying is the paper titled"The VASIMR Engine: Project Status and
Recent Accomplishments" which lists the 1 MW engine as having a total weight 1.2 MT. Which either means 1200 Tonnes or 1.2 Metric tons. Considering the 200KW test engine weighed this much it might be reasonable that a newer model weighs 20% as much due to attention being paid to actually lightening the design, once again i couldn't find any data on the actual power output, but i would have to assume it is 5 times the 200KW model.

What do I make of all this? Firstly the PB-ION is 3411 lighter than a Smart-1 engine, and 2000 times lighter than a VASIMIR engine. It also only requires 2.7 KW electricity but for that thrust level should actually require  35,000-80,000 KW, propellant use hasn't yet been taken into consideration, but a 2000N rocket should use 0.131 kg/s propellant which is 2.7 times as much fuel (actually not too far off reality) Add to this the fact that Kerbal asteroids are 2% the weight of real asteroids and then you have a small problem.
I shall have to produce a rebalanced ION engine perhaps:
PB-ION engine 10,000 kg 100N 1764 kW 5536 E/s 0.00658kg xenon per second.
Note: Weighs 40 times as much as the stock ION, or double what a hypothetical VASIMIR would, produces 1/20th as much power, requires 634 times as much power or 307 Gigantor panels, and requires 1/7th as much xenon.
I'm going to need that part welding mod so my computer doesn't melt from the solar panels alone.

[GreatWyrmGold]

They threw out all the other goals to make multiplayer happen, because the KMP mod convinced them that multiplayer is possible to do in a way that makes sense with time warp.

I'm interested to hear what KMP's solution is.

Re: MarcAFK: Making things make sense:
Remember, physics in KSP are a bit borked. The planets are smaller but denser, and the rockets usually have lower ISPs (or so I've heard) than real rockets. It's...kinda tough to try and draw conclusions with that. Squad seems to be focusing on balance and fun more than realism.

[MarcAFK]

Oh I understand that, I just want to see what It takes to actually move a rock using real rockets

[IronTomato]

I finally got around to getting this patch. This is amazing. Guys.

I can look at water without the game shitting its pants from lag. My flag is stickered on stuff. Framerate and physics are better in general. My body is ready.

Now I just need to pull a massive asteroid into the ksc and acheive Armogeddon.

[Girlinhat]

I finally got around to getting this patch. This is amazing. Guys.

I can look at water without the game shitting its pants from lag. My flag is stickered on stuff. Framerate and physics are better in general. My body is ready.

Now I just need to pull a massive asteroid into the ksc and acheive Armogeddon.

As has been said, the real problem isn't bringing an asteroid down.  The REAL trick, is getting it back up.

[BigD145]

There is a pet rock challenge on the official forums. Stock parts only.

[nogoodnames]

Well I would post the conclusion to my space battle, but it's become too glitchy to carry on. The Lazor mod probably has something to do with it. I like it because it has a good airplane autopilot as well as some unique features, but it can be buggy at times, especially since it extends the object load range. Deleting all the debris might help, but the Kessler syndrome is half the fun. Plus there are about 300 individual pieces of debris by now and I'm too lazy to go through and delete them one by one.

I may try something like this again in the new version, put these upgraded physics everyone is talking about to the test.

Hows that KMP mod coming along?

Because being able to do stuff like nogoodnames with active participants would be awesome.

I'd like to see that happen, but it's hard enough to hit a stationary target. I can hardly imagine how difficult it would be to hit a reasonably maneuverable craft that's actively evading you. Anything larger than a fighter would be basically nonviable.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Oh I understand that, I just want to see what It takes to actually move a rock using real rockets

I'm sure Randall Munroe would be willing to answer that question and take it to extremes.

I finally got around to getting this patch. This is amazing. Guys.

I can look at water without the game shitting its pants from lag. My flag is stickered on stuff. Framerate and physics are better in general. My body is ready.

Now I just need to pull a massive asteroid into the ksc and acheive Armogeddon.

You know it won't do anything, right?

Plus there are about 300 individual pieces of debris by now and I'm too lazy to go through and delete them one by one.

I think there's an option for max debris somewhere. Set it to zero, and no more debris.

I'd like to see that happen, but it's hard enough to hit a stationary target. I can hardly imagine how difficult it would be to hit a reasonably maneuverable craft that's actively evading you. Anything larger than a fighter would be basically nonviable.

You could always try homing missiles (e.g, add probe bodies and some kind of maneuvering system).
Or use lasers.