Real ISRU integration

[Bornholio]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17ulTbJnPmblfDJGvcCpdOPLJTStC7Y1NQvOwVKG3TVg/edit#gid=303749319

Starting work on tech placement and pricing.

Nasa's research expendature on ISRU related science has been 1.45B over the last 9 years. This is hard to reduce down to hardware development so any citations would be helpful Would also like to add kilopower during this.

If you want edit access to the list please ask here and then in GS got a lot of access spam on the golden sheets so i ignore it.

[Bornholio]

Like magic, Kilopower was added, if interested use starwasters fork

[pap1723]

https://github.com/Starwaster/RealISRU

[dgfl-gh]

The scaling of the Kilopower reactor model is off; its height is 0.7m while it should be closer to 3-4m. If a proper model is under development, no problem, otherwise a simple upscale patch should do. More importantly, mass figures are wrong: the 10 kW reactor weighs 3.5841t in game, while what I've found is around 1.5-2t with a recurring ~1800kg figure. The 40 kW model weighs 7.2841t, which is around what x4 10 kW kilopower reactors would weigh. A single 40 kW reactor would be much lighter, so if we want to have a separate part it should be made around 3-4t for balance in my opinion.

Sources: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20160012354.pdf https://fas.org/nuke/space/leu-reactor.pdf

[dearmoon9]

The 40 kW model weighs 7.2841t,

That heavy? The 60 kW NASA SAFE 400 which I use for many vehicles or ISRU facilities weighs only about 1000 kg (1800 kg with radiators) and it is supported by RO: https://github.com/KSP-RO/RealismOverhaul/blob/master/GameData/RealismOverhaul/RO_SuggestedMods/NearFutureTechnologies/RO_NearFuture_Electrical_Nuclear.cfg

What makes such a big difference in mass?

[Bornholio]

https://github.com/KSP-RO/RealISRU/issues/30

just a temp patch to test things in RP1, needs Kilopower added later

[dgfl-gh]

What makes such a big difference in mass?

From what I've read from the papers, that difference comes from the fact that those figures are probably missing shielding. It could also just be that SAFE is a way superior design, but I see that as unlikely. I'd suggest tuning down Kilopower's mass but that SAFE-400 from NFT is probably unbalanced (read: unrealistic). Nuclear reactors will always have way worse W/kg than solar panels due to their very nature and the required shielding.

[pap1723]

This has been done for RP-1 integration in the tech tree. Is this still a useful issue to have open?

[Bornholio]

closing