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Neouni edited this page May 12, 2015 · 82 revisions
  1. Introduction
  2. Parts
  3. Resources
  4. Technology
  5. Guides
  6. Have a Question?

Introduction

KSP Interstellar is a plugin for Kerbal Space Program, designed to encourage bootstrapping toward ever more advanced levels of technology as well as utilizing In-Situ resources to expand the reach of Kerbal civilization.

Players will first gain access to contemporary technologies that have not been widely applied to real space programs such as nuclear reactors, electrical generators and thermal rockets. By continuing down the tech tree and performing more research, these parts can be upgraded and later surpassed by novel new technologies such as fusion and even antimatter power.

We attempt to portray both the tremendous power of these technologies as well as their drawbacks, including the tremendous difficulty of obtaining resources like antimatter and the difficulties associated with storing it safely. The goal being to reward players who develop advanced infrastructure on other planets with new, novel and powerful technologies capable of helping Kerbals explore planets in new and exciting ways.

The principal goal of KSP Interstellar is to expand Kerbal Space Program with interesting technologies and to provide a logical and compelling technological progression beginning with technologies that could have been available in the 1970s/1980s, then technologies that could be available within the next few years, progressing to technologies that may not be available for many decades, all the way out to speculative technologies that are physically reasonably but may or may not ever be realizable in practice.

Parts

Conventional Propulsion

Energy Production

  • Reactors - Uses special fuel to generate energy long-term. Can be Fission, Fusion or Antimatter.
  • Electrical Generators - Takes power from a reactor and produces electrical energy.

FTL Propulsion

  • Alcubierre Drive - Translates a spacecraft through space without altering its physical momentum

Resource Detection

Resource Gathering

Resource Storage

Science

Thermal Management

  • Radiators - Dissipate waste heat into space
  • Intake Pre-cooler - A modification to the stock part. Now it cools intake air to reduce engine overheating at high speeds.

Resources

Propellants

  • Lithium - Used in the production of tritium, and also as an alternative propellant for Electric Engines.
  • Argon - Alternate noble gas propellant for ion drives. It offers superior specific impulse but lower thrust to the heavier Xenon.

Fuels

  • Antimatter - Each unit represents 1mg of Anti-Hydrogen. When combined with matter it violently annihilates, producing lots of energy to power your reactors if done in a controlled fashion or exploding with cataclysmic results if handled improperly.
  • Deuterium - Used in fusion engines and fusion reactors, produced via centrifuge at the Science Lab.
  • Tritium - Used in fusion engines and fusion reactors, produced in nuclear reactors via tritium breeding, which consumes Lithium.
  • Helium-3 - Used in fusion reactors, produced via the natural decay of Tritium.
  • UF4 - Uranium Tetraflouride, fuel for powering nuclear reactors
  • ThF4 - Thorium Tetraflouride, alternative fuel for powering nuclear reactors
  • Uranium Nitride - Used in particle bed fission reactors.
  • Aluminum - fuel component of the Aluminum Hybrid Rocket

Other Resources

  • Liquid Helium - this is ordinary He4, used for cryogenic cooling of scientific instruments
  • Actinides - Heavy actinide wastes produced by fission reactors. This stuff is the nasty nuclear waste; it cannot be removed from reactors, so the only way to get rid of it is to reprocess it into fresh nuclear fuel ([UF4](Uranium Tetraflouride) or ThF4) and Depleted Fuels.
  • Depleted Fuels - Waste containing some highly radioactive but short lived fission products and non-fissionable heavy elements
  • Exotic Matter - Produced and required by the Alcubierre Drive and consumed on every jump.
  • Thermal Power - All reactors produce heat, which you can then use in several ways
  • MegaJoules - Electrical generators consume Thermal Power to produce electricity. This resource represents large amounts of power produced by large power plants, all of which also produce ElectricCharge. (This unit is odd because electricity is already in the game, but it's actually a technical way of hooking into the game engine to improve the way some components consume energy, allowing very thirsty items like the Alcubierre Drive to consume as much energy as you want to feed it without starving other components.)
  • Waste Heat - Nothing is 100% efficient; much of the heat produced by a reactor is simply wasted. In space, this heat must be dissipated or it will lead it to overheating, causing ship malfunction and death. Once the Waste Heat bar reaches 95%, reactors, solar panels and microwave receivers will shut down to prevent further heat buildup. At 100%, components may explode.
  • Ammonia - a colorless gas which can be used to enhance [UF4](Uranium Tetraflouride) for use in particle bed fission reactors.
  • Water - Used in refinery processes to create various other products.

Technology

Tech Tree

Current upgradeable parts and the Technologies which unlock upgrades (More soon!)

  • Experimental Electrics
    • Electric Generator: Brayton Turbine → KTEC Thermoelectric/Direct Conversion (better efficiency)
    • Heat Radiator: Mo Li Heat Pipe → Graphene Radiator (better efficiency)
  • Fusion Power
    • Nuclear Reactor: Solid Core Reactor → Gas Core Reactor (3x power output)
    • Thermal Turbojet: Atmospheric Thermal Jet → Hybrid Thermal Rocket (Basic version can only work in atmosphere, Upgraded version can toggle over to internal fuel)
  • Antimatter Power
    • D-T Inertial Fusion Reactor → High-Q Intertial Fusion Reactor
  • Ultra-High Energy Physics
    • Antimatter Reactor: Solid/Liquid Core Reactor → Liquid/Plasma Core Reactor (3x power output)
    • Plasma Thruster: Magnetoplasdynamic → Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster (uses no fuel)

Note that technology upgrades only apply to newly launched parts; parts on existing ship will need to be upgraded individually.

Some parts are only ever upgraded individually:

  • Alcubierre Drive: Standard Field Geometry → Advanced Field Geometry (Faster charging times and higher maximum speeds)
  • Computer Core: Standard Mainframe → Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Core (Guaranteed to open the pod bay doors while within warranty period!)

Guides

This is a fairly large and complicated mod, with a lot of interlocking subsystems. As such, it may be helpful to take a guided tour or two. These could be considered spoilers; you should perhaps attempt these yourself as the exploration of these systems is highly satisfying.

The Illustrated Guide to Interstellar

The Illustrated Guide aims to provide a brief introduction to all of the mod's major features in the order in which a career game will encounter them. These chapters are complete:

Topic-Specific Guides

These are topics for which we have more specific guides, and a few where we could use a guide if you know the mod and want to write one.

Have a Question?

Check out the [FAQ](wiki/Frequently Asked Questions). If that doesn't help, either I or another player will be happy to help on the forum thread. Don't be overwhelmed by the hundreds of pages of forum posts for this mod. Use the "search thread" tool near the upper right corner to find your particular issue.

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