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Frequently Asked Questions
- Will the science lab generate research when my ship isn't the active vessel?
- Will my ship continue collect/produce antimatter while my collector/science lab isn't on the active vessel?
- I can't seem to connect the side node of the ISRU refinery to anything in the VAB even with part clipping enabled. Am I doing something wrong?
- I'd like to test out some ships without worrying about dissipating WasteHeat, how do I do this?
- My fusion reactors won't start, what do I do?
- I have a refinery on the Mun and I'm trying to refuel my Aluminium Hybrid Rocket but I'm not getting any Oxidiser, why is this?
- I've built a thermal rocket with a reactor on the launchpad but I'm not getting anywhere near the thrust it says in the table, why is this?
- How do I upgrade components?
- How do you switch fuels in the nuclear reactor?
- I have enough radiators to cool my ship, but my waste heat keeps going up! What's wrong?
Yes it will. In order to receive the science from your labs, you will need to switch back to the science lab after you have been using other vessels, at this point you will see a message on screen which will tell you how much science has been added to the R&D centre.
Will my ship continue collect/produce antimatter while my collector/science lab isn't on the active vessel?
Yes it will.
I can't seem to connect the side node of the ISRU refinery to anything in the VAB even with part clipping enabled. Am I doing something wrong?
No, unfortunately this is a problem with the base game. It is the same issue that prevents the stock 6-way hub part from being attached in certain orientations. In both cases it is only possible to attach the part to another part along one axis, e.g. top-bottom, rather than, for example, top and right.
It is, however, possible once you have placed the part to attach other things to it via the side node.
You can swap which node is available by swapping the order of the "node_stack_right = " and "node_stack_bottom =" lines in the part.cfg file found in GameData/WarpPlugin/Parts/Utility/Refinery
In the GameData/WarpPlugin folder you will find a file called WarpPluginSettings.cfg, in this file you will see the line "ThermalMechanicsDisabled = False" change this to "ThermalMechanicsDisabled = True", save the file and reload KSP.
Fusion reactors require a continuous supply of electricity in order to contiue to function, this is required to heat the plasma to the high temperatures needed for initiation of a fusion reaction. Adding a microwave transceiver or a small fission reactor to your ship is a good way of getting the power.
I have a refinery on the Mun and I'm trying to refuel my Aluminium Hybrid Rocket but I'm not getting any Oxidiser, why is this?
Oxidiser requires fuel crossfeed capable components or fuel lines in order to be transferred between parts. Fuel lines from refineries need to go in the opposite direction to what you expect - i.e. from the hybrid rocket to the refinery.
I've built a thermal rocket with a reactor on the launchpad but I'm not getting anywhere near the thrust it says in the table, why is this?
In the base KSP game, rockets have specific impulses that vary between a sea level and vacuum rating, however the thrust of base game KSP engines is fixed. That means fuel needs to be pumped into the engine faster on the ground compared to in space. That isn't terribly realistic, real rocket engines pump fuel at the same rate, they simply have to deal with lower thrust on the ground and that is the way that the thermal rocket works as well.
Once in space and even in the upper atmosphere, you will see much improved thrust.
When you research the appropriate technology in the R&D center (see Home#technology), any parts that you construct are automatically upgraded. Any upgradable parts that are on craft already in flight are not automatically upgraded; you can right click on them and upgrade them individually.
See the reactor page for all the details, but basically you eva and do a manual shutdown, then wait for the most dangerous daughter products to themselves decay away (a 9hr half-life), then you can refuel or swap fuels. Make sure you have enough room to put the uranium after it comes out of the reactor; the larger reactors need more than one tank's worth of space.
In all likelihood, nothing is wrong. In version 0.9, waste heat mechanics were changed. Prior to that, if you had enough radiators, your ship would never accumulate any waste heat at all. Otherwise, your waste heat would accumulate slowly until you overheated. When the version 0.9 came out, it was changed so that your radiators' temperature was dependent on your level of waste heat. This means that you will gradually accumulate waste heat until your radiators heat up enough to dissipate the heat at the same rate as it is produced.
If you have enough radiators for your ship, you will eventually reach thermal equilibrium and your waste heat level will stabilize. You can visit Waste Heat Management for more details on how to determine how many radiators is enough.