What do you guys use for nuclear fuel tanks?

[HollowKing]

I don't seem to have any good tanks the right size for my nuclear engines. The only one that works seems to be the MK-1 Liquid fuselage. Remember that they must only contain liquid fuel for nuclear engines. What do you guys use?

[Jupiter3927]

I personally use mk1 liquid fuel tanks for my smaller nerv powered rockets.
The mk2 tank looks kind of silly unless it's on a plane so I use the biggest mk3 liquid fuel tanks for my large rockets.
Only downside is they have 30 minute+ burn times.

[HollowKing]

Originally posted by Jupiter3927:

I personally use mk1 liquid fuel tanks for my smaller nerv powered rockets.
The mk2 tank looks kind of silly unless it's on a plane so I use the biggest mk3 liquid fuel tanks for my large rockets.
Only downside is they have 30 minute+ burn times.

Yeah the mark 2 actually holds the exact same amount as the mark 1 so guess I'm using mark 3 with 30+ burn times :P.

[andylaugel]

I use the Mk 3 fuel tanks myself. They're great at delivering bases and other things to other worlds.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=816973036
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=745124699
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=750040310
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=746638168

[HollowKing]

Originally posted by andylaugel:

I use the Mk 3 fuel tanks myself. They're great at delivering bases and other things to other worlds.

Oh that's actually pretty cool, how long do your burns typically take?

[andylaugel]

Originally posted by cyberwaffle:

Originally posted by andylaugel:

I use the Mk 3 fuel tanks myself. They're great at delivering bases and other things to other worlds.

Oh that's actually pretty cool, how long do your burns typically take?

I've got a mission to Eeloo, M-221 Nu, that looks a lot like my M-200 Lambda screenshot above. It's currently set to intercept Eeloo in 78 days--with a good 2 years 234 days on the mission clock. The next burn for the mission will put it into a circular orbit around Eeloo. To do that it needs to make a 1,497 m/s burn. The mission masses 200t, and 8 "Nerv" engines provide 480 kN of thrust. 480 kN / 200t = 2.4 m/s/s acceleration. 1,497 / 2.4 = 623 seconds, or 10 minutes 23 seconds. It'll actually be a little less, as acceleration increases as reaction mass is expended.

Going back further, I know M-221 Mu started its mission in Minmus orbit at around 309 tons. Using the dV equation, I can determine it's taken 3,414 dV to get where it is now. At the start of the mission, it would have only been accelerating at 1.55 m/s/s. If we average together the acceleration at the start and end of the burn, then we get that it took about 30 minutes of burn time to get that Eeloo intercept.

P.S. Actually it might have started over Minmus with 339 tons, if the ore tanks were full. With the efficient ISRU, ore converts to fuel on a 1:1 mass ratio. So 4141 m/s dV used for 37 minutes of burn time used.

[andylaugel]

Please forgive me for getting a little off topic, but here is the story of the longest and worst burn I've planned.

Duzer Kerman is stranded in a solar orbit about 1.45 to 1.46 gigameters (Gm) from the sun, on an orbit with the same inclination as Eve. In comparison, Moho orbits at a lofty 4.2 to 6.3 Gm. And that is after stranding one nuclear driver that left Moho fully fueled to get it there. I planned a rendevous with a second set of nuclear drivers--and found it would have stranded them too with little progress actually made getting Duzer out of the gravity well. So I launched this rescue ship:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=917125620
The Poodle engine got it to my lunar refueling facilities, and then to Gilly for additional refueling. But that stage was dropped during the Eve to Duzer intercept burn. Dawn ion engines are very efficient though--the rescue ship still has a good 17 km/s dV left. But its acceleration is 0.44 m/s/s. It still needs to make a 5,304 m/s maneuver to match velocities with Duzer, or a 3 hour 21 minute burn. That is going to be an ordeal.

[Mightylink]

MK1 in Asparagus formation for me.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=881107355

But yes I would really love a mk2 liquid tank, I'm hoping that's coming in the expansion.

[Hitori]

I just use what ever fitts and then add external tanks that i detach one at a time for extra range.