Newbie Help: Fuel Types?

[Zack]

There are only so many tutorials and missions on the game right now. All the peices are unlocked in sandbox mode (the only mode currently available). Needless to say, I think everyone is a little lost... or at least I am. In the demo there was only liquid fuel and solid fuel. Solid fuel keeps burning with or without throttle... got it. "Oxidizer" is some subcomponent of liquid fuel... I guess. Now that I have the full game, I'm a little confused by the considerably more complicated system of fuels and energy. Could someone who knows what's what give me a brief explanation of the various types... air intake, xenon, nuclear, electrical energy, etc.

[Caribear]

Do you just want to know what are the fuels are for or do you want an explanation of what every type of fuel actually is (i.e., a real life kinda explanation)?

[bpivk]

Originally posted by ishanda:

Do you just want to know what are the fuels are for or do you want an explanation of what every type of fuel actually is (i.e., a real life kinda explanation)?

He probably wants the in-game explanation:

- Xenon and power are for ION engines
- Jet fuel and air intakes are for jet engines
- Fuel and Oxidizer are for standard rocket engines
- RCS is for thrusters
- Booster use solid fuel (can't be throttled)
- LV-N (Nuclear engine) is a normal rocket engine despite it's name. It uses fuel and oxidizer and has a great fuel consumption once you're in space. So no you don't need to mine plutonium.

Also there is no need to write everything down because you can just hold your mouse over a specific engine and it will say what it needs amongst the description.

[Derek]

you need Monopropellant to run RCS

[ThatBum]

Okay.

In space, you need oxidizer to burn anything, because space is a vacuum, and you need oxygen to burn things. Real life conventional rocket fuel is liquid hydrogen or kerosene (the propellant) and liquid oxygen (the oxidizer). They are liquid because it's storage efficient. They're also very cold, which is why you see ice coming off some rockets in videos.

In an oxygen-containing atmosphere, you can use that oxygen to burn things. This is the IntakeAir stat, used for air breathing jet engines. They don't work in space, but the advantage to those is that you don't need to carry the extra weight of oxidizer, and they're very fuel efficient. To allow jets to breathe, you need to stick air intakes on your spaceplane or whatever it is so it can suck in air to burn its fuel. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipropellant_rocket

Xenon is used in ion engines. They work by passing an electric current through xenon gas and ionizing it, causing it to expand. They're insanely fuel efficient and light (they can burn for days), but produce very low thrust, and will be expensive when cost is implemented. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster

Nuclear engines use regular propellant and oxidizer like other rocket engines. They are more efficient than standard engines, but are less powerful. the propellant/oxidizer mixture is superheated in a nuclear reactor, then expelled. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket

Electrical energy is used to power unmanned craft, turn rover wheels, and run instrumentation. It's generated by solar panels and RTGs (radioisotope thermoelectric generator, a type of nuclear reactor). If your unmanned probe runs out of power, it won't accept commands and will be dead in space.

Hope that helps.

E: Monopropellant is a fuel in one part, unlike bipropellants, which have the aforementioned fuel and oxidizer. They ignite when exposed to a catalyst. They're used to run the RCS system. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic_propellant and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopropellant

[Zack]

Thanks, that answers all of my questions pretty thoroughly. Now to waste billions upon billions of kerbal dollars. >:D