M.M.R.T.G lifespan

[Logan.W]

how long will the M.M.R.T.G Produce a steady supply of Power to a Large Drilling Rig being used non stop with a large Refinery and a Medium sized 3D Printer with a time scale of 1.1 it's like 12 AM in the morning on Day 2.
sorry about my bad English Grammar

[apogerd]

How did NASA wrote?

"Curiosity, the MSL rover that was successfully landed in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012, uses one MMRTG to supply heat and electricity for its components and science instruments. Reliable power from the MMRTG will allow it to operate for several years."

[MaHuJa]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator#Life_span

...so for the purposes of the game, I expect constant output forever is a close enough approximation.

[Mr. Monochrome [Hood Certified]]

The M.M.R.T.G won't run out of power or reach an end of life stage. And yes it works off of radioactive decay which produces heat and converts that to electricity yada yada which runs out over time. But for the sake of this being a game the differences here is it will run at night whereas the solar array will not, and produces less power then the solar arrays. This is the trade off I would imagine.

[Logan.W]

thanks but in the game my Drilling rig runs for like 45 seconds then it stops becouse it's out of power but i have 3 M.M.R.T.G's running and in the game said it's a steady supply of power so why is my drilling rid stopping every 40 seconds then does nothing for like a minute then it runs again for 40 seconds. Is something Wrong with it?

[Brawndo - The Thirst Mutilator]

Because your drill needs more power, than your MMRTGs can supply.
The MMRTGs are constantly generating power and saving it into their internal batteries. Once enough enegy is stored, the drill will be powered until the batteries are empty again.
The solution would be to either set up more powersupplies or use a mod that gives you more power per MMRTG/solar panel...

[Logan.W]

So i need more then three M.M.R.T.G's
Thanks ill go try that but how many M.M.R.T.G's would i need for one drilling rig?
I have built 5 M.M.R.T.G's the drilling rig can now run 6 minutes how Many do i need?????????

[apogerd]

Depends on the type of Drilling rig. The small one needs, if I remember correctly, 1.1 KW. So you need enough MMRTGs to supply 1100 Watts.

[Mr. Monochrome [Hood Certified]]

Small Drill - 1.6kW
Large Drill - 3.2kW

[Logan.W]

i'm using the large drilling rig and i have 5 M.M.R.T.G's connected to it
and it's still struggling to run nonstop till the barrels are all full
so i'ff my math is right and ur info as well i'm gonna need 10 M.M.R.T.G's :(

[apogerd]

The power of the MMRTGs depends a bit on temperature around it too. Around zero degree Celsius they produce about 290 Watts.

5 x 290 = 1450 Watts.

The big Drill needs 3200 Watts (thanks Mr. Monochrome), so you have just half of the needed power. So the Drill will be slow, stopping again and again to gather enough energy for the next drilling cycle.

[Logan.W]

i have 6 MMRTG's producing 309 watts each and is dropping

[Mr. Monochrome [Hood Certified]]

Originally posted by Comander. Sven:

i have 6 MMRTG's producing 309 watts each and is dropping

6 MMRTGs @ 309 watts each produces 1854 watts or 1.8kW. Which is nowhere near what the large drill requires but that should run a small drill just fine. From some quick calculations you'll need at least 11 MMRTGs (11 x 309 = 3399W or 3.3kW) to produce enough power and not drain the batteries still. Running all the cables into socket hubs helps combine all that power and daisy chainning one socket to the next hub's socket will help combine everything together as each hub only allows up to 6 connections in/out.

Just another reason why there are more power mods or mods that change how much a solar or MMRTG produce.