Are Fuel Cell Arrays efficient enough for mining ships?
In Kerbal Space Program I'm developing a refueling/mining network. I've got miners scattered across the stellar system, but now that I'm out on Jool's moons, I've found that solar panels aren't as effective as they are on the inner planets.
My standard miner is 6 drills all feeding a converter and usually I just use 18 XL solar panels. But around Jool, that isn't enough. I'm draining 150 power units per second, so I'd need 200 RTGs so that's out of the question.
Can I use Fuel Cells or Fuel Cell Arrays to efficiently power a mining ship?
Would I get more fuel from the mining operation than the Fuel Cells use?
Best Answer
Yes - conditionally.
You NEED a good engineer on board.
I don't have the calculation on hand, but it was found that a three-star engineer is able to break even (with a microscopic surplus) between mining efficiency and fuel consumption of fuel cells to power said mining. You need a 4-star engineer for mining to be of actually practical use, and a 5-star one for something resembling efficiency.
With anything less than a 3-star engineer, you will not be breaking even, burning more fuel than you produce.
RTGs are impractical for the reasons you have mentioned, but if you're very hard-pressed to go mining and unable to get a 4-star engineer, replacing some of your power supply with RTGs will bring you somewhere above the "break even" line and allow a constant, if minimal trickle of surplus fuel.
Also, use Fuel Cell Arrays. They look like a set of 6 Fuel Cells, they weigh about as much as 6 fuel cells, but they produce power of 12 Fuel Cells.
Pictures about "Are Fuel Cell Arrays efficient enough for mining ships?"
Do solar panels work at JOOL?
You never need more than a few thousand units of charge and the biggest solar panels give some electricity by Jool.How does mining work in KSP?
Mining. Ore is gathered by mining the solid surfaces of planets, moons, asteroids or comets, using the 'Drill-O-Matic' Mining Excavator. Drilling continues to function during time warp.How do fuel cells work KSP?
A fuel cell converts liquid fuel and oxidizer into electric charge. While the fuel cell is a simple way to generate electricity, its consumption of valuable fuel makes it a poor choice for long-duration flights that are dependent on specific fuel levels.The BEST Mining Ships in Elite Dangerous
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Answer 2
Yes - conditionally. You do not need an engineer on board - even though having one greatly helps.
The first and most important thing is to use the correct parts (the large ones):
- Drill-O-Matic --- 5x as efficient while consuming "only" 4.5x power
- Convert-O-Tron 250 --- 10x as efficient as the 125 variant
- Fuel cell array --- 2x power per kg as the regular fuel cell)
The Convert-O-Tron 250 makes by far the biggest difference but every bit helps.
The second thing (even more important than an engineer) is the landing spot. Mining with fuel cells on 1% ore concentration is not going to be successful. Choose your landing spot carefully to get at least around 5% concentration. The more the better.
The third most important thing is the engineer.
Given the conditions above are fulfilled you can get away with one fuel cell array per Drill-O-Matic on a mining rig that has at least four Drill-O-Matics. In this case the fuel cells can also power the Convert-O-Tron 250 and heat dissipation parts without fully maxing out its capacities.
My small mining rig has such setup and runs the 4 fuel cell arrays at 95% capacity while still producing a (small) surplus of both ore and fuel simultaneously (8% ore concentration, no engineer).
Also on inner planets fuel cells on mining rigs have the advantage of enabling mining during the night and/or greatly simplifying the setup.
Sidenote: I know that this question has a bit of dust on it but since the only answer is somewhat incorrect I chose to post an update. The answer is technically for KSP 1.6.x but it is likely valid for all other versions > 1.0 as well as mining hasn't changed since if i remember correctly.
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Images: Tom Fisk, Olya Kobruseva, Olya Kobruseva, Ron Lach