Post by Pttg on Nov 13, 2016 18:37:10 GMT
What are the limitations on adding heat pumps and subsystems to the game?
Lots of our systems are limited in operating temperature by the functional limits of the materials. Lasers like to be below the melting points of their mirrors. Crew modules like to be below the boiling point of water. That sort of thing.
It seems reasonable to hook up a household AC unit to our crew modules and compress and heat outward-flowing coolant to a nice cherry-red before sending it to the radiators. Then the radiator can be extremely tiny and slow-flowing, run back through a decompressor, and refrigerate our crew modules however you like. I don't see a physics violation in the loop, although I can understand why the ISS doesn't use a system like that since it might be very power-intensive. For our 10 Mw reactors, though, a few extra kw won't break the bank.
I'm especially curious if self-pumping power plants make thermodynamic sense; can we get enough power from a powerplant to step its coolant up a few hundred K before it hits the radiators?
Lots of our systems are limited in operating temperature by the functional limits of the materials. Lasers like to be below the melting points of their mirrors. Crew modules like to be below the boiling point of water. That sort of thing.
It seems reasonable to hook up a household AC unit to our crew modules and compress and heat outward-flowing coolant to a nice cherry-red before sending it to the radiators. Then the radiator can be extremely tiny and slow-flowing, run back through a decompressor, and refrigerate our crew modules however you like. I don't see a physics violation in the loop, although I can understand why the ISS doesn't use a system like that since it might be very power-intensive. For our 10 Mw reactors, though, a few extra kw won't break the bank.
I'm especially curious if self-pumping power plants make thermodynamic sense; can we get enough power from a powerplant to step its coolant up a few hundred K before it hits the radiators?
