So I feel like I should make a forum about different fuels, what they do, and what they are good for to help with new players.

LIQUID ROCKET FUEL

Jet Fuel :Jet-modified kerosene. Only purpose is for jet engines.
KEROLOX: Liquid kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen. A basic fuel. It is heavier than other liquid fuels. On the upside, it’s good and compact, so fuel tanks don’t have to be too big. Not as efficient of the other fuels though.

HYDROLOX: Combination of Liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen. The most lightweight fuel out of the 3 basic rocket fuels. It is also the most efficient out of the three. But you must make hydrolox stages larger due to the fuel being light.

METHALOX: Combo of liquid Methane (CH4) and liquid oxygen. Pretty efficient, and perfect if you want a bit of both kerolox and hydrolox. Also has a cool blue plume!

NUCLEAR THERMAL FUEL

LIQUID HYDROGEN: Liquid hydrogen, the basic nuclear thermal fuel, is the most lightest fuel source among all fuels. It’s also very, very efficient. Used only for nuclear engines, and it is good for deep space missions, but not recommended using it in atmospheres, so use it in vacuums. (ie. colony ships) Main letdown with this fuel is that 99% of the spacecraft mass has to be Liquid hydrogen if you want a good amount of D-V.

WATER: Water is very heavy. It’s also only used for nuclear thermal engines. It’s very efficient, but it is heavy. Recommended for small deep space probes, but not large colony ships.

It’s also vital for the human/drood body.

OTHER FUELS

BATTERY/ELECTRICITY: Batteries are very heavy, but electricity can be renewed, making this source of fuel exclusive. Used for rover wheels, rotators, lights, ion engines, and more. Can be renewed with solar panels.

XENON: Used for ion engines, xenon is pretty heavy but it is SUPER efficient. You use this combined with a separate battery to power ion engines. Speaking of ion engines, ion engines are very low thrust but super high efficiency engines that you should ONLY use for deep space probes.

SOLID FUEL: Used for solid rocket motors. Solid fuel is heavy, cheap, and compact. Solid rocket motors have no throttle control and when you ignite it, it burns and burns until it runs out of fuel. Good for side boosters and lifting stuff out of droo.

MONOPROP: Used for RCS thrusters. Moderate weight, monoprop is used for an RCS which is basically a system of tiny rocket engines purely used for controlling craft attitude.

however in many instances monoprop has gaven me a chance to get back to drooo after I run outta fuel. So keep that in mind.

ASK ME IN THE COMMENTS IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION.


18 Comments

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    I’ve made* a plasma engine that also uses Xenon but it more powerful and less efficient than ion engines.

    *Using tinker panel to edit hidden properties

    3 days ago
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    More info on pentherite would be dope AF.

    13 days ago
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    There is also Pentherite(a hidden fuel type which can be obtained by typing PETN in the tinker panel’s fuel type section for fuel tanks and engines) which has a yellow exhaust flame and has the highest explosive power but is horribly inefficient.

    +1 2 months ago
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    @FuelsRHeavyRocketLiteTIME K

    2.9 years ago
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    @HorizonsTechnologies Your right my bad like huge difference batteries are almost twice as heavy! I'll fix it in original post.

    2.9 years ago
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    @FuelsRHeavyRocketLiteTIME I thought batteries were heavier than solid fuel

    2.9 years ago
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    You got a good thing going How about weight wise. Heaviest to lightest it's
    Battery, Solid Fuel SRBs, Kerolox, Xenon, Water, Methalox, Monopropellent, Hyrdolox, Liquid Hydrogen , then Jet fuel.
    Try a Hyrdrolox and Metholox mix
    or their is also trying
    Liquid Hydrogen and Methalox combo for Vacuum.
    For launching off the planets surface I did a quick assessment once and found that a TWR of 1.7 or 1.8 rocket takes around 2 minutes with the SRB boosters on. Try and resize the SRBs to match up to 110 or 120 seconds of burn time. This gets you closer to both burn times matching up and you dropping the whole stage instead of dropping SRBs then the stage itself. Hope it helps.😄

    2.9 years ago
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    26.9k Zenithspeed

    oof, may that craft rest in peace.
    my tactic is to just upload a backup of the craft, but that doesn't always work, so whatever floats your boat i guess.
    @HorizonsTechnologies

    3.3 years ago
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    @Zenithspeed Yeah you need to be careful when XML editing without Overload. I lost a important craft because of it.

    3.3 years ago
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    26.9k Zenithspeed

    yeah, i know, however XML-ing is kinda buggy for me since i use a downloaded text editor rather than the mod since i'm on ios.
    @HorizonsTechnologies

    3.3 years ago
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    @Zenithspeed You can XML edit any rocket engine to make it powerful. This explains the power stock. Not XML. We don’t do that here.

    +1 3.3 years ago
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    26.9k Zenithspeed

    "ion engines are very low thrust but super high efficiency engines that you should ONLY use for deep space probes"
    XML modded gang:
    how about i nyoom

    +2 3.3 years ago
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    4,392 PZLAgencies

    @HorizonsTechnologies Here is the craft with hydrolox fuel:
    https://www.simplerockets.com/c/h9L0S3/Piano-Launch-Vehicle-1

    3.3 years ago
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    4,392 PZLAgencies

    @HorizonsTechnologies Let me try Hydrolox. I also use Methalox a lot when Titan Engine use.

    3.3 years ago
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    4,392 PZLAgencies

    @HorizonsTechnologies yep

    3.3 years ago
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    @pianoplanepianorocket It is good to experiment with other types of fuel

    3.3 years ago
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    4,392 PZLAgencies

    I mostly use kerolox fuel.

    3.3 years ago
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    4,392 PZLAgencies

    Xenon is very efficient. I even built rockets with ion engines and the maximum result:

    2,706 years of burn time.

    Credit: ChalxAerospace for the craft that had it

    3.3 years ago

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