CDE.bbcode

[h1]
[font size="6"]Preface[/font]
[/h1]
Hello everyone!

I'd like to make a thread to compile all player-made standards/presets/etc. for the different modules in the game, in a place where it can be kept updated and organized, so one can always come here to get the latest advice, recommendations, presets, modules, etc.

There are some modules that don't really benefit from presets or user-submitted modules, for instance, Crew Modules, for these kind of modules, it's better to list what materials perform the best, and/or any advice to go with it.

Let me know what you think and feel free to give me any suggestions you may have!

For the sake of not making this post super long, I'll link to pastebin or to the screenshot image, so as to keep all designs in one line

Ideally, the least amount of discussions going on over here, the better; the conclusions are more useful/easier to compile than having to comb over discussions to get the right numbers/suggestions.

Lastly, this threads's [b]ORGANIZED[/b] BBCode, is hosted over [a href="https://github.com/Copperdust/CoaDE-Engine-Plot/blob/master/CDE.bbcode"][here][/a] on GitHub, feel free to submit pull requests, or take it over if I ever disappear.

[b style="color:red;"] More importantly, it’s also over here, and anonymously editable, if anyone wants to make my job easier: [a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QfArcpxbmph5hqQDS2aEakpl6gTl55lKblNYLz7UM7M/edit?usp=sharing"]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QfArcpxbmph5hqQDS2aEakpl6gTl55lKblNYLz7UM7M/edit?usp=sharing[/a]

Make sure you go to Tools -> Preferences... and disable "Use Smart Quotes", as those will break bbcode when used inside []'s[/b]

[hr style="border-top:4px solid #bbb"]

[h1]
[font size="6"]Submodules[/font]
[/h1]

[h2]
[font size="5"]Turbopumps[/font]
[/h2]

Turbopumps are used for cooling modules, such as Reactors, Launchers, and Lasers, or as the main mechanism, Pumps, in Refueler modules.

There are two things that are important for these, the composition, which ideally should be the cheapest material that can handle the forces involved in the submodule, and the Pump Radius/Rotational Speed ratio, which controls how the weight/cost to efficiency ratio.

For low temperature Turbopumps, Lithium is by far the best material, for being the cheapest available; once its limits are broken, or when high temperature is rquired, materials such as Diamond/Amorphous Carbon should be used instead.

On my LRR 10 MW Reactor (not the most optimized), the inner loop (2500 K) uses Diamond as the material, here's a table describing the efficiency of the turbopump. I changed the Rotational Speed only, and adjusted the Radius until the reactor stopped having issues due to inner loop overheating.

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Rotational Speed[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Pump Radius[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Radius / Speed[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Power Consumption[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Total Reactor Weight[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Total Reactor Price[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Total Reactor Power[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1 RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2 m[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]200 cm/RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3.14 W[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]21.6 t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]46.7 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10.2 MW[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10 RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]89 cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.9 cm/RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]54.7 W[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.16 t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]15.4 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10.4 MW[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]100 RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]41 cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.41 cm/RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.13 KW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]457 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]12 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10.4 MW[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background:green"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]400 RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]26 cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.065 cm/RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]7.45 KW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]355 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]12.2 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10.4 MW[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1 kRPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]20 cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.02 cm/RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]31.3 KW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]398 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]13.1 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10.2 MW[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10 kRPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.9 cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.00089 cm/RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]546 KW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]815 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]18.8 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]9.82 MW[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]18 kRPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]7.30 cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.0004056 cm/RPM[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.18 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.09 t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]22.4 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]9.20 MW[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

I would love to know how to process this data to get the best ratio, but I've no idea how to do so.

Getting anything cheaper than 12 kc seems impossible with fiddling with the values manually, so it seems a ratio of ~0.5 cm/RPM is the best for price.

Getting anything below 355 kg (@ 26cm / 400rpm) seems impossible fiddling with the values manually, so it seems a ratio of 0.065 cm/RPM is the best for weight (with a price of 12.2kc, so it seems ~0.06cm/RPM is pretty close to an ideal ratio).

Perhaps the ratio changes depending on the power level of the reactor? [b]Confirmation needed[/b]

Perhaps the ratio changes depending on the composition of the turbopump? [b]Confirmation needed[/b]

[font size=1](Credit @apophys for material research)[/font]

According to @apophys, optimum rotating speed in reactors is usually somewhere between 400-600 RPM. Too low, and the coolant in the pump adds mass. Too high, and the bracing adds mass. For different reactors, the optimum is different. (Factors that affect this are unknown.)

Applications other than reactors can use slower rotating speeds, because there is less penalty on a larger size.

Below is a list of useful materials for turbopumps:

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Material:[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Lithium[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Polyethylene[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Calcium[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Boron[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Amorphous Carbon[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Diamond[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Density (kg/m3)[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]530[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]910[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1600[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2100[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2100[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3500[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Cost (c/kg)[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.04[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]21.3[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.86[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]17.4[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]22.4[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]21.8[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Density / Cost[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]131.19[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]42.72[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]273.04[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]120.69[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]93.75[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]160.55[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

In order to find the optimal ratio for a turbopump for your own specific reactor, you'll have to inch the size of the pump up (if starting with a small pump radius) or down (if starting with a large pump radius), then the rpm adjusted until you get the results you want (e.g. efficiency, weight, cost, watch whatever you want to optimize against) and/or you get rid of the warnings.

You can do this with a few different sizes, and you'll find there's a most efficient/sweet spot. If sizing up makes things worse size down or vice versa, at some point the improvements get reversed, and that's where the sweetspot is.

[h2]
[font size="5"]Injectors[/font]
[/h2]

Same thing as Turbopumps, except these aren't affected by temperature.

[h2]
[font size="5"]Gimbal/Turrets[/font]
[/h2]

Similar to Turbopumps, Lithium is the best material for reaction wheels due to its weight. However, in turrets, reaction wheels consume power, and lots of it, and ideally, one would go for the most power-efficient material and turret diameter combination.

While Li seems to be the best as far as weight/cost for rotation wheels it's very difficult to get decent speed on low power turrets. So far the best I've found for <1 Mw designs is Magnesium. [font size=1](Credit @randomletters)[/font]

[font size=1](Credit @apophys for the following material research)[/font]

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Material[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Lithium[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Polyethylene[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Calcium[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Magnesium[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Boron[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Diamond[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Selenium[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Zr Copper[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Zinc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]V.C. Steel[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Cadmium[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Nickel[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Lead[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Platinum[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Osmium[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Density (kg/m3)[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]530[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]910[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1600[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1700[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2100[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3500[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4800[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5700[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]7100[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]7500[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8700[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8900[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]11000[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]21000[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]23000[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Cost (c/kg)[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.04[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]21.3[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.86[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.56[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]17.4[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]21.8[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.59[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]23.4[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3.51[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]42.6[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.73[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]9.67[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.13[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]16[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]27.6[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Cost per Volume[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]131.19[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]42.72[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]273.04[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]372.81[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]120.69[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]160.55[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1853.28[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]243.59[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2022.79[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]176.06[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3186.81[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]920.37[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2144.25[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1312.5[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]833.33[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[font size=1](Credit @amimai for the following material research)[/font]

Tests per mass equalized on turret armor:

Lasers: (12x 1.5 MW output, 5 MW intensity) (measured as time to kill 20 turrets)
Nukes: 10MT nukes at 6km detonation
Shrapnel: 20 missiles carrying 600m/s 700x6g + 10x500g frags detonating at 1.5km range (@amimai: Could you clarify what the Shrapnel test results mean?)

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Test\Material[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Silica Gel[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Amorphous Carbon[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Diamond[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Boron[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Osmium[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Vanadium Chromium[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Lasers[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]highest survival (10 seconds)[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]90% of Silica gel[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]45% survival[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]30% survival[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]15% survival[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10% survival time[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Nukes[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]12/12 40x10MT (ship died because diamond radiators melted)[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]83% survive 4x10MT[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]83% survive 2x10MT[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Boron: 60% survive 2x10MT[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0% survival 1x10MT [/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0% survival 1x10MT [/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Shrapnel[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0% this stuff wont survive a harsh sneez even if you put 1m on...[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5cm, 4t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3cm, 4t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Boron: 3.9cm, 3t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.3mm, 4.5t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.1cm, 3t[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

Conclusion:  For general purpose you want Amorphous Carbon, its cheap, its strong, its a wonder material, and you only need around 4mm to stand up to most things.

For money and 'murrica and EXTRA FREEDOM!, you can use Silicon Aerogel, it is as good vs lasers, balls at stopping any projectile, but will survive the Soviet Nuclear Alpha Strike.

Boron is pretty good as armour if you are particularly working to counter kinetics, but otherwise fairly bad.

---

Does anybody know what the best diameter to rotational speed ratio is? It seems to be ~0.065 if it's the same as with injectors/turbopumps.

[h2]
[font size="5"]Rocket Engine Nozzles[/font]
[/h2]

I'm fairly sure NASA has some information on these...

These vary a lot, but it would be great to know the best ratio/s between added volume vs added exit velocity.

What are the best nozzle configuration in your opinion?

Do you think we can come up with a few presets?

Most efficient vs smallest

Missile nozzles vs Capital Ship nozzles

Personally, I've been using Boron or Amorphous Carbon for cheap nozzle material.

[font size=1](credit @apophys)[/font] For low mass and size, it is very important to keep throat radius small, because that controls the scaling of the entire nozzle.

Recommended material: [b]diamond[/b]. It has very high thermal conductivity, very low thermal expansion, very high melting point, and high yield strength.

Thus, it will not easily crack from thermal stress, and it will have no difficulty spreading and radiating away its heat.

[hr style="border-top:4px solid #bbb"]

[h1]
[font size="6"]Propellants &amp; Propulsion[/font]
[/h1]

[h2]
[font size="5"]Propellants (non-chemical) for NTR and Resistojet Propulstion[/font]
[/h2]

In order of usefulness.

Feel super extra free to correct and improve this! Starting out with a short/incomplete list for my sanity's sake, as it takes a while to compile all the data.

I'm aware people have been using Decane and others, but haven't done so myself so I don't have the information to quickly add it to this list.

[table]
[thead]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;" rowspan="2"]Propellant[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;" colspan="2"]Exit Speed (Max.)[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;" rowspan="2"]Mass Flow Rate / Density * Thrust[br][font size=1](credit @apophys)[/font][/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;" rowspan="2"]Notes[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NTR[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Resistojet[/th]
[/tr]
[/thead]
[tbody]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Decane[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]~5.4km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]25.8 N/KW @ ~6.4km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.254 m3/(MN*s)[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Good balance, most dense.
This is the most viable fuel for resistojets as main propulsion, nothing else gets decent thrust. [font size=1](credit: @apophys)[/font]
[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Ethane[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]~5.77km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.66 N/KW @ ~6.13km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.203 m3/(MN*s)[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][font size=1](credit: @erik)[/font]
[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Heavy Water[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]~4.5km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.49 N/KW @ ~4.54km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.153 m3/(MN*s)[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][font size=1](credit: @targetx)[/font][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Methane[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]~6.35km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3.3 N/KW @ ~7.53km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.375 m3/(MN*s)[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Good balance, cheap.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Hydrogen Deuteride[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]~9.18km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.893 N/KW @ ~11km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.903 m3/(MN*s)[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][i]Actually cheaper than Hydrogen[/i], as Hydrogen leaking, among other things, is taken into account when calculating Hydrogen cost. [font size=1](credit @apophys)[/font]
It gets very expensive to armor, as it's not too dense. [font size=1](credit @erik)[/font]
[i]May[/i] breaks canon a bit for being hard to produce.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Hydrogen[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]~9km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.504 N/KW @ ~10.5km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.749 m3/(MN*s)[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Requires a lot of volume, expensive to armor, worse than Hydrogen Deuteride in every way.[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]

[h2]
[font size="5"]Propellants (Chemical)[/font]
[/h2]

[font size=1](Credit: @zuthal)[/font]

[b]Hydrogen/Fluorine[/b] is the best propellant mix ingame. Delivers up to [b]5.1 km/s of exhaust velocity[/b] (at stoichiometric ratio), while being [b]denser[/b] than all of the [b]common NTR fuels[/b] (At an 18.8:1 Fluorine:Hydrogen ratio by mass, the average density of both is ( 18.8 * 1696 + 70.85 ) / 19.8 = 1614 kg/m^3, compared to 422.62 kg/m^3 for methane and 730.05 kg/m^3 for decane). [b]Hydrogen/Fluorine[/b] rockets are, however, [b]not really viable for MN-scale engines[/b], due to combustion chamber heat issues.

Additionally, the inconvenient mixture ratio constrains the [b]minimum total fuel mass to 2 kg[/b]. Also, the [i]realism is sketchy, due to both a limited supply of Fluorine in the solar system and the rather... difficult chemistry of fluorine, especially when hot[/i]. PTFE tanks should realistically be able to hold it, though (as PTFE is already maximally fluorinated).

[b]Volumetric impulse[/b] (how much impulse you get out of one cubic meter of propellant, calculated as exhaust velocity times propellant density) for an optimal HF chemical engine (5100 m/s exhaust velocity) is 8.23 MN*s*m^-3, or the normalised volume usage as used by @apophys, is 0.122 m^3*MN^-1*s^-1. Thus, [i]if your ship is small enough to use them, HF chemicals clearly beat any NTRs[/i].

[a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14lNTne3SeCbkmxuskQkrS8D22NluRBJJ71l0MWwf2OA/edit#gid=0"]Here's a spreadsheet for all chemical fuels in the game, with a methane and a decane NTR for comparison (in light blue.)[/a] Credit to @zuthal for this whole section, and hats off for making such a complete spreadsheet!

These are the most useful four:

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Fuel Mix[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Mixture ratio[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Maximum Exhaust Velocity[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Oxidiser Density[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Fuel Density[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Average Density[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Oxidiser Cost[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Fuel Cost[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Average Cost[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Volumetric Impulse[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Cost-specifc Impulse[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Fluorine-Hydrogen[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]18.8[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]5150 m/s[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1696 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]70.85 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1613.921717 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]0.802 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]6.16 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.072606061 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]8311696.843 Ns/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4801.389988 Ns/c[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Fluorine-Methane[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]9.47[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4030 m/s[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1696 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]422.62 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1574.378223 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]0.802 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.06 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]0.8266418338 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]6344744.241 Ns/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4875.146448 Ns/c[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]LOX-LH2[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]7.94[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4630 m/s[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1141 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]70.85 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1021.296421 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]0.697 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]6.16 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.308073826 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4728602.427 Ns/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]3539.555574 Ns/c[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]LOX-Methane[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]3.99[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]3450 m/s[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1141 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]422.62 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]997.0360721 kg/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]0.697 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.06 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]0.769745491 c/kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]3439774.449 Ns/m^3[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4482.000922 Ns/c[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[h2]
[font size="5"]Resistojet Propulsion[/font]
[/h2]

[h3]
[font size="4"]Suggested Materials Table[/font]
[/h3]

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Coil Composition[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Tantalum Hafnium Carbide [font size=1](credit @apophys)[/font][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[h2]
[font size="5"]MPD Propulsion[/font]
[/h2]

[font](Credit @apophys)[/font]

Vanadium Chromium Steel is very strong, which makes smaller MPDs. However, it reduces the GW/kg fuel you can put in significantly

[font](Credit @amimai)[/font]

For ideal materials, check out @Amimai's designs. Cost for MPDs are really a non-issue, so you can go wild. (There's also a suggested materials table below based on this as well.)

For MPD systems, it's ideal to aim for ~50 GW of power. For Neon and Mercury, the saturation point is about ~45 GW, beyond which gains are flat. Below that point, however, you get more thrust per kg of fuel.

If you are going to use MPD as backup thruster for a combat ship use [b]Methane[/b] as the main ship propellant, it allows [u]10 x more MW/g[/u] flow and gives higher fuel efficiency for small MPDs.

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Power[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Mass Flow Rate[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Efficiency Gain[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Notes[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]22 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.1kg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]+320 MW/kg/s per dGW input energy[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Still outperforms any conventional engine, but not really that great[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]28 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.3kg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]+290 MW/kg/s per dGW input energy[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]35 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.5kg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]+260 MW/kg/s per dGW input energy[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]47 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.75kg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]+250 MW/kg/s per dGW input energy[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Sweet spot is around here, additional efficiency gains fall off below +250 MW/kg/s per dGW input energy[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]55 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.9kg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]+230 MW/kg/s per dGW input energy[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]155 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.0kg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]+190 MW/kg/s per dGW input energy[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[table][tr][td][img style="max-width:100%;" src="http://i.imgur.com/xBhUKfW.png?1" alt="http://i.imgur.com/xBhUKfW.png?1"][/td]
[td][img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/ycfpWZs.png?1" style="max-width:100%;"][/td][/tr][/table]

[h4]
[font size="3"]Suggested Materials Table[/font]
[/h4]

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Cathode Composition[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Potassium[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Anode Composition[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Depleted Uranium[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Insulator Composition[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Boron[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[h3]
[font size="4"]Propellants[/font]
[/h3]

Propellants for MPDs can be nearly everything, but the best propellants are ideally dense and cheap. Here we list three (feel free to submit more), in order of usefulness [i]for MPD thrusters[/i].

[table]
[tbody]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Sulfur Dioxide[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Compromise[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Neon[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]This is the cheapest MPD, but its has less acceleration per GW, its a straight up trade, cost and dV for burn time and acceleration (+40% dV, -45% g0, +45% burn time)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Mercury[/th]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]This has the best density and acceleration of all MPD, if you need to get a lot of mass going very fast this should be your go-to[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]

While [b]Mercury[/b] can burn straight out most planet's gravity wells, with [b]Neon[/b] you will often find you need to slingshot and gravity assist your way out that can add weeks or months to journey time.

Some number crunching by @amimai

[b]Density / 1k[/b]: Roughly correlates to dV/m^3 of fuel
[b]SQRT adjust[/b]: More meaningful in some cases
[b]10g/100g/1kg/4kg[/b]: Propellant flow rate

[img src=http://i.imgur.com/V7sWlgT.png?1]

[h3]
[font size="4"]Modules[/font]
[/h3]

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Name[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Author[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Thrust[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Exhaust Velocity[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Propellant[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Mass Flow Rate[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Power Use[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Gimbal[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Dimensions[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Image[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Code[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@amimai[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]558 kN[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]192 km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Mercury[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.91 kg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]53.7 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]20°[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]59.6cm x 59.6cm x 34.6cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/Mz9TzubV"]http://pastebin.com/Mz9TzubV[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@amimai[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]383 kN[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]274 km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Neon[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.40 kg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]52.6 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]20°[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]46.6cm x 46.6cm x 58.2cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/LgqtHPza"]http://pastebin.com/LgqtHPza[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@amimai[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.83 N[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]36.9 km/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Methane[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]76.6 mg/s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]100 KW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10°[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]19.3cm x 19.3cm x 6.25cm[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/SxYsg7P1"]http://pastebin.com/SxYsg7P1[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[h2]
[font size="5"]Propellant Tanks[/font]
[/h2]

[table]
[tbody]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Best Composition for Weight[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]UHMWPE[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Best Composition for Price[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Boron[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]

[hr style="border-top:4px solid #bbb"]

[h1]
[font size="6"]Thermoelectric Fission Reactors[/font]
[/h1]

[h2]
[font size=5]Reactors[/font]
[/h2]

With enough fiddling you can get close to 10 MW (60 MW total heat) out of 100 grams of U-233 dioxide at 97% enrichment. So every value below that is going to be some lower enrichment value of 100 grams U-233 dioxide.

To be min-maxed for cost, use the lowest possible enrichment value, with the highest possible neutron flux to generate enough heat to leech the amount of power you want.

So if you want ~1 MW at 2400 K you need ~6.06 MW waste heat. You calculate that by taking the power you want and dividing that by the max thermocoupler efficiency rating for your outlet (16.5% for 2400 K so 1/.165 = ~6.06).

Max sustainable Neutron Flux is a little more tricky so I just kind of eyeball it based off previous reactor results for neturon flux stability (avoiding the reactor burning through fuel too fast error is the real pain).

After you get your reactor outputting the correct amount of waste heat you just need to make it not melt with turbopumps and a large enough thermocoupler. To be the highest efficiency possible you want it to be right on the brink of melt down, and thermocoupler yield strength. If you find yourself more meltdown prone than yield strength prone, reduce the size of the thermocoupler (or vice versa).

[font size=1](credit @jasonvance)[/font]

See Turbopumps above for advice on how to find the best size/rpm ratio.

[h2]
[font size=4]Modules[/font]
[/h2]

[table]
[tbody]
[tr]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Name[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Author[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Power[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Temp.[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Heat[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Price[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Weight[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Shielded[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Screenshot[/th]
[th style="tfr;padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Code[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;" colspan="10"]Inexistent Power Requirements (~10 W)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]13.9 W Hydrogen[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]13.9 W[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]453 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]46.9 W[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]24.6 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]118g[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/vWnVvKV.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]24.3 W[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]453 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]47.2 W[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]24.8 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]126g[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/VnTKeYq.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/X35UXQwx"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;" colspan="10"]Extremely Low Power Requirements (~200 W)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]250 W[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]871 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]643 W[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]27.5 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]120g[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/12k9ptq.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]538 W[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1114 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.73kW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]27.4 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]133g[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/a5FgkuZ.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/k7HFkhJk"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th colspan="10" style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Very Low Power Requirements (KW range)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Snickers[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@kaiserwilhelm[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.33 KW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"](?)[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]58.1 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]160g[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="https://i.imgur.com/hFTkFIv.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Snickers MkII[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@ash19256[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.45 KW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]8.84 KW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]57.4 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]162g[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/SSIdbcI.jpg"]link[/a] [a href="http://i.imgur.com/pSLA6Kl.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.68 KW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.2 KW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]43.5 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]170g[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/F35RGwS.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]LRR 25 KW [font size="1"](Long Rod Reactor)[/font][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@Tessfield[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]25 KW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2000 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"](?)[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]538 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]9.13kg[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://imgur.com/cF9WeMb"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]70 KW GPR[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@ash19256[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]70 KW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]425 KW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]836 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]8.04 kg[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/uBErap9.jpg"]link[/a] [a href="http://i.imgur.com/F06bodk.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th colspan="10" style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Low Power Requirements (MW range)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1 MW 2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@jasonvance <- @caiaphas[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.01 MW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]6.14 MW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]298 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]15.7kg[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/Ip3McSA.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]SAF 1 MW [font size="1"](Small As F**k)[/font]
[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@Tessfield[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1 MW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"](?)[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]967 c[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]12.7kg[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://imgur.com/BkUsqw2"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.1 MW 2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.1 MW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]61.4 MW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2.39 kc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]132 kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/yS9jzNw.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.2 MW 2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.2 MW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]64.2 MW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2.83 kc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]190 kg[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/szJWFqb.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th colspan="10" style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]High Power Requirements (100 MW range)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]100 MW v3.0[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]101 MW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]615 MW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]21.8 kc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.16 t[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/BfoOZ1O.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/wsDM1HjA"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]100 MW v3.0 Heavy[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]101 MW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]638 MW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]25.3 kc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.6 t[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/YStGYrv.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/LmPSqK9Y"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th colspan="10" style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Very High Power Requirements (1 GW range)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1 GW v3.0[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.01 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]6.21 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]214 kc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.4 t[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/DLODDda.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/WhjUCf7U"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1 GW v3.0 Heavy[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.01 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]6.48 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]238 kc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]14.4 t[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/i6ZNB8M.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/8qGebAKe"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@ash19256 <- @randomletters[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2.72 GW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]17.8 GW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]630 kc[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]40.7 t[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]NO[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/webEkdl.jpg"]link[/a] [a href="http://i.imgur.com/ftMntWG.jpg"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@kjakker[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]5.15 GW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]34 GW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.30 Mc[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]79.2 t[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://childrenofadeadearth.boards.net/attachment/download/536"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;" colspan="10"]Extremely High Power Requirements (10 GW range)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10 GW v3.0[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.1 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]64.1 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.98 Mc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]98.6 t[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/opmqPCY.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/fM3dmwRX"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10 GW v3.0 Heavy[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.1 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]70.6 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2.33 Mc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]142 t[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/Y8BQAej.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/MfWcqAwh"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;" colspan="10"]Obscenely High Power Requirements (~25 GW+)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]25 GW v3.0[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]25.1 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]164 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4.99 Mc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]247 t[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/MobdGZ5.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/ViRv4X1w"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]25 GW v3.0 Heavy[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]25.1 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]187 GW[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]6.04 Mc[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]377 t[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/7PPpbTp.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/9ts77Bd1"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]40 GW Standard[/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@ash19256 <- @apophys[/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]40.2 GW[/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2300 K[/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]264 GW[/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.3 Mc[/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1.60 kt[/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/9DMiEUd.png"]link[/a] [a href="http://i.imgur.com/9yg3rMh.png"]link[/a][/td]
[td style="tfrd;padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]

[font size=1]Reactor Submission Template:[/font]
[Spoiler]
[code][tr]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10 GW Standard[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]@apophys[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]10.1 GW[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]5.29 Mc[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]152 t[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]YES[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]---[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/tspdYQ5w"]http://pastebin.com/tspdYQ5w[/a][/td]
[/tr][/code]

[font size=1]I [b]strongly[/b] prefer links for code or images due to readability issues when trying to edit this post. Having many lines of code within a single table row makes it difficult to edit. I also use multiple cursors on Sublime, actual code text within those tables would make this impossible or very difficult.

Please use code tags when submitting these.[/font]
[/Spoiler]

[hr]

[h2]
[font size=5]Reactor Temperature[/font]
[/h2]

Reactors are best run at 2400-2500 K

2300 K most efficient, bigger radiatiors
2400 K best tradeoffs [sup][citation needed][/sup]
2500 K
2600 K less efficient, smaller radiators

(If I remember correctly, the thermocouple can't reach the best delta-Temperature on 2600 K, making 2500 K the "best" choice for this...? I could be spouting nonsense tho[sup][citation needed][/sup])

[font size=1](Credit @amimai:)[/font]
Side notes on reactor designs :
- Higher neutron flux is better for radiation, mass and size
- Adjusting moderator allows for higher neutron flux

It's important to note that temperature changes reactor behaviour with size:

2400 K: Larger reactors, more efficient.
2500 K: Larger reactors, marginaly more efficient.
2600 K: Smaller reactors, More efficient. (Significantly so, ~5% gain for every 50% output reduction.)

[font size=1](Credit @n2maniac for the information table below.)[/font]

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Radiator Temp[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Relative radiator area per thermal output[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Reactor efficiency (electrical per thermal)[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Comparative radiator area (area per electrical)[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Relative radiator area (area per electrical)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FFCEA6"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2900 K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]75%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]~4%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1878%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]185%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FFBA84"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2800 K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]86%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]7.09%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1219%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]120%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FFA663"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2700 K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]100%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]9.83%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1017%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]100%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FF9342"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2600 K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]116%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]13.10%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]888%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]87%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FF7F21"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2500 K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]136%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]14.60%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]932%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]92%[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FF6C00"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2400 K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]160%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]~15%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1068%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]105%[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

There's also these graphs based on @amimai's table/information, based on his [a href="http://i.imgur.com/7dVFg1R.png?1"][reactor][/a]

According to him, for designs over 2500 K, it is possible to make "heavy" reactors, maximizing power/heat at the cost of weight; these were added to data set (under spoiler below) (notably HV2600 reactors are marginally better then 2500 for radiator area)

[font size=1]Original info:[/font][spoiler]
[table][tbody][tr][td style="padding:3px;"]temp[span]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[/span][span]&nbsp;&nbsp;[/span]
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]reactor mass&nbsp;&nbsp;
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]hull cross section&nbsp;&nbsp;
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]heat signature&nbsp;&nbsp;
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]reactor cost&nbsp;&nbsp;
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]total mass[span]&nbsp;&nbsp; [/span]
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]total area[span]&nbsp;&nbsp; [/span]
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]total cost[span] [/span]
[/td][/tr][tr][td]2700
[/td][td]252.6%
[/td][td]346.5%
[/td][td]194.3%
[/td][td]334.6%
[/td][td]168.5%
[/td][td]136.6%
[/td][td]214.5%
[/td][/tr][tr][td]HV2700
[/td][td]293.4%
[/td][td]219.8%
[/td][td]163.0%
[/td][td]240.8%
[/td][td]169.8%
[/td][td]114.4%
[/td][td]162.8%
[/td][/tr][tr][td style="padding:3px;"]2600
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]158.8%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]170.3%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]134.2%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]173.3%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]120.1%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]109.6%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]131.3%
[/td][/tr][tr][td]HV2600
[/td][td]205.4%
[/td][td]127.9%
[/td][td]122.0%
[/td][td]148.6%
[/td][td]130.4%
[/td][td]99.6%
[/td][td]115.5%
[/td][/tr][tr][td style="padding:3px;"]2500
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]117.2%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]104.3%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]105.0%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]111.9%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]100.0%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]100.0%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]100.0%
[/td][/tr][tr][td style="padding:3px;"]2400
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]100.0%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]100.0%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]100.0%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]100.0%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]101.3%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]112.3%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]101.3%
[/td][/tr][tr][td style="padding:3px;"]2300
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]71.7%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]103.6%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]96.7%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]98.5%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]101.1%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]128.5%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]109.1%
[/td][/tr][tr][td style="padding:3px;"]2200
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]69.5%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]100.7%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]93.3%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]93.3%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]111.8%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]147.9%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]117.0%
[/td][/tr][tr][td style="padding:3px;"]2100
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]56.6%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]103.6%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]90.0%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]95.2%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]121.9%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]172.6%
[/td][td style="padding:3px;"]130.6%
[/td][/tr][/tbody][/table]
[/spoiler]

[img src="https://copperdust.github.io/CoaDE-Engine-Plot/assets/img/chart_full.png"]

[img src="https://copperdust.github.io/CoaDE-Engine-Plot/assets/img/chart_simple.png"]

[hr]

[h2]
[font size=5]Neutron Reflectors / Radiation Shiels[/font]
[/h2]

[b]Lithium-6[/b]. That's pretty much it, it's orders of magnitude better than anything else, use it as an external radiation shield and don't bother with neutron reflectors.

On the other hand, if you DO want to bother with Neutron Reflectors, use [b]Boron[/b]. [font color="#ec1212"][b]Reactor too hot[/b][/font] for [b]Boron[/b]? Use [b]Boron Nitride[/b] (cost optimized) or [b]Boton Carbide[/b] (weight optimized).

Anything else is not really comparable. Have a graph, graphs are cool!

[img alt="" src="https://copperdust.github.io/CoaDE-Engine-Plot/data/radiation_shielding_3uW_chart.svg" style="max-width:100%;"]

If you want to minimize radiation generation on a reactor, use a skinny reactor design. [font size=1](credit @jasonvance)[/font]

[hr]

[h2]
[font size=5]Coolants[/font]
[/h2]

In order of usefulness [i]for nuclear reactors[/i]. Let me know if you think I should include more/less properties!

[table]
[tbody]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Name[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Density[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Thermal Conductivity[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Specific Heat[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Viscosity[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Notes[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Sodium[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]970 kg/m3[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]142 W/m K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.23 kJ/kg K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]286 uPa s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Best coolant, has no competition.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Ethane[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]540 kg/m3[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]18 W/m K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.75 kJ/kg K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.61 uPa s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Ethane acts as a good Moderator, so it's more [i]useful[/i] than plain Sodium, but is a worse coolant[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Heavy Water[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1100 kg/m3[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]585 mW/m K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3.77 kJ/kg K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.25 uPa s[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Just a comparison with what we usually use in real life.[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]

[hr style="border-top:4px solid #bbb"]

[h1]
[font size=6]Radiators[/font]
[/h1]

Best Radiator Material based on Temperature

[table]
[tr]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Material[/th]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Temperature[/th]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Weight / 100,000m[sup]2[/sup][/th]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Cost / 100,000m[sup]2[/sup][/th]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FF6C00;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Lithium[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]0 K - 452 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]59.1 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]239,000 c / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FF6C00;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Calcium[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]425 K - 1110 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]172 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1,000,000 c / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FF952F;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]RCC*[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1110 K - 2270 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]194 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]14,700,000 c / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FF9937;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Boron[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2270 K - 2348 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]230 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4,000,000 c / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FFB97E;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Boron Nitrade[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]2349 K - 3244 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]233 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4,890,000 c / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FFCCA2;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Amorphus Carbon[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]3245 K - 3913 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]233 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]5,200,000 c / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FFCCA2;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Pyrolitic Carbon[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]3913 - 3920 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]249 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]5,580,000 c / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FFD2AD;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Halfnium Carbide[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]3920 K - 4158 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1,410 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]86,800,000 c / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#FFD9BB;"]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Tantalum Halfnium Carbide[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]4158 K - 4486 K[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]1,620 tons / 100,000m^2[/td]
[td style="padding: 5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]282,000,000 / 100,000m^2[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
[font size=1]* RCC is more expensive than the step up, but less massive nonetheless[/font]

[font size=1]Credit @jasonvance for this![/font]

[hr style="border-top:4px solid #bbb"]

[h1]
[font size=6]Payloads[/font]
[/h1]

[h2]
[font size=5]Nuclear Payloads[/font]
[/h2]

[table]
[tbody]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Name[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Author[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Yield[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Cost[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Weight[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Screenshot[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Code[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;" colspan="8"]Smallest Nuke[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Zorbeltuss 95t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@zorbeltuss <- @cubit32[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]95.0 t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]18.0 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]564g[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/2YsbysV.jpg"]http://i.imgur.com/2YsbysV.jpg[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Jsonvance 95t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance <- @zorbeltuss <- @cubit32[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]95.0 t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]15.1 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]390g[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/HAPgw3e.jpg"]http://i.imgur.com/HAPgw3e.jpg[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;" colspan="8"]Small Yield Nukes (~1 kt)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.00 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]131 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.88 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/n0HW0YUu"]http://pastebin.com/n0HW0YUu[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@cubit32[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.42 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]216 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.62kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://prnt.sc/d8sfs2"]http://prnt.sc/d8sfs2[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@redparadize[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.66 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]624 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.86kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://imgur.com/BxZ4B9N"]http://imgur.com/BxZ4B9N[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.00 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]571 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]11.0 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/Uz09XCKT"]http://pastebin.com/Uz09XCKT[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@randomletters[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]6.07 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]6.26 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]11.2kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://puu.sh/sxrdD/2453138019.png"]http://puu.sh/sxrdD/2453138019.png[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10.00 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.07 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]19.0 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/PvXz7h7s"]http://pastebin.com/PvXz7h7s[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]50.00 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.59 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]64.3 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/3dpwd6yu"]http://pastebin.com/3dpwd6yu[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]100.00 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.54 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]102 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/KmfDeCK9"]http://pastebin.com/KmfDeCK9[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="background:#bbb;padding:10px;border:1px solid #bbb;" colspan="8"]Large Yield Nukes (~1 Mt)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]500.00 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]35.3 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]220 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/TGXiZ1NY"]http://pastebin.com/TGXiZ1NY[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.00 Mt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]64.4 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]185 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/xFkgZujL"]http://pastebin.com/xFkgZujL[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.33 Mt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]80.8 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]158 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/TLp60HHk"]http://pastebin.com/TLp60HHk[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@Tessfield[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.60 Mt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]103kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]196kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://imgur.com/aQOEZHi"]http://imgur.com/aQOEZHi[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@newageofpower[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.69 Mt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]105kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]208kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://i.imgur.com/88TpyMx.jpg"]http://i.imgur.com/88TpyMx.jpg[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.00 Mt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]310 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]671 kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/GJcQZMgU"]http://pastebin.com/GJcQZMgU[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@jasonvance[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]9.64 Mt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]604 kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.39 t[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://pastebin.com/7U1dL0uq"]http://pastebin.com/7U1dL0uq[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]

[font size=1]Nuclear Payload Submission Template:[/font]
[Spoiler]
[code][tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]@cubit32[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.42 kt[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]216 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.62kg[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="http://prnt.sc/d8sfs2"]http://prnt.sc/d8sfs2[/a][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[/tr][/code]

[font size=1]I [b]strongly[/b] prefer links for code or images due to readability issues when trying to edit this post. Having many lines of code within a single table row makes it difficult to edit. I also use multiple cursors on Sublime, actual code text within those tables would make this impossible or very difficult.

Please use code tags when submitting these.[/font]
[/Spoiler]




[hr style="border-top:4px solid #bbb"]

[h1]
[font size=6]Weaponry[/font]
[/h1]

[h2]
[font size=5]Lasers[/font]
[/h2]

[font size=1](Credit @apophys for this whole section)[/font]

You have effectively 2 choices for your laser medium: [b][font color="darkgreen"]Green[/font] (Nd:YAG + Krypton)[/b] or [b][font color="purple"]Purple[/font] (Ti:Sapphire + Xenon)[/b].
[b][font color="darkgreen"]Green[/font][/b] is more raw power (higher efficiency), but requires larger apertures to make up for its lesser intensity ([b][font color="darkgreen"]Green[/font][/b] is lower frequency than [b][font color="purple"]Purple[/font][/b]). [b][font color="purple"]Purple[/font][/b] has somewhat improved efficiency at low power, but still not more than [b][font color="darkgreen"]Green[/font][/b].

[b][font color="darkgreen"]Green[/font][/b] gets its best pumping when arc lamp radius is small. [b][font color="purple"]Purple[/font][/b] gets its best pumping when arc lamp radius is large. This makes [b][font color="purple"]Purple[/font][/b] slightly more expensive when optimized, in my experience. (Most of your cost will be turret armor.)

Increasing lamp radius requires also increasing lasing rod radius, which worsens M[sup]2[/sup]. Higher power input also worsens M[sup]2[/sup], but increases intensity. You want M[sup]2[/sup] to be 3.00-3.02 or else your intensity at range takes a hit.

For these reasons, I recommend [b][font color="purple"]Purple[/font][/b] for low power (<100 MW) and [b][font color="darkgreen"]Green[/font][/b] for high power (>100 MW, arbitrary cutoff by me).

Cavity shape is best when it is as [b]close to a circle[/b] as possible. Keep dimensions small; this saves a lot of mass (mostly as coolant) at a low efficiency cost.

Transparent parts are [b]Fused Quartz[/b].

Cavity wall and internal mirror are [b]Silver[/b] (standard) or [b]Copper[/b] (if you want to sacrifice efficiency to push your output temperature up for smaller radiators).

Use a frequency doubler for a greatly reduced aperture, and thus greatly reduced weight and cross-section. It is strongly recommended but not essential; you can choose to take the cost of a large aperture if for some reason you really want a laser in the near infrared.
[b]Silver Gallium Selenide[/b] always gets you to 100% efficiency here, and it is the only one to do so. Its cost and weight are negligible. Therefore [b]no other doubler is relevant[/b].

Focusing mirror is aluminum (for [b][font color="purple"]Purple[/font][/b]) or silver (for [b][font color="darkgreen"]Green[/font][/b] or near infrared).

The turret should be as small as possible to hold the aperture, due to reaction wheel mass being added.

Crank up engagement range to 1 Mm, because that's what lasers are for. If you're getting terrible intensity, increase the aperture. Aim for at least 1 or 100 MW / m2

Following these guidelines, you can get effective lasers in a few tons of weight, or even less.

[font size=1](Credit @amimai for the following)[/font]

[h3]
[font size=4]Turret Sizes[/font]
[/h3]

On turret sizes for Offensive Lasers, for 45.1° (minimum turret design for light flywheels), spot diameter is not proportional to laser power output, only m[sup]2[/sup]-rating changes spot diameter:

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Aperture (m)[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Radius (m)[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]MW/m[sup]2[/sup] output at 200km
for 10 MW beam [m[sup]2[/sup] = 3][/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Spot diameter (cm)[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Turret Mass
(Using Lithium Flywheels)[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"].41[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.87[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]11.7[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]104[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.67[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]0.8[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.7[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]44.6[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]53[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.78[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1.6[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3.4[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]179[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]27[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.32[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.4[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.1[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]402[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]18[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3.53[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]3.2[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]6.8[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]714[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]13[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.63t[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.1[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.7[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1170[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.89t (45.0deg)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.0[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]17.0[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4460[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.3[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]50.7t[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]16.0[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]34.0[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]17900[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.6[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]395t[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[h3]
[font size=4]Ablation and Critical Intensities[/font]
[/h3]

[font size=1](Credit @zuthal for this whole section)[/font]

[b]Critical Intensity[/b]: Laser intensity above which more intensity in a single laser results in no more increase in ablation rate.

The maximum ablation rates of various materials are calculated under the assumption that the game ignores heat of vaporisation/decomposition (which seems reasonable, as they would likely be otherwise noted for armour materials) and that it has 0 K as the ambient temperature.

[a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQeYmbjpb4kA_hjzGXQdKpOIGx5ls-1jsF6lELbeKWACZl3rtVBpaEE-mQrifci-JJjHMdFLTGLZq7v/pubhtml?gid=0&amp;single=true&amp;widget=true&amp;headers=false"][Have a spreadhseet][/a]

[h3]
[font size=4]Coolants[/font]
[/h3]

In order of usefulness [i]for lasers[/i]. Let me know if you think I should include more/less properties!

Hydrogen or hydrogen deuteride are the only coolants that really make sense, because it doesn't need to work very hard and it must take a lot of space.

[table]
[tbody]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Name[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Density[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Thermal Conductivity[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Specific Heat[/th]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Viscosity[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Hydrogen Deuteride[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]120 kg/m3[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]119 mW/m K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]9.76 kJ/kg K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]10.7 uPa s[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Hydrogen[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]71 kg/m3[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]108 mW/m K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]14.3 kJ/kg K[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.76 uPa s[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody]
[/table]

[h3]
[font size=4]Design Guidelines/Philosophies[/font]
[/h3]

[h4]
[font size=3]Apophys: Dedicated Offence Glass-Cannon Lasers[/font]
[/h4]

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Outlet Temperature[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]High temperature lasers get a huge hit to efficiency, and the savings in radiators is not worth it.
You lose ~55% of laser efficiency while saving ~90% of the laser's radiators; this looks great at first glance. But you have to think about the whole power system; total radiator area (laser+reactor) only scales down ~55%. And you continue to use the same cost/weight of laser & reactor, so it's strictly worse. Oddly enough, silver cavities with their 1234 K temperature remain superior.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Aperture[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]45° degrees traverse (the minimum possible) is enough, regardless of the yellow warning thrown by the game.
Aperture should only be dictated by the intensity you desire at 1 Mm range (because there really isn't any downside to extending your range as far as it can go). For 100 MW green, the aperture should be at least around 1m to get usable intensity at 1Mm range.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Armour/Turret Size[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]A smaller cavity is a reduction in mass. This reduction would be fairly significant if you had very little armor, like I do.[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[h4]
[font size=3]Amimai: Compact Secondary Weapons[/font]
[/h4]

[table]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Thermostable Materials[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Diamond, Molybdenum, Tungsten (focusing mirror should be Silver since it does not have heat issues.)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Optical Nodes[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]As few as you need to get [m[sup]2[/sup] = 3.01][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Rod Radius[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]For green lasers, smaller is better, larger rods simply add cost.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Outlet Temperature[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2000 K+[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Aperture[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]First set up your turret ball to match mass, then set up aperture so you have 65deg ark (6 lasers for 360 coverage with overlaps).
Doubling the Aperture Diamerter increases the intensity by 4x, the cost by 5x and the mass by 6x its really not a good trade off.
Another thing to note, using a 16m aperture turret using a 5 MW laser, I created a death star that vaporised its way through 15m or boron armour without much issue.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Armour/Turret Size[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Boron, aim for around 20cm armour for every 100cm turret so they don't break off so easily.
A 1m diameter turret with several cm of boron can take a hit from some really nasty things like highV shrapnel bombs, remember once the turret goes you have a hole in your armour which is bad... if said hole is 30m across.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Reaction Wheel[/th]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Polyethylene, cheap, light and perfect for lasers (better then lithium because you can get rpm>10)[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[h3]
[font size=4]Modules[/font]
[/h3]

[table]
[tr]
[th rowspan=1 style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Name[hr]Author[/th]
[th rowspan=1 style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Weight[hr]Price[/th]
[th rowspan=1 style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Size[/th]
[th rowspan=1 style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Wavelength[hr]m2[hr]Efficiency[/th]
[th rowspan=1 style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Power Input[hr]Power Output[/th]
[th rowspan=1 style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Output Temp[hr]Waste Heat[/th]
[th rowspan=1 style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Intensities[/th]
[th rowspan=1 style="padding:5px;border:1px solid #bbb;"]Screenshot[hr]Code[/th]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#47008F;color:white;"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
@cubit32[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8 MW
---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][a href="prnt.sc/d8sglq"]link[/a] [a href="prnt.sc/d8sgr4"]link[/a]
---[/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#8000a1;color:white;"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
@someusername6[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]14.8t
250kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]395 nm
3 m2
4.40%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8.00 MW
352 KW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  0.775 MW/m2     (454.19 mm2)
@100 Km   77.5 MW/m2      (4.54 mm2)
@10 Km    7750 MW/m2      (0.05 mm2)
@1 Km     775000 MW/m2    (0 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="http://pastebin.com/e7z3nqyn"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#65ff00;"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
@amimai[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.47t
78.5kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]532 nm
3.01 m2
1.86%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]90.00 MW
1.68 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  0.0222 MW/m2    (75675.68 mm2)
@100 Km   2.22 MW/m2      (756.76 mm2)
@10 Km    222 MW/m2       (7.57 mm2)
@1 Km     22200 MW/m2     (0.08 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="http://pastebin.com/cDjyKY6Y"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#65ff00;"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
@David367th[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]5.56t
130kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]532 nm
3.07 m2
3.66%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]480.00 MW
17.6 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  11.9 MW/m2      (1478.99 mm2)
@100 Km   1190 MW/m2      (14.79 mm2)
@10 Km    119000 MW/m2    (0.15 mm2)
@1 Km     11900000 MW/m2  (0 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="http://pastebin.com/5j3DGvTD"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#00c0ff;"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Completely Gratuitous Blue Laser
@David367th[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]17t
533kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]475 nm
3.00 m2
0.399%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]990.00 MW
3.95 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  11.6 MW/m2      (340.52 mm2)
@100 Km   1160 MW/m2      (3.41 mm2)
@10 Km    116000 MW/m2    (0.03 mm2)
@1 Km     11600000 MW/m2  (0 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="http://pastebin.com/MZUTVnnM"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#610000;color:white;"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Regular Infra
@inbrainsane[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.67t
98.6 c[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]14.9 m
4.68 m
6.46 m[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1060 nm
3.02 m2
4.58%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8 GW
366 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1103 K
7.63 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  30.5 MW/m2      (12000 mm2)
@100 Km   3050 MW/m2      (120 mm2)
@10 Km    305000 MW/m2    (1.2 mm2)
@1 Km     30500000 MW/m2  (0.01 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="https:/pastebin.com/KVFhEapc"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#65ff00"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Regular Green
@inbrainsane[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.69t
99.7kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]14.9 m
4.68 m
6.46 m[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]532 nm
3.02 m2
4.42%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8 GW
354 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1103 K
7.65GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  118 MW/m2       (3000 mm2)
@100 Km   11800 MW/m2     (30 mm2)
@10 Km    1180000 MW/m2   (0.3 mm2)
@1 Km     118000000 MW/m2 (0 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="https:/pastebin.com/00wkMFXn"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#610061;color:white"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Regular Ultra
@inbrainsane[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.64t
98.6kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]14.9 m
4.68 m
6.46 m[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]266 nm
3.02 m2
4.33%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8 GW
346 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1104 K
7.65 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  461 MW/m2       (750.54 mm2)
@100 Km   46100 MW/m2     (7.51 mm2)
@10 Km    4610000 MW/m2   (0.08 mm2)
@1 Km     461000000 MW/m2 (0 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="https:/pastebin.com/7BcQah5E"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#610000;color:white;"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Cheap Infra
@inbrainsane[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.87t
28.7kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.68 m
4.68 m
6.68 m[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1060 nm
3.02 m2
4.56%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8 GW
365 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1103 K
7.63 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  30.4 MW/m2      (12006.58 mm2)
@100 Km   3040 MW/m2      (120.07 mm2)
@10 Km    304000 MW/m2    (1.2 mm2)
@1 Km     30400000 MW/m2  (0.01 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="https:/pastebin.com/snEjp9P6"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#65ff00"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Cheap Green
@inbrainsane[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.90t
30.2kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.68 m
4.68 m
6.68 m[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]532 nm
3.02 m2
4.41%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8 GW
353 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1103 K
7.65 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  118 MW/m2       (2991.53 mm2)
@100 Km   11800 MW/m2     (29.92 mm2)
@10 Km    1180000 MW/m2   (0.3 mm2)
@1 Km     118000000 MW/m2 (0 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="https:/pastebin.com/ninqhzxV"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[tr style="background-color:#610061;color:white"]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]Cheap Ultra
@inbrainsane[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]2.92t
34.2kc[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]4.68 m
4.68 m
6.68 m[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]266 nm
3.02 m2
4.32%[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]8 GW
345 MW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]1104 K
7.65 GW[/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"][code]@1000 Km  460 MW/m2       (750 mm2)
@100 Km   46000 MW/m2     (7.5 mm2)
@10 Km    4600000 MW/m2   (0.07 mm2)
@1 Km     460000000 MW/m2 (0 mm2)[/code][/td]
[td style="border:1px solid #bbb;padding: 5px;"]---
[a href="https:/pastebin.com/cDPJpkDP"]link[/a][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[hr]

[h2]
[font size=5]Kinetics[/font]
[/h2]

[h3]
[font size=4]Conventional Guns[/font]
[/h3]

[h3]
[font size=4]Rail Guns[/font]
[/h3]

Rail Guns are lighter than Coil Guns.

[font size=1](credit @amimai)[/font]

Rail Guns have 2 peaks for velocity depending on bore radius, one at [b]5mm or less[/b], this is best for projectiles and gives high velocity, the second one at [b]2cm or more[/b], this gives the best performance when launching payloads.

Good Barrel Materials:
  [b]Zirconium Copper[/b] (Best Speed)
  [b]Aluminum Copper Lithium[/b] (33% less speed, 50% less mass/cost)

Good Projectile Materials:
  [b]Amorphous Carbon[/b]: Good for light, Super Velocity Rail Guns; causes minimal barrel stress at 50km/s+ velocities
  [b]Osmium[/b]: Good for Heavy Mass Rail Guns; you can safely, and effectively, launch 100g of this at 30km/s+ velocities

Good Shuttle Materials (for shooting payloads):
  [b]Osmium[/b]: For narrow payloads; 100g payload to 20km/s
  [b]Beryllium[/b]: For wide payloads; expensive but best
  [b]Aluminium Zinc Magnesium[/b]: For wide payloads; cheap, 5% slower (than Beryllium)
  [b]Gamma Titanium Aluminium[/b]: For hot payloads (ie, if shuttle material melts); cheap, 15% slower, 100 times more thermostable (than Beryllium)

On Rail Gun Warnings:

If the projectile shatters, try lowering velocity
If the barrel ruptures, increase projectile mass (which does not decrease velocity)

[h3]
[font size=4]Coil Guns[/font]
[/h3]

Good Barrel Materials:
  [b]Aluminium Copper Lithium[/b]: It offers 25% lower velocity, but is 4x as light, matching results of rail guns (not that this matters, a 60 MW 1g, 51km/s rail gun has a mass of only 5t)