Reaction Control System

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Revision as of 08:12, 27 September 2012 by Thecoshman (talk | contribs) (added table for thrusters (again should be template if we can) and ussage instructions for RCS in general)
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The Reaction Control System, mostly just called RCS, is a set of gas-fuelled small thrusters primarily intended for orienting vessels in vacuum. In order to use RCS, you will need both a dedicated RCS fuel tank along with some RCS thrusters. The fuels tanks for RCS are different from solid or liquid fuels tank, and currently come in two options, matching the two different radius of parts.

The thrusters can be located any where on your ship, there is no need to place the thrusters on fuel tanks or manually run fuel lines to them. The thruster block can provide full rotation control, where as the linear port can only provide thrust in one direction. you should aim to place the thrusters as far away from your centre of mass as possible, thus maximising the torque (turning force) they generate. You should also try to place them with four way symmetry as this can provide the best control. The one final thing to not forget about is that SAS will make use of the thrusters, so unless you need to keep your ship dead level and/or have RCS fuel to spare, it is best to disable them when you can.

Fuel

Mass (kg)
Image Part Radial Size Full Empty Fuel Capacity
Fl-r25 rcs tank-t.png FL-R25 RCS Fuel Tank Small 0.5 0.1 200
FL R1.PNG FL-R1 RCS Fuel Tank Large 3 0.5 1100

Thrusters

Image Part Cost ($) Mass (kg) Drag Impact Tolerance
RV-105 RCS Thruster Block-t.png RV-105 RCS Thruster Block 450 0.05 0.001 15
File:Linear RCS Port-t.png Linear RCS Port 2500 0.05 0.01 50