Resource

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Revision as of 14:41, 15 April 2014 by Dstruct2k (talk | contribs) (Flow, transfer and crossfeed: Section mentioned crossfeed, but never explained it.)
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The resource tab showing all available resources in 0.20.2

A resource is a kind of material or energy that can be used, depleted, stored or generated by certain parts during missions. Common resources include liquid fuel and oxidizer, both of which are used in liquid engines, and electric charge, which has many different applications.

All means of resource storage are full when a craft is launched. All resources available in a craft can be viewed at any time during a mission using the Resources button at the upper right of the screen.

Available resources

The following table contains all the resources currently implemented.

Resource Density (kg/unit) Cost (Funds/unit) Flow mode Renewable Storable
Electric Charge 0 0 Everywhere[Note 1] Yes Yes
Liquid Fuel 5 0.8 Adjacent No Yes
Oxidizer 5 0.18 Adjacent No Yes
Intake Air 5 0 Everywhere Yes No
Solid Fuel 7.5 0.6 Internal No Yes
Monopropellant 4 1.2 Everywhere[Note 1] No Yes
EVA Propellant 0 0 None Yes No
Xenon Gas 0.1 4 Everywhere[Note 1] No Yes
Ore 10 0.02 Everywhere No Yes
Ablator 1 0.5 Internal No No
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Since 0.23.5 the resources will be drained from the first stages first, but is still available without plumbing.


Flow modes

Adjacent: Resources will only flow between adjacent sources and sinks, meaning that tanks can be drained unevenly.

Everywhere: The resource is always available to all parts structurally connected to the vessel, and the same amount of resources is drained from every container.

Internal: The resource can only be used by the part containing it.

Flow, transfer and crossfeed

Manually transferring monopropellant between two docked crafts

Most resources can be manually transferred from one container to another one, which is usually done by right-clicking two containers while holding the mod key and then using the in and out buttons under the resource indicators. The transfer is stopped automatically once the source container is empty or the target container is full, but it can also be stopped manually using the stop button under the indicators. Multiple resources can be transferred at the same time, however the containers' right-click menus must stay open, otherwise the transfer will stop as well.

Some parts are listed as "Fuel Crossfeed Capable", which means that they allow fuel to move through them to other parts that are attached to them. Fuel crossfeed can be disabled on any capable part via the right-click menu.

Another way to transfer resources is using a separate part. This is currently only possible for liquid fuel and oxidizer, using the FTX-2 External Fuel Duct.

Liquid fuel engines need the source of fuel directly adjacent to it or a connection via the fuel duct.