More Realistic Oxygen/Hydrogen Generation and O2 Consumption - V. 3.0

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Version 3.0 of this mod works with the latest version of the game.

In real life, 1kg of pure ice would produce 0.888kg of O2. I've learned that the primary oxygen tanks on NASA's EVA suits contain 0.55kg of O2 and last for 6.5 hours. This is because the life support system recycles and conserves oxygen. I'm assuming that, in the near future, all life support systems would have that feature. Based on these calculations an astronaut in an EVA suit consumes .0000235 kg/s of O2. In real life, at the pressure necessary in order to breathe pure O2, the oxygen has a density of 0.4328243369 kg/m^3. By experimenting, and with the help of Vendan, I learned that oxygen in game has a density of 1 unit/m^3.

The most noticeable difference that users will notice with this version of the mod is that they will need more ice to fill a tank or a room. This is a tradeoff and is more realistic. This mod places prime importance on good O2 management procedures - establish good discipline with regard to pressurization and you won't have to mine for ice much at all. If you're in your suit you won't notice much difference from the previous version. But, when pressurizing rooms you will definitely see a difference. Realistically, it takes a lot of O2 to pressurize a room to 4.7 psi (the atmospheric pressure necessary to breathe pure O2 for long periods of time). Now, the mod takes this into account. But, while it may take a lot of ice to fill a tank or a room, that O2 will last exponentially longer. 1 unit lasts just over 5 hours compared to 26 seconds.

For example, in real life a 10x10x10 room holds over 6700 kg of O2 at 4.7 psi. In game, that is roughly 15600 units of O2. Since 1 unit lasts just over 5 hours, a 10x10x10 room can keep you alive for quite a long time without having to replenish the O2. But, you really don't want to be accidentally depressurizing a room and wasting all that ice.

In real life, ice in space would have impurities - I've chosen to make it 20% impure. So, with this in mind, this mod adjusts the ice to oxygen ratio in the Oxygen Generators to better reflect reality and 1kg of Ice will produce about 0.710kg of oxygen. To balance for the fact that it 1kg now produces more oxygen, I have reduced the O2 Generators inventory size to 1000 L. I have also reduced the rate at which O2 is generated - it is much faster to fill a room from a filled O2 tank than to fill it directly from a generator. The Oxygen Farm has been adjusted to match the changes to the Oxygen Generator.

Also, I have made the density of ice more realistic. With 80% purity (using stone as a basis for the other 20), it is now 1.2757 kg/L as opposed to almost 3 kg/L. Thanks to NightOwlModeler for that one.

For the suit, I have set the O2 capacity to make it last 3 hours (compared to about 26 minutes without the mod). I have cut the O2 bottle capacity as a balancing measure - it will serve as a backup. One bottle will now refill the suit by 50%.

For the cockpits, I have set the standard small cockpits so that they have the capacity to store 6 hours of O2. Due to its smaller cabin size, the fighter cockpit will store 5 hours of O2.

O2 tank capacity has been adjusted based on the cylinder size and assuming a tank pressure of 2000 psi.

Thanks to Vendan for his help.

In terms of Hydrogen, the calculations I got were not far off from Keen's default, so not much changes there. You do get a little bit more hydrogen per Kg of Ice (3.26 vs. 3).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Custom Character, Cockpit, Oxygen Bottle, and O2 Generator or Farm model mods will not work as this mod describes without unpacking the mods for these items and making the following adjustments to the .sbc files located in the custom model's folder. For Singleplayer, you must then run these custom model mods via the local folder version you unpacked and not the Steam version - you will see the folder icon in the mod browser in-game.

Custom Character: In Characters.sbc, set OxygenConsumption to 0.00009049090682 and OxygenCapacity to 0.5863810751. This must be done for every model definition, including the variations without a helmet.

Custom Cockpit: In CubeBlocks.sbc, set the OxygenCapacity to 0.9773017918 (5 hours of O2) or 1.17276215 (6 hours of O2).

Custom O2 Bottles: In PhysicalItems.sbc, set Capacity to 0.2931905375.

Custom O2 Generator: In CubeBlocks.sbc, set IceToOxygenRatio to 1.642809656.

Custom O2 Farm: In CubeBlocks.sbc, set MaxOxygenOutput to 0.01642809656.

If you are using custom models in Multiplayer, only the server admin can make the necessary changes.

Also includes two versions of the Jetpack: Hydrogen and Ion. Hydrogen jetpack runs on hydrogen fuel and Ion jetpack runs on electricity. Much like the ship thrusters, the Ion Jetpack thrusters are significantly less powerful and it will take longer to get to top speed and longer to slow down. They will also not work well in natural gravity. Ion Thrusters are great for working around a ship or station... not great for speedy acceleration.