Plasma Beam Core Antimatter Reactor - sswelm/KSP-Interstellar-Extended GitHub Wiki

Antimatter Reactors ( wikipedia ) are the last to be unlocked, and provide some of the best end-game performance. They operate counter-intuitively compared to fission and fusion reactors. They are also more flexible than either fission or fusion reactors, and thus have no minimum power output.

Their core temperatures are inferior to upgraded fusion reactors, which you will gain access to when you unlock antimatter. However, they provide so much more power for their mass that they are still very effective in any situation that requires a high level of thrust. If you require more fuel efficiency, they also can be used to power the high-efficiency plasma engines, which provide very respectable amounts of thrust at these power levels. Once upgraded, they outclass every other reactor in both core temperature and power production and therefore offer superior performance in every way.

All of the antimatter reactors are powerful enough to launch payloads to orbit using only thermal rockets, and thus can be used in high-efficiency SSTO rockets and spaceplanes, provided you have a way to fuel them with antimatter on the ground.

Powering these beasts requires antimatter. Antimatter is difficult to collect , It must be created in a science lab or collected by an orbital collector farm. A thousand or so units of antimatter should be sufficient for most short-term missions. Unlike fission or fusion reactors, antimatter reactors will only consume antimatter when necessary, so you can get by with very little if you only perform a small amount of burns. It is recommended to provide a secondary power source such as a fission or fusion reactor in order to power the antimatter containment devices. Otherwise, you are likely to burn up your entire antimatter supply powering the containment devices during the long transfers.

Reactor Outputs

1.25 m Antimatter Reactor

  • Mass: 2 t
  • Core Temperature: 6698 K / 140,278 K
  • Power Output: 5 GW / 15 GW
  • Consumption: 0.1385 mg per second / 0.4155 mg per second
  • Runtime on 1000 mg of Antimatter: 2 hours 20 seconds / 40 minutes 7 seconds

2.5 m Antimatter Reactor

  • Mass: 16 t
  • Core Temperature: 15,012 K / 409,977 K
  • Power Output: 40 GW / 120 GW
  • Consumption: 1.108 mg per second / 3.324 mg per second
  • Runtime on 1000 mg of Antimatter: 15 minutes 3 seconds / 5 minutes 1 second

3.75 m Antimatter Reactor

  • Mass: 54 t
  • Core Temperature: 22,922 K / 646,146 K
  • Power Output: 135 GW / 405 GW
  • Consumption: 3.7395 mg per second / 11.2185 mg per second
  • Runtime on 1000 mg of Antimatter: 4 minutes 27 seconds / 1 minute 29 seconds