What does "Jettison" do?

[Sidereus]

"Jettison" is an option in the action groups menu for most engines. What does it do? I've tried using it with several different setups, and it doesn't seem to do anything.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Sidereus

[Starhawk]

I believe this thread will answer your question.

Happy landings!

[Sidereus]

Huh. Seems a bit...specialized. Thanks for the quick answer!

[Camacan]

Does this action only have an effect on some engines? I can see an LV-N kicking of off its left or right shroud in response to a jettison action, but none of the others seem to do anything.

(Wow, kicking off one shroud of a pair, now that's specialized. )

[Starhawk]

Interesting. I just did a couple of tests. One with an LV-N and one with an LV-909. The engine shrouds appear to be very different. While the 909 has a jettison action in the action groups, I'm not sure when this could be used.

On the launchpad, with the LV-N and then a docking port. I decouple the docking port and it drops off leaving the LV-N engine shroud in place. The shroud is two parts each of which has a jettison option. When I do the same test with the 909, the shroud is one piece and drops away with the docking port when it decouples.

Fun bonus fact - while the docking ports are certainly made of explodium, the LV-N engine shrouds are not.