scuderiacab

Thanks to the wonderful artpiece called Hyperedit, all the initial orbits are perfect circular orbits with the identical orbital radii.

You basically saved me from a slap from my physics professor with hyperbolic excess velocity . About the question, I am rather comparing the change of energy induced by the different engines with different Isp values using the same mass of fuel. Technically all the initial and final masses are the same, allowing me to draw a comparison between rockets. View it as intentional systematic error, if you will.

Right away. As Snark pointed out and mathematically expected, the only change in mechanical energy was due to the loss of mass. The orbit was modified but the change was so insignificant that I rule it out as random error, probably caused by a difference in engine's firing times. This meant that my relation graph, which seemed to be a straight line, had a false y-intercept, a.k.a. inaccurate work in joules to 0 Isp value. I then realized that after reaching the escape velocity, no matter how much the vessel exceeded this speed, the final mechanical energy was going to be same, 0. That's because at infinity both kinetic and gravitational potential energies are nullified. The graph of Isp (x) vs. Work (y) resembles a Gaussian graph, but a little different. Now I will try to pinpoint the factors affecting the graph to come up with a general equation. I assume the total mass, mass flow rate and propellant mass have an effect on the graph, but we will see. They affect mainly through time I suspect, as more burn duration means more impulse delivered.

Again, any change in orbit does not mean anything even if it happens because I am observing the mechanical energy. Orbit doesn't change, it's good, it does, still good. I can just add what you said in my thesis and it would be correct but I am obliged to provide data either from real or simulated experiments. I can't just reach orbit, so... yeah. Also, again, this is not the actual focus of my thesis, just trying to see if data is consistent with what mathematics say.

I explained it briefly to Snark and here it is. You are also correct about the orbit as I've mentioned it above. I will also take a look at the calculation methods you mentioned, I either don't know them or in my language they have a different name. Thank you a lot.

I am exploring the relation between liquid fuel engine's Isp and the magnitude of work it does in the time of the burn. I calculate the work not via the common equation which involves total distance covered due to the force (thrust), but by looking at the change in mechanical energy by calculating the gravitational potential and kinetic energies of the vessel before and after the burn. And the thing is, "something" happens. Because the mass changes the gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy are affected causing change in the total mechanical energy of the vessel, even changing the the orbit in the process (relatively insignificant but it does—30 meters increase in apoapsis of a uniform 2,000,000 meter altitude orbit). This is not the main part of the experiment anyway, I am trying to come up with a mathematical relation between work and Isp, which I did with the data I gathered from normal rockets. I need a 0 Isp rocket to be able to verify the y-intersect of my graph. I tried releasing mass by using docking ports but it obviously did not give the desired value because it is instantaneous and does not take the same amount of burn time as my other data, consequently doing more work, so I need a way of gradually decreasing mass. The relation I am working on may be useful in calculations or design procedures for orbital transfer missions around the same celestial body, like Hohmann transfer. I need this to know I am not drawing the graph wrong, that's all. Thank you very much, btw.

Simply, I am working on my physics thesis and I need to observe the effects of gradual change in mass of a rocket in orbit without any force being applied, namely thrust. For this I need fuel consumption, the rate of which I can modify but no thrust. The only thing that comes to my mind is using a 0 Isp engine but I don't know how to change the files. Do you have any suggestions other than a modified engine? If not, how do I change the Isp and thrust values of engines in the game? Is there a mod I can use?

oh boy I have reinstalled it so many times my trash bin is full of scatterer files also i am using real solar system, if that changes anything

My install seems complete. It has one config, one shader file and the dll. Do I have to install something else? There is this scatterer-master download on GitHub that supposedly fixes the "black sky issue" but I couldn't get it to work either. I'm on Mac, would it change something? I downloaded the scatterer file from spacedock (which says it's outdated btw) and changed the dll. with the one you have shared a while back to fix the halo issue. I know it's just more work for you but I would really appreciate it if you could help me out. Thanks again @blackrack

Here is my player.log file. This time the bug was a little bit different. Scatterer was partially working in the KSC rather than not at all, but it was absent while viewing Earth from the tracking station. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iU3imEBuh7HN6zButwN6YzcVMKiaRaH-

Hey @blackrack, I tried it with my game with eve and rss installed and scatterer basically stops working and it goes back to the weird atmosphere before it. Before this I had the halo bug and I fixed it but this time the atmosphere started going black whenever I was viewing the KSC or launching a ship. Also this black "void" would absorb the entire screen at certain angles. The ship and the hud is still visible and so is the Sun and I still can fly the ship. But the background goes completely dark. I am using KSP for my physics essay which I need to be able to graduate, and it needs to be appealing. I would be extremely glad if you could look into it. Thanks from now