Akeno

I really like this idea!

Thanks for the replies I read through the Atmic Rockets page and your answers. Some things are now a bit clearer. __________________________________________________ Okay, so when I want to go to orbit I have to consider 3 things The horizontal speed that I need The vertikal speed which includes gravitational and atmospheric drag And the sum of theese amount to the total delta-v I need to go into orbit. Is that right so far? How do I calculate the horizontal speed? According to Atomic Rockets it's this equation: -> dVo = sqrt[ (G * Pm) / Pr ] My question about that is: on the Atomic Rockets page they write, this is the delta-v which is need to achieve orbital velocity. But what orbit do they mean? 70km? 100km? Or is this changeable by changing the radius of the planet? (i.g. 700 000m for a 100km orbit?) And the gravitational Speed: -> Apg = A / g -> dVd = delta-escape / Apg A = spacecraft's acceleration (m/s^2). How do I calculate this? I think in the game is only the thrust, not the acceleration. Or did I overlook something? g = acceleration due to gravity on planet's surface. According to the Atomic Rockets page, you can't simply calculate the atmospheric drag. Is that important? ___________________________________________________ As for the vis-viva equation: what is a in this equation? I read through the article on wikipedia, but it seems to be very complicated. ___________________________________________________ Now a more general question: On the Atomic Rocket page, they often write about gravity or acceleration. But as unit they use m/s instead of m/s^2. Is that right or is it a typo? ___________________________________________________ Okay, now I think I should get practise with the basic stuff, such as delta-v calculation, TWR and building a good and light rocket. If I have a question, I will post it here . Thank you in advance Akeno

Okay, but to say it with your example: I understand that you can buy the ticket with either one $100 bill or 10 10$ bills. But what I don't understand is, why does the ticket costs $100? Why not $1000 or $50? So why is the delta-v 4700 m/s and not 6000 m/s or 500 m/s? You can't calculate it with the formula I posted above, because you need the mass and the Isp. But 4700 m/s is a general value. So how do you get this number? Sorry for annoying you, I just want to understand it

Thank you But I still don't get why it's 4700 m/s. I know, it's the delta-v you need to go into Kerbin's orbit. But this number doesn't depend on your engines, or? I mean, it doesn't matter what rocket you are flying with, you still need 4700 m/s delta-v to reach orbit. Or am I wrong?

Wow! You're awesome Thank you very much! That helped me a lot. I think now I mostly understand delta-v. But I have still some questions about it: 1. When you want to go to a 100km Kerbin orbit you need about 4700 m/s (according to the wiki). In the example, Stage one 3350 m/s and Stage 2 1168 m/s. Together, they almost achieve 4700 m/s. But only by using two stages. Is this profitable? If yes, what is a good altitude to start the next stage? I guess, it should be the edge of the atmosphere? Or would it be okay to reach orbit with one stage (that has a delta-v of about 4700 m/s) as well? 2. But how does this number (4700 m/s) come about? Does this have sth. to do with the orbital velocity? 3. What is the context of the Thrust-Weight-Ratio and delta-v? I might have a clue. I read this in the wiki: So I think, we need both values to be high enough. If the ship has a delta-v of e.g. 7600 m/s but just a TWR of 0.5 it won't start. The explanation might be that you need a big acceleration to escape Kerbin. If you have small engines, they would reach 7600 m/s. But just very slowly and if there is gravity they can't even reach it. Is that right? 4. What's when the value of TWR is extremly high, e.g. 5 or something. Does it mean, the ship accelerates faster than with a value of 1? I know, that's not really important, it's just for understanding what that means . 5. @Godot: The mod is great^^. But one question: It shows me two values of delta-v (e.g. 2700 / 8500 m/s). What does that mean? What value is the "right" one? And also with mass. First, I thought it would be "dry mass / full mass". But the difference is sometimes to small (e.g. 42 000 kg / 46 000 kg). I don't get it. Sometimes I get with these values the right delta-v(which is written in the table) when I calculate it manually and sometimes not. That's confusing @Uberick: Thanks for the link. I definitely try this out but later on^^. It sounds a bit complicated And again, thank you for helping me

Hey, since I play this game, I'm very interested in this whole physics stuff. After few hours in the game, I found out, what NASA is doing and especially how they do do things. Before, I had no clue^^. I know that the game simplifies everything so everyone can play it without being a physicist or so. Anyway, the game is still more realistic than other games. And it's a great fun to play Kerbal Space program . And as I like numbers and formulae, I would like to learn how to calculate things in Kerbal Space Program. Currently, I randomly connect parts to my spaceship without looking for their values and information. I take some parts and test them. Mostly, it goes terribly wrong and I have to adjust the parts or exchange them many times, before the launch works. That's because I don't really know what information are given when I mouseover a part. The only thing I know is the mass or the elctrical charge. I would like to change this. I want to calculate how much fuel I need to get into orbit/to another planet according to the mass of my spacecraft. Or how much delta-V my ship has (although I still don't understand why a ship can have delta-v. I thought delta-v is the additional velocity that is needed to change orbit or something). I know, it might be difficult, but I'm keen to try learning this. Of course not in the way NASA is doing this^^, but the more "simple" ways. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any tutorials on how to do this. I just found this in the wiki: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Advanced_Rocket_Design On this page is explained how to calculate delta-v. I understand that except for this: This ln*(m1/m2). How do I calculate this? According to wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_logarithm) it's a natural logarithm. But I don't get it:confused: And then: What can I do with this delta-v? Okay, I know what my rocket can achieve but how do I know if my ship can even launch? I have much more questions but I think I should understand the basic things first. I hope the text is not too confusing . It's just hard to explain. Thank you for reading this post and sorry if it's the wrong forum. I didn't know where this topic fits. Greetings, Dennis

Hi, i'm Akeno (in reallife: Dennis) and I discovered this game a couple of days ago. And I love it! It has sooo many features and it's just in alpha. A few hours ago, i finally accomplished a docking maneuver . It took about 10 tries^^ Now I've got a small space station in orbit. And I even landed on Minmus. There are so many things I wanna try and i'm looking forward to the next updates with even more features. For example: It would be nice to have the ability to control your Kerbin in your ship. So that you can do things inside your ship. But anyway, great game! And great Community . greetings, Akeno (Dennis)

Okay. Thank you guys. I will try

That's weird. I tried it, but it doesn't work It won't attach

Hi, i'm trying to build a simple space station. I want to have two spare fueltanks (for refueling ships or something). But there has to be a way to decouple those tanks, just in case. Here is a picture: Is it possible to couple those docking ports in the Editor? Because I can't just put them together. That doesn't work. Thanks Greetings, Akeno