Interplanetary Mothership ideal Acceleration

[Shikashi]

Hey all, today I have a rather complicated question...

First, let me explain a bit:

I have never visited any other planet besides Duna, so I wanted to change that. I got up the greatest minds of kerbality to create a fully self sustaining mothership, refineries, launchpads and much more included, designed to establish bases at all planets.

Now, with most things like ore cannisters, containers and stuff unloaded, my mothership can go for 0.9 m/s², even much less when even half filled(but at least i can get somewhere).

The question is: HOW MUCH actually is needed for a proper mothership? Or doesn't it matter and only efficiency is counted?

[N_Danger]

 For me it is the length of time I have to burn at a maneuver node. People have shown that no more than 5 minutes is best (2.5 on ether side). You can do this multiple times raising your orbit each pass.

It will depend on where you are going, how massive your ship is and how long you want to deal with this process.

 

[Plusck]

I've had to burn for 13 minutes once for Jool (so an average acceleration of about 2.6 m/s²), and that was a nightmare. Also it was on a yellow timer and physics warping would have been suicidal - so it probably actually lasted about 20 minutes.

The right answer is "it doesn't matter", except you shouldn't really go out of your way to hate the game

You can split the burn over a couple of orbits, but there is no way of splitting the difference between a Minmus/SOI edge burn (say 900 m/s) and your final escape burn (say 2000 m/s), so if you're going any further than Duna or Eve, you're looking at a 15-minute burn on your final pass in any event - which means more certainly since you'll lose most of the Oberth effect towards the end and finish up spending way more dv.

If I were you, I'd split the mothership or find some way of putting a heavy lifter behind it to do the escape burn.

P.S. An average of 2.6 m/s² probably meant I started with a TWR of about 0.2. I don't ever start with less than about 0.27 these days, unless I know that the mid-burn TWR is going to be signicantly higher.

[Wanderfound]

Ideal for what?

For fuel efficiency, one engine will always be more efficient than two of the same engine. But trying to push a megaton mothership around on a single nuke is incredibly tedious.

For usability, you want some more. But how much more is a matter of taste; basically, aim to have a ship that can accelerate a few thousand m/s within a few minutes.

I'm quite fond of mixing up the propulsion on things; a low-TWR high efficiency engine (usually an LV-N) for most things, but with the option to kick in some high-TWR oxidising rocketry when necessary. It's not the most fuel efficient thanks to the engine dead weight, but much nicer to fly.

[March Unto Torment]

"Less than two hours," is the best answer you're getting from me, who is currently struggling with a TWR of 0.05 for a Jool ejection burn.

[Shikashi]

Ok ok... So...

My mothership made it to Minmus, where it will be refueled and upgraded for a bit.

Having to burn for 15 minutes is not so much of a problem, it is stable in maximum physics warp

I will also fill in some EPL Rocketparts resource and probably get down to 0.5 m/s²...