Splitting burns and Ion Engines

[Reinhart Mk.1]

So I thought I'd give ion engines another try and i think im starting to get the hang of it... but if someone could describe to me more detailed how to split long burn times? I can't seem to find much when i search

[Superfluous J]

I don't know the "right" way to do it but here's what I do when I need to split burns with nukes. No clue if it'd work with ions. At some point your isp is so low you just can't effectively do a "typical" burn.

1. Set up your full maneuver node. Note the dV requirement and time. Decide how much you can do at once (I personally like 4 minutes as the maximum). Decide how many burns you're doing (I like 2. Many times you can't do more than 3 because you'll eventually eject)
2. Pull back (full minus one burn's worth) on the maneuver node (usually 1/2, but if you're doing 3 you'd pull back 1/3) to see what your orbit will look like on the penultimate node. If it ejects you, you're going to have to rethink things. If it encounter's Mun's orbit, you'll have to make sure you don't encounter Mun when you actually do the burn. Note in particular how long it takes to go around that orbit. You'll need to time your burns so when you get back from that orbit, you'll be at your transfer window.
3. Repeat 2 as many times as you're planning to do burns. Note how long the whole thing is going to take. This is one of the reasons I restrict myself to 2 burns, it's a pain to keep track of stuff The other reason I listed above: The more burns you do the more likely you'll eject during one of them, and once you eject, you can't do more burns as you're not coming back down to Periapsis.
4. Now you know when to go for the first burn and how much to burn, so do it, with a new maneuver node of just the first burn.
5. Re-make each maneuver node as you go, as there will be little errors in execution so you'd have to edit them anyway.
6. Profit

 

[Reinhart Mk.1]

22 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Re-make each maneuver node as you go, as there will be little errors in execution so you'd have to edit them anyway.

this one is one of the things i was looking for THANK YOU!!