will you try to force an earlier arrival if you hv the fuel to spare?

[lammatt]

i launched to a Kethane/ISA MapSat Moho today (yr1 day 62: not the best launch window anyways...)

and upon escaping Kerbin

i found i still had like >9000m/s dV to spare

so i tried to force an earlier arrival

and i ended up with a 30day flight used a total of 15000m/s

the injection took me ~6500m/s and inclination to a polar orbit took me ~500m/s

and i ended up almost run out of fuel.

so my question is... will you try to make an early arrival if you think u'll hv enough fuel to do so?

Edited July 20, 2013 by lammatt

[dave4002000]

Not usually. Then again, most of the time i don't end up with 9000m/s of extra dV...haha. How did you manage that? But if i do have an extra fuel reserve i wasn't planning on having, i use it as just that..a fuel reserve in case i end up screwing something up further down the line and need to correct myself.

[Lheim]

I once sadly lost a lander - that meant my interplanetary tug stage, with poor ol' Jebediah onboard, had massive amounts of spare dv to return to Kerbin since it wasn't pushing the lander mass.

I did do a massive burn and got Jeb home from Duna in 30 days. Of course, I came in screaming at 12 or 15 klicks a second, had to aerobrake at 25 kilometer altitude to be captured, and maxed out the G meter during it. If we ever get realistic aerobraking damage and g-force strain on our kerbals, that would've been a TPK. So probably not worth it.

[Tw1]

I'd save fuel, unless it's very important. Like you've got something else happening at that time that you don't want to miss. Better to save it in case, problems.

[ComradeGoat]

I once sadly lost a lander - that meant my interplanetary tug stage, with poor ol' Jebediah onboard, had massive amounts of spare dv to return to Kerbin since it wasn't pushing the lander mass.

You bring your landers back?

[Lheim]

You bring your landers back?

Well, it would've been nice to reuse. If I get a usable hunk of metal into space, I try to use it over and over again. I go with the fuel depot in orbit thing; dock my ships there on return to Kerbin rather than land them. Refuel and out they go again after a change of crew and a good hosing down.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Lheim

[Brotoro]

I save fuel for a rainy day. You never know when something will go wrong. I once time warped a bit beyond Kerbin on a return trajectory ( darn kerbals didn't come out of hibernation fast enough!), and it was a good thing I had extra fuel, or the ship would have been lost in spaaaaace.