Interactive Delta-V Calculator - Plot a Course through the Kerbal Universe

[OccamsNuke]

Howdy y'all!

I made a website which allows you to figure out the total delta-v needed to reach a planet and/or moon, Here it is!

Note that this is only version .1! If people use it I intend to add a lot more functionality (such as calculating in aerobraking and parachutes).

You can read the reddit thread for more information.

Any questions feel free to ping me on twitter @interwound.

Cheers!

[Teirusu]

Looks neat! Along with what most of the posters mention in the reddit thread, I'd think it would be awesome if you could include ideal phase angles for transfers.

Like maybe a second window below the delta-v map that would show Kerbin, and the target planet at the ideal angle for launch.

[lammatt]

round trip doesnt mean 2X a single direct travel.

eg.

it takes around 6km/s dV to land on Minmus

and it takes only ~300m/s dV to get back if you have a parachute

[dave4002000]

Cool idea. This would save me from having to dig out my calculator. I'm curious to how you are getting these numbers though. 10,000m/s for a one-way trip to Minmus? That's just a little excessive. I can get to Jool with less than 10,000m/s.

[Moon Goddess]

It doesn't seem to play nice with Chrome, If you change tabs away and come back it's blank.

Not really a complaint, just a bug report.

[ZRM]

It doesn't seem to play nice with Chrome, If you change tabs away and come back it's blank.

Not really a complaint, just a bug report.

I'm getting that as well on Chrome. Otherwise it looks very useful, well done OccamsNuke.

[Ventis]

Cool. But like others mentioned, even leaving aerobraking and parachutes out of the picture, a return trip to a planetary body is not simply the direct trip X 2.

I mean, 20km/s for a round trip to the Mun, or Minmus seems way too much.

[whaaw]

this calculations of delta v round trip are far away from reality in ksp

Edited July 23, 2013 by whaaw

[SciMan]

I think it's a good start, but the program needs to calculate the dV of the return trip as if you started from there in the first place. For example, this program already does a good job of calculating the total dV needed for everything including the Munar orbit-insertion burn (and possibly landing), but escaping the SOI of the Mun is much easier than (almost) escaping the SOI of Kerbin. Additionally, if the the Munar escape burn occurs at a time when Kerbin rises over the Mun's horizon, the resulting trajectory will escape the Mun counter to its rotation around Kerbin, meaning that the periapsis of the orbit around Kerbin (after leaving the Mun's SOI) will already nearly intersect Kerbin's atmosphere, which is another VERY significant savings of dV needed.

Long story short, there's no "easy shortcut" to figuring out dV for return trips.

[metaphor]

It's true that the return journey is the same as the outbound journey if you don't use the atmosphere to brake. The calculator doesn't show the most efficient path. You wouldn't first have a low orbit around Jool before going to Tylo. I just made a more accurate delta-v map that shows where you can aerobrake too. Feel free to make it into a web tool if you want to.

[Jackissimus]

It's true that the return journey is the same as the outbound journey if you don't use the atmosphere to brake. The calculator doesn't show the most efficient path. You wouldn't first have a low orbit around Jool before going to Tylo. I just made a more accurate delta-v map that shows where you can aerobrake too. Feel free to make it into a web tool if you want to.

Great, I've been looking for something like this. This is incredibly useful and has never been done before.

[hellion13]

its a good start point but, i noticed as i got better at plotting orbits using the nodes, i cut my delta V usage damn near in half, but i also plan my stages, 2 lift stages from the planet kerbin, 3rd stage to circularize and then fire the same stage a second time to leave kerbin orbit whether for the moons, or for interplanetary space its at this point where my stage planning comes in, even if i have fuel left in the 3rd stage i decouple and use a CM/lander for the rest. i guess im different though, ive built a space station before, but i challenged myself to hav an apollo style mission to every planet and moon in the system and found it was a viable method(some of the rockets got HUGE 1000+parts ~4-5fps gameplay!! i fail at building....) but even then i never really needed more than 10 to 15Km/s deltaV to get anywhere and back

[elkar]

This is so gonna get into my favourite KSP sites

[EvilotionCR2]

This is innacurate! I don't need

6210 m/s of dV to get to the Mun! *realises that you need 4km/s to get into LKO*So maybe I do...

Edited August 4, 2013 by EvilotionCR2

[gc1ceo]

Cool in theory, needs obvious work but its nice to see somebody is making it.

[Mekan1k]

Will the update allow you to chart a planet-to-planet grand tour?

[OccamsNuke]

Hey Guys, thanks for the response! Just got back from vacation and am working on the next update. Not sure if I should release one big update, or do it in smaller updates. Let me know if you have a preference, thanks!

[Peewee]

This should probably be in Tools and Applications. Also, why is it tagged as a plugin?