joe indian Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 (edited) Hi guys, help or advice is needed, please. I have 2 interplanetary tugs on LKO. Each of them has delta V = 5000 m/s. I have coupled them together using T shape struts and docking ports. I supposed that now I will have big horse with delta V = 2 times 5000 m/s, but this does not happend. Delta V of coupled pair of tugs remained same. Can any one help me or give advice, please?Thanx. Joe Indian Edited September 6, 2013 by joe indian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snarfster Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 Delta V is a function of the mass of the craft.f = mawhich you can write as a = f/mFrom this you can see that in order to get the same acceleration for a larger mass you will need more force.The net mass of the craft is double, this means the required force for the same acceleration is also double.So, if two identical craft have a 5k delta V, bolting them together will result in 5k delta v. You have twice the fuel to burn, but also twice the mass to move, they cancel each other out.Now, if I am wrong, someone please correct me. -Snarfster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allmappedout Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 Spot on. Imagine having one horse pulling one carriage. Then imagine two horses pulling two carriages bolted together. Barring any differences in horses(!), the single and double carriages will both go at the same speed as the horses are pulling the same weight PER horse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sal_vager Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 Looks like this has been answered, twice over I better close one of these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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