Do you use ION engines?

[OptiSTR]

Do you guys ever used or use ION engines to travel to distant planets?

[Richy teh space man]

Nope, burn times are too long and I'm too impatient.

[Galacticruler]

Nope, burn times are too long and I'm too impatient.

all of my this.

I did however once try building and launching a 500 ton payload with 100+ Ion engines from the hybrid ion pack(not the hybrid ones though). It fell short by 60km. And made quite a mess.

[geb]

I ran a manned mission to Moho yesterday, and used this as upper stage on the return vehicle:

Over 5000m/s delta-V in a package light enough for a single LV-909 to lift from Moho's surface.

Ion engines are useful.

[Free Trader Beowulf]

I use them, but I do use MechJeb to run the burns for me while I go off and do more interesting things. Without MechJeb it would be very tedious.

[tstehler1]

No, but I've been thinking about getting into them lately.

[Scotius]

No. Not even for satellites. To burn continuously at full power you have to put so much batteries and power sources, it eats significantly into payload weight. Not worth the effort and tedium.

[Kasuha]

I used them once in my early KSP days for a Minmus probe which used them to land and then to return to Kerbin. It was a success but I then always used normal engines.

[dudester28]

I can reach any place in the solar system with a NERVA, and with shorter burn times.

[lajoswinkler]

"Ion" is not an abbreviation.

No, I don't use them. I've tried but it just makes my balls hurt, pardon my French.

[briansun1]

yup in my fighters and one of my long range space planes(in the blog)

[DisarmingBaton5]

No.

The burn times are too long. I fooled around in LKO with ion propulsion once, but decided it was too slow and power-hungry.

[magnemoe]

Burn times tend to be long, solution is to cut everything not needed for the mission, Ion engines are prefect for an Moho probe mission as you do most of the burn close to the sun.

Once put an probe in an 5 km orbit around the sun, nuclear to lover Pe, ion to circulate.

Used in my grand tour trip to Moho, my only manned Ion ship, named it solar rider

Always use the small solar panels on ion crafts. They have far more power / kg than the large ones.

The large is nice for huge ship where some hunded kg extra weight don't matter and you need lots of power.

An added benefit / exploit is that the small panels don't cast shadow on each other.

Edited November 10, 2013 by magnemoe

[Jon Tash]

I use it a lot, maybe to much, I rarely use NERVAs though.

[HeadHunter67]

No. Not even for satellites. To burn continuously at full power you have to put so much batteries and power sources, it eats significantly into payload weight.

This is exactly why I don't use them. A small probe with a small ion engine should not need a 4k battery and three Gigantors to power the engine... yet that setup is only sufficient for a few seconds' thrust - which is negligible.

[paleorob]

My manned Duna Skipper has an IP drive stage that is ion powered. Currently in the middle of a 4 hour course correction.

[hoojiwana]

This is exactly why I don't use them. A small probe with a small ion engine should not need a 4k battery and three Gigantors to power the engine... yet that setup is only sufficient for a few seconds' thrust - which is negligible.

It's a good job the stock ion engine only needs 1 Gigantor at Kerbin to run at full throttle, and 2 Gigantors way out at Jool then isn't it?

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

Ok, who voted WTF is Ion engines.

Back on topic. I personally do, yes they have long burn times, yes they require extra equipment, but that's what I like about them, I like having complex sub-systems on a spacecraft for me to manage, that's why you might not be surprised to hear I play with TAC life support installed, that being said, they do need a slight ISP or thrust increase, or a mass decrease for power parts, or a tiny nuclear reactor.

[Goldham]

I ran a manned mission to Moho yesterday, and used this as upper stage on the return vehicle:

Snip

Over 5000m/s delta-V in a package light enough for a single LV-909 to lift from Moho's surface.

Ion engines are useful.

what was the burn time on that?

[FITorion]

Love em. Especially for those far away places and small probes... such as the Sun and Jool and Eeloo.

[-RanZ-]

nope, tried them a couple times and they are sloowwwwwwwww and I am not a patient person

[7499275]

I do but I edited the CFG file and bumped the power up to 250

[katateochi]

I've not used an Ion engine since back in 0.17(ish) when they came from the MMI guys and kicked ass. I can see how some play styles can use them, but they just don't fit with my style of playing.

[geb]

what was the burn time on that?

Over an hour of game time. I think about 17 minutes of 4x phys warp. It accelerated faster than the LV-N powered monstrosity that I used to haul the lander down to Moho in the first place.

[zapman987]

Ive put a few on probes, but only at the last stage, so haven't had need to use it yet.