Celestial bodies related questions

[Bekiekutmoar]

I was wondering myself two things regarding celestial bodies and their parameters in KSP:

Where is flying with planes easier? On Kerbin or Laythe? It seems that Laythe has 20% lower gravity than Kerbin, but atmospheric density also seems to be 20% lower. Does this mean there is actually no difference in how planes handle in both environments? I assume piloting VTOL's on Laythe may be a tad easier when in 'vertical' mode, due to lower gravity.

And what celestial body would require the MOST Delta-V to land from orbit, and to get into orbit again? Eve (16,7 m/s gravity, 5 atmosphere at 'sea-level'), or an object with the same gravity but without atmosphere ... ?

[Tex_NL]

Landing is probably hardest on Tylo as it has 0.8 gravity but no atmosphere.

Taking off I'd say Eve is worst. 1.7g and a dense atmosphere. Landing on Eve is easy with the right amount of chutes.

[Bekiekutmoar]

Nice graph ... ! But I was wondering myself how much the Evian atmosphere does actually contribute to the needed Delta-V to get into orbit again. Must be quite a lot, as take-off from 5 km height seems to reduce required Delta-V budget already with some thousands m/s.

[Tex_NL]

Correct. The higher you start from the easier it gets. The lowest atmosphere is the densest. Compare it to Kerbin, you spend roughly 50% of your dV in the first 15 km.

[Epthelyn]

Highest dV - No atmosphere: Tylo

Highest dV - Atmosphere: Eve

Highest dV - All: Eve

It's MUCH easier to land on Eve though, since you don't really need to worry about slowing down much at all until you get down to a few km above the surface.

As for easiest to fly planes on, it really depends on what you want to do with them. The advantage of Kerbin's thicker atmosphere is that you can go pretty high and still run on jets, which isn't as feasible on Laythe although it's not as necessary either. It is easier to take off from Laythe with the lower gravity, and also easier to land provided you can kill your horizontal velocity in some way without relying on the atmosphere as much as you would on Kerbin - I find it takes longer to get a safe landing on Laythe because it's slightly harder to slow down horizontally, but that doesn't necessarily make it harder.

VTOLs are almost certainly easier on Laythe; less gravity, less drag.

The hardest part is getting there

[Johnno]

Please consider carefully where you place new threads, this one was in the wrong subforum. Rule 2.4 is in effect.

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