Rediscovering Electric Propulsion

[LePadeaux]

Ions are a nice challenge, though solar powered ion craft are only really practical for places like Eve, Gilly, and Moho. I've thought of detaching solar panels the closer my orbit gets to Kerbol, but I haven't found a way of doing so without making the craft look ugly.

My only decent ion craft was the Marici 1:

Was able to get a flyby of Moho:

[SSSPutnik]

On one of my Jool 5 missions I took a bunch of ion powered probes.

1 x ion

1 x tank of fuel

2 x large solar panels

1 x MechJeb

Kethane or ScanSat attached.

These where actually quite nimble and dropping them on an equatorial orbit of the moons it was quick and easy to maneuver them into inclined orbits to get good coverage.

Recommended.

[TerLoki]

I love electric drives. In fact as soon as I unlocked the stock ion drive I started churning out my Surveyor (orbit/flyby, no recovery) series of probes and shooting them off to Duna, Eve, Moho, and Jool. Then I realized how painfully slow the stock PB-ION engines are... But I have not given up my electric dream! I've been using the near-future propulsion pack and it's working out great so far, and I'm not even in the mid-range stuff thrust-wise yet. Next time I'm on I'll need to post pictures of Surveyor 6 (or was it 7?), my argon-fueled probe that managed to hit Dres and Eeloo in the same mission.

[Aragosnat]

I like PB-ION and have been thinking of ways to get smaller ones out farther without need of using much burn time to leave. One of my SSTO planes can give a good orbit before releasing it. Less then Mün enounter sadly. The other thing to remember is Gravity assist from the Mün can save you not only Delta-V but Burn time too if you are lucky in getting a good toss out in the right direction. I have use the Mün to save me 200 Delta-Vs roughly to escape from Kerbin SOI just to have them randomly tossed out in the general direction I want them to go.

[kelmv]

iirc, 18 or 20 RTGs will run a single ion engine forever. That said, they are great for orbital craft, like satellites. I find they tend to work really well to put themselves into orbit once they are at a high enough altitude. How I put up my old commsat network was I launched the probe out to ~2.8Mm around Kerbin on a ballistic trajectory (saving me from having to recover debris later on), and then started to bring up my periaps once I was within ~30s away from apopapsis and start to circularize. And with roughly 4km of dv aboard the thing, I can put it where ever I could ever want to, and I can do that in about 5 tons of ship.

That said, to hell with trying to change SoI with them. Down that way lies madness (or hoping mechjeb can handle the job)

[qromodynmc]

I wasnt using ion engine much but,Last days I started to think Ion powered rescue capsule,I will use One probe,two or three seat on it,one fuel tank,one or four ion engine,big solar panel,and parachutes. In case of fuel problem,Im pretty sure ion engine will help me,it is amazingly efficient..