biggest delta v output?

[Macko939]

Hi.

I got a fleet of small satelites orbiting Jool, all of them with them tiny engines with around 20 fuel each. How to get the best delta V to get moon encounters? Long, low-thurst burn or just burn full throttle and hope for the best? I am trying to crash into these moons and do science + transmit the data right before the impact.

[Robbii6]

Just extend your orbit out so they cross paths with the moons you want to encounter and if you dont have any intercepts already ill be surprised. If you dont just orbit a couple more times and youll bound to get one.

[Macko939]

Thanks for your post but it doesn't answer my question though.

All in all, I've managed to crash 4 out of 5 of my probes, got about 1k science for it.

[R0cketC0der]

Go ahead with full throttle. Shorter burns are almost always more efficient, with some exeptions in atmospheric flight.

[cantab]

Set up you're manouevre node so you have an intercept. Once that's done, use the most throttle you can while retaining precision. I tend to go full-throttle to start with, but really wind it down for the final corrections. If I want real precision, such as if I'm making corrections for planetary gravity assists, I'll bring the thrust limiter down too. You can be half a solar orbit away and get your periapsis right to within a hundred, even ten, metres that way. (Of course, don't timewarp through the SOI change or the orbit shift will undo your work.)

[Dave Kerbin]

The delta-v you will get for a given amount of fuel is the same regardless of how quickly you thrust (unless you do it inside the atmosphere of Laythe or Jool where the ISP will be lowered).

However when you thrust will have a big impact on how far you'll actually go, which means there are strong advantages to thrusting as quickly as possible so that your delta-v is being used at the most optimum time. As a simple example if you want to expand your orbit then burning at the AP and PE will provide a lot more benefit then anywhere else. You should really figure out how to use maneuver nodes, you can use them to figure out when to burn if you want to line up an encounter with one of Jool's moons.

[Brun]

As others have said, doing a big burn as fast as possible is preferable. The ideal case (in real-world orbital dynamics) would be to impart all of that delta-v instantaneously, but obviously that's not terribly realistic.

[Vanamonde]

This question about how to play the game has been moved to the how to play the game questions sub-forum.