What is the greatest acceleration you got with ion engines only

[wooaa]

Using a small design that was only a sputnik probe, a Z-1k Rechargeable Battery Bank and 12 OX-STAT Photovoltaic Panels I got 0.478 G. Anyone else do better?

[Jouni]

The TWR of the ion engine is about 0.82. You can get as close to that as you want, if practicality is not a concern.

[Jarin]

The TWR of the ion engine is about 0.82. You can get as close to that as you want, if practicality is not a concern.

Pretty sure scaling won't work like that. The more ion engines you have, the more power structure you need to provide. So the real question is what the TWR of (engine)+(minimum solar to fully power engine) is. I'd mention fuel, but you never stipulated how LONG it had to run for, so one tank for 50+ engines is fine, right?

[Jouni]

Radial batteries, static solar panels, and cubic octagonal struts are massless, so you can have as many of them in the ship as you want. A probe core weights 0.04 tonnes. Add one xenon tank and as many engines as you want, and you'll get very close to 0.82g.

[r4pt0r]

isnt colliding with a planet or moon technically an acceleration?

[Dodgey]

Hmm, I wounder if there is a way to determine the deceleration caused by parts crashing into an object, who knows we might end up dividing by zero, how Kerbal.