Darkness time in orbit charts! Or how to stop putting so many batteries on your ships

[Clockwork_werewolf]

I did a few calculations on the cost and mass of batteries verses RTG's. Simple answer is if you use the z100's its almost impossible to beat them.

It takes 41 z100 to match the cost of one RTG. You have to be using z1k's before they weight anything. It's only 6 Z-400's to an RTG in cost so that's worth noting although they are still massless.

With 40 z100's (and an ox-stat) and one probe core (working all the time) you would have to be in shadow for 938 MINUTES (56,000 seconds) before the RTG was more cost effective.

With 40 z100's (and an ox-stat), one probe core and a reaction wheel (working all the time) you would have to be in shadow for 91 MINUTES (5,400 seconds) before the RTG was more cost effective.

With 40 z100's (and an ox-stat), one probe core and 2 reaction wheels (working all the time) you would have to be in shadow for 48 MINUTES (2800 seconds) before the RTG was more cost effective.

In all cases the Z-100's are massless and so will always beat the RTG on mass.

Larger batteries like the z1k with mass are a complex trade off of time, mass and cost with the RTG's

[Pecan]

But can one ox-stat charge 40 z-100s during the daylight transit, during an eclipse, if it's facing the wrong way and blocked by another ship? THE important thing about RTGs is that they are always working so they make a good back-up but, yes, only for high-value assets (ie; stations) where mass isn't really an issue.

[Clockwork_werewolf]

But can one ox-stat charge 40 z-100s during the daylight transit, during an eclipse, if it's facing the wrong way and blocked by another ship? THE important thing about RTGs is that they are always working so they make a good back-up but, yes, only for high-value assets (ie; stations) where mass isn't really an issue.

Oh don't get me wrong I almost always use RTG's when I have the tech. I hate having a wrongly alined craft not able to turn because it hasn't got the power to turn to get the power. I just posted that because this post seems to be about ABSOLUTE optimization of mass, cost and power. Considering z-100's are the best cost to power and are massless as are the OX-stats the only question seemed to be cost on the dark side compared to constant power.

[Sandpiper]

I became obsessed with planning every bit of a mission using calculators, charts or anything to stop putting thing at random. But I would always put so many batteries... So I made those charts to find out how much time your ship will spend in darkness for every body in the Kerbol system and it includes the synchronous orbit as well as the moons altitudes for reference, and it has been calculated for circular orbit.

http://imgur.com/a/dVnVM

I made those charts using a MATLAB script, I wanted to get my hand around it and it turned out pretty well. Hope these we'll be useful for ya!

I combined all these charts into one. I hope someone finds this useful.