Handwritten Calculations for KSP

zekes · December 16, 2014

I want to make a thread about the hand-written calculations I'm sure most of us do in KSP - when you want to plan a mission roughly without firing up the game. I do it, sometimes with success, sometimes less so. I want to share mine -

The design for the Cira V (and later VI) spawned from Film Class doodles - the idea that i could use the Cira IV as a building block, just like the Delta IV uses.

8n5La1k.jpg?2

Plans for my failed SSTO attempt.

Mp5zAbG.jpg?2

Trying to figure out the D/V to get me to Laythe in an SSTO.

Newest project, is a Jool-5 mission.

NeatCrown · December 17, 2014

Definitely. I most certainly pre-draw crafts/mission plans out forehand I'll edit this post to add images (The scanner's being a b:mad:tch)

Edit: Here they are!

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(The last 2 are upside down ) - Stupid scanner! Only can scan if the paper is oriented a certain way! (or I am for not rotating it)

I've already began on the paper with the yellow stick notes on it, and already had the "Wingspan" done or quite a while now! I'm having trouble with the fuel/efficiency of the BloxCo.

Edited December 17, 2014 by NeatCrown

GoSlash27 · December 17, 2014

haha,

Oh, God!

My house is *littered* with papers like these!

Sketches, DV estimates, notes...

It's frankly embarrassing...

The first step is admitting you have a problem...

-Slashy

Kizarvexis · December 17, 2014

What? No sliderules?

klgraham1013 · December 17, 2014

I abandoned paper a long time ago

colonel0sanders · December 17, 2014

I wrote a quick little app for my calculator to find dv. I use it all the time, multiple times per flight.

LordFerret · December 17, 2014

... The first step is admitting you have a problem...

LOL!

I don't draw anything, just visualize it in my head and then start building. Same with 'calculations'... none... SWAG... likely not very efficient, but I get there, and back (90% of the time anyway).

Seat-of-the-pants rocketry.

soulsource · December 17, 2014

My house is *littered* with papers like these!

Same here... It got particularly worse after I installed Remote Tech. At some point I decided to calculate all flight plans using spreadsheets, but honestly, that decision didn't stop the growth of the pile of paper...

Grover · December 17, 2014

Same here... It got particularly worse after I installed Remote Tech. At some point I decided to calculate all flight plans using spreadsheets, but honestly, that decision didn't stop the growth of the pile of paper...
http://i.imgur.com/Laptpo0.jpg

That diagram in the top left looks like the drawings that littered my desk when i first picked up rt2 long ago... And now as well since i picked it up again

GoSlash27 · December 17, 2014

What? No sliderules?

Although to be honest, the only time I ever use it now is when I'm working a quick side- calculation and I want to look at a ratio problem because it allows me to see all possible solutions at the same time.

Somebody stop me before I calculate again!!

-Slashy

Bryce Ring · December 17, 2014

Sounds like a good spin off thread Idea.

Expectation Vs Reality

http://www.deluxebattery.com/25-hilarious-expectation-vs-reality-photos/

KSP Style.

wolfedg · December 17, 2014

Oh wow, now i feel dumb, I just guess and build. I have a pretty good idea in my head of what a mission will take wheter it be orbital, munar or interplanetary. As far as all that math its way over my head. Someone recently made a post about how the math is supposedly easy and then they started talking about logarithms and it was like woosh to me.

Norpo · December 17, 2014

Dang, some of those drawings are amazing...

I can draw about as well as a stick figure.

And it's not even a GOOD stick figure!

(anyways, I do have hard copies of some delta-V maps from online, and a quick estimation I made for the Delta-V requirements for an Eve land and come back again mission. 14390 Delta-V for the lander if I use it to get back to kerbin.)

I mostly used KER, but i'm thinking of going without it for now, but I probably won't calculate Delta-V at all, just guesstimate everything

If I ever try an Eve and back mission, i'm going to download KER, because that lander is probably going to use so much asparagus staging it's not even funny, and doing delta-v/TWR calculations for 5 asparagus stages would just be painful.

Frozen_Heart · December 17, 2014

I just use the online dV maps and kerbal engineer.

though I do sometimes sketch out craft ideas to help me picture their shape.

LameLefty · December 17, 2014

I did all this stuff in college in the 80's for my aerospace engineering degree. Pencil, engineering grid paper and a calculator ... I don't bother with any of that anymore. I can eye-ball most designs well enough to work. They may not be optimized every time, but I play each new Career game by iterating some basic designs as necessary. Good enough for me.

temporalExile · December 17, 2014

Yeah, I use KER, so I don't do many calculations by hand. I find that if I sketch out a design on paper before building it in ksp, I'm much less likely to give up on the mission. I actually designed my Duna I transfer module on paper.

NBZ · December 17, 2014

I was doing a lot of Fine Print satellite deployments. I didn't find any charts or tools to calculate Delta-V requirements, so I used Excel to estimate reaching target orbit with three burns. Two to reach circular orbit at Pe height, and one to push out an Ap when at target Pe. I picked launch time, heading, and maneuver times visually by rotating map view until Mun orbit and target orbit were both single lines.

[TABLE=width: 1058]

[TR]

[TD]h1[/TD]

[TD=align: right]80[/TD]

[TD]km[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]GM[/TD]

[TD=align: right]3531.600[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]Kerbin[/TD]

[TD=align: right]600[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]r1[/TD]

[TD=align: right]680[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]h2[/TD]

[TD=align: right]10017[/TD]

[TD]km[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]r2[/TD]

[TD=align: right]10,617[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]ÃŽâ€v1[/TD]

[TD=align: right]0.845[/TD]

[TD]km/s[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]ÃŽâ€v2[/TD]

[TD=align: right]0.377[/TD]

[TD]km/s[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]ÃŽâ€v[/TD]

[TD=align: right]1.222[/TD]

[TD]km/s[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]h1[/TD]

[TD=align: right]80[/TD]

[TD]km[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]r1[/TD]

[TD=align: right]680[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Pe2[/TD]

[TD=align: right]100[/TD]

[TD]km[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]r2[/TD]

[TD=align: right]700[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Ap2[/TD]

[TD=align: right]3000[/TD]

[TD]km[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]r3[/TD]

[TD=align: right]3,600[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]ÃŽâ€v0[/TD]

[TD=align: right]4.000[/TD]

[TD]km/s[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]ÃŽâ€v1[/TD]

[TD=align: right]0.016[/TD]

[TD]km/s[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]ÃŽâ€v2[/TD]

[TD=align: right]0.016[/TD]

[TD]km/s[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]ÃŽâ€v3[/TD]

[TD=align: right]0.660[/TD]

[TD]km/s[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD] [/TD]

[TD=align: right]4.693[/TD]

[TD]km/s[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Starwhip · December 17, 2014

I had like four pages of craft drawings and calculations for my first Duna-Kerbin mission.

It still didn't work.

I'll see if I can find the papers, I may have thrown them out.

Cydonian Monk · December 17, 2014

Many brave a noble trees have given their pulp in my pursuit of kerbal exploration. And yet, like many above, I have also moved on from paper to electronic tools: my aging HP Engineering Calculator, an old TI-89, Excel, Numbers, etc. Most of the math is done for me now by Kerbal Engineer Redux, save the occasional scratch pad notes on ÃŽâ€v budgets.

The one remaining non-KER tool I still use is the orbit calculator I scratched together in Numbers, as shown below. The more useful columns are those not shown, far off to the right side if that sheet: Earth, Moon, other RSS bodies. The numbers it gives aren't exact, but they're enough to get a grasp of what's needed. Plus I can get to it from my phone.

I'll see if I've any of the more intense hand-written sheets laying about when I get home, but I'll refrain from showing off the sliderule.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Cydonian Monk

Handwritten Calculations for KSP

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