I'm curious about Mass relays

[Ramix09]

Hi! First post on the forum (besides the introductory one )

I was wondering, is there a way to do mass relays that launch a small spaceship into a transfer window? Cause I'm tired of planning and doing calculations and then having a failed mission xD

Also I only use stock so I don't have things as kerbal engineer or mechjeb (I like to play it like that)

The final idea is to have two kerbalian mass relays, one in kerbin, and the other in duna. The small spaceship goes into the mass relay, and travels into duna. then it uses the duna one to get back into Kerbin.

I'm doing one already for fun, with kerbodyne engines

What do you think? It is possible? Or I'll need like 20 engines to achieve the necessary delta v?

[Dedjal]

The mechjeb mod has a function that shows you when a transfer to another planet is optimal.

Regarding mass relays, I do not think that you can achieve the needed speed required.

Have you thought about using an alcubierre drive instead?

[merendel]

Not sure I've never used one for anything larger than a kerbal. I'd recomend testing how far you can launch a test weight with that giant kerbodyne engine. The big problem with mass relays is size(no pun intended). How much velocity the launched craft picks up depends on its mass vs the thrust of the engine. the heavier it gets the less distance you get. Unfortunatly its hard to scale up relays as keeping the mass down necesitates a small craft. a tiny craft may not be big enough to be hit by more than a single engine. Makeing it biger to be hit by more adds mass reduceing the benifit of extra engines. you might also send the craft off at an unexpected angle if you use more than a single mass relay engine.

[Guest]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say incredibly impractical, probably impossible.

Just get a small, non-invasive mod (KER) and quickly check it now and again. There are online tools (a quick Google) for calculating Phase Angles if you don't want to add Mechjeb. When you have the PA's, it's precise enough to just estimate where the intercept should occur.

[Xacktar]

I believe Danny worked out a

capable of launching single kerbals places.

Creating one for a ship might be trickier, much more mass to push and anything beyond a single engine introduces instability to the flight path and a (High) potential of crashing into the relay itself.

Hm, sounds like a fun challenge, though.

[sdj64]

It might allow a small ship to save a few hundred m/s of dV. But you'd still have to be mindful about transfer windows. Overall, mass relays are rather inefficient for all but the lightest payloads. Most practical use for one I've seen is to fire a Kerbal into Mun orbit so he can circularize with his jetpack.

[Xacktar]

Did some testing with 12 of the most massive engines and a small capsule with two RCS tanks. It barely managed to give the ship 50 m/s. Without massive part clipping I don't think its feasible on stock.

[Stone Blue]

Skykooler made this awhile back to play with:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/45229

[Ramix09]

Thanks for the answers guys! I've made one with kerbodyne engines. I had to use saveedit cause it was too heavy, and it barely pushed a kerbal to a higher orbit... In some days I'll try with a bigger one to see what happens

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Thanks for the mass driver link