Do transX and other MFDs used for interplanetary travel account for the mass of all vessels which may be docked? for example, if I dock two deltagliders and then get in one and plot a course to mars, will I fall short because the vessel is actually twice the mass of one dg? I guess what I'm asking is, do these MFDs take docked vessels into account when making their calculations?
Flight Question docked vessels and interplanetary travel
- Thread starter calabash0
- Start date
jedidia
shoemaker without legs
Not sure about IMFD, but I'm fairly certain that TransX doesn't.
dgatsoulis
ele2png user
The first part of the calculation is in terms of Δv so mass is irrelevant. You need the same Δv to get to Mars for one DG or 2 or 10 or 100,000.
The part of the calculation that is affected by the mass is the burn time and it is taken into account by both MFDs.
In the pic below you can see TransX (left) and IMFD (right). The upper half is with the DG docked to the ISS and the lower half is when it's undocked.
The only thing you will encounter is that it will be difficult to orient the docked ships for the burn. In the case of 2 docked DGs you will find that the linear RCS might help you better than the rotational RCS to rotate the spacecrafts into position. I also advise you to break the burn into two periapsis kicks, instead of a single long burn.
Hope this helps
