The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums





Greetings From Connecticut!
#2
Welcome to the forums Smile what's your favourite part of OA?

That's not the correct way to calculate the flight time of such a journey no. Exhaust velocity relates to thrust but you can't use it to derive travel time directly. For that you need to know the velocity of the craft, though in a lot of science fiction (and OA) rockets exist that have enough delta-V to accelerate for the whole journey. This equation works out how much time an object would take to cross a given distance at constant acceleration:

t = sqrt(2d/a)

Where d is distance in metres, a is acceleration in metres per second, t is time in seconds. This equation isn't for a journey however, it assumes the object constantly accelerates. It's good for working out fly-bys or impacts. Assuming we want the payload to arrive in one piece it needs to flip over half way and decelerate. In which case we just work out the equation above for half the distance and then double it:

t = sqrt(d/a)*2

This website does the calculation automatically for you:
http://www.transhuman.talktalk.net/iw/TravTime.htm

For a mean distance trip to Mars a spacecraft able to maintain a constant 10 centigee acceleration would do the journey in just under 12 days.
OA Wish list:
  1. DNI
  2. Internal medical system
  3. A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!
Reply


Messages In This Thread
Greetings From Connecticut! - by Daniel S - 02-08-2018, 05:36 AM
RE: Greetings From Connecticut! - by Rynn - 02-08-2018, 05:57 AM
RE: Greetings From Connecticut! - by Daniel S - 02-08-2018, 07:43 AM
RE: Greetings From Connecticut! - by Rynn - 02-08-2018, 08:09 AM
RE: Greetings From Connecticut! - by Daniel S - 02-08-2018, 09:20 AM
RE: Greetings From Connecticut! - by Daniel S - 02-08-2018, 08:17 AM
RE: Greetings From Connecticut! - by Rynn - 02-08-2018, 08:26 AM
RE: Greetings From Connecticut! - by Drashner1 - 02-08-2018, 10:26 AM

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)