# Tag Info

5

For any spherical body with a density $\rho$ and radius $R$ and no atmosphere, we can calculate this easily. Let's assume you launch to a very low orbit that just skims the surface of the sphere. You can add 10% or 20% later for a planet like Earth with its atmosphere. Venus would be a lot harder! (so I've asked separately Launch to orbit delta-v penalty ...

5

The amount of propellant required to achieve a certain delta-V is dependent on the ratio between the starting and ending mass of the spacecraft, according to the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation; a given thruster and fuel supply will get you more delta-V on a smaller spacecraft and less delta-V on a larger one. That is, 0.058 km/s per kg is not an inherent ...

3

Some good practices I'm aware of are: As you mentioned, maneuvers are simulated before they are commanded and their effect is evaluated on ground so that thruster parameters and tank filling are updated, so if anything funny is happening during maneuvers this can be identified. If propulsion is electric (which is still not so common), then thrusting is ...

2

I too am going to start with the orbital speed as a first approximation, but we can do slightly better than that. $$\Delta v = v_{orbit} = \sqrt{\frac{\mu}{r}}$$ If you are using this approximation alone, you would want to use the objects radius for $r$ and not the radius of the low orbit, as that gives a slightly higher cost that better accounts for the ...

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