Empty Cargo Holds

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Marasmusine

What about the mass driver/powered rock example, in which fuel tanks and cargo holds are one and the same? The rocket equation surely wouldn't care if it's a fuel tank being emptied of fuel, or a cargo hold being emptied of fuel, its still a reduction in mass?

Yes, obviously, anything that is serving as a fuel tank should be treated as a fuel tank.

Originally Posted by Marasmusine

Related question: Does the dV multiplier hold true when looking at partially full tanks? e.g. If I have 6 fuel tanks in total, but only one is full (e.g. 3 mps of argon), do I still get the x1.2 multiplier (I get 3.6 mps)? Sorry for being dumb.

Properly? No. Spaceships lets you calculate the delta-V when your tanks are full. It does not really give you tools to convert between delta-V and fuel at any points other than full tanks and empty tanks.

As seen before, what empty tanks are equivalent to is making your ship less massive. So with 1 full tank and 5 empty tanks, your ship is only 3/4s its rated mass. So your one tank is equivalent to 4/3s of a tank, and should provide delta-V according to that. (Which is slightly better than 1.2x one tank, again. Because the last bit of reaction mass you use is the most effective.)