[Space/Spaceships] Getting the velocity/Delta V I want with the tech I want

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by scc

UM, possibly. But using external tanks might be a better solution, use the Equipment Packs from Pyramid 3/40

Fuel tanks, under GURPS Spaceshiips rules, have no dead weight. The way to get the delta-V benefits of staging without actually staging is simply to push the fuel fraction up past the normal resolution limits. The payload and control will be only a small fraction of one system, and you might use a sub-size engine as well. You'll have to use the rocket equation to figure the benefit of the high fuel fraction since the chart in the book doesn't go that far.

Not using staging makes it inconvenient to get high thrust early in the process, but that's not as much a problem here as it is in surface-to-orbit work.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Not using staging makes it inconvenient to get high thrust early in the process, but that's not as much a problem here as it is in surface-to-orbit work.

It can be, but it usually takes rather large fractions of a G to get much out of the Oberth effect and it's not that relevant when you're shooting for 300 miles/sec (though a near-solar approach with a burn at the bottom is a not-terrible way of getting a few hundred km/sec).