General Question NTR Booster and TransX

[Astro SG Wise]

I am having a hard time, but I'll eventually learn how to get to Mars with TransX. Anyway, I want to assemble a more up-to-date stack to get to mars, with Orion and the Neeseys module in Pappy's hangar. I am using the NTR booster stage found on orbit hangar, but there is one problem. NTR takes forever to start and stop, making it almost impossible to make correct burns. Is there a way I can shut it down faster, or is there a better stage that I can use? (FYI : I have been using Universal Cargo Deck to hold the pieces together.)

 

[boogabooga]

When you say "start and stop", do you mean it has a relatively low thrust and long burn time, or is there some delay between issuing a throttle command and getting a response?

I'm not familiar with NTR, but I have some experience getting to asteroids using the Fregat, which has long burn times.

Something to try would be to apply some smaller delta-V at the required burn point, then come back around in several passes, making your orbit more and more elliptical until you eventually escape. This was the strategy of Phobos Grunt and (more successfully) with India's Mars Orbiter mission.

 

[Astro SG Wise]

When you say "start and stop", do you mean it has a relatively low thrust and long burn time, or is there some delay between issuing a throttle command and getting a response?

I mean that NTR has a system that is different from the regular thrust. To initiate a burn, I hold the + sign and Ctrl, but it takes like 40 seconds to go to full power. Then, to stop the burn, I click Ctrl K, and it takes about another 40 seconds to stop. Very imprecise when I am trying to go from one place to another, right?

What would be useful is if someone had a different booster that I can create an effective mars stack with. If you have Orion, a lander, a habitat module, how are you going to get that to mars?

 

[kamaz]

Assuming the increase/decrease is linear then both startup and shutdown are worth 20 seconds of burn.

I'd use BurnTimeCalc MFD to get the burn time, then start the engine at T_start-20 and initiate shutdown at T_end-20.

Ignoring gravity losses, the effect will be the same as burning from T_start to T_end at full thrust.

 

[Astro SG Wise]

Thank you. Yet, another thing to learn how to do. I still need to understand how to get to mars in the first place. Thank you anyway!