Space Engineers
Atmospheric Lift
Getting off a planet in Space Engineers is a thrust-to-weight problem, and finding out you are short is something you want to do on paper rather than mid-ascent.
How this is calculated
Required thrust depends on the planet's gravity and your ship's loaded mass, and each thruster type produces very different thrust in atmosphere versus vacuum. The calculator works out how many of each you need for the planet you are leaving, at the mass you are actually flying.
The arithmetic
- force needed = ship mass × planet gravity
- thrusters = ceil(force ÷ (thrust per unit × atmospheric efficiency))
What people get wrong
Ion thrusters are nearly useless in atmosphere and excellent in vacuum, which is why a ship that flies beautifully in space cannot lift off. Size atmospheric thrusters for the launch and ion thrusters for everything after it.