🛰️ Mission Control
Pick a real engine and a real destination. Design a staged rocket the same way as Rocket Lab, but this time the target delta-v is a published number, not a badge — so you find out exactly how short, or how far ahead, your design really is.
Fast enough sideways to keep missing the Earth.
282 s sea level, 311 s vacuum, 845 kN per engine.
Delta-v achieved
479 m/s to spare beyond what Low Earth orbit requires.
How this is worked out
Each stage contributes Δv = Isp · g₀ · ln(m₀/m_f), summed from the top stage down. The bottom stage uses Merlin’s sea-level Isp of 282 s; every stage above it uses the vacuum Isp of 311 s, since only the bottom stage ever flies through thick air. Dry mass (4 t per stage) and payload (2 t) are illustrative assumptions, not published specs, the same ones Rocket Lab uses. Delta-v required for Low Earth orbit and the engine’s own figures are real, published numbers.
Every engine
Every destination
Fast enough sideways to keep missing the Earth.
Enough to head toward the Moon on the way real missions go. Landing and coming home costs much more on top of this.
Enough to leave for Mars. A real crewed mission still needs to land, live there, and get home again, which is why every serious Mars plan counts on making fuel on Mars rather than carrying it there and back.