elite dangerous travel time calculator

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Supercruise Travel Times

• Created by MasterLoon , last modified by SuperManifolds on 2021-11-22

These times will always be approximate as it will vary a bit depending on the system, affects from nearby bodies (gravity wells) may cause slowdown on acceleration.

MechaSqueak now has a built-in command for calculating travel times in super cruise. It is recommended to use this for calculating supercruise distances as it will give a more accurate result than the rough estimates on this page. Though this page is still a great resource if you need a quick overview of supercruise times.

The command is used as follows:

!sctime <distance>

Example:  !sctime 850kls

Note: These estimates will never be 100% accurate. By default the !sctime  calculation assumes that you are:

• In a system with no gravitational bodies between you and where you are going.
• The main star is a relatively low mass main-sequence star. (Aka OBAFGKM).
• You are starting from 0 at the spot where you drop out of hyperspace and then immediately accelerating at full throttle until you reach your destination.

Especially in short distances, this estimate can be greatly affected by large gravity sources along your journey or at your end destination. If you plan to use these estimates to determine if a client on an oxygen timer needs to be logged out, it is best to assume a longer travel time than the estimate given to you, and be better safe than sorry.

If you are traveling from one gravity source to another over a great distance, (For example going from Alpha Centauri to Proxima Centauri) you can use !sctime -g   <distance>  and Mecha will adjust its estimate accordingly.

CLIENT DISTANCE MEASURED IN LIGHTYEARS

Every now and then, a Cmdr falls asleep in supercruise and wakes up to flashing red lights and a drained and shutdown ship on lifesupport. In really bad cases, the client may find himself lightyears from the mainstar. 

You can calculate an approximate time for distances measured in LY using this formula:

You can calculate an approximate time for distances measured in LS using this formula:

The ( really ) rough estimate to account for acceleration could be as follows:

• Over about 2000 kls, 15 minutes,
• Over 400 kls, 10 minutes,
• Over 20 kls, 5 minutes,
• Over 1kls, 2 minutes.

The estimate to account for acceleration should never be over 15 minutes if the client is in deep space.

Client beacon is 0.1LY from mainstar:

(0.1 * 365 * 24) / 2001 = 0.44 hours (about 26 mins) + 1 5mins to account for acceleration = About  41 minutes to reach client

Client beacon is 0.2LY from mainstar:

(0.2 * 365 * 24) / 2001 = 0.87 hours (about 53 mins) +   15mins to account for acceleration =  About  1 hour and 8 minutes to reach client

Client beacon is 0.5LY from mainstar:

(0.5 * 365 * 24) / 2001 = 2.19 hours + 15 minutes  = About 2 hour and 25 minutes to reach client

Client beacon is 2.5LY from mainstar. 

(2.5 * 365 * 24) / 2001 = 10.94 hours + 15 minutes  =  About 11 hours and 10 minutes to reach client

Going far distances in your ship will require quite a bit of fuel. It'd be advised to shutdown unneeded modules while travelling to extend your range, such as shields and anything else with a power consumption you might not require to continue supercruise. (obviously be careful not to accidentally shutdown your thrusters or frameshift drive and you'll still need your sensors active ).

You can look at your fuel usage gauge to estimate how much fuel will be needed for the trip once you have an idea of how long it should take. For example running at 1.5t/h would make you need 12 tonnes fuel for an 8 hour supercruise, then add estimated limpets needed + enough fuel left to jump to nearest system. Note again, that you can likely get the usage down when turning off unneeded modules during the flight.

CLIENT DISTANCE MEASURED IN LIGHTSECONDS

(Max. speed in supercruise is 2001c.)

Radlock did a similar thing a while back (see the supercruise transit times)- here's his spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1JLOL9whwHTLKGoYdBgNyv2rdfoNl5XLmq7HzQqPyRxY/pubhtml# of course all this assumes the rat is starting from close into the star. Good tactics are to have the rat a little way out - 50ls and they'll instdrop if the clients close into the sun but being 150ls out from the star is if they could be close in and 200-500ls if you have a rough idea of the direction/want to be out of the gravity well a bit is a good plan (as you can see above moving close to the sun does the most damage in terms of time for distance), But unless you have a bearing you're trading off that you could be in the wrong direction, and the rat will then need to judge how close to the star to go.... so optimising it all is pretty complicated!

Extra processing used on Radlock's data for v8 of this page:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTAAxV_Rfu5b4J8lJo3AdiQOJTKvFf2uXhOQzsr3BHKS41ShdBiuwlWcOC57YHANKSkK1tWnPPYndqN/pubhtml

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Originally posted by gabriele83 : Hello, I know this is supposed to be very realistic on the distance and time scale...but is it normal that supercruising can take me 15-30 minutes in real time at max speed going from once place to another? I mean...what am I supposed to do for 30 minutes??

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Distances Between Selected Star Systems - No known systems to compare were detected.

  Sol   Shinrarta Dezhra   Deciat   Cubeo   Maia   Sothis   Robigo   Fehu   HIP 23759   Colonia   Sagittarius A*   Beagle Point   Diaguandri   HIP 58832  

• The link in the address bar will reproduce this table. Additionally more systems can be added to the table simply by adding them (comma separated) in the address bar.

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Approximate Time to Travel 540,000ls

• Thread starter Engadine
• Start date Jan 25, 2015

Hi, Quick question. Currently planning a route on Elite Rare Trader and just noticed one of the Stations is 540,000ls from the Star. Any idea on the approximate time to travel this in a Cobra? Thanks & Regards  

I'd give yourself 20 minutes or so. Takes some time to accelerate.  

AnnuverScotinExile

If you think that is bad, avoid Hutton Oribtal at Alpha Centuri. That is .22LY.  

popuptoaster

2001c seems to be maximum speed, it wont be economical to make that journey when you could probably visit two or three closer stations in different systems in the same time.  

AnnuverScotinExile said: Hutton Oribtal Click to expand...

glynie said: I'd give yourself 20 minutes or so. Takes some time to accelerate. Click to expand...

popuptoaster said: 2001c seems to be maximum speed, it wont be economical to make that journey when you could probably visit two or three closer stations in different systems in the same time. Click to expand...

glynie said: ...and it racks up some serious charges for ship integrity repairs. Speaking of which, does anyone know what the deal is with ship integrity? What effect does it have on your ship, and what happens when it hits 0%? Click to expand...

500kLs is not enough to reach 2001c. Here's my log when I once did such a run to check commodity prices. A binary system, with all the good ports on the second star. Distance to the drop in is 500kLS. So we can be absolutely sure no one in their right mind would consider trading with this station and we're the first person to ever ferry gold there. Let's see what the gold price is there. At 1c, the trip is still listed at around 9 days. After 3 minutes, we reach 165c and the clock finally is less than 1 hour. Still accelerating. 5 minutes, clock is down to 15 minutes at a speed at 570c 8 minutes we reach Warp 9 (834c). Clock says 8:30 remaining 10 minutes, we break 1000c. The clock gives us 5:30. Distance is now cut down to 300kLS Deceleration starts here, from 1030c and 4:30 remaining the speed starts to drop pretty much exactly after 50% of the distance covered. 15 minutes, decelerated down to 575c, 2 minutes remaining for 64kLS 20 minutes we reach 0:07 at 35 LS remaining. 21 minutes finally we arrive at Fleming City. Fuel cost just for the SC 211 credits (I scooped after the jump in) note: the speed was never affected by any mass. This was 100% acceleration, followed by 100% slow deceleration.  

Just make sure you point the nose in the right dirrection and go do something else. check it after 10 minutes and then decide what to do.  

Last night I did 601,000 ls in 15 mins in a type 6. Hope this helps.