Important fact about rocket is that it provides some fixed amount of change of velocity (delta-v). I think your observation of “how long strong gravity slows me” combined with thinking in terms of delta-v budget and where it is best spent brought intuitive understanding of Oberth effect to me. Analysing linear trajectory instead of elliptic one also helps.
Important fact about rocket is that it provides some fixed amount of change of velocity (delta-v). I think your observation of “how long strong gravity slows me” combined with thinking in terms of delta-v budget and where it is best spent brought intuitive understanding of Oberth effect to me. Analysing linear trajectory instead of elliptic one also helps.