interplanetary transfers from nonzero planes

[Clear Air Turbulence]

So I am trying to get my head around this phase angle/ejection angle thing. 

I am using Olex's very useful calculator

For now I am practicing using a mun-minmus transfer.  I want to get a recon satelite transferred between the two bodies with minimum fuel...

But my recon site is n a 90 degree angle, not a 0 degree one.  Does this affect the calculations in any way?

Also, transferring out from a 950 km orbit produces NaN results in the calculator.  Not sure why.

Any advice will be appreciated!

 

[Warzouz]

Your orbit inclination around target body is not the real issue. In any case, the cost of a target inclination change is very low if you do it very far from it (even outside it's SOI)

The real issue about interplanetary transfer is the inclination plane of the target body itself regarding your own plane of inclination your own around your starting body and the starting body plane itself.

 

[Clear Air Turbulence]

OK thanks, that's useful!

 

 

[Jovus]

You cannot inject into an orbit of lower inclination than the transformation of your orbit across the difference in orbital planes between the parent body and the target body without doing a normal burn.

For the Mun this is easy. If you are in an equatorial orbit about Kerbin, then you can inject into an equatorial orbit about the Mun. (In this case, which is degenerate, in fact you must do so. The fact that this doesn't often happen is due to the fact that you're rarely in an exactly equatorial orbit.) If you're in an orbit inclined 12 degrees around Kerbin, then you cannot inject with an inclination lower than 12 degrees in the target orbit (and in fact it will sometimes be a lot more, due to offsets in your inclination - the inclination between the plane including your ship at the moment you start your burn and the target body and the plane including the parent body and the target body determines the exact inclination).

 

For Minmus, if you are an equatorial orbit, you cannot inject into an orbit lower than 6 degrees inclination (and this only if you get there at the ascending or descending node). In order to get to a lower inclination, you have to start from an orbit with a lower inclination. Funnily enough, depending on starting conditions, you might not be able to easily lower your target inclination either - depends on where the AN/DN is on your transfer orbit.

 

Increasing target inclination is always easy - you do a normal burn well out from the target, which costs you a pittance in delta V. You may need to include tangential and radial component not to miss your target or to keep a sane periapsis, but this should also be small. (If it isn't, back up - you're doing something wrong.)