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I'm trying to figure out how reach a couple of ships that in a solar orbit that's slightly higher than Kerbin's, and I'm having a difficult time trying to get a good intercept. I figured I'd use the alexmoon launch window planner, but when I go to the 'add a body' window to add the vessel information, I don't know where to find all of the information it's asking for; some of it is clear in the Orbit Information widget (or whatever it's called, lower left corner under the staging icons), but other info is a mystery to me. If anyone can point me to where I'll find the following (or which fields in the Orbit widget has it), I'd be very grateful: Semi-major axis; Longitude of Ascending Node; how to correctly calculate the Time of Periapsis passage. Alternately, if there's another planner out there that will make this task easier, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks!

Hi there, I'd like to suggest a small and easy contest, which is all about launch efficiency, trajectories, gravity turn, etc. You'll find below a Full Stock Craft : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/706948521735225374/753224100033462372/KSC_-_SLG4_-_MunAr.craft A quick VAB pic of this very basic rocket : What you can do : - tweak every contextual parts menu : engine's gimbal, booster's power, fuel capacity, fairing jettison option, Autostruts, Rigid connection, fuel consumption priority... Etc. - modify the staging : fairing separation sooner, synchronize a decouple with the upper engine, etc. - fly the way you want, provided that you're not using dirty alpacas, bug using, AltF12, etc. - you can use any AutoPilot mod or script you want : be sure to avoid adding Parts, I know there is Partless version of MechJeb for instance. Otherwise that would add some mass / drag. - mods are generally okay, they do not alter physic in any way and you're not adding any parts, etc, see previous rules :p What you cannot do : - obviously, you can't add or remove any parts. And you can't do anything to the Payload. - do not unlock the upper tank of the last stage, it's here for a reason : you should be able to put that craft into orbit without touching the locked tank, with margin. If you don't, you're in the good place to ask for tips, do not hesitate - do not use any mods / thing that is altering the Stock Physic. Provide some screenshots you want, but one them must be the Orbit View, after reaching 100x100km circular orbit, minimum, just like the next image : If you're using some AutoPilot mod, please provide a Screenshot of the settings panel as well, as it's one of the thing that i'm personally interested in : i've never find any one beating me at this challenge using autopilot :p Your goal : preserve as much DeltaV you can ! We will only look at the Stock indicator, at the lower left corner ! You should provide : a screenshots of the orbital view showing the 100x100 circular orbit minimum and the Lower Left corner DeltaV Stock indicator, and any other screenshots or information regarding what you've tweaked / change, according to the rules, as well as AutoPilot Settings Panel, if you're using one. Try to use a recent version of KSP, at least from 1.7.1 since this is the one that brought the Stock DeltaV indicator. Any feedback appreciated if there is questions, suggestions, etc !

This project has been abandoned in lieu of a newer, much more usable implementation: KSP Transfer Illustrator Links KSP Transfer Illustrator KSP Trajectory Illustrator Description Inspired by existing mission planning tools (alexmoon's Launch Window Planner and Arrowstar's Trajectory Optimization Tool), I have made a couple of web apps to help visualize trajectories for mission planning. While the KSP Trajectory Optimization Tool is much more powerful and has many more features, the idea is that Transfer Illustrator can be used without downloading or installing any software and has an unintimidating user interface. I've also tried to make this app have some additional flexibility compared to the Launch Window Planner and to make it easier to interpret the information provided about orbit parameters and burn information. KSP Transfer Illustrator: Generates Porkchop plots to visualize Δv costs for transfers across a range of departure and arrival times Computes transfers between spheres of influence (e.g. Kerbin to Duna) or within a sphere of influence (e.g. two distinct orbits around Kerbin) Determines optimal times and magnitudes of plane-change maneuvers during a transfer Determines ejection/insertion trajectories for transfers that involve exiting/entering a body's sphere of influence Displays interactive 3D plots of the calculated trajectories Creates downloadable HTML files with the interactive plots Loads orbit data from KSP savefiles The KSP Trajectory Illustrator: Propagates trajectories across spheres of influence Computes orbit changes at (instantaneous) maneuver nodes Creates interactive 3D plots showing trajectories of multiple crafts/objects Reads flight data directly from savefiles Plans for this project While the apps are already in a usable state, there are several improvements I plan on making: Find a new way to deploy the app (the free version of Heroku I'm using has issues with worker timeouts during long computations) (Performance has improved to the point where this isn't a huge issue) Add UI elements to help copy and save orbit details Add more robust support for other solar systems (e.g. Kopernicus) Find way to allow interactive plots to be embedded in forum posts (Not possible due to security concerns) Make the app a bit prettier More robust plane change maneuver options (90 degrees to intercept vs. AN vs. DN, inspired by this post) Gravity assist planning This is my first project in Python and my first ever attempt at making a web app, so there's probably a lot that I can do to improve! Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Also, if you come across any bugs or incorrect results when using the app, I would appreciate feedback in this thread or on the project's GitHub repository. Please share any requests for new features! The KSP Transfer Illustrator is licensed under the MIT License.

Sometimes, with KSP 1.9.1 modded With KSP Interstellar Extended and Kerbal Alarm Clock, the orbit changes from circular to highly elliptical with all engines off if the ship is between apoapsis and periapsis.

Good evening/morning everyone, So I have recently managed to get into a co planer orbit with my temporary space station, however, I am co planer with it but at opposite sides of Kerbin. Watching the tutorials, it looks like I was meant to get co planer with it, but quite near it in order to rendezvous and then obviously dock. Is there a way I can rendezvous with it currently or will I need to drop my orbit altitude in order to slow down and then rendezvous? Many thanks, Joe.

Alright, so it took me far longer than I care to admit to figure this out. ...maybe I never figured it out and someone told me how to do it. :-D As with all things, once you know the trick, it does seem painfully obvious. I felt a little dumbstruck when it was shown to me, so I figured it might be worthwhile to post a "How To" for everyone. Given a Kerbin day is 6 hours... Every 3 hours the KSC is in the perfect launch window to fly your craft directly into a Minmus inclined orbit. So at any given time, you are no more than a few hours worth of game time acceleration away from a Minmus launch window. Knowing this, there is no reason for me to ever do a secondary burn to adjust my orbital plane to align to Minmus, which obviously speeds along my Minmus missions and saves me fuel. This quick video shows you exactly how to do it!

A while ago I had a question that went a little like this: "Planet Kerbin has a radius of r from its center and gravity of G. Two identical rockets launch from the equator at opposite sides, and start accelerating along the rotation of the planet with the velocity of V. At what time after they finished acceleration did they reach maximum distance from each other, and what was the distance?" It also said in its prefix that "people attempting this question might want to find out a little about Kepler's laws." I think I got the answer, but I am not sure if it is right, as I didn't know any good method of doing such a calculation. Could you please help me by telling me how do you find out these variables algebraicly? I also found the only picture that I had of this question, and here is a graph that went with it

Video link: (pay attention to the Apoapsis marker position and altitude) I have no idea of what's causing this. It's happening to every craft I have in orbit, although not with the same intensity (smaller crafts seem to be affected less) This issue is really messing up my game though. Not only Rendezvous/SOI Interceptions can be lost because the plotted course simply changes after the time warp; but in this specific example in the video, I need the AP/PE markers to stay in the same place as I'm deploying a satellite every time the main ship passed through it's AP, this way ensuring proper separation between each satellite. Anyone has any idea on what's causing this? God, every day KSP has a new different bug that will probably take ages to be fixed... Edit 1.: I'm not entirely sure, but I'm pretty confident I know what might be causing this issue, although I have no idea how it could be fixed. The ship I'm using is quite tall as it has on the top 2 fairings with interstage nodes so I could fit 3 small satellites on top of each other. Now, I'm not sure how the game takes into account where the "center" of the ship actually is during map view (if it's either the Center of Mass, the most central point regardless of the mass, the active "control from here" module or even something else entirely), but it seems like this center point is not really aligned with the orbit line center (let's say it's 10m below the orbit point for example). This 10m offset therefore becomes the new center of the orbit when I switch from real time into warp mode. Therefore, as I switch, the game recalculates my orbit 10m below from where it actually was, causing bigger changes far away on my orbit. Maybe if the Devs had/could implement a system in which the game takes my orbital values (AP / PE values) before I start the Warp and put them back in after the warp is done this problem would be fixed; instead of recalculating it as the warp is finished.

So, when I'm doing a gravity turn. I always have SAS on, I know how to get into orbit and do a gravity turn. Though, recently when I've been doing a gravity turn. My pro grade pitches slightly up, note that i'm not giving any input for it to be doing that. Not sure why, and like I said. I've done this so many times before, and i've done it really good. Though now that I do a gravity turn, I have this problem. I usually use stock KSP rockets as I'm not very creative. And if its built by the KSP team, its impossible to be a design flaw. The only thing I add onto the stock ksp rockets is the mechjeb case which I usually place at the command pod. I'm not quite sure as to why this might be happening. I'll be sure to answer any questions you guys have!

I am doing a mission where I have to launch a satellite into a specific orbit in Minmus, Although I have matched up the specific orbits, It doesn't say I complete the mission. Please possibly upload tutorial on how you do it around Minmus.

Hello. I am looking for a mod that allows me to freeze a ship in orbit. I want to make a movie and use the ships as anchor points for the cameras. But if the ships are in orbit, they drift away from each other. The mod Airpark allows this, but it doesn't work outside the atmosphere. Is there a mod similar to it that will work for ships in orbit? Thanks.

I have two objects, a main station with no RCS, or engine, and a power plant part with a poodle engine, RCS, and about half a tank of fuel. They are both is a similar orbit but have a similar velocity and seem to stay the same distance away from each other. Any tips to fix this? Thanks and have a great day!!!

Your objective: Build the smallest rocket possible that can get into orbit. There are 2 categories, each with 2 sub-categories. I will judge each rocket in 2 separate ways, cost and mass. Each one will have its own leader board. The rules are simple. No cheating with Hyperedit, debug menu, ect. The rocket must be completely stock. No mods that alter physics and no clipping parts to exploit physics. The rocket can be manned or unmanned, each will have their own leader board. Make sure to post pictures showing your rocket in flight and showing it's mass and cost. ALSO: The rocket must be a rocket, not a cross between a rocket and a plane. It must take off from the launch pad ,and have other rocket qualities. https://imgur.com/a/swbkZaD This is my entry LOWEST MASS ROCKETS Unmanned: 1. Pds314- 0.855 tonnes 2. Pds314- 1.091 tonnes 3. mystified- 1.491 tonnes 4. Johnster_Space_Program- 3.420 tonnes 5. DRAG0Nmon- 4.460 tonnes Manned: 1. Aetharan- 1.990 tonnes 2. Aetharan- 2.053 tonnes 3. Aetharan- 2.085 tonnes 4. Aetharan-2.159 tonnes 5. Ironbars- 2.175 tonnes LOWEST COST ROCKETS Unmanned: 1. Pds314- 640 kerbucks 2. Pds314- 2110 kerbucks 3. mystified- 4580 kerbucks 4. Johnster_Space_Program- 5250 kerbucks 5. DRAG0Nmon- 7,154 kerbucks Manned: 1. TheFlyingKerman- 2603 kerbucks 2. Aetharan- 3907 kerbucks 3. farmerben- 3982 kerbucks 4. Aetharan- 4276 kerbucks 5. Ironbars- 4423 kerbucks Notes- zolotiyeruki, if you can find some screenshots of that old craft, I will gladly accept it! Pds314 maintains the top 2 spots for lightest and cheapest unmanned crafts. TheFlyingKerman holds the cheapest manned rocket. Artharan has almost stolen every spot for the lightest manned rocket, taking 1, 2, 3, and 4! Will he be able to take 5? Keep up the amazing work everyone!

Is there an equation to calculate the heading I need to fly to reach an orbit of a certain inclination, based of the latitude of the launch site?

Kopernicus has an option for the Orbit parser called mode, I know that you can use it to hide orbits, but does it do anything else? I ask because no matter what I set it to the orbit is hidden, and I couldn't find any documentation

I'm not sure if it used to do this, but I began noticing it after the update. I'm noticing that my orbit is changing very slightly over time. The orbit is outside of the atmosphere, and the option "Orbital Drift Compensation" is checked, but my orbit still changes gradually over time. The tendency is to lower both Apoapsis and Periapsis, but on occasion I have seen one or the other raised slightly. I have removed all mods and DLC, and I'm still getting this. So it's not being caused by mods. Over the course of 20 minutes, I saw my space station orbit go from 72.6998 km, 72.6686 km | time 1:01 72.6985 km, 72.6684 km | time 1:21 I'll also note that when I started noticing this effect, the space station had an Apoapsis of 72.706 km. Of course, when the vessel isn't being actively watched, it doesn't change, which is expected. When I have Kerbal Engineer, I can see this effect in much more detail. The Semi Major Axis is dropping in a herky, jerky manner. It drops a bunch when you switch in and out of map mode. Of course, I can't be sure if Kerbal Engineer is making the effect worse, but nevertheless, the effect is there without it. Admittedly, it's a very minor effect. But it makes me not want to switch to my relay satellites as they're flying in a very precise orbital formation. Does anyone else see this? Has this always been there? Has it been made worse by a recent update? EDIT: On closer observation, the periapsis dipped and went back up. The lowest point was: 72.6996 km, 72.6682 km | time 1:08 EDIT 2: Using scatterer causes the Semi Major Axis to drop much faster. But a complex vessel with lots of parts that makes it run at a lower frame rate, doesn't change the rate at which the SMA drops. Satellites that are far away from their parent body are unaffected. Strangely, my Gilly satellites are having their SMA raised. Maybe because they are orbiting slower than Gilly is rotating? Another curious observation: My Eve vessel that is in low, circular, polar orbit, has a Ap of 90530 and a Pe of 90520. So nearly circular. The really weird thing is that the Pe and Ap are advancing forward in orbit faster than my ship is orbiting. So the time to Periapsis is constantly increasing, and same for the Apoapsis. The SMA is changing very little, but the point of Apoapsis and Periapsis are moving rapidly. On closer observation, for my Eve vessel, when it's closer to Apoapsis, the Apoapsis rapidly lowers and the Periapsis raises. When it's closer to Periapsis, the Periapsis rapidly lowers and the Apoapsis raises. Physical time warp makes the orbit change extremely rapidly. Within a few seconds of maximum physics warp, my orbit changed to something like 90730 to 90320. OK, simply by quickly switching physics warp from 1x to 4x back to 1x, my orbit drastically changed. It went from 90500 90500 to something like 90700 90300 in one iteration. By doing multiple iterations of this, I managed to raise my Apoapsis to 92000 and lower my periapsis to 88000. I'm pretty sure it wasn't this bad before. A few more iterations and I changed my orbit to 98200 82900. Just by messing with physics warp. Without using any thrust. This is absurd. Can someone please try this and tell me if it's just me? EDIT 3: Started a new sandbox mode, put a simple spacecraft in a similar orbit of Eve, and tried it. No more orbital drifting. No problems whatsoever. I'm wondering if it's because I'm in year 20 of my career mode in my main save? Maybe some part is causing it? Ah, it has nothing to do with the time. I warped until it was 19 years in the sandbox mode. Still no orbit drifting problem. EDIT 4: OK, it does have something to do with more complex spacecraft. I loaded my career mode space vessel into a low Eve polar orbit. The orbital decay returned. Having more crew also seems to affect it. Using the "interior overlay" also makes it worse.

So basically... i’m not new to the game. I have a hefty 200 hours on it already. I may seem like i know most basics of the game, and i do, but one thing i never knew really was getting to orbit. I have a basic understanding of delta-v and thrust to weight ratios and aerodynamics in this game, but every rocket i design just doesnt get the 4300 delta v to get into orbit. And if it does its because the rocket is very fuel consuming and just plain bad or i use hyperedit. This sucks because i still cant get my stages of the mun lander to orbit in career. While i dont have many problems with stability and i also have a basic and a bit ineffecient way to get into orbit, i have problems with getting just enough fuel and the right engines to get there. Any help or tips? image of most effecient rocket i made for career (for getting to mun): https://pasteboard.co/IirFkL5.jpg the specs of the modded engine on the bottom (Kiwi engine from SpaceY): https://pasteboard.co/IirG3PE.jpg Edit: wait guys i just reached orbit with that rocket! It took many tries but i did. Does anyone havy any tips to make it better (or get a way better design overall)? Edit 2: For those who the pasteboard doesnt work https://imgur.com/a/sA8gH8W

SpaceY's (Not SpaceX) Falcon 9 booster broke. Since they need it to get space crafts into orbit, they came to us. But Elon Kerman is a very impatient Kerbal and wants the spacecraft up there ASAP. Since our designers won't get off of "Human space program", we asked the internet to design and test a fast enough rocket. There isn't a specific time you have to compete the challenge by. Just try and do it as fast as possible. CONTRACTS: Basic Contract: Get something to space as soon as ASAP Basic Orbital Contractl: Get something into a low Kerbin orbit ASAP Advanced Orbit Contract: Get something into a Kerbin orbit above 400km above sea level ASAP Munar Contract: Get an orbit around the Mun ASAP Advanced Muner Contract: Land a Kerbal on the Mun and return him to Kerbin safely ASAP Minty Contract: Get an orbit around Minmus ASAP Advanced Minty Contract: Land a Kerbal on Minmus and return him safely ASAP Interplanetary Contract: Escape Velocity ASAP Dusty Contract: Get an orbit around Duna ASAP Advanced Dusty Contract: Land something on Duna safely ASAP Victory Appreciation Contract: Impress the Victory Aerospace Program by doing something outstanding in the fastest way possible (Basically Just Impress me) The only rule is no cheats. Good luck! -Victory Kerman

My kerbal has gone on EVA while his ship was in orbit around Kerbin. (It's still in orbit, just unmanned and uncontrolled now.) When getting off the ship he lost it. When he finally figured out how to manoeuvre with his EVA suit's thruster pack, he tried to catch up with it but found it is impossible. Then he activated his parachute and tried to deorbit. And ran out of propellant. "Huston, we have a problem!" he finally called. Now we are planning a rescue mission as soon as the crew compartment will become available. Meanwhile, could you share your experience with EVA in orbit, have you done it?

hel lo is there a formula to get the vector direction or the angle with the orientation to apply thrust to match a different orbit and inclinaison : what does target button . thanks for any help

Hey y'all! I'm getting ready to send my first kerbals interplanetary, but I'm not sure how much dV I need to get from Kerbin to Duna orbit (not landing yet, but I'll get there eventually) and back. I might try and do aerobraking around Kerbin, but not sure if I'll do it around Duna. Thanks in advance to all of you who help! Also, this is probably somewhere else in the forums, but I can't find it. Again, thanks! P.S. if this is in the wrong area, I apologize for not being able to find my way around the forums yet... *shrug*

So today I made my first SRB Only to Orbit Rocket! It can get into orbit with some fuel remaining to attempt a Trans-Munar Injection, but I wasn't able too. Here is a video on the craft and if you want to download it there will be a link below: https://kerbalx.com/JohnsterSpaceProgram/SRB-To-Orbit-Rocket Here are images of some prototypes of the final design: And here is the final design: Have you made an only SRB Rocket that can get into orbit yet? If so, tell me below and post some images of it!

So, I just created a new SSTO that has about 5,000 meters per seconds of deltaV, but I can't get it into orbit. It goes well until I hit the higher atmosphere, and then it screws up. Can someone please help? Craft Image

This should be a straightforward bug report, as I do believe I've been given an impossible mission to test an engine in Gilly orbit between 120km and 130km altitude. Thing is, I couldn't establish any orbit higher than 113km altitude, and thus not satisfy the contract parameter. Looked up the Gilly characteristics, and looks to me like the max altitude at which you can orbit Gilly is indeed 113km. Am I missing anything? Thanks!

I use Ksp 1.4.5 RSS and some other mods. Whenever I Enter the influence zone of the Moon my game freezes about 5 minutes and then it crashes. It doesn't matter either I enter the orbit legit or via cheats. https://www.dropbox.com/s/hmh7jx4meppsapi/Crash_2019-01-12_102800.rar?dl=0