[Brainstorm]Phantom maneuvers for mission planning

[KerbonautInTraining]

Mission and trajectory planning can be a hassle, especially in RSS. 

I'm wondering if it be possible to create a "fake" parking orbit that you can place maneuver nodes on. Its altitude or inclination could be adjusted to find the optimal escape burn. 

After that, you would "exexute" the burn and the node would be deleted. The starting orbit would change to whatever the outcome of the node is. Stringing many burns together (like you can now, but more stable), you could record how much Dv each burn takes and the amount of time between them. Such info can be used to find fuel and life support requirements.

Under the hood, I'm pretty sure this would use a proto vessel; a ship that doesn't physically exist but has state vectors (position/velocity).  These state vectors would be changed to mimic the node being executed. The trouble is, I have no idea how you could make the active vessel a protovessel. Maybe it could be a single part vessel that is manipulated by the plugin. 

Actually, this could be an add on to Hyper edit. You create a node, click "execute next node," and HE makes your orbit match that of the node's target orbit.

Does anyone think this would be remotely useful?

[nathan1]

This is probably possible with a PatchedConicSolver and an OrbitDriver (without needing a proto vessel), but I'm not sure whether the orbits would be displayed on the map. You could always just display the orbital parameters manually if needed.

[suicidejunkie]

Once you've put your first satellite in orbit, you can make a chain of maneuver nodes off of it to trace a path wherever you like and see the individual costs of each burn by hovering your mouse over them.  As long as you have at least one node for every two or three SoI changes, the path will keep going.

What is the extra feature you're looking for beyond that?

[KerbonautInTraining]

6 minutes ago, suicidejunkie said:

What is the extra feature you're looking for beyond that?

The ability to make the outcome of a node the new starting orbit. After 2 nodes or so things start getting... jiggly.

Edited March 11, 2016 by KerbonautInTraining

[suicidejunkie]

Try setting timewarp on at 5x to lock it into rails.

Alternatively, what about a single-part craft?  Plot the course out from a piece of debris, so it has no structural/collision physics to jitter the orbit.

[KerbonautInTraining]

5 minutes ago, suicidejunkie said:

Try setting timewarp on at 5x to lock it into rails.

Alternatively, what about a single-part craft?  Plot the course out from a piece of debris, so it has no structural/collision physics to jitter the orbit.

...I should probably try this.

Tomorrow starts a 9 day vacation and I was thinking about doing my first Mars mission. My biggest concern is time warping to the xfer to Earth or something and seeing "Titan lander - food depleted!" (Yes I'm going to call it the Titan mission to Mars)

Edited March 11, 2016 by KerbonautInTraining