is it better to go in a polar orbit or normal orbit?

[Guest]

so i thought to myself should people for there first orbit do a normal equatorial orbit or go polar in career mode?

[Vanamonde]

An equatorial orbit heading east saves a little on fuel, and is easier to stay on course during ascent. 

Also, your question has been moved to the Gameplay Questions subforum. Welcome to the forum.

[Plusck]

41 minutes ago, WyattNelsonGames said:

so i thought to myself should people for there first orbit do a normal equatorial orbit or go polar in career mode?

I don't see any benefits at all to going polar first, except if you have already upgraded to enable EVAs and you want to get an EVA report above every biome. Other than that, it's all negatives.

[Guest]

but what if your going to minmus

[GoSlash27]

If you're going to Minmus, your best launch is into Minmus's orbital plane. If you have to choose between polar and equatorial, equatorial is closer. Less DV to correct for inclination.

 Usually though, your first orbital launch isn't going to Minmus. It's just orbit and recover.

Either way, equatorial is the better option.

Best,
-Slashy

 

Edited October 26, 2016 by GoSlash27

[Guest]

Just now, GoSlash27 said:

If you're going to Minmus, your best launch is into Minmus's orbital plane. If you have to choose between polar and equatorial, polar is closer. Less DV to correct for inclination.

 Usually though, your first orbital launch isn't going to Minmus. It's just orbit and recover.

Either way, equatorial is the better option.

Best,
-Slashy

 

thanks 

[Reactordrone]

18 minutes ago, WyattNelsonGames said:

but what if your going to minmus

Still better to start from an equatorial orbit. If you're orbiting in roughly the same plane as the target you'll have a transfer window every orbit, if you're in a polar orbit you'll only have two transfer windows for each orbital period of that moon.

[Aegolius13]

1 hour ago, Reactordrone said:

Still better to start from an equatorial orbit. If you're orbiting in roughly the same plane as the target you'll have a transfer window every orbit, if you're in a polar orbit you'll only have two transfer windows for each orbital period of that moon.

Agreed.  Savings from a polar orbit is small and generally not worth the launch window troubles. Besides the infrequent windows, it's also pretty hard to tell when to launch from polar.  You may have to click that "next orbit" button a lot of times...

Eventually, for asteroid intercepts and maybe Moho, it's good to get familiar with how to launch into an alternative orbit.  But not a high priority early game skill.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Aegolius13

[Plusck]

6 hours ago, WyattNelsonGames said:

but what if your going to minmus

You get a 175 m/s (I think) boost going equatorial rather than going polar.

No matter where Minmus is, if you burn out on Kerbin's equatorial plane to an Ap of about 46,000km and then do a correction burn halfway there to get a Minmus encounter, it'll cost you about 50 m/s, maybe 80 m/s on a bad day.

So I'm still not seeing any positives for a polar orbit : D

[Blaarkies]

6 hours ago, GoSlash27 said:

If you have to choose between polar and equatorial, polar is closer. Less DV to correct for inclination.

...

Either way, equatorial is the better option.

That was a typo, right?

[GoSlash27]

46 minutes ago, Blaarkies said:

That was a typo, right?

It was. Typo corrected.

Thanks,
-Slashy