Transfer windows.

[MajorMushroom]

It is time for me to delve outside Kerbins SOI, and I’ve installed Kerbal Alarm Clock to help me with transfers. It, along with another calculator, have told me the next optimal transfer slot is in 300 days for Duna, and 400 days for Eve. Is the wait usually this long? Of course, the beauty of KAC is that I can do whatever and it will notify me when it’s time, so I’m not really too bothered. However it still is slightly annoying that I have to wait a year between missions, especially since I’m going for this blind and have no idea what will happen, (except for Kerbal Engineer, so I guess you could say I’m going in short sighted.) If I fail, which is likely, do I have to wait so long until I can try again? I don’t really mind, but hey..

[OhioBob]

1 hour ago, MajorMushroom said:

Is the wait usually this long?

Yep, that's normal.  Every planet has what is called a synodic period, which is the time between successive conjunctions of the planet with the sun.  The synodic period is also the time between successive launch windows.  The synodic periods for the stock planets are:

• Moho - 135 days
• Eve - 680 days
• Duna - 910 days
• Dres - 527 days
• Jool - 467 days
• Eeloo - 453 days

This is the same reason why NASA launches missions to Mars about once every two years.
 

Edited October 12, 2017 by OhioBob

[HebaruSan]

Yup. The closest planets (Duna and Eve) require the longest waits. The time between transfer windows depends on how quickly the planets move from one optimal alignment to the next, which depends on the difference in their orbital speeds, and the more similar distances from the Sun they have, the closer their orbital speeds.

As you go further out in the solar system, the time between windows decreases towards approximately one per Kerbin year; the outer planets have hardly moved in the time Kerbin takes to go around the Sun, so the window happens at almost the same place as last time. Going inwards, the same argument applies inversely to Moho; it swings around the Sun quickly, so it has frequent transfer windows to/from just about everywhere.

[Spricigo]

1 hour ago, MajorMushroom said:

 since I’m going for this blind and have no idea what will happen

Blind?

- KAC for transfers window time

-alexmon's transfer planner for deltaV cost.

-KER for vessel statistics

-A lot of extra info you,  evidently,  collected.

The word you are looking for is not 'blind', it's 'anxious' . 

In case of failure you can still load a named save or(unless you use life support) just warp to next window.

 

[MajorMushroom]

10 minutes ago, Spricigo said:

Blind?

- KAC for transfers window time

-alexmon's transfer planner for deltaV cost.

-KER for vessel statistics

-A lot of extra info you,  evidently,  collected.

The word you are looking for is not 'blind', it's 'anxious' . 

In case of failure you can still load a named save or(unless you use life support) just warp to next window.

 

That is true, that’s why as an afterthought I added the ‘short sighted’. My point was that I wasn’t sure what I was exactly doing, although half the fun is figuring it out yourself.

And yes, I will definitely be abusing quicksave+quickload