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MechJeb Tilt Orbit


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Hi there,

I have been using MechJeb for about a day now. Earlier I built a Satellite and successfully launched it into a perfectly circularized orbit around Kerbins equator. I would like to tilt my orbit so that I am flying over the North/South pole with the planet rotating horizontally beneath me. This will allow me to "map" the entire surface of Kerbin (I'm using that ISA-Mapsat mod).

Basically I'd like to know if there's a feature built into Mechjeb that will perform this sort of orbital maneuver. It's all a bit new to me, so I fear attempting such a thing without knowing exactly what I'm doing. Thanks for reading.

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When you're already in orbit you have to do a plane-change maneuver. Using Mechjeb you have to wait until your satellite is above Kerbins equator and then push either "NML +" or "NML -" in the Smart A.S.S. console and burn until your inclination is at 90° (you can see your exact inclination in the orbital information window). Take a look at these tutorial if you're not sure how to do this.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/15652-Orbital-Mechanics-101-A-Kerbal-Space-Program-Tutorial

Plane-change maneuvers are covered in Orbital Mechanics 101 after about 10min.

However, plane changing from equatorial to polar orbit needs a lot of fuel. Therefore it's better to direct your launch at 0 or 180 in the first place as semininja has suggested.

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Hi there,

I have been using MechJeb for about a day now. Earlier I built a Satellite and successfully launched it into a perfectly circularized orbit around Kerbins equator. I would like to tilt my orbit so that I am flying over the North/South pole with the planet rotating horizontally beneath me. This will allow me to "map" the entire surface of Kerbin (I'm using that ISA-Mapsat mod).

Basically I'd like to know if there's a feature built into Mechjeb that will perform this sort of orbital maneuver. It's all a bit new to me, so I fear attempting such a thing without knowing exactly what I'm doing. Thanks for reading.

Yep, as Semininja pointed out, this is easier to do at launch. During launch you can either change the inclination to 90 degrees or change the heading to 0 for north, 180 for south, but beware that it requires a bit more delta-v to reach orbit.

If you are already in orbit, you would have to do a plane change maneuver, which you could use MechJeb's Smart ASS feature to orient your craft to Normal or Anti-normal and then you would have to burn at the appropriate times to change planes. However, this is probably one of the most fuel intensive orbital maneuvers you can do. I would guess it takes between 3000-4000m/s of delta-v in a 75km orbit to change planes. It's honestly a lot easier to just orient the craft correctly at launch.

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