A "legit" EOR/LOR Altitude

[Jestersage]

For fellow craft-releasers, May I ask what do you guys consider to be optimal KOR/MOR altitude, if the second launching craft need to "chase" the first launch?

For my Orion clone, I ended up using 150k for KOR, and I expect to use 50k for MOR

[Gargamel]

7 hours ago, Jestersage said:

For fellow craft-releasers, May I ask what do you guys consider to be optimal KOR/MOR altitude, if the second launching craft need to "chase" the first launch?

For my Orion clone, I ended up using 150k for KOR, and I expect to use 50k for MOR

I'm assuming KOR means "Kerbin Orbital Rendezvous".  If not, ignore the rest of this post. 

Well, you need to specify two orbital altitudes.  One for the target, and one for the active ship.

For MOR, I like to keep my target at 50k, and launch to 30k.   I don't have a lot of need for 'complicated' orbital planning in munar orbit, I usually am just docking with a station or mothership, and that's the pattern I've fallen into. 

For KOR, it really depends on the target.  I have stations at 100k, 150k, and 375k in the current save, and while I usually directly launch to them, or at least close enough I can do a rendezvous, I know I can do a Hohmann transfer from a range of altitudes, based on the vessels needs. 

There are others here who are much better at orbital mechanics than I, and they should be along shortly to correct me, but IMO, there really isn't a generic optimum altitude for OR.  It all depends on what your mission requirements are.    If you have a target at 90k, then launching to 75k and trying to catch up may take a long time, where launching to 200k and letting the target catch up maybe better.   

The greater the difference in altitudes, the less time it takes for one vessel to "lap" the other, giving you more transfer opportunities.    But the greater the difference, the higher the relative velocities will be when you do get that rendezvous, and that may take more skill/time/fuel/etc than you are willing to.    So for any target of a given altitude, you can say I want to get a transfer and rendezvous within X orbits or Y hours, and from that you could figure out the optimum altitude for your vessel.    But, that will vary from target to target, so..... it depends.