Kryxal

I sent a bunch of missions to the Mun, picked up most of the science there. Then I sent two ships to Minimus and STAYED there till I cleaned it out, and maxed out the standard tech tree.

Note that THAT kind of inclined trajectory will make your life more difficult at Eve ... consider this: You're coming in on a hyperbolic trajectory, but at a much earlier point you can relatively easily adjust your intercept without really changing the direction, so all such intercepts may be considered effectively parallel. Plot the course such that you're plowing right into the planet. Now alter the course so that you're skimming by at your required aerocapture altitude (direction not specified, we're about to use that point). Given the speed you're coming in (assuming 4908 m/s at 70 km above the surface pre-aerocapture, and the numbers should be close anyway), your course will be altered 62 degrees from SoI entry (actually a bit less, but let's be safe). If you want the math ... well, have fun playing with the equations. Suffice to say, my hyperbola had a=1 and b=.61 or so. This means that altering from direct impact to an aerocapture trajectory, we move our peripasis to a circle at an altitude of 70 km, 152 degrees off the approach direction (28 degrees off the extension through the planet). In this specific case, so long as you're within 28 degrees inclination, you CAN drop your periapsis for aerobraking right on the equator...

I'd think you could probably catch a near-equatorial aerocapture, then with a high apoapsis you just do a normal burn when you hit the equator again. The wonders of conic patch mode...

Try working it backwards, maybe? The return requirements upon Eve arrival are UGLY! For departure from Eve, there's a nice window at year 1 day 322, about 1400 delta-v with a flight time around 56 days, but you can cut that down a LOT with some extra delta-v: year 1 day 318, 1750 delta-v, 21 days! With a Kerbin departure at year 1 day 147 for not quite 1100 delta-v, aerocapture at Eve and return via the short route given, you're looking at getting back with about a month to spare (though your Kerbals might not appreciate the 4-month layover) and are under half your delta-v requirements. In addition, if you come off-window on your departure, you can leave a bit over a month later for an extra 400 delta-v or so. With the delta-v you have, and the ability to aerocapture and wait on the other end AND on return, your windows can be more flexible than most. Edit: oops, a bit too late...

I like to start my turn a bit early, but then, I usually use a 6-tank asparagus set and I tend to see some torque problems once I drop the first two tanks ... the problems go away after dropping the second pair. I've actually been playing around with turbojet "booster" rockets, and those go by different rules. Around 15k, I try to get a whole lot of horizontal speed, then go at maybe 60 degrees shortly before detaching them.

It actually WILL give you those numbers, just click on the appropriate spot for transfer time and length. When were you looking to take this trip anyway?

With that unset-set business, it DOES sound likely there's a bit of a misunderstanding ... it's a matter of setting the ship in general as the target vs. setting the specific docking port. In any case, from THAT close in, you can probably just eyeball it if you line the pieces up in a nice plane to work with.

Ludicrous speed ... GO!

I think that KER starts with vacuum ISP by default, it's easy enough to switch to in-atmosphere but doesn't start there. It might actually be sort of handy if you could set pressure by stage as a first approximation.

These days I LOVE the bielliptic inclination change when orbiting a new body ... capture into a long elliptical orbit, change inclination at apoapsis, then bring your apoapsis down ... it takes extra time, but it's so much more efficient if you can't insert into the orbit you want.

Agreed, settling into LKO for an hour or two isn't a huge deal ... for that matter, you could hit LKO, do a burn of about half the required magnitude in the appropriate spot with NO normal component, do the normal component at apoapsis, then finish your transfer burn when you get back to periapsis maybe ... it adds a few hours, but you can spend most of the time at higher warps.

If you switch the conics, don't forget that you can then tab your way to focusing on the destination planet and work from there to some extent, then backspace to return focus.

Rather, DVA and DVE are the same, DVO is not just 0, but nonsensical. Oberth is not "free" delta-v, it's spending delta-v in a place where it will have a greater effect, giving greater speed LATER ON (or lesser, in the case of a retrograde burn). A burn of 100 m/s does not give you 110 m/s, or 200 m/s, or anything like that just because it's near an object, but where you were approaching at a certain speed 6 hours ago, you're leaving again at MORE than 100 m/s greater once you hit the same altitude as the previous measurement. New thought experiment: car on a hill, stopped, with an identical hill on the other side, with no air resistance and no friction (except the brakes are on for now). Let h be the height of the car, ma the mass of the car, g the force of gravity, with initial h=100 m and g=9.8 m/s^2 PE = g*ma*h PE(initial) = 980*ma Now, release the brakes and the car rolls down to the bottom of the hill PE(bottom) = 0 KE(bottom) = 980*ma = (ma*v(bottom)^2)/2 v(bottom)^2 = 1960 v(bottom) = 44.27 m/s Mass, of course, cancels right out. Now apply, say, 10 m/s of delta-v: v(boost) = 54.27 m/s v(boost)^2 = 2945 KE(boost) = 1472.6 and see what the speed is once the car is back at a height of 100m PE(end) = 980*ma KE(end) = 492.6*ma v(end)^2 = 985.2 v(end) = 31.4 m/s So that 10 m/s push gave it over 30 m/s at the end, once it was back to the same height as before. It only sped it up by 10 m/s at the time, though. Honestly, "frictionless car at the top of the hill" is probably a fair analogy for orbital energy states, especially going with the usual convention of PE(infinity) = 0 and your PE value is negative as you get closer...

It probably doesn't read 645 m/s, it read 645 mm/s or .645 m/s. I like KER's orbit/surface displays, but the one for the rocket and staging does odd things for me, it just stops updating at some point.

Here I was just thinking he was cranking everything hard over. Roll is all the way to the right, yaw all the way to the left, and there's a moderate pitch-down. Might this be from a sudden change in the "control from" point's bearing with Smart ASS active?

I'd agree, since the greys are up, why not use them? After that, of course, is the question of HOW to make your initial burn ... do you use the nukes, do you use the skippers, do you get fancy by breaking orbit for a low Kerbin periapsis and do a Skipper burn THERE, or something else entirely?

I like just over 30 km on Minimus, it gives lots of space to sit in a "catch-up" orbit and is just above a time-warp boundary.

I think I see where the issue is now ... you appear to be saying that using 1000 m/s of delta-v changes your speed more than 1000 m/s. It doesn't do so at the moment (or interval) of application. The Oberth effect does, however, allow that 1000 m/s of delta-v to have a considerably greater effect on your speed at a later point of the orbital track, such as (as above) comparing entering a body's SoI and leaving it after that application of delta-v. The burn is still 1000 m/s, but as your PE tends back to 0 (remembering that it's 0 at infinity and negative in the gravity well) your KE gain was such that you picked up more than 1000 m/s AT A DISTANCE.

We need a /kerbalheaddesk ... the bolded parts are directly contradictory. The Oberth effect does not increase delta-v in the slightest, but alters the NEEDED delta-v by altering the energy state of the orbit by a greater amount when at periapsis (and therefore at a higher speed relative to the body being orbited). You know what, if you want a rehash of the math, look at somebody else's post...

Actually, in a sense, the Oberth effect WAS programmed in ... gravity was programmed, orbital mechanical are an effect of that, and the Oberth effect is a direct result of that. Really, there are two ways of looking at things, the math side of things and conceptually. The math side of things has been gone over pretty well, the conceptual side seems a bit rougher. If it makes it any clearer, think of it like pushing a sphere up a hill with no friction. You're better off giving a great big push at the bottom than pushing steadily all the way up - in delta-v terms anyway.

Of course, if you select the hidden tank first, the other tank will likely be easier to work with...

And it took that long for somebody to use the "common" sense explanation (which is, admittedly, more obvious when you consider a powered assist or slingshot) ... though the math is certainly important. Mostly, you can just use it and know it works without worrying too much about WHY it works, just remember it's not the be-all and end-all of things. If things line up right to catch a slingshot while sacrificing a bit of Oberth assistance, you may be better off.

I'd probably do two burns, first burn is everything you can SAFELY get out of the skipper and jettison, plus about 5 seconds of thrust from the nuke. Second burn breaks Kerbin orbit and is going to be pretty long, but you'll have a better idea HOW long after the 5 seconds you burned earlier. Just be careful you're not running into the Mun ... or if you do, use it!

I'd say especially more batteries ... more solar panels might give you better throughput, but it's probably easier to wait for recharge between transmissions than put up with broken-up transmissions. Oh, and the 200 and 1k batteries are easy enough to attach to the Mk 1 command pod (200 right above and parachute doesn't seem to mind, 1k below and likely under a decoupler).

With single-engine landers with high TWR, I usually throttle the engine down FROM the engine once I'm near the surface ... it makes finer control easier, but I wouldn't want to do that near the surface with multiple engines...