MajorTomtom

Hi I wanted to look at performance data for existing launchers in interplanetary travel. I have read the Ariane 5 user's guide and in the part relative to performance for earth-escape missions, I came across this : "The Ariane 5 ECA version has a performance of 4550kg towards the following earthescape orbit: •infinite velocity V∞= 3475 m/s •declination δ = - 3.8°" What do these numbers mean ? Is the declination the relative inclination between the ecliptic and the trajectory ? And what is V∞ ? I hoped to find charts with mass plotted against orbit inclination and stuff but I only found this... (the other orbits are all LEO or GTO with fixed inclination) Thanks in advance guys,

Alright thanks for the answers. The question popped because I saw that the early probes for the moon were indeed in direct vertical descent, and I imagined it had to do with savings, but it is as you mentioned probably just a question of reduced complexity (with limited ignitions, batteries etc..) Thanks again

Hey, Just a quick question. Is it any more/less efficient to land on the mun with or without a prior munar orbit ? I would tend to think that it doesn't change anything because of energy conservation etc, but it would be nice to have confirmation Thanks in advance

The problem with real life SSTO is that you have a single engine optimization throughout your entire flight, whereas a staged rocket can have multiple engines adapted to different altitudes, and therefore be more efficient. If you recover your craft, whether it's SSTO or simply stages, you will have to go through a lot of refurbishing anyway to make it fly safely again (and convince people it is still safe). I don't know if recovering the second stage is really feasible/practical for Falcon 9. The first stage is in a "simple" parabolic flight whereas the second one is at orbital velocity or close to... It would have to survive reentry and therefore either be well shielded or spend a good amount of fuel to slow down enough.

Okay I totally misunderstood that Cape Canaveral geographic location was what made it so close to the moon orbit, I thought that this "relative inclination" indicator people waited for to reach 0 in tutorials was indeed a measure of when the orbit passed overhead (which seemed indeed strange as in stock it is the angle between orbit planes, and is also in RO/RSS...). Thanks a lot for your complete answer

Hey ! I have recently installed RSS/RO/RP0 mods and I'm still struggling to get efficiently to the moon. I am launching from Kourou. I tried to set the moon as target and wait till relative inclination hits 0°, but it stays always above 23°. I understand the theory that I should wait for my launch site to be at the ascending/descending node of the moon, and that it should therefore be at 0° relative inclination, but it just never goes below 23°. Is it normal and have I missed something from the theory, or is it a problem ? How should I proceed for a moon launch then ? Thanks in advance PS : I checked at cape canaveral and it works there, I manage to get rel inclination to approx 0° just like in tutorials

Also I think that if you are not focused on one spacecraft in LKO, debris collision will not be calculated (never tried, but I think it would be really hard to do that). Therefore, unless you spend a lot of time focused on a huge LKO station with countless debris you will probably never have any problem