Slingshot effect

[Starchaser]

I know in real life you can use a planet or moon's gravity well as a slingshot to gain more speed. Is that possible, or feasible in KSP? If it is, have any mods been written to plot that out?

Edited April 2, 2015 by Starchaser

[Owen5595]

Yes it is, (Tutorial here)

[Starchaser]

Thanks!

[Iron4venger]

Even more tutorials here

[Red Iron Crown]

As for mods that plot out gravity assists, you might want to check out Trajectory Optimization Tool, it's fairly complex but can plot out gravity assists and other maneuvers nicely.

[Tex_NL]

Stock the "conic patch limit" is set to three. It will only draw your path through three SOI's (two SOI transitions) then the path just stops. There might be encounters in the future but the game won't calculate them. Increasing the patch limit allows you to see those encounters.

To increase the conic patch limit go to your KSP folder and open the file settings.cfg in a text editor. No fancy programs required, it just a simple text file.

Search for the line that says CONIC_PATCH_LIMIT = 3 and change the 3 to a higher value. Personally I've set it to 6.

But keep in mind the further you look into the future the less reliable it gets. Even rotating your craft can change you path by hundreds of kilometres.

(And it is of course a good idea to back-up settings.cfg before you start messing with it. Just in case.)

[Xannari Ferrows]

Stock the "conic patch limit" is set to three. It will only draw your path through three SOI's (two SOI transitions) then the path just stops. There might be encounters in the future but the game won't calculate them. Increasing the patch limit allows you to see those encounters.

To increase the conic patch limit go to your KSP folder and open the file settings.cfg in a text editor. No fancy programs required, it just a simple text file.

Search for the line that says CONIC_PATCH_LIMIT = 3 and change the 3 to a higher value. Personally I've set it to 6.

But keep in mind the further you look into the future the less reliable it gets. Even rotating your craft can change you path by hundreds of kilometres.

(And it is of course a good idea to back-up settings.cfg before you start messing with it. Just in case.)

True that. Sensitive dependence on initial conditions.

[cantab]

It may be mentioned in the tutorials, but I strongly recommend the PreciseNode mod for gravity assists or any other precision manoeuvre work.

As for what you can do, well I got a small simple probe, maybe a couple of thousand m/s of delta-v, to fly past every planet.