Maneuver Assistance - Parent body orbit

[Tery215]

I find it simpler to create maneuvers to other planets while in the sphere of influence of the sun, mainly because it is very simple to drag the maneuver node to the optimal position.

I suspect that it is actually more efficient to perform these maneuvers in low Kerbin orbit, however it is not as simple.

In order to make it easier, I suggest a way to drag a little widget on the parent object's orbit, which would represent where the planet is (approximately) when the maneuver node is performed. This would, of course, be rounded to the closest time when the vessel reaches the maneuver node.

[nholzric]

What an excellent idea! Here's the thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/108944-Transfer-Nodes

A "Transfer Node" - a maneuver node on the parent object's orbit - would allow you to time your maneuver up to a an entire revolution of the parent body in the future, rather than one or several revolutions of your orbit around the parent object. This would make "discovering" transfer windows more intuitive.

The Transfer Node would work just like a maneuver node where direction (based on the three cardinal orbit relative directions) AND magnitude are important. One of the outstanding questions in my head is how do you measure magnitude in a way that's meaningful to the player. As a first cut you could give the dV measurement as if you were the parent body itself, but I suspect (but not sure) that this number would be significantly different than the actual dV requirement of your craft.

I'm afraid to guess if it would be lower or higher. On the one hand your craft is (presumably) already at orbital velocity relative to the parent planet - 2200 m/s in LKO. On the other hand you have to climb out of the parent body's gravity well. I am hoping someone with a more rigorous orbital mathematics background could weigh in, even to speculate.