Getting to minmus with Munar orbiter

[VernKerrigan]

Th easiest way I have found to get to minmus is to take a munar orbiter, put a little extra fuel in it, and do one more burn than usual. If you get into a mostly circular orbit (I did mine with a 30/60km orbit, and burn just as kerbin fall below the horizon. Sets you into a capture path with Minmus with minimal fuel used. This was done with 3 high powered liquid fuel engines on a somewhat large rocket.

[Panichio]

Th easiest way I have found to get to minmus is to take a munar orbiter, put a little extra fuel in it, and do one more burn than usual. If you get into a mostly circular orbit (I did mine with a 30/60km orbit, and burn just as kerbin fall below the horizon. Sets you into a capture path with Minmus with minimal fuel used. This was done with 3 high powered liquid fuel engines on a somewhat large rocket.

Nice to know. Thanks.

[Polkavenger]

I\'m not quite sure how to interpret those instructions.

I just tried the same method I use to get to the Mun. Orbit towards 90 degrees, burn as the target rises above the horizon until your apoapsis reaches its influence. I didn\'t even take into account the fact that Minmus orbits in a different plane and I still got there (actually, how many degrees \'off\' does Minmus orbit?). And I had to kind of eyeball it from the orbital map, as you can\'t see Minmus through the atmosphere.

[Jontu]

Clear as mud. Do you yank 1st or wank 1st?

[Tim_Barrett]

You don\'t really need any changes on the rocket to get to Minmus, only because it might be slightly harder to get there, it does not require as close to as much in fuel as it does landing on the Mun and getting back.

Those two things pretty much cancel out. Don\'t be afraid to align yourself with Minmus with your landing stage!

[Lunniy Korabl]

It\'s been a while since my last stock munar return trip, but using a similar craft I think minmus landing and return trip required less delta vee. It has a much shallower gravity well. Extending orbit from munar transfer, inclination change, minmus injection, landing and return can all be done on small fuel tank and landing engine.

[vexx32]

I find it\'s actually pretty damn easy to orbit in the direction opposite to Minmus (because at that altitude from Kerbin, the speed is actually really small, and it takes quite a small amount of fuel to change from counterclockwise to clockwise). Here\'s what I did in my first and all subsequent Minmus landings:

(You still launch going east, btw, the direction change that makes it easy to get to Minmus happens after you\'re in orbit)

1. Attain stable Kerbin orbit anywhere inside the Mun\'s radius. Easiest to go for between 150km and 300km.

2. Wait until periapsis, then burn prograde and carefully get your apoapsis as close to 46,400,000m as you can (the radius of Minmus\' orbit).

3. Wait until you get to this apoapsis (or very close to it), then burn retrograde. For me, the velocity here was around 50m/s, so it was easy to just turn straight around and go the other way.

4. Burn until you get an orbit that is pretty close to Minmus\' radius (46,400,000m). It should be reasonably spherical. A few hundred metres to a thousand metres of error shouldn\'t affect it too greatly. I don\'t really know an accurate gauge of the error allowed here.

5. Now, you need to find where your orbit appears to intersect the plane of Minmus\' orbit. Wait until you get pretty close to this point.

6. Work out whether you need to burn North or South (on the navball) according to your position and orbit relative to Minmus, and burn (gently) until your orbit matches closely to Minmus\'

7. At this point, the patched conics should predict at the very least an encounter with Minmus.

8. Warp to the encounter, and as soon as you reach Minmus\' SOI, burn retrograde until you get almost zero velocity. This will allow you to fall to Minmus.

9. Land as normal.

10. ???

11. Profit!

Returns are effectively a ton easier. Just burn until your orbit will take you outside of Minmus\' SOI, and back into Kerbin\'s. Then, just alter your orbit until you are confident of falling back to Kerbin.

Step 6\'s maneuver is known as a 'plane-change maneuver' (correct me if I am wrong), and there is already a dedicated thread on how that is done, so I shan\'t explain it all here. Follow the steps, though, and you\'ll see what I\'m talking about.

I\'d post pictures to make my explaining simpler to understand, but I neglected to take any, sorry!

[Bluejayek]

I find it\'s actually pretty damn easy to orbit in the direction opposite to Minmus (because at that altitude from Kerbin, the speed is actually really small, and it takes quite a small amount of fuel to change from counterclockwise to clockwise). Here\'s what I did in my first and all subsequent Minmus landings:

(You still launch going east, btw, the direction change that makes it easy to get to Minmus happens after you\'re in orbit)

1. Attain stable Kerbin orbit anywhere inside the Mun\'s radius. Easiest to go for between 150km and 300km.

2. Wait until periapsis, then burn prograde and carefully get your apoapsis as close to 46,400,000m as you can (the radius of Minmus\' orbit).

3. Wait until you get to this apoapsis (or very close to it), then burn retrograde. For me, the velocity here was around 50m/s, so it was easy to just turn straight around and go the other way.

4. Burn until you get an orbit that is pretty close to Minmus\' radius (46,400,000m). It should be reasonably spherical. A few hundred metres to a thousand metres of error shouldn\'t affect it too greatly. I don\'t really know an accurate gauge of the error allowed here.

5. Now, you need to find where your orbit appears to intersect the plane of Minmus\' orbit. Wait until you get pretty close to this point.

6. Work out whether you need to burn North or South (on the navball) according to your position and orbit relative to Minmus, and burn (gently) until your orbit matches closely to Minmus\'

7. At this point, the patched conics should predict at the very least an encounter with Minmus.

8. Warp to the encounter, and as soon as you reach Minmus\' SOI, burn retrograde until you get almost zero velocity. This will allow you to fall to Minmus.

9. Land as normal.

10. ???

11. Profit!

Returns are effectively a ton easier. Just burn until your orbit will take you outside of Minmus\' SOI, and back into Kerbin\'s. Then, just alter your orbit until you are confident of falling back to Kerbin.

Step 6\'s maneuver is known as a 'plane-change maneuver' (correct me if I am wrong), and there is already a dedicated thread on how that is done, so I shan\'t explain it all here. Follow the steps, though, and you\'ll see what I\'m talking about.

I\'d post pictures to make my explaining simpler to understand, but I neglected to take any, sorry!

Reading this I realize that I can make my mission plan a lot less fuel intensive.

Currently I do:

1) 90 degree 70-100km orbit

2) burn to tilt orbit to minimus incination

3) burn to bring apoapsis out to minimus at correct point to intersect with minimus

4) land

5) return

Probably less intensive to scratch the orbit tilt maneurver.

[vexx32]

Step 6 is my tilt maneuver.

Barely uses any fuel when you\'re that far out.

I find that the further out you are, the less fuel it takes to alter your orbit, since the speeds required are very low. The only fuel-intensive parts of my method are the initial orbit, and the burn to get your Ap to Minmus\' altitude. After that, hardly any fuel needs to be used... even on landing. It\'s also perfectly possible with the patched conics to slingshot off of the Mun and use its gravity to help you get a much higher orbit. Takes significantly less fuel that way. It\'s also a fair bit easier to land on Minmus, due to its lower gravity.

My rocket was originally designed to be used on the Mun, but it actually takes less fuel to get to Minmus, depending on how you do it. I actually had to jettison my orbiter stage with a half tank of fuel left to be able to safely land. On the Mun, it usually ends up being emptied long before I have to prepare for final landing. (:

[Endeavour]

I find it\'s actually pretty damn easy to orbit in the direction opposite to Minmus (because at that altitude from Kerbin, the speed is actually really small, and it takes quite a small amount of fuel to change from counterclockwise to clockwise). Here\'s what I did in my first and all subsequent Minmus landings:

(You still launch going east, btw, the direction change that makes it easy to get to Minmus happens after you\'re in orbit)

1. Attain stable Kerbin orbit anywhere inside the Mun\'s radius. Easiest to go for between 150km and 300km.

2. Wait until periapsis, then burn prograde and carefully get your apoapsis as close to 46,400,000m as you can (the radius of Minmus\' orbit).

3. Wait until you get to this apoapsis (or very close to it), then burn retrograde. For me, the velocity here was around 50m/s, so it was easy to just turn straight around and go the other way.

4. Burn until you get an orbit that is pretty close to Minmus\' radius (46,400,000m). It should be reasonably spherical. A few hundred metres to a thousand metres of error shouldn\'t affect it too greatly. I don\'t really know an accurate gauge of the error allowed here.

5. Now, you need to find where your orbit appears to intersect the plane of Minmus\' orbit. Wait until you get pretty close to this point.

6. Work out whether you need to burn North or South (on the navball) according to your position and orbit relative to Minmus, and burn (gently) until your orbit matches closely to Minmus\'

7. At this point, the patched conics should predict at the very least an encounter with Minmus.

8. Warp to the encounter, and as soon as you reach Minmus\' SOI, burn retrograde until you get almost zero velocity. This will allow you to fall to Minmus.

9. Land as normal.

10. ???

11. Profit!

Returns are effectively a ton easier. Just burn until your orbit will take you outside of Minmus\' SOI, and back into Kerbin\'s. Then, just alter your orbit until you are confident of falling back to Kerbin.

Step 6\'s maneuver is known as a 'plane-change maneuver' (correct me if I am wrong), and there is already a dedicated thread on how that is done, so I shan\'t explain it all here. Follow the steps, though, and you\'ll see what I\'m talking about.

I\'d post pictures to make my explaining simpler to understand, but I neglected to take any, sorry!

That seems like a lot of stuff. I usually get into a 100km orbit, adjust the incline, and wait till my craft and minmus are at about 65 degrees. Then burn prograde until patched conics says I meet it

[vexx32]

I find it\'s easier to orbit opposite to minmus; it\'s impossible to miss unless you\'ve done your initial burns significantly out of the way. Also, altering the orbital plane and adjust the orbit itself becomes easier and consumes less fuel the further out you are.