Number of days along orbit?

[AaronLS]

Trying to use a Mun gravity assist to save a little dV on a trip to Minmus. It's not going to save me much, but just challenging myself.

The problem is basically I have to increase my maneuver nodes "orbit X" to keep checking to see if the angle/timing of flying by Mun will give me an encounter with minmus. Using Precise node, and have gone through dozens of orbits, essentially days worth of time advancing the node to try and find a place where the Mun is in the right position.

I can easily identify number of days to reach Minmus: I can setup the gravity assist so that my path crosses the Minmus orbit, and click on my path at that crossing point to identify how many days it will take me to reach that far out.

Next, I want to see where Minmus will be in X days. So that I know where I need to aim that crossing point.

In other words, I know that with the gravity assist it will take 9 days to reach Minmus, but I am not crossing at the right point. So I want to know where Minmus will be in 9 days.

The usual method of dragging the node to get an encounter doesn't work, because it depends on the position of the Mun. Once I know where Minmus will be in 9 days, then it's alot easier to just wait for the Mun to move enough to adjust my angle.

Is there a way to click on Minmus's orbit or something similar, and determine how many days it will be before Minmus reaches that point in its orbit?

Edited July 30, 2015 by AaronLS

[Nookos]

Not sure if there is a tool for that. But you could more or less guess knowing that Minmus orbital period is 49d 5h maybe..

Edited July 30, 2015 by Nookos

[Guest]

Why not do a quicksave and then just timewarp until the rocket ship reaches it's intersection, note the position of minmus, the reload and adjust?

[AaronLS]

Thanks. Pretty much what I'm doing now, but still takes some guess and check to get it right since Minmus is quite small.

[Aristarchus]

You could use a tool like the extremely useful transfer window planner (alexmoon.github.io/ksp/) . If you plan to hit the Mun when it has the right phase angle with Minmus that should put you in the right neighborhood.

[Kryxal]

I'd say guesstimate by plotting a slingshot and seeing how far out you end up, then plan for the Mun to be further along to fix things. Basically, if your first intercept gets you there 1/3 of an orbit behind Minmus, just see how it looks 12 hours later, when the Mun is that third ahead.

[KerikBalm]

You could use a tool like the extremely useful transfer window planner (alexmoon.github.io/ksp/) . If you plan to hit the Mun when it has the right phase angle with Minmus that should put you in the right neighborhood.

^^^This^^^