150 Degree Solar Inclination

[Starman4308]

I accepted a contract to place a satellite in solar orbit without looking at the fine print. The target has a periapsis near Kerbin and an apoapsis a bit past Duna... and an inclination of 150 degrees. Given that I'm using the 6.4k mod (which scales up the Kerbin system by 6.4x), if I tried to launch straight from Kerbin, I'd be looking at probably ~80 km/s of delta-V, which basically makes it flat-out impossible.

Right now, my thinking is to wait until I have nukes and ions, and then set up a Jool intercept and make a burn at Jool periapsis (combined with the slingshot) to make the inclination change. Are there any other tricks you guys can think of? The other possibility I can think of is a Jool-assisted bielliptic transfer, but that'd take a hilariously long time (even without that, I'll probably need to edit the save game to give myself enough time on the contract).

The alternative, of course, is to bite the failure penalty (or cheat and use Hyperedit), but it's such an interesting challenge that I want to try it anyways.

EDIT: To be perfectly clear, 80 km/s is "I perform almost the entire maneuver straight from Kerbin orbit"; I suspect it'll be a fair bit more reasonable by abusing Jool... at least for certain definitions of "reasonable" which probably do not include making a profit on this mission.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Starman4308

[GoSlash27]

Starman,

If it were me, I'd definitely take the loss on the failed contract. I have no idea if it's possible on that mod, but I bet you can't do it for less than what the contract pays plus the failure penalty.

Best,

-Slashy

[Mastikator]

Multistage ion thrusters and literally hour long burns is pretty much your only option as far as I can tell. You should probably do a bee-line for ion tech.

[March Unto Torment]

This is possible, but it's going to damned well take you a while. Jool slingshot is possible, but inaccurate.

Your only chance is to use ion engines and a truly ridiculous amount of fuel, leading to several-hour-long burn times. Oh, and your launch stage is going to probably have to get something like 700 tonnes minimum to LKO, at a guess. If you use nukes instead, that number ratchets up into the many thousands of tonnes.

If I were you, I'd drop the contract. However, if you do want to try, make damned sure you get it on YouTube - this is Scott Manley-level challenge right here

[Kryxal]

I wouldn't say accuracy matters all THAT much on a Jool slingshot, going from a 150 degree plane change at Kerbin's orbit to 30 degrees or less at Jool's orbit is a huge savings. Also, don't forget to consider an "extra" slingshot on Laythe or Tylo.

[cantab]

I expect you can pull off the plane change using a Jool gravity assist, but you're likely to still need a big slice of delta-V to tune the orbit to match.

[MarvinKitFox]

Starting in low kerbin orbit,

and final desired destination is a Kerbol-centered orbit of arbitrary inclination, perigee near Kerbin, apogee anything same or further out?

In worst case, doing a 180 degree u-turn and having to enter circular orbit at Kerbin orbital distance, you can manage with 6700m/s from LKO.

Just go out to basically infinity, change plane, and enter the desired orbit.

Tested in practice. See other posting in this board, here