There needs to be a better way to plan flights

[TrooperCooper]

 

A suggestion I made regarding this a while ago: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/79724-show-me-target-location-at-x/#comment-1296346

 

[KerikBalm]

I think we need to have a icon version of the maneuver node near the nav ball, where we can click on pro/retro/radial/normal etc icons to modify the maneuver, so that we can edit the node without it being in the camera's field of view, and without havng to find the pixel because there are other things nearby that can be clicked on.

[monstah]

9 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

I'd love to be able to plan out maneuver nodes for a hypothetical craft (at the tracking station, presumably, or maybe mission control) without having to have an actual craft out in space. It'd make so much more sense for planning transfer windows especially.

Oh, yes! And specially a landed one, where "prograde" is up and "radial" is east, for example (with 0-latitude "radial" on the poles)

[Dizzle]

5 hours ago, monstah said:

Oh, yes! And specially a landed one, where "prograde" is up and "radial" is east, for example (with 0-latitude "radial" on the poles)

Ooh, that's a good idea. It would help with Apollo-style missions, for sure. Might be difficult to factor in atmospheric drag, though.

[nosirrbro]

While, yes, that view is useless, looking at the solar system from the top is much more useful

[monstah]

15 hours ago, Dizzle said:

Ooh, that's a good idea. It would help with Apollo-style missions, for sure. Might be difficult to factor in atmospheric drag, though.

Yes it might, but then there's mods like Trajectories for that!

Edited December 18, 2015 by monstah

[Dizzle]

18 hours ago, nosirrbro said:

While, yes, that view is useless, looking at the solar system from the top is much more useful

The problem is that a side-view is necessary for aligning orbits when you're not already in the planet's SOI. The screenshot in the OP was taken 300 days out from Jool in an attempted intercept of Pol. In the end, the best I could do was make sure my flight path intercepted Pol at a single point. The probe was way over-built, as it had over 4,000 dV left. Ended up landing with something like 16 left, which was nail-biting, to say the least.

[Commander Zoom]

I strongly suggest you not try to aim for a moon from interplanetary space, but from within the SOI of its parent planet.  Much more manageable.

[Gelix]

On 12/16/2015 at 0:04 AM, Dizzle said:

So I have no idea if this will be addressed in the UI changes coming in 1.0 for real 1.1, but there has just GOT to be a better way to plan maneuver nodes. Having mostly kept my interplanetary missions to Eve and Duna, my experience with this has been present but limited until now. Right now I'm trying to get a probe out to Pol, and WOW it's difficult to see what I'm doing. I mean, what am I supposed to make of this?

I haven't been around the forums for a while so maybe I'm beating a dead horse, but seriously, what do I do here?

That is absolutely true!

[Pthigrivi]

I think a combination of alshain's maneuver adjuster and a mission pre-planner with the ability to set transfer window alarms would get us there. 

[pandaman]

 

15 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

I think a combination of alshain's maneuver adjuster and a mission pre-planner with the ability to set transfer window alarms would get us there. 

Yes please, these kinds of tools in stock would be a very good addition.

KAC is great for reminders of transfer windows, but a 'pre planner' would be jolly useful.