How to Get to Minmus by Using the Mun as a Gravity assist

[aceassasin]

Note: This Tutorial requires the paid version of KSP

Note: Before starting the tutorial you may want to change your conics patches ahead in your settings file to CONIC_PATCH_LIMIT = 6

Step 1. First you must wait for the launch window when the Mun and Minmus orbit are perpindicular as in the picture below

Step 2. Now launch your spacecraft and get into a roughly 100km x 100km orbit with as close to 0 inclination as possible

Step 3. Tranfer to the Mun When it rises until your trajectory looks like this with a future kerbin apoapsis of ~47,000km

Enjoy the View as you flyby the Mun That Sparkle on the rim of the crater is the Mun Arch

Step 4 At about midway to Minmus you may perform a midcourse corection to corect your inclination if your orbit is below minmus\'s orbit burn North if it is above the orbit burn south if you have no interception then burn slightly prograde (forward)

Congratulations you have completed your first Gravity Assist in Kerbal Space Program

[Tarmenius]

Wow, that\'s some fine work there! I\'ve been wondering how to reliably set up a gravity assist for some time now. I managed to jury-rig the maneuver once, but it was sloppy and I kept thinking 'I wish I knew how I pulled that off.' And now, off to get some use out of the Minmus Rover that I have sitting in the hanger gathering dust! You have my thanks.

On a side note: As much as I hate having debris around my own Kerbin, that field of yours looks pretty cool. Kinda reminds me of how Earth looks in Cowboy Bebop.

[zombiphylax]

Great work! I\'ve been tinkering with this for about a month, just so I can then use Minmus to bump me into high kerbol orbit. I figure it\'ll come in handy when you can send probes to other planets and have limited fuel.

[vexx32]

Nice. I favour the direct approach to Minmus, though. It\'s more straightforward, but I do like the gravity assist... yours is probably a little more fuel efficient than mine, though.

[Menelmacar]

Thanks for the tips - I haven\'t even attempted a trip to Minmus yet but I\'m always looking to improve my navigation, what exactly does the .cfg edit you suggested do? (I\'ve seriously confused myself by speculating on this)

On a side note: As much as I hate having debris around my own Kerbin, that field of yours looks pretty cool. Kinda reminds me of how Earth looks in Cowboy Bebop.

My kerbin looks similar although not so evenly spread out, actually if you could view our Earth, like we do Kerbin, with icons on every satellite and decent-sized chunk of debris you probably wouldn\'t be able to see Earth.

[aceassasin]

The .cfg edit changes how many patches ahead the conics trajectory for example

if you set it to 3 it would show your entry into another SOI your future Kerbin/Kerbol orbit and encounter with any other celestial body as you increase it the more 'events' or Patches the conics system will show you

[vexx32]

Yeah, but if you increase it beyond 4 or 5, it starts to get confusing, as it does not indicate the order of future events. Also, it becomes less and less accurate the further it tries to predict.

Even 3 would probably be sufficient for this to work, I think.

[Akaliwolf]

Yay!This method got me my first lander on Minmus yesterday!....and today, While slingshoting around the Mun, I almost went through the Mun Arch O.o I was a good 30 Meters from going through :c

[Teh_Miner101]

Anyone know how to get to Minmus using the gravity assist without having to wait for a launch window? So I can just launch randomly get and get a fuel-efficient flight to Minmus?

[Akaliwolf]

Naah, if you dont wait for a launch window, you wont fall into a minmus intercept, sorry :c

[Menelmacar]

I\'ve had pretty good luck 'winging it' to Minmus from the Mun, going in a west-east orbit, waiting for it to rise above the Mun and then burning at it with course correction attempts along the way. I get there but usually have really odd inclination, but since there\'s nowhere further to go that doesn\'t really matter.