Looking for consistent ways to reach orbit from Kerbin relay network

[ajburges]

I'm planning on launching a Kerbin based Draim Tetrahedron relay network before turning off DSN in my career settings. Given the circumstances of the location, 4 separate launches would be the most efficient way to deliver the satellites (as no orbital planes are shared between relays). Timing my launches for correct orbital planes sounds easy enough, but I don't know how I can keep the launches consistent enough for synchronized relay placement. Does anybody know of anything that can (or help) launch payloads into consistent orbits or should I just synchronize orbits with a T/(2*n) reference orbit before final placement maneuvers (including phase correction orbits)? Alternatively, I could just throw money at the problem and use the same system I used to seed the Mun and Minmus with their networks.

[Chiron0224]

Mechjeb has an autopilot feature which could be used to launch consistently.  Not sure if you consider that cheating but bear in mind that these are unmanned craft and would fly mostly by programmed autopilot in real life anyhow.

[DrLicor]

What I used to do is launch them all in one go, but it isn't necessary indeed.
The most important thing about a sat network, is orbital time.

By saying you want to do them in separate launches, a bit of your consistent sats is thrown away. But that doesn't wipe away the effectivity and look of your sats, at least, if you don't have OCD

 

Anyway, if you install KER, you'll be fine.  With some calculation of the launch time, but that up to you, you will get your consistent sat network. Just make sure you that the orbits of the sat end up with the same orbital time. When missing 2sec, your sat will drift off.. KER displays your time on 3 decimals if I'm right, if your get them all the same for each sat, they will stay the same position for at least 100years.

A higher orbit is better, 0,001 sec difference is a tiny factor for a 6hour orbit but a less tiny factor for a 30min orbit. You can achieve those very perfect numbers by setting your RCS to 0.5% or 1% thrust. Go to docking mode and keep changing the your orbit with Shift and Ctrl, while heading prograde, until you have those perfect numbers you want. That's the most important consistent part you want for your sat network.   

Install kerbal alarm clock too, for the timing of your launches.

Alsooo, maybe this forum thread can help you:

 

[Sharpy]

Nice.

Let me "migrate" the old broken table to new forum format for future reference.

Target Orbital Elements	Marker 1	Marker 2	Marker 3	Marker 4
Semimajor Axis (m)	4350000	4350000	4350000	4350000
Eccentricity	0.28	0.28	0.28	0.28
Inclination	33°	33°	33°	33°
Argument of periapsis	270°	90°	270°	90°
Longitude of the ascending node	0	90	180	270
Mean Anomaly at Epoch	0	-1.57078	3.14159	1.57078
Epoch	0	0	0	0

 

[ajburges]

17 hours ago, DrLicor said:

 

 

 

That thread is actually what got me started on this. For my Minmus network I inserted a carrier into high (final apsis) equatorial orbit and delivered relays into inclined orbits without modifying orbital period. Then as they reached the intended final apsis after (up to) one go around I performed burns to place the first into final orbit and the others into individual phase correction orbits (to both correct the different periods between release and swap the phase of one pair). The remaining three burned into final orbit after one more orbit. My Mun network was used to debug this procedure. My polar scan-sat will act as a pace keeper if I need to correct phase later.

This system doesn't work efficiently for Kerbin because there is a greater dV cost between low and high orbits. Inclination changes in low orbit are also painfully expensive. If I could have a high degree of confidence in launch efficiency, I could launch strait from Kerbin into an inclined intermediate orbit, thus my question. I am starting to think the best approach would be a LKO seed ship, and have the relays boost themselves up to a HKO intermediate orbit and perform the plane change during the second Hohmann burn.

Edited November 25, 2016 by ajburges