help cant get to minmus...

[zapy97]

i have tried and tried again but i cant get to minmus, if any one can help i would be very appreciative

[AncientAstronaut]

What exactly is your problem?

[Kosmo-not]

You need to point the rocket straight up when you launch it. Pointing it towards the ground won't get you to Minmus.

[swiftgates24]

I see what you did there...

[Kosmo-not]

Seriously though, I don't know where he's having trouble.

[Markus Reese]

If you can get to mun and not minmus, my guess is the problem is the angled orbit path of minmus. What you want to do is when you get kerbin orbit, use the map to line yourself up so that you are seeing minmus orbit path as a line only. When your rocket's orbit path intercepts visually the minmus orbit path, burn north or south to horizon to cause your own orbit path to pitch until it is the same glide slope. this is a basic way of stating a more advanced technique. Essentially if you burn perpendicular to your orbital path, in the x,y trajectories (aimed at horizon) your orbit path will pivot axially on your ship in that direction. If you burn Z axis (towards/away surface) it will change apoapsis/periapsis. If you are losing altitude and burn away from planet directly, your min will increase, max on orbit will decrease. Off topic there though.

Anyways, the most difficult part of minmus is getting the orbital planes aligned. fter that, you simply need to burn prograde to increase your orbit out to minmus orbit path. Because you are going faster than minmus, make sure minmus is ahead of you. If you burn too soon, you will arrive at orbit before minmus. In which case, you want to burn a bit more to extend your orbit a little bit out beyond the minmus orbit. This will allow it to catch up to you. Once your orbit is a bit beyond minmus, you can circularize your orbit a bit more to increase the duration you are beyond minmus until you capture orbit. If you got there too late, simply do the reverse. Keep your orbit within that of minmus and circularize it so you gradually catch up or capture.

[zapy97]

If you can get to mun and not minmus, my guess is the problem is the angled orbit path of minmus. What you want to do is when you get kerbin orbit, use the map to line yourself up so that you are seeing minmus orbit path as a line only. When your rocket's orbit path intercepts visually the minmus orbit path, burn north or south to horizon to cause your own orbit path to pitch until it is the same glide slope. this is a basic way of stating a more advanced technique. Essentially if you burn perpendicular to your orbital path, in the x,y trajectories (aimed at horizon) your orbit path will pivot axially on your ship in that direction. If you burn Z axis (towards/away surface) it will change apoapsis/periapsis. If you are losing altitude and burn away from planet directly, your min will increase, max on orbit will decrease. Off topic there though.

Anyways, the most difficult part of minmus is getting the orbital planes aligned. fter that, you simply need to burn prograde to increase your orbit out to minmus orbit path. Because you are going faster than minmus, make sure minmus is ahead of you. If you burn too soon, you will arrive at orbit before minmus. In which case, you want to burn a bit more to extend your orbit a little bit out beyond the minmus orbit. This will allow it to catch up to you. Once your orbit is a bit beyond minmus, you can circularize your orbit a bit more to increase the duration you are beyond minmus until you capture orbit. If you got there too late, simply do the reverse. Keep your orbit within that of minmus and circularize it so you gradually catch up or capture.

thank you you hit my problem square on the head thank you

[Ziff]

There is another method which I actually prefer. This method involves timing your launch so that your craft is orbiting Kerbin at either 84 or 96 degrees (instead of the 90 you use for the Mun). Your orbit around Kerbin will be on the same plane as Minmus (if you launch at the right time, that is) and then you can simply wait for Minmus to rise over Kerbin and do your prograde burn just like you would for a Munar injection burn.

Here's how you do it.

Sit on the launch pad, go into Map view, and flatten out Kerbin's orbit plane like this. Make sure the camera is pretty much centered over the launch pad too.

Zoom out so you can see where the plane of Minmus is. *Don't move the camera! Just zoom out. If you move the camera I am not responsible for lost Kerbals in space.* Chances are Minmus' plane isn't flat, but if you timewarp there will be 2 moments where it will flatten out. Those are your launch windows.

If you wait until the plane of Minmus flattens out like this, you can launch at a heading of 84 degrees and you will end up on the exact same plane as Minmus. This means you will not have to make a plane change orbital maneuver. If the plane of Minmus is the opposite mirror image of this, or from top-left to bottom-right, you could launch at 96 degrees to be on the same plane.

Now if you follow these directions you will find yourself on an inclined orbit around Kerbin, which happens to match the plane of Minmus exactly. (Or very closely, at least, depending on your piloting skills.) Now all you have to do is wait until Minmus rises from behind Kerbin and you can burn prograde just like you would for the Mun, and you will easily intercept Minmus. Good luck!

[Vanamonde]

The sloppiest in sophistication but easiest in practice method is to do the transfer burn as if Minmus is on the usual plane, then look to see if you're going to pass above or below it, and if so, then burn perpendicular to the plane in the opposite direction until you get an intercept. I believe that's the easiest method for newbies (and even some of us experienced players ).

[Jason Patterson]

One good thing about orbiting Minmus is that even if you wind up in an ugly orbit, the velocity required to stay in orbit around it is very small for all but the tightest paths around it. It's easy to make big changes in the shape/orientation of that path as a result.