Interplanetary Travel

[TerrificToby]

Hello.

I have been having some difficulty getting a probe to go interplanetary, does anyone know of any videos to help me or any advice?

i have mechjeb and have been experimenting with the orbital operations feature. however, when using the transfer injection sub-feature, it takes a very long time to do the 'lowering final periapsis', is this normal?

I am keen to get at least a probe on duna or other bodies so i would appreciate all the help i can get.

cheers,

Toby

[capi3101]

I'd imagine Mechjeb or no you'd want to wait until the destination planet is in phase with Kerbin; Duna needs to be about 45 degrees ahead of Kerbin's orbit for the trip there and about seventy degrees ahead for the trip back.

[ummwut]

You should try using a tug (Rockomax X200-32 Fuel Tank and a LV-N nuclear rocket) to bring your probe to where it's needed. It'll use a fair amount of the tug's fuel, but I've had no problem with it and using maneuver nodes to get an intercept. In times when I've been impatient, I've actually managed to get to Duna despite being on the other side of the sun with half the tug's fuel left over.

You should get your tug and lander into orbit around 600k meters, and dock them. Then it's just waiting for the long burn time and time warps after setting up maneuvers.

[capi3101]

You add a docking port and make that two X200-32s and you'd have enough gas for a round-trip flight. Wouldn't be able to push much, but it might be enough for a small lander.

[eatorsp]

Don't use the mechjeb transfer, it doesn't work. Instead, use the Protractor mod