How to tell my Exact Orbital Inclination?

[inigma]

I am designing the Age of Satellites missions, but running into a snag. How exactly can I tell what my orbital inclination is?

Edited June 9, 2013 by inigma

[inigma]

I've tried launching and er... um rolling off the launch pad a small satellite with transmitter... calling it Kerbin Radio. I can see it from orbit from one of my orbiting satellites, however I can't set that ground transmitter as a target, and thus get relative inclinations. Anyone else have an idea to measure one's orbital inclinations relative to a planet's equator in KSP?

[Tex_NL]

You might want to consider mods like MechJeb or Kerbal Engineer Redux (and possible a few more).

[Flaglore]

You might want to consider mods like MechJeb or Kerbal Engineer Redux (and possible a few more).

Mechjeb and Kerbal Engineer would work, and I know the the mun is in a perfect 0 degree inclination orbit around kerbin. For this reason you could just target the mun and look at the relative inclination, but that would only work in kerbin orbit.

[tntristan12]

A variant on flaglore's idea is to put a satelite at an approximate equatorial orbit and compare your inclination relative to that. It isn't as precise as using the Mun but it works for other planets/moons as well...

... Or you can download mechjeb.

[bsalis]

A variant on flaglore's idea is to put a satelite at an approximate equatorial orbit -snip-

How do you do a good job of that though?

[Tex_NL]

All good suggestions about using the Mun as a reference point but that will only give you an equatorial orbit. You still do not get any info on anything else.

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How do you do a good job of that though?

How? Well ... you can use Mun as a reference. Damn, that was suggestion on the first place.

[Tommygun]

If you don't want an autopilot, I think the Void mod has been updated.

Without some kind of mod I think you are ether going to be stuck using an protractor or looking at information stored on your persistent file.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/void-vessel-orbital-information-display-2/

[inigma]

The idea is to avoid using modifications and just use the stock game.I'll see if I can update the campaign article with the idea to use the Mun as the reference point.

Edit: Brilliant idea. It only works in Kerbin SOI, but it works perfectly for the Ages of Satellites campaign. For other planets I'll let people know it's ok to use mechjeb - but only for reference points and not actual control.

Edited June 9, 2013 by inigma