lead angle on Minmus

[Captain Sierra]

Pardon my noobish question. I have gotten to Minmus before but not directly. I couldn't get the lead angle on the transfer right from my parking orbit. What I ended up doing was going to the Mun and then using the fancy web calculator (this one: http://ksp.olex.biz/) to make the transfer to Minmus from there. That obviously is not the best way to go. Aside from matching planes while in parking orbit, what lead angle do I use to hit Minmus? I THINK it's about 90 degrees. Am I right? Or was that why I screwed it up?

[maltesh]

It's actually about 120 degrees, same as with the Mun. People used to use the old "Munrise Burn" trick to get there, because when you're at about a 100km parking orbit, the visible edge of Kerbin is is about 30 degrees below the horizontal, so when the Mun, or Minmus rises into view, the angle between you, the center of Kerbin, and the rising object is about 120 degrees.

[stupid_chris]

The best way to get there is to set a maneuver node that goes from KO out to Minmus's orbit, then dragging it around until you get an intercept. adjusting your angle midway also costs less delta V than matching orbital planes before transferring.

[Cashen]

A good trick is to set Minmus as your target while still on the launch pad. Minmus' orbit is inclined by 6 degrees, so wait until either the ascending or descending node passes over KSC and launch directly into its orbital plane (either 6 degrees above or below the equitorial plane, you'll be able to see from map view). The closer you can get to its orbital plane during the launch, the easier this will be. This will allow you to create a maneuver node, once in orbit, out to Minmus orbit, and drag it around your Kerbin orbit until you get an intercept, much like people do with Mun from a standard equatorial orbit.

[Captain Sierra]

Sounds easy enough. Mechjeb ascent guidance has a launch into plane feature

Anyways, now I am trying to assemble a giant spacecraft but I don't even have module one up yet and I can't even approach the space docks without getting lagtopia. 4 tugs + space dock = >10 FPS

[Cashen]

Sounds easy enough. Mechjeb ascent guidance has a launch into plane feature

Anyways, now I am trying to assemble a giant spacecraft but I don't even have module one up yet and I can't even approach the space docks without getting lagtopia. 4 tugs + space dock = >10 FPS

Yep, it does, and back when I used the MechJeb autopilot I did that to get to Minmus, because it save all that delta-v that would otherwise be needed to do a plane-change. Doing it by hand isn't all that hard either: You'd launch vertically as per normal, do an eastward gravity turn as per normal, and then nudge north or south a little bit (using MechJeb's orbit info display will tell you what your inclination is, as an assistance to a manual launch).