On a mod hunt for something to help with launch windows

[LunchIn10Seconds]

Dear all,

I am having problems synchronising my launches with planetary positions.

In other words I launch, click the target (say Eve), work out a manoeuvre node and then discover that I will miss it. I usually miss it by 100000 of miles as well

I've looked at the various guides that suggest where my target needs to be in relation to Kerbin, wait and still miss it. My only successes have been fluked, or by building overly fuelled leviathans and burning huge orbits to make up for my lousy calculations.

So is there a mod that somehow adds a ghost planet to the map? Something that shows where the target planet has to be in order for you to launch and get there without wasting a tonne of fuel?

I've searched, but as I have no idea what it might be called I'm stuck.

Btw I've used the Launch window calculator at http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ (which is very good) but struggle as the only clock I have found in the game is in the tracking screen, and you cannot warp on this. So I tend to select a probe, switch to its map screen, warp to the time, only to find I've missed it. Or I wait and wait and zzzzzz....

Any suggestions?

[I_Killed_Jeb]

The best way I've found is to see how many more days i have to go on the Kerbin calendar by going to the tracker like you do, go back to map view of my ship and add those days to the MET to get the launch date. Then I warp till the target MET.

[davieholgate]

Mechjeb offers a planner for these things, you don't need to use the autopilot or anything else.

and i'm pretty sure there's a protractor mod or something like that, just google it and maybe you'll find it if you are an Mechjeb hater

EDIT: Kerbal Protractor: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/21544-23-Protractor-Rendezvous-Plugin-v-2-4-4

[Fr3Runn3r]

I'm sure kerbal alarm clock is still around. I haven't seen it in a while though, I'll go hunting and edit a link in if I find it

EDIT: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24786-0-23-Kerbal-Alarm-Clock-v2-7-0-0-%28December-20%29?highlight=alarm+clock

Surprisingly easy to find as it happens. With this mod you can set up timers til your next launch window to whatever planet/moon you want as I remember. Also helpful for many other things

Edited January 22, 2014 by Fr3Runn3r

[Retread]

Protractor should be exactly what you're looking for.

[Kromey]

Kerbal Engineer also includes a phase angle display; although I've never used Protractor, its UI seems a bit clearer (and it seems it may have additional key data) and may therefore be easier to use, but since I already have KE on my ships anyway it'll be what I use. (Never gone interplanetary -- at least not yet, well not intentionally... -- but I have used it for Mun-Minmus transfers with success.)

KE definitely does require that you know your target phase angle (i.e. by looking it up), since it only reports the current one. If Protractor will show you target and current, well, that's one more tick in its favor on the usability side of things. Still, for me, why slap on yet another part if one I've already got does what I need?

[Deadpangod3]

What I do is use this: http://ksp.olex.biz/

Then hit tab until my focus is on Kerbol, holding a protractor on the screen keeping Kerbin on the zero degree thingy, and time warp until the target is at the angle the calculator says, then light the engines and go.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Protractor all the way. Just select the planet you want to go to, hit the "Adjust Y" button (it's not a Y, but a Greek letter whose name escapes me) and wait until the first readout nears zero. Give yourself half a degree leeway for initial orbital maneuvers, then blast off. You can use the second readout to time your exact exit from orbit, but with maneuver nodes, you don't really need it. As long as you're within a degree or two of zero on the first readout, you should be good to go.

[LameLefty]

I use Kerbal Alarm Clock and just set timers for all the planetary windows upcoming that I'm interested in - both from Kerbin to other planets as well as from from those places where I've got missions going on back to Kerbin. Then I go on and do other things while in-game time passes, like launch space stations, setup a kethane refinery and fuel tank farm in orbit around Minmus, whatever. When the alarm gets within a few days of the window, I'll stage my next mission to parking orbit and warp 'til the start of the window, or if I get distracted and forget, the alarm will remind me. Then I'll jump to the VAB, put together my mission, and launch/depart immediately. Planetary windows are generally not THAT sensitive to time - a day or two before or after optimal time is not critical; if your mission is THAT tight on dV, you probably don't have any margin anyway.

tl;dr version: KAC lets you try to operate a semblance of a real multi-mision program in parallel without missing a transfer window.

[Tank Buddy]

Use http://ksp.olex.biz/ and http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/

I just take a good old protractor, and using ksp.olex.biz's angles, I make an angle with Kerbol as the vertex and the two other planets fall along the lines. I just hold the paper up to my screen (With Kerbol set as Focus so it is in the middle of the screen) and warp until they line up.

[ComradeGoat]

I play with Kerbal Engineer Redux, Protractor, Kerbal Alarm Clock and Toolbar (as well as TAC Fuel Balancer, but that's not relevant here).

If you base your game around launch windows, those three mods are essential to avoid you losing track of what you're doing to the complexity of trying to organise it.

[SuperBigD60]

Kerbal alarm clock is super easy. It's all I use to figure out when the transfer windows are.

And all you have to do is set the alarm and then you can go do other stuff