Pragmatic alternative to perfect orbits

[lodestar]

The newest MechJeb builds display orbital period to the hundredth of a second. With periods matched to that precision, even years of maximum timewarp produces no significant drift as measured with the phase angles to other satellites in the constellation.

I just noticed this in the newest dev build. Nice. I also realized that you can change antenna targets from the planetarium screen, so you never need to take control even if you need to do that.

[RoboRay]

I just noticed this in the newest dev build. Nice. I also realized that you can change antenna targets from the planetarium screen, so you never need to take control even if you need to do that.

Right. Once you get your satellite into it's final orbit, precise to within a hundredth of a second, you only need to take it off rails if you want to give it a new orbit... or several decades of game-time go by.

Getting that precision is harder around smaller bodies because the period is much more jittery (I set up a new Minmus network yesterday, which was a little tricky) and will probably still require some station-keeping every few years.