Going to Minimus

[Chik Sneadlov]

Is there something in the game that tells you where on your orbit you should put a maneuvering node in order to reach a targeted moon or planet? I've read here and there about guidelines for intercepting planets such as expecting minimus to be 120 degrees counterclockwise to where it is when you leave Kerbin orbit.

So far I've been trying to use the ascending node for my burn to get to Minimus but the more I play with this the less it seems like the ascending node has anything to do with getting to Minimus. Rotating the orbital plane seems pretty tedious.

What I'd like to do is get to Minimus in the most efficient way. It'd be most satisfying if the maneuvering system helped me find the most efficient place to start my burn and chose my vector.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Chik Sneadlov

[Wooks]

For Minmus the easiest "trick" is, once you are in orbit, wait for Minmus to rise on the horizon and then burn straight to it, no need for maneuver nodes, and it works the same for the Mun. Of course you should correct your inclination before burning towards Minmus.

Now for maneuvers outside Kerbin SOI I present to you the Interactive illustrated interplanetary guide and calculator for KSP

http://ksp.olex.biz/

Just select your origin and destination from the drop down menus, punch in your actual parking orbit and BAM! all the data you will ever need. Bookmark it, it has been a lifesaver to me.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Wooks

[lammatt]

a quick answer, no.

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- the ascending/descending node is just a spot where the two orbital planes intersect.

- if you want to go to Minmus, you should try to launch in such a way that your ship's trajectory is as co-planar as you can to Minmus'es orbit, so that you dont have to adjust the inclination when you get into space. (but the inclination change shouldnt take much fuel anyways, a couple hundred m/s is more than enough in most of the cases)

- since Minmus is not very massive, matching the inclinations are pretty important if you dont want to wait a number of orbits until they line up.

[vger]

Ascending/descending nodes are somewhat confusing, especially when you try to reach a world and forget to take the inclination of its orbit into account. The first time I aimed for Eve, things just happened to be timed right, and I was able to hook up without worrying about inclination. But most of the time, there's no way that would work.

Once your inclination matches your target, you have a LOT less to worry about with getting a transfer to work. Doing it with Minmus makes good practice for the future when trying to reach distant worlds.

[Temstar]

It's actually better to launch to equatorial orbit, wait for Minmus to raise above the horizon, burn prograde until your AP is at Minmus orbit, then wait till you're about half way to Minmus (ie, some point beyond Mun orbit) THEN adjust your inclination to meet up with Minimus. This far out from Kerbin your orbital velocity is much lower, so it's much cheaper in delta-V to change inclination. This sort of half way plane change could be as low as 20m/s.

[MKI]

I don't do my burn very efficiently (my missions to Minmus are generally over engineered so i can be lazy in flight)

Here is how i get to minimus without to much hassle.

From a stable orbit around kerbin:

1. select minimus as a target, its orbit should be green and you get the ascending and descending nodes.

2. Make a node on EITHER the ascending and Descending nodes.

3. Change the node to the same plane as the target, just change your camera to the side and keep moving it till it seems flat or the Ac and Dc nodes move (means you went through the plane). You do not have to make this perfect.

4. Burn the node you made to get into the plane. again doesn't have to be perfect.

5. make node to transfer to minimus, execute and you should be on your way

I learned how to get to minimus this way, but this way will ALWAYS work, allowing you have enough delta-V. There is no timing beyond doing the burns at the right time. Its pretty straightforward and works well when you are orbiting the parent body. (this case kerbin)

[Starstrider42]

Is there something in the game that tells you where on your orbit you should put a maneuvering node in order to reach a targeted moon or planet? I've read here and there about guidelines for intercepting planets such as expecting minimus to be 120 degrees counterclockwise to where it is when you leave Kerbin orbit.

So far I've been trying to use the ascending node for my burn to get to Minimus but the more I play with this the less it seems like the ascending node has anything to do with getting to Minimus. Rotating the orbital plane seems pretty tedious.

What I'd like to do is get to Minimus in the most efficient way. It'd be most satisfying if the maneuvering system helped me find the most efficient place to start my burn and chose my vector.

If you know where your ascending node is, I assume that means you've gotten as far as selecting Minmus as your target. Once you've aligned your orbital plane (see previous posts), the easiest way to get an efficient burn is to set a prograde burn until it just touches the orbit of Minmus and the rendezvous markers show up. Then, drag the maneuver node along your orbit to bring the markers together. If your starting orbit is eccentric, you may have to add prograde/retrograde thrust to keep it barely touching Minmus's orbit. Once you've got Minmus's sphere of influence appearing in your predicted orbit, it's just a matter of tweaking.

[Chik Sneadlov]

Thanks all. I went to Mun orbit and from there to Minimus orbit. I don't think I bothered with changing the plane of the orbit at all as I got the rendevous popping up. Quite a mess of confusing lines there for a born again Kerbal noob. And there's not much fine control on the engine thrust when the orbits are at extremes but I really enjoy the navigating. Its the most interesting navigating I've seen since Homeworld which was pretty primitive compared to this, but still made an atempt compared to most space games.

I managed to set down on minimus and take off again but didn't have enough fuel to get into orbit again. All three Kerbals were killed in separate events trying to jetpack back down to the surface. Only one survived that but then exploded while trying to get back to the craft which surprisingly survived the impact. Thanks.

How do I turn this into an "answered" thread?

[Kerba Fett]

I don't bother to match planes with minmus. It takes quite a bit of dV (about 220) compared to the transfer burn. (about 930)

What I do is start with a fairly circular orbit them make a maneuver node and drag the prograde handle till the AP is a bit past the orbit of minmus. Then I move the node by the circular base untill my projected path intercepts minmus as seen from above in the map view. You should be about a quarter orbit in front of minmus's current position. The projected path should show a purple segment at the encounter if you're close enough to enter Minmus's SOI. If you get the triangular rendezvous markers, get them as close as possible.

Next I rotate the camera down and use the purple normal handles of the maneuver node to adjust my projected path's vertical component. (not required if you match inclination with minmus first, but uses less fuel this way.) Get your PE as close as possible.

Once I've done the burn and am on the way I'll often make a node and set up a small correction burn to fine tune the minmus encounter. It's a lot easier to make precise adjustments to your path once you're moving in the general direction of minmus than it is in kerbins orbit. This burn is to fine tune your PE, and set your orbital direction and inclination.

On your first trip it doesn't matter which direction you orbit in, but once you put an orbiting station there to process your science you'll want to make sure you enter orbit in the right direction to be able to dock.

For the trip back I just burn to escape velocity in the general direction of Kerbin. Once I'm out of Minmus's SOI I do a small correction burn to place my PE inside the atmosphere for areobraking then just sit back and wait.

[Wooks]

In your opening post click "edit post" and then click "Go Advanced", there you can change to "answered" in a drop down menu

[LostElement]

Scott Manley have tutorial videos that can help you. Look him up.

[Claw]

It's actually better to launch to equatorial orbit, wait for Minmus to raise above the horizon, burn prograde until your AP is at Minmus orbit, then wait till you're about half way to Minmus (ie, some point beyond Mun orbit) THEN adjust your inclination to meet up with Minimus. This far out from Kerbin your orbital velocity is much lower, so it's much cheaper in delta-V to change inclination. This sort of half way plane change could be as low as 20m/s.

Yep, this is what I do as well. Most of the time you can set Minmus as your target, and you'll get the "location at intercept" tags. So you can slide the node around till you get a descent (out of plane) intercept. Then, like Temstar said, pick a point somewhere halfway out to Minmus and give a little correction burn to intercept Minmus at a better angle. This gets a bit harder to do when Minmus is at it's high/low point relative to Kerbin because the flags are less likely to show up.

[vger]

Slightly OT question, but does anyone else typically find that a return mission to Minmus is easier than Mun?

[Starstrider42]

Slightly OT question, but does anyone else typically find that a return mission to Minmus is easier than Mun?

I think everybody agrees on that.

[Kryxal]

Yep, this is what I do as well. Most of the time you can set Minmus as your target, and you'll get the "location at intercept" tags. So you can slide the node around till you get a descent (out of plane) intercept. Then, like Temstar said, pick a point somewhere halfway out to Minmus and give a little correction burn to intercept Minmus at a better angle. This gets a bit harder to do when Minmus is at it's high/low point relative to Kerbin because the flags are less likely to show up.

You could always just toss down the correction node and force the intercept, THEN fix the first (and second) node once you have a better idea.

[NERVAfan]

My issue with Minmus has always been that I can't SEE when it rises above the horizon, so I have to guess from the map view... so sometimes I end up giving up and going to Mun instead...

How do you tell from the map view when it is just on the horizon?