Looking for something similar to Protractor/MechJeb, but not just numbers

[Somtaaw]

When I first started about a week ago, I was playing, and while following some Mission Report breakdowns and following along to really get the game, I threw an unmanned probe pack into Kerbin orbit. It was intended to travel to Eve..... and it proceed to orbit Kerbin for the next 100d before it even started to burn out of Kerbin's SOI. I spent quite a while sitting on 1000x timewarp waiting for an optimal burn window.

Then during a hickup, I actually forgot to deploy my solar panels and left SAS turned on. So my probe actually entered Eve orbit while totally unpowered (facing away from the sun, so my always-on panels had 0 angle for even slight power), so I then spent another 950 days on 1000x time warp to circle the Sun (and this time deploying my panels as soon as I powered back up) waiting to re-enter Eve orbit and burn retro to exit Solar orbit and into stable Eve orbit.

So what I'm looking for is just a tiny thing that examines your current orbit, and tells you how long until something happens, (ie crossing planetary body SOI). Possibly also have it setup so you can set a target, and you can see how many orbits/days it'll take before you reach closest approach (like when I went from a 300d trip to finish a one-way probe of Eve to 1100 day trip, due to probe running out of battery life) This could then be entered into the Kerbal Alarm Clock, so if one were so inclined, you could setup multiple interplanetary expeditions all at once.

Missed your flyby, but still have a good orbit that eventuallyâ„¢ will give you a second chance, now you'll know how long before it happens.

If I were to ask for anything else, it might be to associate the set-target feature, and get a rough icon on the map of "place maneuver node here". Again, referencing my Eve trip, I spent 90 game days with a probe just chilling on 1000x time warp, waiting to drop my maneuver node, and when Eve finally approached a rough optimal approach location, I dropped to 1x time, and then spent 30 RL minutes tweaking my maneuver node to give me as close to a perfect flyby of Eve as I could get.

I'm sure this is partly available through MechJeb/Protractor, but neither gives an icon or anything. So, all things considering, being told you need a phase angle X, your node will be on prograde Y, blah blah blah, you still need to hold an actual protractor upto your screen to optimize burns. However you do have to be on the final orbit, whereas what I'm requesting will try to be pointing out "In X days node here" with a spot. After that, it's still player action to put the node there, and then start tweaking. It would better simulate how any space agency would work, where if you launch with a goal in mind (like entering orbit around say Mars), everything would be pre-calculated. So if you get to the launchpad, before launching you enter map and click target Eve. Burn into stable parking orbit, then you'll have your notification of say, "Orbit 6 days, then begin burn"

Length of burn, and exact direction wouldn't be listed because that's unnecessary information, and every general burn is going to have different intentions. Flyby, versus entering orbit, versus aerobrake+land, versus slingshot.

Doable? Yay or Nay? Or is there a mod that already does this, without just listing numbers?

[Tinyboss]

A couple of random bits I can address quickly:

1. Kerbal Alarm Clock can set an alarm for the next SOI change, which also tells you when it will be. It can even set the alarms automatically, and have them go off X amount of time in advance.

2. It's difficult and inefficient to fine-tune your initial burn to get a good flyby. Do the fine-tuning about halfway there, and then again right after SOI entry. Often these are single-digit-dv burns.

[godefroi]

2. It's difficult and inefficient to fine-tune your initial burn to get a good flyby. Do the fine-tuning about halfway there, and then again right after SOI entry. Often these are single-digit-dv burns.

A lot of times, it's easiest to do these burns with RCS, provided you have RCS.

[Somtaaw]

A couple of random bits I can address quickly:

1. Kerbal Alarm Clock can set an alarm for the next SOI change, which also tells you when it will be. It can even set the alarms automatically, and have them go off X amount of time in advance.

2. It's difficult and inefficient to fine-tune your initial burn to get a good flyby. Do the fine-tuning about halfway there, and then again right after SOI entry. Often these are single-digit-dv burns.

Oh ok thanks, I looked hard at the KAC, and couldn't figure out how to get it to let me know how long I'd be sitting in orbit. I'll have to go back to poking around. Can the KAC also be set to go off when planets enter certain formations, or is strictly for Kerbal/drone operated craft? So far on my extra-Kerbin missions, as long as I'm patient enough, I can usually go direct from Kerbin 100km parking orbit to within <2mil km off target. I do that entirely off burns within Kerbin SOI, but I dont think it's entirely optimal to do such, but I've only owned the game for about a week now.

That's the big thing I really need, is when I had an unmanned probe orbitting Kerbin for 90 days (90km parking orbit), until Kerbin and Eve were lined up almost perfectly. Even at 1000x timewarp, 90 days is a helluva long time, and there's zero chance at an SOI change. What I really like to do is throw lots of probes into parking orbits, and then go to map view, accelerate time and wait until planets enter alignments I want.

Since I'm doing this in a few different career modes, I don't always have access to forgiving technology. So I'm throwing probes around using LV-909's or Poodle's, rather than using ion or nuke. Because those drives aren't as forgiving, I like to think it's forcing me to learn at an accelerated rate. But I also don't want to feel like I need to keep a protractor next to my monitor to hold up now and then and check planet angles, and trying to offset my maneuver node.