Adjusting orbital inclination around Kerbin

[Streetwind]

I launched a station core into low Kerbin orbit. Kerbal Engineer tells me it has an inclination of 0.6 degrees. I happen to have fuel left in my launch stage and could perform a burn to bring it fully equatorial.

The question is... how? The inclination is a really small value, so I can't just eyeball how the orbit is slanted. And I cannot target Kerbin, so I cannot see my ascending/descending nodes.

Of course it won't kill me if I cannot adjust this inclination, but I am nevertheless curious: what would you guys do to tackle this problem?

Edited June 20, 2014 by Streetwind
Marking as Answered.

[KvickFlygarn87]

I launched a station core into low Kerbin orbit. Kerbal Engineer tells me it has an inclination of 0.6 degrees. I happen to have fuel left in my launch stage and could perform a burn to bring it fully equatorial.

The question is... how? The inclination is a really small value, so I can't just eyeball how the orbit is slanted. And I cannot target Kerbin, so I cannot see my ascending/descending nodes.

Of course it won't kill me if I cannot adjust this inclination, but I am nevertheless curious: what would you guys do to tackle this problem?

Around Kerbin, you can target the Mun; it is equatorial and as such, you can use its nodes instead of Kerbin's

[UmbralRaptor]

The Mun is in a perfect equatorial orbit, so you could target it.

edit: ack, ninja'd!

[LethalDose]

I applaud your desire to fix an inclination of < 1 degree. May I recommend using the stations RCS system, instead of using the engine from the main stage. RCS will give you more precision and won't require you to rotate the station if you use the translation controls.

That is, of course, if the station has an RCS system.

I'll have to remember using the Mun for an inidicator for zero inclination around Kerbin.

[Streetwind]

It does indeed have a RCS system. Though inclination changes in LKO cost a lot of fuel so we'll see. And honestly, it's less about OCD number fixing, and more about "how do I even do something like that?".

Targeting the Mun - now that is a neat trick! I never would have thought of that. Going to try this right away.

EDIT: Worked! My inclination is now 0.020 degrees... close enough! Took 22 dV, which equated to a 6 second burn of the main engines. The final orbital positioning stage wasn't all that strong...

Edited June 19, 2014 by Streetwind

[Mr Shifty]

I wonder: could you also load a ship onto the launchpad at KSC and target that? KSC is on the equator.

[Tex_NL]

I wonder: could you also load a ship onto the launchpad at KSC and target that? KSC is on the equator.

An unlaunched ship on the pad has no orbit so there is nothing to compare your orbit to. Targeting Mun is the quickest and easiest option.

[Kasuha]

It would sure be nice if it was possible to show inclination nodes to equatorial (and if axial tilt is ever added to the game then also ecliptic) plane without need to refer to some other body. What can easily be done near Kerbin is complicated anywhere else.

Of course it is not essential as the game can be played just well with any orbits including polar but I definitely hope it will be added sometime for those who just need to have their orbit perfectly equatorial for some reason.

[Apollo13]

I use MechJeb for planning purposes; seldom for execution. MJ will show you you equatorial AN/DN nodes. You can then manually point your vehicle in the right direction and execute at the AN/DN node.

MechJeb has a lot of excellent planning tools. NASA/ESA engineers don't use a clumsy, imprecise graphical tool to plot trajectories. They use flight computers to model solutions. the KSP flight computer is called MechJeb.

[cantab]

As far as mods go, VOID includes inclination in its HUD.

[Kryxal]

Using KER, I just bring up the surface panel and watch what my latitude is doing ... it tells me when to make the burn if not how.

[Aethon]

Alternately, you can use RCS to push yourself normal or anti-normal and watch the readout on your KER. I try this if I'm more than 10 min away from a Mun A/D node.