To Mars with stock MFDs

[Goth]

Ahah I made it to Mars using Transfer MFD and Sync MFD lol
But I almost finished the fuel of the stock DG.
What a funny trip, I started from the ISS and went in a LEO at about 150km just to get more spinning for the ejection burn; then using Transfer MFD I planned an almost random HTO to Mars. After leaving Earth I followed the voyage of the DG using the Map program of Interplanetary MFD. At midcourse I did an alignment burn to reach Mars' orbit inclination, then I noticed in the map that I would not meet the planet, even with a midcourse correction: it was really a bad trajectory. So I got the brilliant idea of using the Sync MFD: I waited an entire orbit around the Sun (c'mon, just a couple of months inside the stock DG, what's the problem), and adjusting the DTMin value I planned a nice encounter with Mars, as doing with the ISS.
When near the SOI, I noticed that the trajectory still was not so good so I had to to do some inward burn (respect to Mars) to adjust the PeA.
And then, arrived! Almost without fuel.
But what a fun.
I plan to re-do such a trip but with a bit more accuracy and less fuel usage, hope I will be able to. Sure I will need to do some calculations, I think.

Question: do anyone knows why the Transfer MFD changed continuosly the data? I set ref Sun, target Mars, I increased the Dv, set an Ej, but Orbiting LEO all the data changed so fast and I did not understand so much.

 

[Izack]

Question: do anyone knows why the Transfer MFD changed continuosly the data? I set ref Sun, target Mars, I increased the Dv, set an Ej, but Orbiting LEO all the data changed so fast and I did not understand so much.

Because when you set the reference to the Sun, the MFD neglects the influence of all bodies other than the Sun, which is one of the main advantages of programs like IMFD and TransX.

Congratulations on the flight. It's fun to hop in and fly without planning for an hour first.

 

[Goth]

Thanks for the explanation.

Congratulations on the flight. It's fun to hop in and fly without planning for an hour first.

Eheh, yep, but the chance to succed is low lol.
I've just carefully read again this very nice old tutorial so the next time I will not bound myself by luck. :thumbup:

 

[jedidia]

Question: do anyone knows why the Transfer MFD changed continuosly the data? I set ref Sun, target Mars, I increased the Dv, set an Ej, but Orbiting LEO all the data changed so fast and I did not understand so much.

With Transfer MFD, you pretty much have to eject yourself to solar orbit first before doing the transfer to mars. It only works well if you are orbiting the same body as your target.

 

[Goth]

With Transfer MFD, you pretty much have to eject yourself to solar orbit first

Actually as I read in the tutorial I linked you can use it when you're orbiting the Sun to do a midcourse correction, so you can correct errors you've made using it on LEO.