Flight Question Direct route

[Sky Captain]

Hi!

I have a problem with flight between Kuiper belt objects. When I want to get from say Varuna to Quaoar IMFD wants to take me inside the solar system, slingshot around the sun and then on an intercept with target object and it takes nearly forever to complete the trip. I`m asking is there a way to make a quick direct route between Kuiper belt objects, perhaps MFD of some sort that might help to do the trick.

 

[escapetomsfate]

A hohmann transfer is the only way I think. Use Transx.

sorry to be so brief, but I don't really know myself how to use transX....

 

[Urwumpe]

Hi!

I have a problem with flight between Kuiper belt objects. When I want to get from say Varuna to Quaoar IMFD wants to take me inside the solar system, slingshot around the sun and then on an intercept with target object and it takes nearly forever to complete the trip. I`m asking is there a way to make a quick direct route between Kuiper belt objects, perhaps MFD of some sort that might help to do the trick.

What IMFD gave you is very likely the most direct route you can get. That is why it put you on a trajectory close to the sun, instead of using a more fuel-efficient trajectory.

I think your problem is, that you have two critical problems for KBOs:
- Hohmann transfers need a century and more to be done.
- Launch windows open only similar rarely.


With pure classic orbital maneuvers, you will not get from one KBO to the other in acceptable time.

But you can use alternatives. The direct route is not the best. But if you reduce the flight time, IMFD suggests you, from a few decades down to days or weeks, you will get an accelerated transfer, which is faster, but requires much more fuel than a Hohmann transfer.

 

[Sky Captain]

What IMFD gave you is very likely the most direct route you can get. That is why it put you on a trajectory close to the sun, instead of using a more fuel-efficient trajectory.

I think your problem is, that you have two critical problems for KBOs:
- Hohmann transfers need a century and more to be done.
- Launch windows open only similar rarely.


With pure classic orbital maneuvers, you will not get from one KBO to the other in acceptable time.

But you can use alternatives. The direct route is not the best. But if you reduce the flight time, IMFD suggests you, from a few decades down to days or weeks, you will get an accelerated transfer, which is faster, but requires much more fuel than a Hohmann transfer.

I tried to set faster transt time, but now IMFD took me on a collision course with sun. It seems it wanted to slingshot my ship around the center of the sun. What I want is to set up a course that eliminate flyby around the sun and make a fast direct flight from one Kuiper belt object directly to other.

 

[Urwumpe]

I tried to set faster transt time, but now IMFD took me on a collision course with sun. It seems it wanted to slingshot my ship around the center of the sun. What I want is to set up a course that eliminate flyby around the sun and make a fast direct flight from one Kuiper belt object directly to other.

Can it be, that the other object is on the other side of the sun?

 

[Tommy]

If, by "direct route", you mean going straight from one to the other - you can't unless the objects are very close. Chances are both objects are at a similar distance from the Sun, but one is "in front" of the other. What you want to do is a lot like going from Mir to the ISS (but with a smaller plane change) in practice. You need to syncronize your orbits. You could try using SyncMFD, or you can use IMFD. IMFD will try to sync the Orbits in one orbit or less, so it chooses a large sync maneuver to get that done. Using SyncMFD you can plan a sync manuever that takes several orbits to complete, and is more fuel efficient (but will take years, perhaps decades to accomplish).

There aren't really any shortcuts in Orbital Mechanics.

 

[Scarecrow]

With a realistic spacecraft, only certain things are possible, and many of them have been mentioned already. However, if you really want a direct flight, and you have a Magical Fusion Torch, then the most straightforward way to get from A to B is (starting at A, of course) to aim your ship directly at B, and fire up the engines. Keep on burning the engines for several hours/days/weeks/whatever and then turn them off, and wait a while. Then when you're getting about as near to your destination as you were from your departure point when you cut your engines, face backwards and repeat the process to decelerate. If you're travelling at 300km/s, you can forget about all that orbital mechanics nonsense.:lol:

 

[Linguofreak]

With a realistic spacecraft, only certain things are possible, and many of them have been mentioned already. However, if you really want a direct flight, and you have a Magical Fusion Torch, then the most straightforward way to get from A to B is (starting at A, of course) to aim your ship directly at B, and fire up the engines. Keep on burning the engines for several hours/days/weeks/whatever and then turn them off, and wait a while. Then when you're getting about as near to your destination as you were from your departure point when you cut your engines, face backwards and repeat the process to decelerate. If you're travelling at 300km/s, you can forget about all that orbital mechanics nonsense.:lol:

When you're out into the Kuiper Belt like the OP is, you only need a few km/s of DV to do a direct flight, unless you're cutting through the inner solar system.

EDIT: Although it still might take a while to get anywhere. Even at 30 km/s, which is more than fast enough for space to be effectively flat in the Kuiper belt, you're only covering about 6 AU/year, and depending on what bodies you're flying between and when, you may be making a trip 30 AU or more.

 

[Sky Captain]

With a realistic spacecraft, only certain things are possible, and many of them have been mentioned already. However, if you really want a direct flight, and you have a Magical Fusion Torch, then the most straightforward way to get from A to B is (starting at A, of course) to aim your ship directly at B, and fire up the engines. Keep on burning the engines for several hours/days/weeks/whatever and then turn them off, and wait a while. Then when you're getting about as near to your destination as you were from your departure point when you cut your engines, face backwards and repeat the process to decelerate. If you're travelling at 300km/s, you can forget about all that orbital mechanics nonsense.:lol:

Yeah this is exactly what I want basically some sort of navigation tool that allows me to know exactly where my target object is so I can point my spacecraft directly at it and fire engines. Problem is Orbiter`s F9 planetarium mode don`t want to work in Kuiper belt because distances apparently are too great. I have made a successful fast direct flights from Earth to Saturn simply by switching on planetarium mode, aiming for Saturn, firing engines and later fine tuning my trajectory by using IMFD map function. Now I want to do the same in a Kuiper belt.

 

[James.Denholm]

Although what you want to do is highly unrealistic, unless you're using a fusion torch or something (or a Bussard Ramjet...), I have the MFD for you.

http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3165

Set the target, point, burn at 9.8 m/s until you're half way, spin around, burn at 9.8 m/s to slow down, and arrive at your target at a manageable speed.

 

[Sky Captain]

Although what you want to do is highly unrealistic, unless you're using a fusion torch or something (or a Bussard Ramjet...), I have the MFD for you.

http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3165

Set the target, point, burn at 9.8 m/s until you're half way, spin around, burn at 9.8 m/s to slow down, and arrive at your target at a manageable speed.

OK I will try out that.

I use Vespucci D so fuel is not a problem, the faster you go the more fuel ramscoop gathers although I generally don`t push it beyond 200 km/s.


-----Post Added-----


Just made a few direct flights with the help of Attitude MFD, it works rather well especially together with the IMFD map function.

Thanks.

 

[Urwumpe]

Just made a few direct flights with the help of Attitude MFD, it works rather well especially together with the IMFD map function.

Thanks.

If you fly fast enough, you can try a more efficient approach by just nulling the relative angular motion of the target relative to your velocity vector.

 

[Sky Captain]

If you fly fast enough, you can try a more efficient approach by just nulling the relative angular motion of the target relative to your velocity vector.

You mean course correction? I do that with the help of IMFD map function.