Entering a specific orbital plane

[HiPotOk1978]

Can anyone here point me in the right direction on a good source that can tell me what I need to know in order to place objects into various orbits?

My initial idea is to place a station in orbit that will give me a 1/2 point from Earth to Moon. I have other uses for this knowledge but my first attempt will be trying to get this halfway station if you will to have the highest amount of low energy launch windows with itself and the moon as possible

Did I babble again or does someone understand me...

 

[Jarvitä]

Can anyone here point me in the right direction on a good source that can tell me what I need to know in order to place objects into various orbits?

My initial idea is to place a station in orbit that will give me a 1/2 point from Earth to Moon. I have other uses for this knowledge but my first attempt will be trying to get this halfway station if you will to have the highest amount of low energy launch windows with itself and the moon as possible

Did I babble again or does someone understand me...

Speaking in terms of dV, once you reach an LEO co-planar with the Moon, you're around 80% there, so a station "half-way there" isn't possible.

If you want it 1/2 of the physical distance between the Earth and the Moon, the velocity change requirements to randevouz and dock with the station, then accelerate on towards the Moon again would be enormous and override any advantage such a station would have in the first place.

If you just want to dock with something before you transfer to the moon, just go to ISS and make an off-plane TLI. Or, cheat and place ISS in an ecliptic orbit.

 

[Kaito]

As of now, the only way I can think of is to physically build your own small station at the distance, unless you edit a scenario.

But, as stated above, I see no serious advantage to this, unless you want to do it just to say you did it (which is a perfectly reasonable idea).

Good luck

 

[tblaxland]

Perhaps you mean a station at the Earth-Moon L1 point? If so, you can use this calculator from Tony (of GravitySimulator fame) to find where the L-points are and then use the scenario editor to place your station there. The L1 is unstable though so you will need to monitor your position to stay there.

BTW, I did read a study somewhere that transfers to the moon for through via the L1 point where not the most dV efficient. IIRC, the most efficient was a 5-day Hohmann transfer. I can't find the study right now though.

 

[HiPotOk1978]

Well now that I have learned what I do wrong in regards to a LEO docking with a station (Sept 16, 2008 0:30 MST was my first successful launch and dock with ISS), I am looking for other things to try to dock with. It is only so challenging using a DGIV to bring O2 to ISS after say 6 times in a row in 2 days. I was thinking of reinstalling the Vespicci back into my orbiter installation, but for some reason I have serious CTD issues with that craft, and my quicksaves that I create when flying it NEVER ever work and fail to load. So where would be a challenging place for a station. I can always place ISS or Mir somewhere else in the solar system or even one the various stations that can be found on Orbiterhanger.com

Susgestions welcome ofc

This is all good talk, but is a bit off what my first questions was.... If I wanted to say place a station in an orbit that would be a good jump point for lunar missions, how does one find out if they are launching from a specific location on the earth how to enter the orbital plane of Moon or Mars.... Eg, the DGIV scenario for going from KCS to ISS, how does one know that a heading of 42 degrees will line you up for your journey...

I am trying to think of the right way of asking this question, but the words to use are escaping me so I hope someone can rephraise this question if they understand what I am trying to ask

 

[tblaxland]

I recommend you have a look at [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2802"]LaunchMFD[/ame]. It will calculate the desired heading and launch time for a target orbit. For Earth orbit missions, you need to find the LAN and Inc of your target orbit and put these into LaunchMFD, or alternatively just select your target object in the MFD. If you plan a trajectory using TransX it will give the LAN and Inc of the transfer orbit which you can also enter into LaunchMFD.

If you want to do it manually, have a look at:
http://www.orbiterwiki.org/wiki/Launch_Azimuth

Once you have have calculated the launch azimuth, you need to wait until the plane of the target orbit crosses your launch position (use MapMFD for this).

 

[RisingFury]

Use the Align planes MFD to align yourself.
Use the Map MFD and see when the target orbit is over your location. That's a good way to launch

 

[HiPotOk1978]

Use the Align planes MFD to align yourself.
Use the Map MFD and see when the target orbit is over your location. That's a good way to launch

I agree that is an excellent way to align yourself, but alignMFD doesn't tell you what heading to launch on, and that is the 1 million dollar question, or if your launching from KCS to make a landing at another spaceport, but your going to be landing after a few orbits, and want to use the least dV for a plane chance burn, all this can be solved via the proper launch heading

 

[Xantcha]

asin(cos(inclination)/cos(latitude)) - launch heading for spherical nonrotating bodies without atmosphere Still a good first approximation.
More info at orbiterwiki

But for DG or any other ship with lots of dv reserve I often use Map MFD+AlignMFD just like RisingFury said.

Tried to use Launch MFD but continuos "turn left"/"turn right" voice advices annoyed me too much.

 

[tblaxland]

Tried to use Launch MFD but continuos "turn left"/"turn right" voice advices annoyed me too much.

There is an option to turn the sound off - I can't remember what the key combo is but it is in the manual.

 

[HiPotOk1978]

asin(cos(inclination)/cos(latitude)) - launch heading for spherical nonrotating bodies without atmosphere Still a good first approximation.
More info at orbiterwiki

But for DG or any other ship with lots of dv reserve I often use Map MFD+AlignMFD just like RisingFury said.

Tried to use Launch MFD but continuos "turn left"/"turn right" voice advices annoyed me too much.

Quite a few of my future launches to the planets is going to be unmanned missions, payloads via rockets. Been collecting various probes, now the matter of launch vehicles.