Lunar Mission Planner

[Therius]

I have a great time using the AMSO missions and comparing them with the real GET times. Having the actual GET times makes things go smoother as far as being at the right place at the right time.

However, I've began messing with other addons. I was wondering if anyone knew of a Mission Planner so that I could plan a mission from start to finish. I just think it would be neat to plan a mission from start to finish, but I don't understand how to do it from a time standpoint.

If I took off tomorrow at 3pm for the moon, performed TLI, orbited moon, what GET time would my splashdown point be at the position for me to perform my TEI for the trip home?

Has anyone seen a planner, or could point me in the right direction to learn to do this?

 

[Andy44]

Well, there are various commercially available software suites out there, such as Satellite Tool Kit, which can plan a lunar mission much more precisely than the tools available in Orbiter add-ons, but that stuff is usually very expensive.

There was talk a while back about building a numerical propagation addon, but I don't know whatever became of it.

 

[polaris149Tiberius]

Good Ole Math

Well, I think you could calculate it out depending on what all you did and when. The GET is a good tool right there because if you choose a different window to launch from, then this is when things would change. If you use the same thrust and vehicles with the same mass, then I suppose you could re-create it for other vehicles but your launch window would need to be the same kind as the Apollo Mission of choice.

If you note in the Map MFD the situation the moon is in on July 16 1969 at 9:32 am, you can find another window that is very close to it about a month later. Depending on if you want to find the exact same window Apollo 11 had is just a matter of finding the date. If the conditions are the same then all your GETs should be about the same.

I calculate my flight with the following times:

Launch at 13:32 Clock is ticking. GET 000:00:00:00

I do my LOI on the 3rd orbit around the earth after my LEO is done burning which is GET 000:00:12:00(which is when Houston gives us a go for earth orbit) + 3(5,286) seconds (5,286 is the period of 1 orbit) = 15,858 + 12:00min is my chosen TLI burn time.
= 264.30min = roughly 4.4 hours = 4:35:00.
So you have the 3 orbits that take up 4:35:00h + 0012:00h = roughly 000:04:47:00 after lift off.

The transit to the moon is 000:75:54:29h. Now this is from time of lift off so you must subtract the 000:04:47:00 from that to get the time of flight from the beginning of the TLI burn = 000:71:07:29.

After reaching the moon your LOI will occure just before 75:54:29 and go on past that time if done right. Its a kindof long burn time so your looking at about 4:00min past the 75:54:29 transit time. So at about 75:58:29 you should be in lunar orbit.

This is just a small example of how I figure out my flight plans for a trip to the moon. I make sure I know when Im going and what the amounts are for orbits and for all the burns. this should give you a relativly close schedule of when you will be doing stuff. Then you can set your timer and walk away if you do the flight in realtime (which believe it or not Ive done once), or you can take down the times you plan on doing your burns and set the X10 or X1000 and keep an eye on it.

Good luck.