Time to get back in the old Pilot's Chair.

[tonykattvc]

I've been out of practice for a while, and I need to brush up on my orbital mechanics. What should I try first?

 

[insanity]

ISS-Mir-Moon-Return? I always find that flight enjoyable. Lately I've been hunting down offplane iss-moon transfers and flying those which has been pretty fun.

 

[Schimz]

Not purely orbital mechanic : with the DGex, I love doing stratospheric flights. It's interesting because of the major (ultimate ?) jet lag when traveling E or W.
You can script easilly, ex. : avoiding major storm decause of spriting flash, Braking records (max payload ) or basically respect aeronautics procedures.

My favorites fligths :
Europe -> India East cost (Madras)
Europe -> Australia (anyware)
Europe -> South Africa (Johannesburg, because of Kruger park )

50/55km, M12/15.

Also, it's usefull for orbital launching, because the DGex can make offplane launches easilly.

And it's fun with the L11 texture

 

[wehaveaproblem]

I always like a weekend trip to the moon when I pick up Orbiter again.

But for something different, what about a trip to GSO over your hometown?

 

[flytandem]

how about, plane change to meet ISS, then docking, undocking and push out to geosynchronous orbit and then plane change to geostationary, transfer to the moon, dock with the orbiting wheel and then make a landing at Brighton. Launch to return the Earth with aerobraking, then another lunar transfer this time to an offplane transfer and free-return, back to Earth with an to aerobrake that includes plane change to meet the ISS. Then do an Earth ground launch to transfer to Mars with aerobrake arrival to meet up with one of its moons with landing on the moon, then landing at Olympus. Launch and transfer to Venus with landing. The climb back up to transfer to mercury. Landing Mercury. Then plan sling of Venus to Earth with aerobrake for plane change that leaves a free transfer to the moon, and landing. Then depart moon with gravity well burn near Earth for transfer to Jupiter. Gravity well insertion burn at Jupiter then landing at Callisto. Then a three moon to moon transfers for landings at Ganymede, Europa and Io. Then transfer to Saturn with sling to Uranus or Neptune, or just arrive Saturn with direct aerobraking at Titan. Have to land at Mimas just for kicks while there. Then transfer to Uranus with gravity well insertion burn then high Ap plane change to match up with the Uranus moon system. Hop around the moons of Uranus. Transfer to Saturn with reverse slings back down Saturn and Jupiter for an arrival at Mars with an aerobraking sling to Earth. Or perhaps start at Earth's moon and plan a retrograde transfer around the earth that comes back up to the moon 7 days later. Then using the moon to again do the 7 day retro orbit around earth which may be repeated every week indefinitelty. Bored? Try starting Mercury and setting up slings of all planets, do in order of distance from the sun for more challenge. Then reverse slings back down to Mercury. Or try a stock DG from Earth surface to landing at Mercury. Tougher than it sounds. or depart earth with stock DG to an impact on the sun, also tougher than it looks. Play, going back a forth between Triton and Proteus which requires a change in the orbital direction around Neptune. Sending ships simultaneously from all planets all to meet up somewhere perhaps on Europa for example. Duplicating the Voyager Missions and Cassini. Designing your own way to sling inner planets to get to the outers. Try to find a Cassini-like trajectory for each decade this century. From Earth do a free return of Jupiter and for that matter a free return of all planets including Mars. Starting from low polar Earth orbit, transfer out to use the moon to sling a plane change coming back to geostationary orbit. Reversing it to go from GSO to go to the moon to use it to deflect back to landings at Earth. Duplicate the LCROSS mission, and to add a challenge do it for some future date like 5 years from now or 5 years ago. Start Nereid and try for lowest DV transfer back to Earth by dropping into the gravity well for a low prograde burn to transfer to sling off some inner planet like Jupiter and/or Saturn. Try deadstick gliding landings at Mars that roll unpowered onto a refuelling pad. Launch 2 ships from Earth to Mars that depart 2 weeks apart but arrive and land at Mars within a couple hours of each other. Do the same while returning back to Earth. Then ...

 

[postal83]

flytandem.... you just made my nose bleed, a little...

 

[Dig Gil]

He has got a plan!