I've written a pretty long set of notes for myself for going from Earth to Mars. My Earth to Mars notes aren't nearly as nicely formatted as my
Once you understand the Earth to Mars journey ... you can pretty much go anywhere in the solar system. Earth to Venus, Earth to Jupiter, Mars to Earth, etc... it's all basically the same. (Setting up slings is another matter though.)
Anyway, here's a copy/paste of what I've written for myself over the last 12 months or so.
Before you do any work inside of Orbiter with trying to configure the MFD's, you should find an appropriate launch date. NASA always sends their probes to Mars when the two planets are most ideally lined up. This minimizes the need for fuel. If you want a more fuel efficient (realistic) trip to Mars, you should plan your launch date accordingly. If you don't care about efficiency, you can probably get to Mars any time of the year you want ... in some round about fashion or another. (e.g. A giant orbit that swings way out into space before coming back around to the orbit of Mars.)
NASA sent the Curiosity rover to Mars on November 26, 2011. According to the press kit, the date range was November 25th, 2011 all the way to December 18th, 2011.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/MSLLaunch.pdf
So that is one possible date range to work with.
If you're happy with that date, edit a scenario file and, at the top under BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT, set Date MJD to 55891.5500.
I was able to convert the date to MJD by using this website:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/
You type in the date at the top, click Calculate, then scroll down a little way to the Modified Julian day section.
Curiosity launched at 15:02:00 (UTC) (10:02am Eastern). MJD 55891.6264
To figure out the 6264 part of the date, I simply went into Orbiter and used time acceleration until the click read 15:02.
So the above date of 55891.5500 will start the scenario and leave you plenty of time to set up TransX. (Almost 2 full hours of real time.)
If you want to use a future launch date instead of one that has already passed, you can look at this website to get an idea of appropriate launch windows:
http://clowder.net/hop/railroad/sched.html
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We are going to use TransX to take us to Mars. Instead of setting everything up on the ground and then going to Mars in 1 go, we are going to use TransX in two separate phases.
The first phase is intended to get us from the ground into a low earth parking orbit. (An orbit that has us in the correct relative plane for a flight to Mars.)
Once we are in orbit, we will then use TransX for phase 2. Phase 2 is intended to take us from our parking orbit out to Mars.
Bring up TransX on both MFD's.
The default mode for TransX while sitting on Earth will be:
Stage 1:1
View: Setup
MAJ: Earth
You will also be in Vars Stage 1 and the default will be set to Select Target - Planets/Moons and the value will be None.
The first thing to do is to click ++ to change the value of Planets/Moons from None to Escape. You can do this action on either MFD. It will udpate both sides.
Next, click FWD on one of the MFD's. (I am in the habit of doing this action on the right-side MFD.)
Note that this MFD changed from Stage 1:1 to Stage 2:2, and that the other MFD now reads Stage 1:2. So each of your TransX MFD's are now looking at different stages. Also note that your Stage 2:2 MFD now says MAJ: Sun, MIN: Earth.
The Stage 2:2 MFD has a big blue circle. That blue circle represents the earth's orbit around the sun. The gray crosshair in the middle is the sun, and the blue line shows where the earth is at in its orbit around the sun.
Next, click ++ on the Stage 2:2 MFD to set the Select Target - Planets/Moons value to Mars.
The Stage 2:2 MFD now has 2 blue circles. The outermost circle represents Mars' orbit around the sun. The inner blue circle is the earth's orbit around the sun. The blue lines show where the planets are at in their respective orbits around the sun.
Next, press VW on the Stage 2:2 MFD to change to View: Eject Plan
The first thing to do is to click VAR until you get to the Eject date variable. Use ADJ to bring the sensitivity down to Super or Ultra. Set the Eject date to 55891.6264. (Technically, this is the wrong Eject date. This 55891.6264 number is the time we are going to launch. The correct Eject date would be the moment we actually do our TMi (Trans-Mars injection) burn.) However, this Eject date is good enough because we're going to re-configure TransX after we get into a parking orbit.
Next, click VAR to get to Prograde vel. When you go to the moon, the amount of prograde you need is always in the same range. (About 3.15k or close to it.) That is because the moon orbits the earth at roughly the same distance all the time. It only varies a little.
However, the distance between Earth and Mars varies greatly throughout the year. So the amount of Prograde vel. you'll need will vary considerably. (If you are using the November 26, 2011 launch date, then TransX should reach the lowest closest approach with about 2.9k of prograde, and the closest approach will be somewhere around 6G)
Keep adding Prograde vel. until the "Cl. App." (Closest Approach) is at its lowest. (By clicking ADJ or -AJ, you can switch between Coarse, Medium, Fine, Super, Ultra, and Hyper. The last adjustment is "Reset" which, if chosen, will reset (or undo/erase) all the input if you click ++/--). Use the finer adjustments to "dial in" the closest approach with more precision.
Note that if you are launching at a bad time of the year, you may end up swinging way out beyond Mars and then coming back in before making the closest approach. You can do that if you like, but it will be an extremely long flight.
Click VAR until you get to the "Ch. plane vel." variable. Use ADJ/-AJ as needed and then press ++ to lay the long white line over top of the dashed yellow line. (The intercept point.)
Note that you can lay the long white line over top of the intercept point using ++ plane change OR -- plane change. Choose the direction that requires the least amount of plane change. For example, if using ++ requries 4,000+ and -- only needs negative 1,300, then use negative.
Note that once the white line is laying over top of the intercept point, your closest approach should be even lower than before. If you layed the white line over top of the intercept point and your closest approach went UP, then you are applying plane change in the wrong direction. Reset the plane change and go the other way with it.
Finally, note that when the white line is laying over top of the intercept point, you may notice that you have an even lower closest approach if you adjust the white line off to one side of the intercept point. However, you should keep the white line over top of the intercept point. As we make further refinements to the prograde velocity, the closest approach will continue to come down. So leave the white line over top of the intercept point even if you're not getting the lowest closest approach at this point.
Next, go back to Prograde vel. and do some additional tuning. And by that, I mean add or subtract some prograde to try and bring the closest approach down even lower. Again, use the ADJ/-AJ as needed for finer precision.
(This idea of going back and forth between variables is extremely common with TransX ... going back and forth between variables and making ever finer adjustments will help you dial in the best plan.) So, after adjusting the prograde, go back to "Ch. plane vel." and keep fine tuning until you can't get the Closest Approach to go any lower.
You should be able to get the closest approach under 2M (under 2,000 kilometers). Don't obsess about the last few hundred kilometers. Those microscopic changes will be completely nullified by the fact that you are controlling the launch manually. So, as long as you have the closest approach in the proverbial ballpark, then you are golden.
The DeepSapceManual.pdf has the following to say about Outward velocity: The final variable “Outward velocity” is useful if you for some reason want to leave earlier or later in the launch window than the absolute optimum day. Positive outward velocity allows you to leave later, negative allows an earlier departure.
Once you have TransX set up with the lowest closest approach, you may want to do a quicksave just so you have this part of your effort saved.
Next, we'll change our attention to the other MFD. (The one that says Stage 1:2, View: Setup)
Having not made any changes up to this point, this MFD says:
Plan: Escape
MAJ: Earth
Vars Stage 1
Select Target
Planets/Moons
Escape
Click VAR until you get to Graph projection. The default is Ecliptic and we want to change that to Plan. That can be done by clicking ++
Now click VW to change the view to Escape Plan.
You are now looking at a screen that shows the Pe Distance. This is the height of the orbit around the earth measured from the center of the earth. The default is 7.645M (or 7,645 kilometers.) The surface of the earth is 6,371 kilometers away from the center of the earth.
How do I know this? You can find that 6.371M figure by bringing up the Orbit MFD and clicking DST to change to planetocentric mode. You'll see that the Rad (Radius) is 6.371M.
If you subtract 6,371 from 7,645, you get 1,274.
That means the default Pe Distance puts us at an altitude of 1,274 kilometers above the surface of the earth. That is much higher than is necessary, so we will bring down Pe Distance by clicking -- (again using ADJ/-AJ as necessary to switch between Coarse, Medium, Fine, Super, Ultra, and Hyper.)
I would say a good altitude would be anything from 170 to 200 kilometers. 6,371 + 200 = 6,571.
So a Pe Distance of 6.571M (or there about) would be a good altitude. Whatever Pe Distance you end up using, make a mental note of it, or even write it down because you'll need to remember it as you get into orbit around the earth.
Next, click VAR to change to Ej Orientation. (Ej = Eject)
Use ++/-- to bring the long white line (the one that extends all the way through the earth and beyond on both sides) ... swing that white line so that it crosses over top of the green line. (The green line is actually an ellipse. It represents your orbit, but since you're on the ground, your orbit appears as though it is just a green line.)
Note that there are 2 possible orientations. If you click and hold -- (or ++) long enough, it will swing the green line around and the white line will overlap it on one side of the dashed orange line. If you click and hold -- (or ++) long enough, it will swing intersect on the other side of the dashed orange line.
Which one do you pick?
When we make this decision on the moon, we pick the orientation that gives us a longer orbit. However, Earth has an atmosphere, and we don't want to try to take off and get into orbit at a heading of straight north, straight south, or straight west. Ideally, we want a heading of straight east, or 90 degrees.
So pick the orientation that is closer to 90 degrees.
If you can't find an orientation that is reasonably close to 90 degrees, the only thing you can do is sit on Earth and wait until the earth rotates into a better position. You can warp time ahead by 10x, 100x, or 1000x. Eventually, you should have a heading that is closer to 90 degrees.
Note however, there's a potential problem with warping time ahead. If you aren't using the November 26th launch date, you will find that you won't know what Eject date you're supposed to use. So as you warp time ahead to try and get a better eject orientation, your TransX Eject Plan becomes somewhat invalid because you may have to warp time ahead by several hours before you find the right Eject orientation.
If that happens, it's not a big problem. It just means you have a bit more work to do. Once you find the right time of day for an eject orientation that has you close to 90 degrees, one option would be to write down the MJD and then start over again. That is, create a new scenario file and set the Date MJD so that it's a few hours behind the Eject date. (Leave yourself enough time to set up TransX.)
The only other thing you can do is go back to the other TransX MFD, reset the Eject date ... which will change the Eject date to *now* ... and then make a couple of quick changes to prograde and change plane to bring the closest approach back down to a low number.
Once you have the Eject plan set up with a low closest approach (and a date that is roughly *now*), and the other TransX MFD is giving you a launch heading somewhere in the 80-110 degree range, then it's time to get into orbit. Go go go.
Get into orbit by the usual method. Watch the Rel Inc variable in TransX and try to get it as low as possible on the ride up. Also, make sure your ApR matches the Pe Distance you selected earlier. Once in orbit, try to bring your RInc down at the next node passage and circularize your orbit at the apoapsis.
Once you're in orbit, dump any extra scam fuel. You have no use for it once you're in orbit. All subsequent main engine burns will have to work harder if you don't dump the extra mass. (If your vessel doesn't have scram fuel, obviously you don't need to worry about this.)
Next, make a note of the Delta V that TransX reports in the Stage 1:2, View: Escape Plan.
Then click VW until you get to View: Manoeuvre and turn Manoeuvre mode On.
Now click VAR until you get to "Prograde vel." and add the amount of Prograde that is equal to the Delta V you just made a note of 2 lines above.
Next click VAR until you get to "Man. date" and then click ++ until the lines overlap (using adjustments as necessary. Use Ultra and Hyper. And make sure you use ++ to advance the date FORWARD. You can only do these maneuvers at a future point. You can't reverse time in Orbiter.)
Bring up TransX on the other MFD. Go to Stage 2:2, View: Eject Plan, and go through all the variables and reset them. Then press FWD to take that MFD out to Stage 3:3, and click VW until you get to View: Encounter
Now go back to the left MFD (the Stage 1:3 MFD), and play with the variables and use the View: Encounter MFD to dial in Mars.
After you dial in Mars, click VW and burn the Manoeuvre when it's time.
Once the burn is complete, click VW on the left MFD to get to View:Manoeuvre, then press VAR to get back to Manoeuvre mode and press ++/-- to turn off Manoeuvre mode.
Note, after the initial burn is complete, your Encounter will probably show that your Min Alt. at Mars (which is basicaly your closest apporach) is still going to be pretty far out. Don't worry about that, you'll dial in the difference with mid course corrections.
You'll obviously have to use time acceleration to make the journey to Mars.
According to the Deep Space Manual, the time for mid-course correction is once Earth's gravitation influence has dropped to 0.0. The manual says to continue on just a little while after Earth's gravity influence has dropped to 0 to make sure you are completely free of any residual gravity influence. (In the video series that Flytandem does, he does his first MCC when he's about halfway to Mars. For the sake of reference, when Flytandem does his MCC, TransX shows his Closest Approach as 2.242G. For the sake of reference, on one of my flights, when I got to the halfway point, my Closest Approach was at 80M.)
To do the mid-course correction, turn Manoeuvre mode On and play with the velocity, outward, and plane change variables while keeping an eye on the Encounter view in the other MFD.
Once you are dialed in, press VW and burn the Manoeuvre.
A second, and possibly third mid-course correction will be needed along the way. Keep an eye on the Encounter view to follow your flight to Mars. Make another mid-course correction as needed. (Flytandem does a second MCC when he is "2 or 3" weeks away from Mars. As a point of reference, TransX shows his Min. Alt. as 4.993M at this point.)
When you're within a few hours of Mars, basic orbital mechanics is all that is needed to complete the journey.
