TransX is overly complicated...

[n122vu]

I understand exactly what your saying, but my gripe is not with navigation...I've already used TransX to reach Mars, Jupiter & Saturn orbits...However, right now I'm trying to navigate directly from the Moon (NOT Earth !!!) to Mars & it seems that the only way to compute a trajectory is to bring a 'Ghost craft' into the scenario...Maybe it's just me, but that seriously detracts from the 'Realism' factor...

I wasn't aware that a ghost craft was necessary. Reading some of the tutorials, I see now the references to a "surrogate ship." I see your point.

 

[flytandem]

I too was quite frustrated at TransX while trying to figure it out. I couldn't understand the manual so I learned TransX by trial and error. It took years before learning enough to realize that, as written, TransX was not able to do something like planning a trip from the moon to planets other than Earth (both using and not using the Earth's gravity well). But it was after learning what was possible that it became creatively obvious that a ghost or surrogate ship allowed a way to plan when otherwise no plan was possible. Maybe not using a manual encouraged a more creative use of TransX?

Should TransX be used in a way not specifically designed for? I believe that being creative to modify intended uses to accomplish what otherwise isn't possible is a worthy goal. Yesterday a tractor I intended to operate suddenly had a faulty ignition switch. The key would go to "on", but the "start" (starter motor) contact failed. I took 2 screw drivers and excited the starter solenoid from the 12v input of the starter, and started the tractor. I'm not worried that the designer of the screw drivers never intended the tools to be used for this particular purpose. If I didn't have screw drivers I would have used a belt buckle and a quarter or whatever else I could get my hands on to do the job. Mechanical work is filled with the creative use of tools. Niel and Buzz would agree, reference using a pen to toggle a broken switch.

And as far as whether using a ghost ship is an attack on realism? Heck, even the "T" button to warp time is an attack on realism. But we all know it's an absolute necessity.

Realism is what you pretend it to be. For example, you could pretend to be sitting on the moon, with a "real space ship". And in this space ship you pretend to have a real computer with a copy of Orbiter and TransX booted up for flight planning. In this onboard computer you can pretend to create an imaginary ship in orbit around the Earth that you can use to both set up a flight to Mars as well as for you to target with your "real ship". After the planning is done you then pretend to launch your "real space ship" from the moon for your Earth gravity well burn trip to Mars. Ultimately, if you are able to manually fly from the surface to the surface of another rocky sphere you can pretend that you made a "real flight" and everything else such a ghost ships, were just onboard tools to enable the flight.

 

[Tommy]

I've never seen using "surrogates" as being all that unrealistic. What I do think is unrealistic is to think that you would fly from the moon to Mars without "pre-flying" the trip in simulation software (probably dozens of times), or that there wouldn't be a database with launchwindows and ejection angles, etc, available to the pilot. Some would say that AMSO is unrealistic because the Apollo astronauts didn't have anything as "advanced" as IMFD. But I don't have a room full of slide-rule-ninjas ready to solve any problem for me so I call it "even".

As flytandem said, "realistic" is subjective.

 

[Lucy]

"Slide rule ninjas" < Epic description.

I agree with the principle. Space flight requires so many people back home in mission control which we don't have in Orbiter. Without any assistance from the outside, I think the advanced MFDs like TransX and IMFD are fair game to compensate for the lack of, as described, "Slide-rule ninjas".

 

[communist]

Is it just me or does anyone find TransX overly complicated...the lack of feedback from this MFD is unreal...Flying from the Moon to Mars involves creating a pseudo-DG in Earth orbit in order to calculate a proper trajectory to Mars...Dosesn't feel in anyway realistic when you have to go down these winding roads to compute a trajectory & the video tutorials are a joke...The Author of those just tells you "...Let me tweak a little bit of this & a little bit of that..." with absolutely no explanation as to why we need to tweak particular variables...Again, Is it just me ???

USE TRANSFER MFD
communist

 

[statickid]

I am including this into the discussion. I made it.

Here is a crash-course on how to use TransX for anybody who never bothered to try and figure it out, like me! It's actually really easy!:tiphat:

 

[hribek]

Nice. You just got the credits wrong, that could use some fixing, I think.