Best way to reach crazy inclined orbits?

[curious nu]

In my career mode game, I need to do some surveys above 20k. I figure rather than fly halfway across the world in a plane, I should just get up into orbit and take care of it that way. Problem: I'm not sure on the best way to incline my orbit enough.

Let's say I'm in a stable orbit around the equator and my targets are betwteen 40 and 50 degrees north latitude. Where would I do my maneuver? I know how to use the incline change bits (since I've done basic ascending/descending node changes for rescues) but when I try and do that here, my apoapsis/perapsis also seems to balloon, so I'm spending fuel on something I don't actually care about, and there's some diminishing returns where soon I seem to be burning for minutes at a time for almost no latitude gain. I'm also unsure if I should be doing this change directly opposite it, or right above it, or somewhere in between.

If there's a youtube vid that covers this, feel free to point me there. =)

[Supermarine]

You could also try and take off using the desired angle right from the beginning. This is the best way to save fuel since no costly orbit-inclination manoeuver is necessary.

[Gigory Chadbert]

Angle from takeoff. Instead of staying strictly orbital you could then just do suborbital which saves funds and tends to go much quicker than adjusting orbit while trying to account for Kerbin's axial spin.

[BanDHMO]

I second what others said. It's really expensive to drastically adjust the orbit around a body like Kerbin. You're better off just launching it right the first time.

As an idea, if you don't yet have high-altitude planes, you can try putting sensors on a rocket, attaching it to a big low-altitude plane. Fly the plane to the general area, then ditch it and use the rocket to shoot you to 20k.

[curious nu]

Okay, so I can do that. Here's the follow-up issue.

There are three targets. Unless I'm really lucky, I can only hit one per pass. So I need to make in-flight adjustments. But the planet is rotating! So even if I make the adjustment when I should, by the time my module or probe gets up there, they've moved. I can select them to "activate navigation" but this only places them on the navball, doesn't give me any real way to adjust for the rotation.

Is there another trick I'm missing? Or do I need to resign myself to one or two targets per trip? It seems like I should be able to hit all 3 without too much trouble, but I don't know how to account for that rotation.

[Gigory Chadbert]

Originally posted by curious nu:

Okay, so I can do that. Here's the follow-up issue.

There are three targets. Unless I'm really lucky, I can only hit one per pass. So I need to make in-flight adjustments. But the planet is rotating! So even if I make the adjustment when I should, by the time my module or probe gets up there, they've moved. I can select them to "activate navigation" but this only places them on the navball, doesn't give me any real way to adjust for the rotation.

Is there another trick I'm missing? Or do I need to resign myself to one or two targets per trip? It seems like I should be able to hit all 3 without too much trouble, but I don't know how to account for that rotation.

You should be able to hit the three in a return orbit. If you find they pass too quickly, you're too high up. If you do adjustments around 75,000m up you should get all three. If you're planning to land at some point anyway this shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[curious nu]

Huh, even if they're in a triangle formation? I can imagine a two-pass situation (and I can maybe imagine how I'd try that) but not a one-pass. How would that work?

[Gigory Chadbert]

You should be able to do 2 normal (purple triangle) adjustments and get them. If not, line up 2 of them and then do 1 normal adjustment for the second pass & landing.

[doughnut001]

You can use time acceleration so the spon of kerbin brings them back under your orbit again. Just switch to your tracking station so you can get really fast time acceleration and switch back to your ship when you are close.

[Ozone]

Changing your inclinaison is easier if you are very slow compared to your point of reference.

The best way to have a slow speed is to increase your AP away from the planet and keep your PE low:
- Make a node near where your orbit and the inclined orbit cross. Increase your AP for a maximum of 400m/s (this depends on the angle of your target inclinaison)
- Wait to rise on your orbit near the AP, and do a normal burn where the orbits cross again to change your inclinaison.

This is the most economic way.