List of optimal interplanetary burn dates.

[Ruges]

I know there are some nice calculators out there for calculating transfers to other planets. And they are very helpful. Which got me to thinking We know where the planets need to be. We know how fast they spin, And they all start out at the same spot every time. Which means anytime you start a new game you would want to leave for planet X on X date or every X days after.

I did a seach for such a list but could not find it. Anyone seen a list like this yet?

[Ulrin]

hi, no, sry i didnt know a list, but i know a mod who do that:
Kerbal AlarmClock
It permit to u to put an alarm forr several kind of evenements:
Ship coming to node, changing SOI, and more precisely for u, can display an alarm for optimal launch windows btw 2 celestial corps. When is the better time for going on duna from kerbin, but too the better moment for going from duna to eve.... every launch windows u could need

[SievertChaser]

http://ksp.olex.biz/

The most optimal tool is MechJeb's porkchop plot feature.

[Syd Khaos]

A list like this is not possible....
The ideal transfeer window is determined by all what you said....AND THE POSITION OF THE TRANSFERING CRAFT!
Without that data-point the list would be inaccurate and pointless as an actual planner...more like a guesstimator....

Porkchop plotting is by far the best way to plan transfers...this is why NASA, SpaceX, every reputable aerospace company in the world uses this method.

Plenty of stuff online to help understand what your looking at. The readout can be intimidating at first, but hit youtube...once its explained its actually very easy to understand/read.

[Ruges]

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

http://ksp.olex.biz/

The most optimal tool is MechJeb's porkchop plot feature.

Yes I use both of these. The porkchop mode is defenatly nice for balancing between departure, travel time, and deltaV without having the figure out the angles for yourself.

However I am thinking more about http://ksp.olex.biz/ and the phase angle. For instance Kerbin to Duna is 44.36. This phase angle will happen after so many game days have gone by. and will happen again after x amount of game days have past there after. Its always going to be the same. This is the same for all the planets out there. There are going to be specific game days that the phase angle are going to line up.

And if we knew these dates we could launch a couple days before the perfect phase angle is nearing and then use the porkchop method to find a flight plan that works for you.

Granted this is all moot if you dont care about time. Since you can always just fast forward to the next availible launch.

However I am trying to keep my day count down on my current game. And I dont want to be launching a Duna mission on day 90, only to discover that I should have done a moho on day 60, and now I have to wait another 320 days to the next launch window. (fake times). Or in my current situation I preped for a Duna mission got the ship into orbit and its all ready to head out. I have 45 days till the launch window. I could have been doing several other misions with that crew instead of leaving them siting in orbit for 45 days.

[koimeiji]

Originally posted by Ruges:

-transfer time management-

Kerbal Alarm Clock.

Also, I feel like I want to say something about the planets not meeting up in the same location every x days, since the orbits are not perfect circles, and the planets speed up/slow down because of it...but I'm not sure that's the case so I'll just leave that here.