Favorite Destinations in Orbiter

[TMac3000]

What are your favorite destinations in Orbiter?

My most frequent stops are:

Mercury: being at 4 months a relatively short drive, and more interesting than the moon (have you seen the size of that sun?).

Europa: I've been in orbit of this fascinating world several times, but only managed to land once (not counting the time I made a new crater there when my transfer burn was a little too accurate). Seems like I always get interrupted during the descent phase.

 

[Pipcard]

I only have a few destinations: LEO (and space stations), the Moon, and Mars (but I can't land on it yet), or maybe Venus (which I don't want to land on).

I can't do slingshots.

 

[Arrowstar]

Personally, I'm a big fan of Phobos. The view of Mars from the surface is stunning, and there's a nice DGIV base there that DanSteph put together. It also requires a bit of skill to get down properly, as Phobos has effectively no gravity to speak of and you end up doing a "wheel-first docking" with it more than anything else. I like it!:thumbup:

 

[Spacethingy]

Personally, I'm a big fan of Phobos. The view of Mars from the surface is stunning, and there's a nice DGIV base there that DanSteph put together. It also requires a bit of skill to get down properly, as Phobos has effectively no gravity to speak of and you end up doing a "wheel-first docking" with it more than anything else. I like it!:thumbup:

Yup, that's me. I love kicking around our Moon too, and LEO (for the simple reason that that's all I can do, but hey, it's enough for now!).

 

[TMac3000]

I can't do slingshots.

Me either. I've done direct shots (no sling) to Jupiter and Saturn, but I'm planning to learn slings so I can check out Uranus and Neptune.

 

[Scruce]

I rarely operate anywhere else than Earth (LEO/Wideawake/KSC/Baikonur/Plesetsk) and sending probes to Venus.

A UMmu is dwarfed by a Titan IVA with a future Venus probe mission (Venus Polar Orbiter (VPO)) which will launch from Wideawake International:

 

[T.Neo]

The ocean east of Cape Canaveral.

 

[garyw]

Ascension Island, especially after a session on the moon or something - it's like coming home. :lol:

 

[mojoey]

Titan...its very beautiful

 

[Cras]

My primary, by far, by way way far, is LEO. And I do love going to LEO. But my favorite is probably Titan. A moon with an atmosphere, orbiting Saturn, which is so cool to look at.

Mercury is cool because as it was said, similar to the moon, but nice and close to that big Sun of ours.

 

[PeriapsisPrograde]

I just realized how long it has been since I've done interplanetary excursions in Orbiter. My Tuesday is booked now

Seeing as Mars was my most recent exoearth encounter, I'd have to say Mars

 

[Loru]

Moons of Jupiter - all of them.

 

[Napalm42]

I have only been there once, but Neptune is by far my favorite. The rest are (in descending order) Venus, Mars, Moon, LEO.

 

[Jarvitä]

The gas giant systems. They're like miniature star systems, with more reasonable transfer times and dV requirements. On Jupiter, the possibility of aerobraking adds a new avenue of trajectory solutions for some transfers. On Saturn, the rings mostly rule that out, but it's still an interesting place.

And of course, there's the Earth return with direct re-entry to Wideawake. Hitting that tiny island after falling for a couple billion kilometres feels a little like winning the lottery.

 

[andre]

I used to go a lot to Jupiter and Saturn moons. Landing on this Titan runway add-on is very interesting. Of course, the view from Europa is also amazing. Recently I re-discovered Mars, very fun to get there and make an aerobrake!

 

[Turbo]

I spend most of my time in LEO, or at the moon. But lately ive been going to Mars frequently, but havent aerobraked it yet. Ive landed on Europa twice, and flown to Saturn once. I also cannot do Slingshots

 

[Piper]

Io is by far my favorite. I've been there dozens of times and it blows my mind away every time. The size of Jupiter hovering over the horizon, watching the sun pass behind it and rise again, the dusty haze on Io's horizon. I can only imagine what this place would be like in real-life. It's too bad that there's so much radiation there that anybody who would be bold enough to orbit Io, let alone land, would be dead within minutes.

I only wish you could actually see the shadow of Jupiter fall over the surface of Io when Io passes behind Jupiter. It's kind of odd watching whatever spacecraft you are in turn black while the surface stays lit. I would love to see a volcano add-on for Io, although I'm not quite sure how to do one. I don't think it would be too difficult to make a mesh in the shape of a volcanic plume, but it wouldn't have the "life" of an acutal volcanic plume on Io.

You know, writting about Io is making me want to take a trip there right now, lol.

Saturn is another planet I love exploring, especially cruising above the rings. If you set up your periapsis inside the rings of Saturn, match your periapsis point with your ascending or descending node, and keep a low inclination (but above 0 of course), you can repeatatly cruise above the rings safely, giving you one heck of a few.

 

[blane]

I can't say yet, as I haven't been to all places. Even fewer with decent textures and 2010P1.

But I visited the Jovian System yesterday, Landed an arrow on Europa and it surely is beautiful