Recent content by Tommy

IIRC Ang is the angle of incidence between your current (or planned) course and the target. It assumes no changes will be made. This is impossible. Even if you don't make any MCC's or braking burns, the second you hit the atmosphere things will change. Unless you canreproduce your reentry with...

The Intel Graphics would likely cause a problem, no argument there. But I was able to run 2016 on a 900 MHz AMD (first gen) once I upgraded to a 256M graphics card. Framerate was disappointing, nearly unplayable (~16 fps) so I would certainly recommend something quite a bit better. Landing at...

The TransX plan isn't perfect, but it's the best tool currently available for planning slings. The inaccuracies are small enough to be corrected with fairly small MCC's. Very simple solution for this, involves a pencil and paper. As you plan the trip in TransX, write down the values. Use those...

TransX uses two-body solution in in calculations, so only a single, dominant body is considered, and different stages use the body appropriate for that stage. During your transit from Earth to Venus, only the sun is considered. IMFD's Map uses multi-body solutions and is more accurate. Have the...

It's similar here, You have a title and a registration. The title is required to sell or register a car, and the registration is for the plates. Title proves ownership, but registration makes it legal to drive on public roads.

It was rather late when I made that post, and you are correct. I should have phrased it "Possessing the car without the owners permission is called Grand Theft Auto, or at least Possession of Stolen Property." If you rent a car that turns out to have been stolen, the "Reasonable Man" standard...

Performing the Moon - Earth - Mars trajectory can be more fuel efficient than Moon - Mars direct. The "slingshot" around the earth doesn't provide any gravity assist, but the Oberth effect still applies. Assuming the force is applied in the same direction as the displacement (distance),as it...

I suspect the problem is here. Tej = Time to Ejection, while T to Pe is the time to Periapsis. This is only true if the ejection point exactly the same as the periapsis of your current parking orbit, which is likely not the not be the case. Set Tej in IMFD to equal the time until burn shown in...

There's nothing new going on here, but Trump's Lacky in the State Department is making a statement attempting to justify Twittlers's "Space Force" handouts to the Military Industrial Complex.

Most of the time you can engage the Retrograde AP and the "reverse" marker will be in view.

I recommend learning how to dock with Gravity Gradient Torque turned off, until you get the hang of it. Installing the Absolute Killrot add-on doesn't hurt either. The other main secret is patience. and start by getting RVEL as close to zero as you can. Then keep the RVEL under 10 m/s.

CVEL is, as you said, Closing Velocity. It only considers velocity as a function of linear distance from the docking port, and ignores any "sideways" movement not on that direct line. If your velocity vector is exactly aligned with the port CVEL = RVEL. If your velocity vector is not aligned...

Its possible that the MFDs dont show because they aren' on the first page, try hitting the SEL button again to get to the second page.

No. You could check out Universal Autopilot (aka UAP, by Artlav iirc, at Orbit hanger.)

Congratulations! You have done it "the hard way", and certainly learned a lot. I can offer a tip that may help with making the base alignment burn more efficiently. As you noticed, the attitude autopilots automatically use the dominant body as a reference so they only help once you enter the...