First Interplanetary Flight

[TMac3000]

After spending days tearing my hair out with TransX, including several failed attempts at Mars, I have completed my first successful interplanetary flight

The target was Jupiter. Oh, sure, it was sloppy. My orbital altitude at capture was north of 9 million kilometers, with a period of about a month, and I ran out of gas trying to pare it down. Too bad, I had wanted to land on Europa

But hey, I made it out there!

 

[dkluempers]

Congrats on your first successful interplanetary flight. I am willing to bet that more than one of us has less hair as part of our learning to use TransX and IMFD.

 

[MeDiCS]

Lucky you, I can only get as far as the Moon ^^'

 

[pilotpercy]

now you can do that you have to make it back! i find transx runs into problems when returning from the gas giants. if you go to mars and land, its no problem but if you go to jupiter you cant land on it (unless you want a very quick and painless entry) so transx will not reset. to get back i usaly have to land on a moon and go from there. as a side note, anyone know how to reset transx mid flight?

 

[Sentient Malos]

INTERPLANETARY FLIGHT?!? I can't even get into ORBIT without Autopilot. Congratulations.

 

[atuhalpa]

TransX reset

Pilot Percy, I believe these instructions will reset transX in mid flight: In either MFD; click "BCK" as needed to get to Stage 1. Click "VW" to get the "Setup" view as shown in the upper right. Click the "VAR" until it toggles to say "Select Target". Click the "++" button until it toggles to show "None". Click the "FWD" button. This should delete all stages.

 

[flytandem]

Hey congrats on your trip to Jupiter. I recall vividly the first time I set up a plan and actually made it there more or less according to the plan.

If you ever want to change what type of plan TransX is setting up, under "setup" you can change the autoplan to "off" then it will allow you to set the type of plan, either sling or eject for example. With "sling" the 3 variables to enter are, velocity (1 value) and direction (2 angles).

If you ever find yourself lost with changes to setup that you wish you hadn't done and are lost how to get the whole thing back to a fresh start... power off the mfd's and quit/restart. This will be like a restart of TransX.

Sometimes you may want to start at a planet with sling as the plan. For example, perhaps you have a predetermined starting velocity and simply want to see where you end up as you choose what direction this velocity is aimed... sling as a plan is best. Since TransX assumes you want to "eject" and by default has you setting up 3 velocity vectors (prograde, outward, inclination) this type of data entry is clumsy when wanting a specific velocity value.

 

[insanity]

I got to Mars and landed in one-go (which is really hard... fighting all of that force just kills fuel), but now I'm stuck figuring out my way back, each time I try I end up way too far.

 

[Goth]

Congratulations, I'm able to use only IMFD, TransX is still a mystery for me XD
Now try to get a better orbit!

 

[TMac3000]

I have been working on that over the months since I started this thread. I get now get into a 400,000 km orbit around Jupiter, a distance suitable for transfering to one of the moons. Unfortunately, I always end up in a retrograde orbit, which none of my navigational tools seem to know how to handle. Now, I am sure a retrograde intercept is possible, but that's the next thing I plan to figure out, after I complete at least two successful manual check rides around Earth in the DG-IV

 

[insanity]

IMFD will help you figure out how to approach the planet in prograde or retrograde orbits. Consider using TransX to get you close and IMFD to make your orbit what you desire.

 

[Goth]

Yes, using IMFD's "Planet approach" stage you can easily set where you will encounter the planet. You have to insert the Equatorial inclination you want to reach, the altitude, and simply run the autopilot.

 

[TMac3000]

Awww, but I hate IMFD. (Is there a whiney, complaining smilie?) Okay, I guess I will give it a go...