Flight to an asteroid

[george7378]

Hi everyone,

I recently flew from Earth to 243 Ida in a DG-IV for the first time. It was my first flight to an asteroid of any kind, and I found that inserting around such low-gravity bodies is more like docking, and I ended up using RCS to do the whole insertion.

It is nice to see Dactyl - I will probably head over there now - after I release a satellite into Ida's orbit.

 

[Ark]

Yeah, getting to such tiny bodies can be interesting. You also have to be accurate in planning your "insertion" burn, I've blown right by smaller asteroids like Cruinthe.

 

[george7378]

I know what you mean. I am orbiting Dactyl now (just translated over to it), and you can't pass about 300ft in altitude, or about 0.43m/s relative ground speed or you'll escape!

 

[Ark]

What little gravity they have is also pretty lumpy, you can't just park yourself in a circular orbit and sit there all day.

If Constellation's NEO missions ever happen, they'll have a heck of a time with it. :lol:

 

[george7378]

Yes - just the momentum of the ship as it approaches apoapsis seems to push you right out of Dactylian orbit. Oh well, at least return fuel won't be a problem - I will barely have to perform an ejection. I may have to venture a long way from Ida's orbit though.

 

[Ark]

Last time I had to return to Earth from an asteroid, I just pointed my ship any old direction and goosed the engines enough to push me out of it's SOI. Then, using the ship as the source in IMFD, I did another burn to drop me back to Earth. There's really no point trying to use the ejection utility when escape velocity is .5m/s.

 

[george7378]

Thanks for the advice.

Well, after a day at Ida, it's time to come home. See you on the other side!

 

[Loru]

I tried this few minutes ago and made trip to 951 Gaspra

IMDF couldn't circularize orbit so I had to do it manualy. Also simple ORBIT-MFD had been useful in this orbit insertion. I'm dreaming now about good collision detection to land on this piece rock.

Summary - entertaining and quite challenging trip.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Are you guys using the Asteroid pack or Main Belt Asteroid files? I've been hesitant to install them for some reason.

 

[Clavius0712]

I also tried a few trips to the asteroids a while ago. There are several add-ons for them which can be used to complement each other to cover asteroids missed out of one add-on.

One thing to remember is that the IMFD Map program won't show their orbits unless you lower the mimimum mass parameter to its lowest possible value. Even then there are some that are just too small to show up.

 

[Ark]

One thing to remember is that the IMFD Map program won't show their orbits unless you lower the mimimum mass parameter to its lowest possible value. Even then there are some that are just too small to show up.

Thanks for the tip, I was actually getting annoyed at asteroids showing up in the Map.

 

[tblaxland]

I also tried a few trips to the asteroids a while ago. There are several add-ons for them which can be used to complement each other to cover asteroids missed out of one add-on.

The best of them IMHO: [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=1436"]MPC Database Asteroid Viewer and Exporter v2.0.3[/ame]

 

[george7378]

I'm using the asteroid pack at the moment - purely because I am not going to fly to 22,000 currently discovered Kupier asteroids, and because each asteroid in the pack has an individual mesh and textures, rather than a selection from a generic library like the MPC database (which I had in my previous Orbiter install).

I'll try and find an asteroid through my telescope tonight, if the weather stays clear.

 

[Loru]

I'm using Asteroid Pack 1.00 from OH

 

[george7378]

Is there a way to control your intercept speed with IMFD? My approach to Ida was nice and slow, but I came hurtling towards Gaspra at about 15,000m/s. I transfered from another asteroid - do I need to set off from Earth first to make it slower?

Thanks.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Asteroid pack it is then, thanks guys. Have you flown to Cruinthe yet?