Flight Question Interplanetary Transfers

[Shadownailshot]

I have been using the Transfer MFD (TransX is better, but extremely advanced and I haven't gotten the hang of it yet) to attempt my interplanetary trips.

However, I followed what the Orbiter Manual V.3 said to do, and I can't tell what exactly I'm doing wrong. I know how to read the MFD, so I time my ejection burn calculate my Dv (3k dv from Earth to Mars doesn't seem like enough to me) and I start my burn at the appropriate time.

What happen is, the Dv does not count down. To counter this, Orbiter Manual tells me to switch the orbit source to my ship just before ejection burn. Now, I already know this makes my orbit look very strange, and Earth's gravity messes with what my orbit looks like. So I do this, but then I seem to loose all of my previous calculations.

I had a thought for a solution ---> Simply eject from Earth's SOI and enter the sun's, and then calculate my transfer burn and perform the transfer, but I feel that this may be more fuel intensive than just going straight from earth to mars.

Anyone have any ideas? Should I (simply put) not use Transfer MFD to interplanetary travel and stick to TransX or get IMFD?

 

[TMac3000]

Transfer MFD is not very suitable for planetary transfers. If TransX is giving you fits, I suggest learning IMFD. It has a pretty steep learning curve, but once you just learn what buttons to push, it does most of the work for you

 

[thedopefishlives]

The Go Play In Space series of tutorials covers using IMFD to transfer to Mars. It is a little complex to learn, but once you understand the concepts and terminology and play around with it a little bit, it's easy to program even very advanced flights.

 

[insanity]

If you're willing to put the time in to TransX, our resident expert, flytandem, has some really good tutorials that helped me out over on his site: http://flytandem.com/orbiter/tutorials/

 

[Shadownailshot]

Well I've used Transfer MFD for a few flights to Jupiter, which is obscenely easy, I nailed it's SOI every single try. Mars just has such a low gravity that I never get more than 3% of the gravity on my ship coming from Mars. I'm slowly learning TransX by reading the manual and going back to Orbiter. It's rather complicated, and I was hoping IMFD would be more simple. What you're all saying seems to be that IMFD is actually more complicated, and I've seen TransX recommended many places. It's a bit of a learning curve from what I'm used to (The only other "simulator" i've flown is Kerbal Space Program), so It's taking me a while. Obtaining orbit was easy though!

 

[Ripley]

General consensus is that IMFD is "easier" because it automates some tasks and TransX is "harder" because everything must be done manually.

 

[cipher169]

I agree, I still use IMFD and i think it is a great mfd. The programs it has are very useful for any kind of transfer.

 

[Shadownailshot]

I've just almost gotten the hang of TransX yesterday. I almost had a flight set up to mars with an aerobrake capture (I'm not sure how safe this is, I've never tried it). What is the optimal altitude for an aerobrake capture on mars? I currently had it set at 40 km, although I'm not sure if that's low enough for such a thin atmosphere. The other thing I'm having a hard time with is the eject orientation. My stage one of TransX shows Earth all a filled in white circle, and I can't see my current orbital path (I set it up on the ground). It's rather annoying.

 

[TMac3000]

My problem with TransX was not that it was hard, but that is was tedious. Sitting there clicking a mouse for half an hour made no sense to me, once I figured out that with IMFD, you could just enter the stats you want, hit BV, then AB, and off you go

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

My problem with TransX was not that it was hard, but that is was tedious. Sitting there clicking a mouse for half an hour made no sense to me, once I figured out that with IMFD, you could just enter the stats you want, hit BV, then AB, and off you go

Yeah, given the interface that Transx requires, it probably would make more sense to rebuild it as a plugin module, or even better as part of the shiny new interface we saw in the last beta. Come to think of it, that gives me an idea for something else...

 

[Shadownailshot]

You mean I can just tell IMFD I want to transfer to Mars and do an aero-capture and it'll do all that crap that I sat on TransX for a half hour doing for me? Can someone link me to IMFD?

 

[Ripley]

Click here.

---------- Post added 19-09-12 at 01:23 ---------- Previous post was 18-09-12 at 19:31 ----------

...My stage one of TransX shows Earth all a filled in white circle, and I can't see my current orbital path (I set it up on the ground). It's rather annoying.

That's a well known TransX bug.
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/project.php?issueid=564

Download the version on this page (and have a look at those tutorials as well)
http://www.flytandem.com/orbiter/tutorials/index.htm

 

[Cras]

Trans X has its strengths over IMFD. Multiple slingshots and that sort of thing for one.

But IMFD is....oh it is just so good. The Map program alone is worth the price. Then you have all the other programs. I prefer IMFD, and I use it on eway or another on every single flight I do in Orbiter, from going to the Moon, beyond, or even just to Low Earth Orbit.

But read the manual. And that big manual that was put out. Consider that document a requisite.

 

[TMac3000]

You mean I can just tell IMFD I want to transfer to Mars and do an aero-capture and it'll do all that crap that I sat on TransX for a half hour doing for me? Can someone link me to IMFD?

Hold on now, don't go getting carried away with your expectations
You do have to do some work in IMFD--you need to have some understanding of launch windows, delta-v and all that jazz. What makes IMFD so nice is that you can set all that up in about 30 seconds if you know what you're doing. And also, it can do a lot of neat things that TransX never even heard of

I try to use IMFD in every situation where I can possibly get by with it.

My name is TMac3000, and I am an IMFDholic:tiphat:

 

[orbekler]

A quick IMFD setup for a Moon - Mars trip:
[ame="http://vimeo.com/23925769"]http://vimeo.com/23925769[/ame]

 

[Shadownailshot]

Awesome. This should be good. I'll get the new transx and IMFD and all of my new little ships (I don't have any addons yet) and have a blast.

 

[rseferino]

I used TransX, both with the DG, as historic flights (Mariner 2, Mariner 9, Voyager - I just go a million miles from Neptune) and right now I'm testing a flight to the ship Orion (nuclear propulsion, not the current ) is complex but perfect their organization in stages (launch-cruise-encounter) that can be expanded to a trip Earth-Mars-Earth.