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[LoSboccacc]

My experience with the protractor is that it is always a bit late in timing your approaches.

[Fikes]

I haven't tried getting to a planet using protractor, but it makes getting to Minus much easier. I just start my burn with it is 30 degrees off and run into Minus almost every time.

[ank]

I haven't tried getting to a planet using protractor, but it makes getting to Minus much easier. I just start my burn with it is 30 degrees off and run into Minus almost every time.

Getting to other planets are much harder than getting to a moon.
About as hard as going from one moon to another.
The trouble is that you need to get 2 angles right, and they both depend on time, and they might not even line up.

[LoSboccacc]

I've found that if you start with 5/10 degree on lead over the planet position, you have some margin on which find your encounter.

If you start the burn dead on or a just bit late, no dV will bring you there.

I actually found that if I used the protractor to get the angles perfect, then I missed the planet much more times.

Btw, remember that if you're in a waiting orbit at 100km you can warp only up to so much, while if you're landed you can warp at max making waiting for planet positioning much more convenient

edit:
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/21544-17-Protractor-Rendez-Plugin-v-2-3-4-10-18-12?p=286858&viewfull=1#post286858
it seems indeed that protractor plugin angles shown are a little off.

[Geneoce]

For getting to other planets the laymans way:

1: Disregard everything, EVERYTHING that involves math, angles, numbers, thinking.
2: Get into the exact orbit and inclination of target planet
3: Accelerate in the opposite direction of the planet. If Jools going clockwise, go counter clockwise
4: Hit time accelerate......

And your there!

Enjoy your HORRENDOUSLY inefficient yet 100%* foolproof method of interplanetary travel! While your waiting for intercept, crack open some browser tabs and do some orbital mechanics 101. Tricky at first, but getting somewhere on liquid fuel is much more satisfying than solar or nuclear power


* Seriously, its impossible to NOT get into planetary orbit if your kerbol orbit is the same, besides velocity of course.

[sneakey pete]

Any word of updates? its been a month, there were rumblings of a .17 patch, but surely something would have happened by now. Wonder what they're working on

[Tobel]

It seems like they have been working on making the server much more stable for updates. From one of the latest dev posts:

I just wanted to let everybody know that the development team is very hard at work on the next update. So hard in fact, that its probably going to be a bit quiet around here. We're doing some fairly ambitious things (no comment on what those things are..) So, I won't have much time for blogs or tutorials for the time being. Don't worry, once things calm down a bit, we'll resume our normal news updates. So if you've messaged, pm-ed me or anything of that nature. You can expect that I'll eventually get to your message, but it may take a bit. So, thanks for your patience

[sluissa]

Last I heard the next updates were going to be focused on audio quality/issues. Not my first choice, but I suppose it had to be done eventually.

* Seriously, its impossible to NOT get into planetary orbit if your kerbol orbit is the same, besides velocity of course.

If your velocity isn't the same, then your orbit isn't going to be the same.

A closer to fool-proof method is just to make your orbit slightly smaller or slightly larger than the target orbit. It'll take a hell of a long time, but eventually you'll get within a reasonable distance and then you just just burn right at it.

[Geneoce]

If your velocity isn't the same, then your orbit isn't going to be the same.

A closer to fool-proof method is just to make your orbit slightly smaller or slightly larger than the target orbit. It'll take a hell of a long time, but eventually you'll get within a reasonable distance and then you just just burn right at it.

Whoops, I meant direction of velocity. Or I was thinking of velocity in the literal sense. I'm not sure, my physics is old and rusty.

What I was trying to say is get the same orbit and inclination, but moving in the opposite direction to the target body. In my own round-about potentally misconstrue-able fashion 

[sluissa]

Whoops, I meant direction of velocity. Or I was thinking of velocity in the literal sense. I'm not sure, my physics is old and rusty.

What I was trying to say is get the same orbit and inclination, but moving in the opposite direction to the target body. In my own round-about potentally misconstrue-able fashion 

And that's only possible if you're either cheating, or good enough with orbital mechanics to begin with that an simple interception wouldn't be a problem in the first place.

[LoSboccacc]

After yet another migration, forums links are busted.

Again.

[ank]

Whoops, I meant direction of velocity. Or I was thinking of velocity in the literal sense. I'm not sure, my physics is old and rusty.

What I was trying to say is get the same orbit and inclination, but moving in the opposite direction to the target body. In my own round-about potentally misconstrue-able fashion 

And that's only possible if you're either cheating, or good enough with orbital mechanics to begin with that an simple interception wouldn't be a problem in the first place.

Yeah you need to reverse your speed, when in sun orbit. This is about 5000 Delta-v (probably more).
Have you actually done this, or are you just speculating?

Ofc, you could get this with a planetary slingshot, BUT then again, if you are capable of doing slingshots, why are you using this stupid method?

[Geneoce]

Yeah you need to reverse your speed, when in sun orbit. This is about 5000 Delta-v (probably more).
Have you actually done this, or are you just speculating?

Ofc, you could get this with a planetary slingshot, BUT then again, if you are capable of doing slingshots, why are you using this stupid method?

Oh, yeah. Fuel. Forgot about that. *ahem*

Carry on then people heh

[dogstile]

So I finally got a space plane to the mun. By cheating and attaching it to a giant rocket.

[RenoFox]

The Protractor certainly helped me get close to other planets faster, and with luck my first flight to Eve actually succeeded. However, the same lightning hasn't struck twice, and since then I haven't gotten to the planets precisely enough. If the protractor helps you get into the general vicinity of the planet, how do you make the final fine tunings for the rendezvous?