A.R.T Time to Apophis injection.

Kemo

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When is the best time to "baseapproach/orbit insert?"

I was sorta lost halfway through out the mission. I was doing nothing more than random correction burns.
 

BrianJ

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Hi Kemo,
you're really carving your way through those missions!

I haven't revisited this one for a while, so maybe someone who has done it recently can give more specific advice.

Once I've made the transfer orbit injection and left the Earth's sphere of influence, I use IMFD "Target Intercept" and play around with the "Time to Ejection" parameter (TEj) to find the optimum date for the first correction (minimum dV required).

As a general rule you can make the next correction when you've travelled half the remaining distance to your target, and another when you've travelled half that distance and so on.

IMFD "Target Intercept" shows you the dV required to circularize your orbit around the target (Cir) so you can calculate how long that burn will be and start the burn at the correct time when approaching Apophis. Or there's an MFD somewhere that'll do that calculation for you, I think.

If you're trying for a particular orbit inclination at Apophis, you can use IMFD "Planet Approach" which I find usually works well when you're less than about 3 or 4 days away from target. A polar orbit is good for mapping, I guess.

Interestingly, the original mission proposal suggested orbiting Apophis, but I found that even a low orbit is not stable for long - it would use a lot of fuel to maintain it. You use less fuel just remaining stationary relative to Apophis, somewhere near the Sun-Apophis L1 position - similar to the Hayabusa mission.

Cheers,
Brian
 

Kemo

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Call me dumb but I'm still new to this IMFD. I looked at the planet approach menu and it seems all too confusing. I am currently 3 days before Apophis "Flyby".
 

BrianJ

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Call me dumb but I'm still new to this IMFD. I looked at the planet approach menu and it seems all too confusing. I am currently 3 days before Apophis "Flyby".

If you can use IMFD "Target Intercept" you shouldn't have too much problem with the "Planet Approach" function. You just need to set your PeA (say 10km) and Inc (90 for a polar orbit), you might need to set your PeT as well, I forget, but you can always look that up on OrbitMFD.

There's a couple of tutorials for IMFD
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=225

And don't forget to start your orbit injection burn in good time - otherwise you really will "flyby" Apophis.

Cheers,
Brian
 

Kemo

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Did the burn, but I think I might have missed it. I did manage to "flyby" Apophis but she was pretty far out (didn't even show up in planetary mode). I think I got my timing wrong. Would be nice if someone gave me a good MJD date for proper insertion burn time.

::EDIT::

Performed the burn again and managed to tag along Apophis' relative speed but yet she is still far out (No visual contact). I cannot not do any more burns for the data on the Imfd (and orbitmfd!) is inconsistent to the constant change of such small variable.
 
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