Scenario climbing the ladder

flytandem

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Starting with today's date I was looking for a "bottom to top" Mercury to Neptune flight. Found one that starts a week from today (Dec 3rd 2010). 17 stages of TransX involving 3 slings of Venus, 2 slings of Earth, then single slings of Jupiter and Saturn takes you direct to Neptune. Fuel has been somewhat limited with about 1500 m/s spare for MCC on those slings. Total flight time is a bit over 18.5 years.

Code:
BEGIN_DESC
Starting on Mercury, a 17 stage TransX plan that takes you through, 3 slings of Venus, then 2 slings of Earth, then Jupiter Saturn and finally to Neptune. Fuel is enough for the trip, but staying at Neptune will probably only happen with some aerobraking.
END_DESC

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
  System Sol
  Date MJD 55533.7998703142
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_FOCUS
  Ship 1
END_FOCUS

BEGIN_CAMERA
  TARGET 1
  MODE Cockpit
  FOV 60.00
END_CAMERA

BEGIN_HUD
  TYPE Surface
END_HUD

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END_MFD

BEGIN_MFD Right
  TYPE User
  MODE TransX
END_MFD

BEGIN_SHIPS
1:DeltaGlider
  STATUS Landed Mercury
  POS -0.0002780 -0.0034900
  HEADING 90.60
  AFCMODE 7
  PRPLEVEL 0:0.216000 1:0.150000
  NAVFREQ 402 94 0 0
  XPDR 2
  GEAR 1 1.0000
  RCOVER 1 1.0000
  AAP 0:0 0:0 0:0
END
END_SHIPS
 

N_Molson

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Wow, that's a nice little tour :thumbup:
 

Wishbone

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Code:
There's a feeling I get
When I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.

sorry, couldn't resist :) it really makes me wonder...
 

dgatsoulis

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Another beautiful scenario. Thanks flytandem!

I know that you have an extensive experience in Orbiter and i have to admit that i know no one else with your ability to "intuitively see" launch windows and slingshot opportunities.

Your tutorials, challenges and scenarios are "eyeopening" (to say the least), any Orbinaut who wants to "move up" a level, should definitely check them out.

Now, i have a question.

What is the process that you go through, when you attempt to set up a multiple slingshot scenario, such as this one (or the any of the other ones on your page)?

Do you start with just an opportunity (launch window), to get you from A to B and then work your way from that, or do you have a goal set and then say, for example: "hmm, i want to get from Mercury to Neptune, using this amount of dV, let's see how that can be done"?

I'm particularly interested in how you come up with double or even triple passes over the same planet, in order to set up a slingshot that will get you to your next destination.

I do know that most of the process that you go through, comes from experience and hundreds (or even more than a thousand, interplanetary flights by now), but i believe that the rest of us in the community would greatly benefit, if you could show us what goes on in your mind, when you set up such a flight.

With the outmost respect,
Dimitris

P.S.: Always have fun, happy orbiting!
:cheers:
 

Tex

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Thanks again for an amazing sling plan Rob! :cheers:

dgatsoulis: I think he just starts with the current date and see's what is available. I too would love to learn more from the master, I should think only the Probe knows more about this than flytandem in any case. :)
 

Tex

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Working on it, though I've already used more fuel than I would have liked. So far the flight is going as planned... (I think.. :lol:)

First Venus encounter:
Climb_the_Ladder_-_Venus_first_encounter.jpg
 

flytandem

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Thanks for the kind words.

Tex is right. I usually start from today's date, but all that really means is that there is no special windows really. Almost any time has chances of going from somewhere to somewhere else with some slings.

The scenario here is not a terribly elegant solution. There is some extra orbits involved that to me seem wasteful. But it's all I could do. I think between first and second Venus there was 1+ orbits waiting. Then a full 2+ orbits waiting on the next Venus.

But then Earth was right there waiting making hitting Earth tough. Not enough time to line up the sling easily. I usually like to check arrivals for an Earth sling when the time to Pe in TransX is a multiple of the period of the moon around Earth in Orbit MFD. This is because the moon in orbit causes TransX to give false readings but it's somewhat predictable in the error. So when 2 "months" (moon orbits) away I do a MCC to get the sling at Earth in position. Then advance forward and check it at 1 month from Pe. Then I'll do a save so that if something happens and it's very far off I can estimate and re-fly that last month. Earth is tough.

On this scenario, I spent about 3 hours playing with possibilities. I had tried just 2 venus slings then earth, or 3 then mars before earth. I recall getting a solution there but Jupiter was going to be off. I had a solution with less waiting between venus slings and eaerth slings but Jupiter was a couple years or more before being in the right place so I had to see how to spend more time doing inner planet slings. I knew about Jupiter Saturn and Neptune lining up from previous scenarios earlier this fall.

All in all there is no special insight. It just old fashioned work. One first needs to be able to set up sling attempts quickly. This allows doing lots of them because failures come many times before finding a solution. And the tough part perhaps is when there is a solution that is close (sling radius just a bit below planet surface) ... what does one do to the initial transfer from , in this case, Mercury... do you change the date a bit? or the outward? Sometimes I actually think I can see which one to change but usually I make a change based on gut and it's not what I need so I randomly redo everything with some slight change in initial transfer. Being able to take an initial transfer change and then run up through all the slings quickly, like in just a minute for several slings, helps a lot. And finally keeping track of changes in the initial transfer and what it has done to the arrivals at Jupiter for example is also tough. Many times I make a series of slings and it just goes nowhere and I find I've had a couple hours playing with Orbiter and never leaving the ground. Some of my best Orbiter moments include never launching.
 
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