Scenario Jupiter Cycler?

flytandem · Feb 3, 2013

The inner planet wind-up to an outer tour that I uploaded earlier this week inspired me to try a different ending to the same or similar start. I came up with a slightly earlier start with slightly different initial push from Earth. It does the same Earth to Venus, Venus, Earth, then Jupiter. But then it does much like the Aldrin Lunar Cycler meaning in this case it is a Jupiter cycler. Leaving Jupiter it is a sling in a very inclined orbit over the sun with a nice polar view of the sun to arrive 1/2 a Jupiter orbit later back at Jupiter to then sling inward to a nice tangential arrival back at Earth.

I haven't flown it yet but will probably do it tomorrow as I have too much time on my hands these days (nursing a broken arm from a skiing collision). LOL

Code:

BEGIN_DESC
Ready for launch. TransX plan to head to Venus, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Jupiter, Earth.
END_DESC

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
  System Sol
  Date MJD 56590.2789960035
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_FOCUS
  Ship 3
END_FOCUS

BEGIN_CAMERA
  TARGET 3
  MODE Cockpit
  FOV 20.00
END_CAMERA

BEGIN_HUD
  TYPE Surface
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BEGIN_MFD Left
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  MODE TransX
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  FNumber 13
  Int 1
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  Vector  -108.991496804 -146.641236423 338.600358902
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  Handle Venus
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  Handle Earth
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END_MFD

BEGIN_MFD Right
  TYPE User
  MODE TransX
END_MFD

BEGIN_SHIPS
3:DeltaGlider
  STATUS Landed Earth
  POS -117.2601388 34.0891835
  HEADING 66.6
  RCSMODE 0
  AFCMODE 7
  PRPLEVEL 0:1.000000 1:1.000000
  NAVFREQ 0 524 84 114
  XPDR 6
  GEAR 1 1.0000
  PSNGR 2 3 4
  TRIM 1.000000
  AAP 0:0 0:0 0:0
END
END_SHIPS

BEGIN_VistaBoost
END

BEGIN_ExtMFD
END

perseus · Feb 4, 2013

I'm trying to now half of the flight plan, great window, how do you find it? flight and fun sling

flytandem · Feb 5, 2013

perseus said:
I'm trying to now half of the flight plan, great window, how do you find it? flight and fun sling

Thanks.
The basic wind-up was straightforward but I did have some problems.

The second Venus sling was tight in getting to Earth. It had both plane change (inclination angle) and a prograde boost (outward sling adjustment) and was almost touching the atmosphere of Venus. I couldn't pass some of the prograde work onto the first venus sling because that would mess up the timing to get back for the second Venus sling. But I could do some of the work by doing the plane change part for the Venus to Earth stage in the previous Venus to Venus stage. That helped enough to allow the Venus to Earth to be just above the atmosphere. You'll notice that even though no inclination angle is needed in the Venus to Venus stage, I have over 5 degrees inclination angle there. This is a really cool tip for those doing inner planet multiple slings. :idea:

There are lots of EVVE (Earth Venus Venus Earth) trips that work but only some are anywhere near going in the direction of Jupiter as it leaves Earth the last time. Trial and error is the unfortunate answer, and also one is able to massage luck by changing whether one hits these inner planets on the way inward toward the sun or outward. One makes that decision with knowledge of where Jupiter is going to be when you head out.

There was an issue with the Jupiter to Jupiter stage. For some reason, the way TransX "finds" the closest approach as you are adjusting the sling angles, it didn't want to look at the half orbit encounter. Almost like those games where you shake it to get a ball to land in a hole, I had to do huge rapid changes of the inclination angle and also the outward to get it to eventually "see" that there was a close approach at the half orbit location.:hmm: Sometimes toggling the orbits to icept value up through .5 to 1 then .5 then 0 helped. Someone with a better knowledge of TransX workings might be able to explain the issue and maybe even inspire a fix that allows finding this type of encounter.

The last problem I was having was after it found its way back to Earth orbit, earth was in the wrong phase (I was there about 2 - 3 months too early) and I could either force my way through a different Jupiter sling and end up hitting Earth non-tangentially with a very high speed or,... somehow change the date of arrival so Earth would be where I am coming in tangent to the Earth orbit.

Any tangential solution to this problem appeared to me to be located in the very start of the journey as it ejects from Earth. So by trial and error I added some inward (negative outward) which would back the launch date up a bit, but only by a few days. After taking this different start and working my back through the stages lining them up, it ended up actually noticeably worse where I was coming in now 3 to 4 months early back at Earth after the trip.

But that was a good find.:banana: (because sometimes one gets so close only to ultimately fail in finding a solution) I simply changed it to outward and after a couple of tries I found an outward of about +600 m/s got me back at Earth for a soft tangential arrival.

Hope this explanation helps.

An enjoyable morning spent.. then flew it the next day.
and listening to good music while transx tweaking helps a lot
my fav is funk#49
now time for :cheers:

Scenario Jupiter Cycler?

flytandem

Tutorial Publisher

perseus

Addon Developer

flytandem

Tutorial Publisher

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