bloodtoes
New member
Hello,
After using transx for most of my interplanetary flights, I'm slowly learning to use IMFD for such trips and doing OK with it. However, I'm curious about a discrepancy between orbiter/IMFD and reality. Maybe this is more of an Orbiter issue, but according to :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Launch_windows
The next launch window for an Earth-Mars journey is during December 2009. My assumption is this means this is the next point when a trip to mars would require the minimum energy to get to Mars, as stated on the website. However, in orbiter and calculating the trip with IMFD, the minimum energy launch that I could find was more in the mid-october area. That's pretty close, but off by a couple months.
What is the likely cause of this? Is the orbit of Mars or Earth in Orbiter off? Is it because of the dynamics of the ship I am using? Or is there something else at work here? Are there IMFD settings that might be responsible?
Thank you kindly.
After using transx for most of my interplanetary flights, I'm slowly learning to use IMFD for such trips and doing OK with it. However, I'm curious about a discrepancy between orbiter/IMFD and reality. Maybe this is more of an Orbiter issue, but according to :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Launch_windows
The next launch window for an Earth-Mars journey is during December 2009. My assumption is this means this is the next point when a trip to mars would require the minimum energy to get to Mars, as stated on the website. However, in orbiter and calculating the trip with IMFD, the minimum energy launch that I could find was more in the mid-october area. That's pretty close, but off by a couple months.
What is the likely cause of this? Is the orbit of Mars or Earth in Orbiter off? Is it because of the dynamics of the ship I am using? Or is there something else at work here? Are there IMFD settings that might be responsible?
Thank you kindly.