00:43 <UmbralRaptor> https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/orbit

08:25 <discord-> r​auko. — I have a text-wall question. It will show how confused I am...

08:25 <discord-> r​auko. — I am having a hard time trying to get a Venus flyby, due to relative inclination between Earth and Venus. I try to launch as close as possible to the eliptic plane, but always end up passing by Venus way above or below (like 5M km).

08:25 <discord-> r​auko. — So I thought: if you launch polar, no matter how inclined is Venus with Earth, your orbit will cross Venus orbit. You only have to launch EXACTLY on the right time. Now WHEN is that time? I think it should be (obviously, during a transfer window) when my launch site is facing the prograde (or retrograde) vector of Earth traslation around the Sun. Am I correct? if not, how should I do with the relativ

10:11 <discord-> K​enira. — that would be true if you had to depart perfectly retrograde from earth (speaking in solar orbit FoR)

10:11 <discord-> K​enira. — in reality it will never be perfect, you'll be mostly launching retrograde, but you'll likely have to make some adjustments. the fact that both orbits are elliptical means it's never a super clean hohmann transfer like you'd see in a textbook.

10:11 <discord-> K​enira. —

10:11 <discord-> K​enira. — as i see it, launching polar, while possible, tends to makes launching interplanetary stuff much much harder. you can do slight inclination adjustments in your departure burn too, a km/s or two normal don't add much to the total dv when your departure burn is 4+ km/s, and most planets aren't super far off anyway, inclination wise.

10:11 <discord-> K​enira. — if the relative inclination of the orbits align properly you don't even have to do any inclination shenanigans, you just need to tune your time of departure / add some radial velocity so that you simply arrive at the time when the target planet is currently perfectly in your orbital plane.

11:10 <discord-> D​amien. — @rauko I know you said you're launching as close as possible to the ecliptic plane, but does that mean you're simply launching into the same inclination as the EP, or that you're launching into its plane while the Earth is also at the AN/DN of Venus' orbit?

11:11 <discord-> D​amien. — @rauko I know you said you're launching as close as possible to the ecliptic plane, but does that mean you're simply launching into the same inclination as the EP, or that you're launching into its plane while the Earth is also at the AN/DN relative to Venus' orbit? (edited)

11:12 <discord-> D​amien. — the 2nd gives you way less flexibility on launch dates but means you can launch into a coplanar orbit

11:47 <discord-> r​auko. — I just try to launch as close as possible to EP (completely eyeballing). Is there a refence frame that shows Earth AN/DN relative to Venus? Anyway having Earth BOTH in the AN/DN node AND in the correct phase angle will happen very seldon, no?

11:51 <discord-> K​enira. — i do find that when i launch at MJ's transfer planner windows, it usually works out pretty well. i've never had a window where i couldn't figure out a transfer with my craft in the ecliptic, or as close as you get from KSC in any case (by launching at minimum inclination with the moon)

18:48 <_whitenotifier-31f> [Principia] pleroy commented on issue #2331: Crash on extending manoeuvre start time to end of flight plan - https://git.io/Je4WP

19:22 <discord-> S​ir Mortimer. — @egg heads up, KSP 1.8 is out

19:23 <discord-> l​amont. — ugh

19:30 <UmbralRaptop> wait, what?

19:45 <discord-> S​ir Mortimer. — @UmbralRaptop 1.8, not 2.0

19:48 <UmbralRaptop> Anyway, updating the KSPO /topic

20:18 <_whitenotifier-31f> [Principia] pleroy opened pull request #2357: Extend the flight plan when it would end before the end of the last burn - https://git.io/Je48J

20:24 <_whitenotifier-31f> [Principia] Pending. Build queued… - 

20:24 <_whitenotifier-31f> [Principia] Pending. Building… - http://casanova.westeurope.cloudapp.azure.com:8080/job/Principia/3931/

20:49 <_whitenotifier-31f> [Principia] Success. Build finished. - http://casanova.westeurope.cloudapp.azure.com:8080/job/Principia/3931/