DISCLAIMER

The ideas represented in this guide are by no means the only or the best way to achieve
interplanetary travel, they are just methods that have worked for me and are hopefully
easy to follow and execute. If you have any suggestions or comments, please email me at
awbudden@yahoo.co.uk.
CONTENTS

1 Overview..............................................................................................................3

2 The MFDs............................................................................................................3
2.1 Surface MFD...................................................................................................................4
2.2 Orbit MFD.......................................................................................................................4
2.3 Map MFD........................................................................................................................5
2.4 TransX MFD...................................................................................................................6

3 The HUDs............................................................................................................6
3.1 Surface HUD...................................................................................................................7
3.2 Orbit HUD……………………………….......................................................................8

4 The Autopilots.....................................................................................................9
4.1 Kill Rotation....................................................................................................................9
4.2 Level Horizon..................................................................................................................9
4.3 Prograde/Retrograde........................................................................................................9
4.4 Orbit normal/anti-normal.................................................................................................9

5 Controlling the Delta Glider..............................................................................10

6 To Mars................................................................................................................12

7 The Planning Stage.............................................................................................12

8 Execution Stage...................................................................................................20
8.1 Final Instrument Setup and Takeoff...........….................................................................21
8.2 What Just Happened...........….........................................................................................25
8.3 Orbit Insertion and Stabilising...........…..........................................................................28
8.4 Align Orbital Planes...........….........................................................................................30
8.5 The Ejection Burn...........…............................................................................................32
8.6 Time To Explain That Equation......................................................................................35
8.7 Correction Burns..............................................................................................................37

9 Welcome to Mars................................................................................................42
9.1 Flight Plan Checklist........................................................................................................44

10 And Finally...........................................................................................................45

11 Appendix...............................................................................................................46
11.1 Abbreviations……………………..……………………..……………………...............46
11.2 Definitions……………………..……………………..……………………....................47
OVERVIEW

This tutorial will help you to fly your first (presumably!) interplanetary mission from
Earth to Mars, and show you how to use all the MFD’s that you’ll need. We’ll be using a
method called the Hohmann Transfer which is basically the most fuel efficient way of
moving around the solar system. It is not however the quickest way of doing things, but
it is relatively simple!

Throughout the tutorial I’ll try to keep things fairly simple, but I will include extra
sections that will hopefully explain in more detail some of the things that are actually
happening. You don’t need to read this unless you’re actually interested, and there’s no
guarantee that what I’m saying is really correct - it does seem to work though!

THE MFD’S

The first thing to acquaint yourself with is the Multi Functional Displays that you’ll need
to get you to Mars (or any other planet actually). The Orbiter User Manual is the best
place to find info about these and is included in the Orbiter directory/docs. If you don’t
have the manual, you can download it at http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/manual.html

The MFD’s that you’ll need are:

Surface

Orbit

Map (not essential)

TransX

You may not recognise the TransX MFD. This is because it’s an add-on by Duncan
Sharpe, but it’s included in the Orbiter build these days. To use the TransX MFD you’ll
need to add it to the Modules tab of the Orbiter Launcher. If you’re not sure how to do
this consult the Orbiter User Manual.

During these descriptions I will only talk about the functions of the MFD’s that you’ll
need to make this flight. Other functions can be learnt mainly from the Orbiter Manual,
but they should be easier to understand having got a basic grasp of what the MFD does.
Surface MFD

The Surface MFD shows information about your flight which is only really useful when
you are close to the ground. The info we are interested in has been circled:

Orbit MFD

The Orbit MFD shows information about the current orbit of your ship, and is useful
during orbit (duh!), and also during orbit insertion amongst other things! Again the
relevant info is circled:
So what are the Apoapsis and Periapsis?

Simple really, the Apoapsis is the highest point of the orbit and the Periapsis is the lowest
point. They are measured in metres and are always followed by a letter (either K, M, G or
Au). K represents 1000s of metres, M is 1000000s of metres, G is 1000000s of km and
Au is enormous! (K, M and G are used in a lot of other displays including PeT where
they represent seconds (but to the same multiples)).

Map MFD

The Map MFD shows you a ground map of the planet or moon that you are orbiting, and
also shows the path of your orbit over its surface. It’s not really needed to get to a
different planet, but it is nice to know where you are when orbiting the Earth!

TransX MFD

TransX MFD is the most complicated MFD that we’ll use and is the main MFD we’ll use
in the flight. It has the capability to show many different views of your trip which makes
it incredibly powerful, and for this Mars trip we will use three:

Escape Plan - for leaving the Earth

Cruise Plan - centred on the Sun and heading towards Mars

Encounter Plan - for orbit insertion at Mars

The information described by the TransX MFD is much more user defined so I won’t
include any screen shots of it here; they will be more understandable in the main part of
the text.

THE HUD’S

HUD stands for Head Up Display, and are a useful source of basic information about your
current flight path. Again the best place for information about HUD’s is the Orbiter
Manual, but I will describe the ones that we will be using. They are:

Surface HUD

Orbit HUD

To change the HUD you need to select the new HUD from the button using the mouse

In this screen shot, the SRF (surface) HUD is selected. OBT stands for orbit, DCK stands
for dock (which we won’t need) and OFF turns the HUD off.

SURFACE HUD

The surface HUD, like the surface MFD is only really useful whilst you are close to the
ground. In fact it displays much of the same information as the surface MFD.
The -^- symbol shows where your nose is pointing and the ⊕ shows your velocity vector.
The velocity vector tells you the direction your ship is actually moving in - it is quite
common in space for it to be nowhere near where your nose is facing!

The three squares in a triangle above the velocity vector mean that your landing gear is
currently down. To raise the gear press the [G] button (provided you are off the ground!),
and the squares will start flashing. This means the gear is folding away. When it is
stowed, the squares will disappear.

ORBIT HUD

The orbit HUD shows you information about your current orbit and looks quite similar to
the surface HUD. Notice that the pitch ladder is lined up in a different plane - instead of
the gravitational source (I.e. the ground) being the reference, the orbital plane is the
reference. There is also another ladder, aligned at 90o to the pitch ladder to assist with
positioning.
THE AUTOPILOTS

The Delta Glider has 6 autopilots which are:

Kill Rotation

Level Horizon

Prograde

Retrograde

Orbit Normal (+)

Orbit Normal (-)

To select an autopilot you either use the shortcut keys, or press the button on the autopilot
panel. The autopilot currently being used is lit up.

KILL ROTATION

This autopilot is very useful in that it uses the thrusters located around the space craft to
stop the ship from turning around it’s axis‘. It is particularly handy for holding a heading
(horizontal and vertical) during take off.

LEVEL HORIZON

Turns and holds the space craft level at the horizon. Not useful unless you are close to a
planet/moon’s surface.

PROGRADE/RETROGRADE

Not strictly necessary, but you’d be foolish not to use, these autopilots turn and hold the
craft to the Prograde or Retrograde direction. Prograde is the direction in which you
move around the orbit and is represented in the HUD’s by a ⊕. Retrograde is in the
opposite direction (against the ‘flow’ of the orbit) and is represented by a +.

ORBIT NORMAL (+)/ ORBIT NORMAL (-)

These autopilots turn you normal (at 90o) to the direction of your orbit and are used to
rotate the plane of the orbit (e.g. to adjust the relative inclination between orbits). Orbit
Normal (+) just means orbit normal, whilst Orbit Normal (-) means orbit anti-normal.
The difference between them is the direction in which they face, and due to this they will
rotate the orbit plane in opposite directions.

CONTROLLING THE DELTA GLIDER

If this is the first thing you are attempting to do in Orbiter then you are indeed very brave!
You will still be able to succeed in the mission but each stage will take several more
attempts to get right, so be patient!

If you have flown some other flights before in Orbiter you probably won’t need to read
this section, but if you are going to skip this out make sure you know the differences
between Linear Translation and Rotation and how/when to use them!

Whilst in an atmosphere the Delta Glider flies very much like an ordinary aeroplane. All
the ‘steering’ buttons are in the Num Pad, so when I say ‘bank left = [4]’ I mean the
number 4 button on the Num Pad.

Here are the atmospheric flight controls:

Bank Left [4]

Bank Right [6]
Pitch Up [2]
Pitch Down [8]
Yaw Left (rudder) [1]
Yaw Right (rudder) [3]

If you didn’t already know this you really should read through the basic control
information in the Orbiter Manual first!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRANSLATION AND ROTATION

When you reach an altitude of about 30km, the Earth’s atmosphere becomes so thin that
normal aerodynamic surfaces are not sufficient to change the direction of a craft (in space
there is no aerodynamic resistance just like on the moon). To be able to control the ship
in these conditions small thrusters are placed around the ship and can be fired to change
direction. The system used to control these thrusters is called the Reaction Control
System (RCS) and has three settings:

OFF

ROT (rotation)

LIN (linear translation)

When in Rotation mode, the space craft behaves just like in atmospheric flight, and the
controls remain the same - each button controls the direction in which you face,
although not necessarily in which you travel.
When in Linear Translation mode the controls change the direction that you move in
although not the direction in which you face. The Kill Rotation autopilot cannot stop
movement caused by Translation, it only kills rotation.

There are very good diagrams on this in the Orbiter Manual (page 68).
In Rotation mode the controls are as above. In Linear Translation mode they are:

Move Up [8]
Move Down [2]
Move Left [1]
Move Right [3]
Move Forwards [6]
Move Backwards [9]

Turn this switch to change your control mode. When OFF the system uses aerodynamic
surfaces to control direction. ROT is rotation mode and LIN is linear translation mode.
Right click to rotate the switch clockwise and left click to rotate anti-clockwise.

WHY DO WE NEED TWO WAYS OF STEERING?

Rotation mode may seem like the most useful RCS to have (and most of the time it is),
but sometimes linear translation is essential. We will need to use linear thrusters in this
trip to make very small changes in our velocity which the main and retro engines aren’t
sensitive enough to do.

Linear thrusters are also essential for moving around planets and moons with no
atmosphere, because pointing in a direction doesn’t mean you are moving in that
direction.
There are two stages required for a mission to Mars:

Planning Stage

Execution Stage

And they’re pretty self explanatory - it’s not rocket science (although it is really!)

THE PLANNING STAGE

In this stage we need to set up important information like the launch window, the flight
path and things like that. Don’t worry, you don’t need pen, paper and a degree in orbital
mechanics to be able to do this, the TransX MFD will help you!

For this Mars mission we are going to use the futuristic Delta Glider, which has the
benefit of a very large fuel supply and good thrust to mass ratio. This will give you a
larger margin for error than using one of the more realistic space craft, and increase your
chances of success!

Load up Orbiter in one of the Earth set scenarios - Checklists/ Quickstart will do fine.
Change to the internal view (F1) and bring up the 2D panel (F8 until you get there).

Change the left MFD to TransX. I tend to use the mouse and instrument panel buttons
rather than keyboard shortcuts for most operations, to do this press the Button on
the bottom corner of the MFD and select TransX. If you’d rather use shortcut keys, they
are all in the Orbiter Manual.

You will see the TransX MFD looking like this:

NOTE:

MJD stands for Modified Julian Date and is the standard way of showing the date in
Orbiter.

Remember, for our trip to Mars we will need to create 3 stages:

Escape Plan

Cruise Plan

Encounter Plan

To create the Escape Plan you need to press the Button until Select Target reads
Escape.

Next we need to create the cruise stage. To do this press the Button on the MFD.
The cruise stage of the MFD will look like this:
This view looks quite similar at the moment to the previous view. However, notice that
the major body is now the Sun, and the minor body is the Earth.

To set up this plan, we need to select Mars as the target, so press Button until it is
shown in the Select Target area. The targets are ordered by their mass with the most
massive first, and will also include any moons orbiting your current location.

The MFD should now look like this:

We now need to change a different set of variables to create a hypothetical orbit so that it
intercepts with Mars. Press the Button until View is Eject Plan.

You will now see that there is another variable called Prograde Velocity. This is one of 4
variables that you can change to setup your orbit. To view the next variable press the
Button. To go back a variable press the Button.

This first thing you now need to do is add Prograde velocity using the button. When
you do this you will notice that a dashed yellow ellipse appears (this may take quite a
large increase before it is noticeable - we are trying to go to Mars after all!) You need to
keep adding Prograde velocity until the yellow ellipse is tangent to or just past the blue
orbit of Mars. The MFD should now look something like this:
This shows that I have added a Prograde velocity of 2.69k (that’s 2.69km/s of velocity).
The two straight dashed yellow lines show the predicted future positions of your ship and
the target (Mars)

Cl. App. (rough) shows the approximate closest approach of your ship to your target with
this orbit (35.78G is 35.78 million kilometres!) Enc. V is the speed at which you will
approach the target, and Enc. MJD is the expected date of approach.

The next thing we need to do is line up the dashed yellow lines so that Mars and our ship
arrive at the same place at the same time. To do this you need to change to the next
variable using the Button and alter the eject date. Keep pressing the Button
until the lines coincide.

Having done that we need to line our orbits inclination up with Mars’. The grey line
running diagonally across the screen represents that inclination. Press the Button
until Ch. Plane Vel is displayed (this means change plane velocity), and press the
Button until the grey line coincides with the aligned yellow lines. Hopefully your MFD
will look similar to this:
As you can see the three lines all line up nicely, and the closest approach is down to about
1.57G. At this stage in planning you want to keep the approach lower than 2G. If your
approach is a bit too large, go back to the Prograde velocity and eject date and tweak the
values you have until the Cl. App figure drops. To decrease the value of one of your
variables press the Button. You can also change the sensitivity of the changes by
pressing the And Buttons. The sensitivities available are:

Course

Medium

Fine

Super

Ultra

There is also a reset option which returns the value to 0. When you are happy with the
setup, take a note of the Eject Date MJD. This tells you when your launch window is and
you will need it later.

You have now finished the cruise part of the stage, so lets return to the Escape Plan by
pressing the button. Straight away you will notice that this view has changed a bit.
TransX has updated itself to show your new hypothetical Escape orbit from the Earth (the
dashed yellow hyperbola). Press the Button to bring up the escape plan view and
you should see something similar to this:
Again we can see the Earth, your current orbit (the green ellipse), your hypothetical
escape orbit (the yellow dashed hyperbola) and the relative inclination line. There is also
a Heading value and a few variables which can be changed.

The current one is for the Periapsis Distance. This is the distance from the centre of the
planet (I.e. the radius) that you want your Periapsis to be. Set this value to 6.505M using
the Button and the Buttons to get it right. Then take a note of the value, you
will need to accurately achieve this when you setup your Earth orbit. If you want, you
can have the Periapsis value higher than 6.505M but be warned that the higher the orbit,
the more fuel you use setting it up. Also, don’t set the orbit lower than this - 6.505 is a
Low Earth Orbit (actually, a very low earth orbit!), and any lower than this and you
would still be in the atmosphere!

The final thing you need to do is alter the other variable, the Ej orientation (press
Button). Either press Or Until the Heading value is as close to 900 as is
possible (there will be a maximum above and bellow this value).

The final look for the MFD should be along these lines (you will almost definitely have a
different value for your Heading and the orbit will look different too, but as long as the
basics are the same everything is fine).
Don’t worry about the fact that we haven’t created the final Encounter stage yet, there is
plenty of time to do this during the cruise stage so we will leave it till then.

There is just one more thing you need to do before you can launch your mission to Mars.
If you have a look at the current MJD in the top right of the screen you will see that it is
probably a long way from your launch window (or in my case, it is actually back in time!)

To sort this out, quick save your position and then open up the Orbiter directory. There
will be another sub directory called Scenarios, and in there another one called
QuickSaves. Open up this folder and find your quick save file. Having found it, I usually
rename them so that it’s easier to find again later. Open up this file with Notepad and
look for the line that says:

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
System Sol
Date MJD 52189.8775416308
Help Quickstart,Quickstart
END_ENVIRONMENT

This is the code that defines your starting MJD. Change the value of this to your launch
MJD minus 0.3 and then save the file.

If your launch MJD was 51982.6693 change it to 51982.3693

This will give you plenty of time to get set on the launch pad before you need to go.
NOTE:

For the Orbiter Launcher to recognise a change to a file you need to close the program
down and start it again!

And there we are, the planning stage is complete and we are ready to begin the flight to
Mars!

EXECUTION STAGE

Launch Orbiter with your pre-saved scenario file and you’ll be sat on the runway at
Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. Because you edited the .scn file prior to launch
you will still have plenty of time until your launch window so lets set everything up.

The flight from one planet to another will have several different stages in it, and each of
them pose their own problems and difficulties. It is well worth quick saving regularly
throughout a flight like this so that if something goes wrong (and it probably will), you
don’t have to start from the beginning again!

The stages for our mission to Mars are as follows:

Final instrument setup and takeoff

Orbit insertion and stabilising around Earth (LEO)

Align orbital planes with hypothetical orbit planned in TransX

Ejection burn calculation and execution

Enjoy views as cruise away from Earth!

Correction burns to keep and improve intercept orbit with Mars

Final correction and orbit insertion at Mars

Orbit stabilisation around Mars

The whole Trip will take around about 200 days, so time warping is VERY useful!

So, here we go!

FINAL INSTRUMENT SETUP AND TAKEOFF

Set Orbit as your left MFD by pressing And choosing Orbit, and set TransX as the
right MFD.

Make sure the Orbit MFD has ship as projection (PRJ:SHP), if this isn’t the case, change
it by pressing . Also make sure that the frame is in the ecliptic (FRM:ECL), press
To change. Also make sure the distance is set to radius not altitude (check for ApR
and PeR instead of ApA and PeA). Press the Button to change the setting.

Make sure that the TransX MFD is in the first stage and in escape plan view. Press
Or To change the stage and To change the view.

Finally, change the HUD to surface mode by pressing Button.

Having done this all the systems are set up for our launch, we just need to wait for the
correct time.

NOTE:

Time warp is a hugely useful function included in Orbiter. To speed up time press T on
the keyboard, to slow down time press R. The warp factors are:

0.1x

1x

10x

100x

1000x

10000x

100000x

However, time warping can cause problems when orbiting in certain situations. These are
the basic rules:

Don’t use time warp above 100x when in close proximity to a large gravity source
(I.e. a planet or moon). The orbits become unstable due to the influence of gravity
and can end up with enormous errors in them. You can warp up to 1000x safely when
your altitude from Earth is ~ 40M, and the higher warps can be used in low G areas
(less than G 0.25) as a rough guide.

Don’t use time warp above 1x when you have an autopilot engaged (e.g. Prograde).
This is because as the warp factor increases, Orbiter struggles to make accurate
calculations of your flight path and the autopilot ends up using all your fuel.

You can safely time warp to 100000x when landed on a planet/moon without any
problems.

Be warned, you can not warp backwards in time so be careful not to miss your ‘date’!

The launch information is displayed by the TransX MFD. The right time to launch is
when the grey line (showing the orbital plane) is close to your current orbit (the green
ellipse). This should be somewhere close to the launch date MJD we calculated in the
planning stage, but it’s no huge disaster if it isn’t (use time warp [T] to speed up time and
[R] to slow down). Before you hit the throttle, you need to take a note of the heading the
MFD is showing. This is the heading you will turn to after take off, and the display will
change to relative inclination as soon as the ship starts to move. The TransX MFD
should look like this just before takeoff (remember things like Heading are likely to be
different).

The final thing to do before take off is to change the right MFD from TransX to Surface.
Press And choose surface to do this.

Apply full throttle and head down the runway. When your airspeed (shown in the surface
HUD) is greater than 100m/s, press NumPad [2] and hold to lift off. Climb at about +10
on the pitch ladder, raise your landing gear [G] and turn to the heading you noted before
take off.
Stabilise your direction when you reach the required heading (you can use an autopilot
called Kill Rotation to do this, press NumPad [5] to engage) and then climb to +70 and
maintain. Don’t worry too much if your heading starts to move, just hold the glider level
and keep an eye on the altitude reading in the HUD.

When your altitude gets to 30km (A 30.00k) activate rotational thrusters by right clicking
the RCS control switch. At about 30km the Earths atmosphere is no longer dense enough
to provide the required drag for aerodynamic surfaces to function properly so we use
thrusters instead.

When this is done you need to take a look at the readings in the Surface MFD. You want
to take note of the vertical speed and vertical acceleration figures. Also look at the value
of VEL in the Orbit MFD. The MFD’s should look something like this:

The value of vel (orbital velocity) here is 602.0 m/s. You may think this is quite fast, but
the speed required for a stable LEO is 7.8km/s!!

You may have also noticed that the green orbit has just began to grow. When the ellipse
is completely clear of the Earth we will be in an orbit. At the moment we are still within
the atmosphere.
In this screen shot we can see that my vertical speed (VS) is +404 m/s and my vertical
acceleration (VACC) is 2.86 m/s2.

To help the orbital velocity increase quicker we need to decrease our rate of climb. In
other words we need to pitch down to as close to +0 on the pitch ladder as is possible. Be
careful though, as you pitch down the vertical acceleration will turn negative and the
vertical speed will start to fall. We want this to happen, but we REALLY don’t want the
vertical speed to go negative - this would mean that we’d be going straight back to Earth!

Here’s my method for setting up the orbit (we are currently setting up the Apoapsis radius
- the highest part of the orbit).

Once you’ve switched to rotation mode pitch down to +40 in the pitch ladder

Watch the value of VACC - it will drop to at least -1.4

Notice also that the velocity vector marker (the ⊕ in the HUD) will start to drop

Hold this heading until VACC grows to +0

Drop the heading again until VACC drops to about -1 to -2

Keep doing this until you are close to the +0 heading line

Make sure that VS doesn’t go negative!

All the time keep an eye on the value of vel in the orbit MFD

When vel is greater than 7.800k cut the main engines

Have a look at the ApR value in the orbit MFD. If this is lower than 6.520 turn the
main engines back on until it rises above (keep it under 6.600 but above 6.520). This
will change very quickly so be careful!

The Apoapsis needs to be higher than the value set in planning for the Periapsis. If
you used my value of 6.505M then about 6.520 to 6.590 is fine

Congratulations you’ve setup the Apoapsis and are halfway to being in orbit!

From here the surface MFD is no longer useful but my final vertical speed was +44.7 m/s.
Hopefully your Orbit MFD will look similar to this:

As we can see, the orbital velocity is above 7.8k (7.876k) and the Apoapsis is above the
intended Periapsis (6.533M). Also notice that the green orbit now surrounds the Earth (it
gets very close to the surface at a few points and that is what we’ll sort out next).

The last thing to notice is the value Ecc. This is the eccentricity of the orbit and is
currently 0.0092. A perfect circle has an eccentricity of 0, so the larger the number, the
more elliptical the orbit.

If you’d like to find out exactly what you’ve just done and why, read on. This is not
necessary but might help you to understand the process better and enable you to refine it
for yourself.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Why does the Apoapsis radius have to be higher than the Periapsis radius chosen in
planning?

Remember that the Apoapsis is the highest point of the orbit and the Periapsis is the
lowest point. If we set the Apoapsis to say 6.490M and then raised the Periapsis to
6.505M the orbit would instantly rotate itself so that the Apoapsis would be where the
Periapsis is and vice versa. This not only causes serious brain problems for the pilot but
completely messes up TransX’s hypothetical orbit calculations because the positions of
the orbit are in the wrong place!

WHATS GOING ON WHEN WE LAUNCH?

When you pitch the Delta Glider up to 70o you do so to quickly gain altitude. This means
that a large proportion of the thrust produced by the engines as working in the vertical
plane, and less is working in the horizontal plane. To quickly increase the orbital velocity
(the horizontal component of the thrust vector) we need to reduce the vertical component,
so we pitch down (making the VACC turn negative and reduce the VS).

At high pitch, the majority of the engines thrust is used in the vertical plane, accelerating
the ship faster in this direction than in the horizontal.
At low pitch, the majority of the engines thrust is used to accelerate the horizontal plane
rather than the vertical.

Using trigonometry we could calculate the amount of thrust and therefore acceleration
going into each plane.

Example 1 shows the direction of the ships movement (red line Z) at launch. The angle θ
will equal your pitch angle - 70o, and Z will be a component of X (horizontal thrust) and
Y (vertical thrust).

You can see that the movement of the ship is very much in the vertical plane with a
smaller amount of horizontal force.

Example 2 shows the direction of movement after pitching down. Now the vertical
component (Y) is much smaller than the horizontal component (X).
Newton’s equation F = M * A, where F = force, M = mass and A = acceleration, shows
that force applied (the thrust) is proportional to the acceleration. So if we increase the
force in the horizontal plane, we increase its’ acceleration and therefore we increase the
velocity.

BUT WHAT IS AN ORBIT?

An orbit is basically an infinitely long fall to ground. Because planets are spherical, the
idea is to move forward fast enough so that you just keep missing the ground!

The downward red arrow is the force pulling the ship back to ground. This is called the
centrifugal force and is caused by gravity. The horizontal red arrow is the horizontal
component of the ships velocity, and is what stops the ship from crashing back to Earth -
the centripetal force. If the horizontal arrow was reduced (either by a retrograde burn or
by atmospheric drag) the ship would fall back to Earth.

ORBIT INSERTION AND STABILISING

Having setup the Apoapsis the next thing to do is raise the Periapsis to the value you
chose during planning (6.505M is you used my value).

We no longer need the surface MFD so lets change it to the map MFD by pressing
And choosing map. This MFD is not needed for anything other your curiosity as to where
we are currently orbiting over!
We also need to change the HUD from surface to orbit (ORB) so select that on the

Button.

Now take a look at the orbit MFD, and in particular at the ApT value. ApT is the time till
you next reach the Apoapsis, and this is where we will need to make the burn to raise the
Periapsis.

To raise the Periapsis make a Prograde burn at the Apoapsis

To lower the Periapsis make a Retrograde burn at the Apoapsis

To raise the Apoapsis make a Prograde burn at the Periapsis

To lower the Apoapsis make a Retrograde burn at the Periapsis

Make sure all the autopilots are switched off and time warp [T] (not above 100x) until
ApT = 200. Bring the warp back to 1x [R] and turn the ship Prograde using the Prograde

autopilot button . When ApT = 0 fire the main engines until PeR in
the orbit HUD equals your reselected value (6.505M). Be careful here, the value will
change very quickly and you need this to be precise! Turn Prograde off again when the
PeR is correct.

Having done that your orbit MFD will look similar to this:
Notice that the green orbit is now completely above the surface of the Earth - a stable
orbit!
PeR is 6.505M
ApR is 6.552M
Ecc is 0.0036 which is low enough for a short orbit like this.

If your MFD readings are similar to these and your PeR is accurate then you have
completed the second stage of the flight! If the PeR is not at the correct level you can
either restart the mission from your last quick save, or alter the PeR next time you reach
the Apoapsis (look at ApT for the time). You may need to make slightly more correction
burns later if you do this as you will have missed the ideal window for ejection, but it
should still be ok.

ALIGN ORBITAL PLANES

At present, we have a stable orbit around the Earth with the Periapsis set to the radius we
defined in the planning stage. The final thing we need to do is align the plane of our orbit
with the hypothetical intercept orbit. To do this we will need to bring up the TransX
MFD on the right, press And choosing TransX.

Change the view to escape plan and you will see a screen looking like this:

As you can see, there is some new data located in the bottom left corner of the MFD.
R. Inc is the relative inclination in degrees between your orbit and the transfer orbit.
DeltaV is the amount of velocity required to move to the hypothetical orbit.
T to Pe is the time in seconds to the Periapsis of the burn
Ang. To Pe is the angle in degrees to the Periapsis.

Don’t be worried if your relative inclination isn’t as small as mine, it will depend on how
well you held your heading during take off and when you chose to launch. If your relative
inclination is over 20o you should go back a few stages and try to achieve a lower value.

To align our plane with the hypothetical orbit we need to make an orbit rotating burn
where the two orbits cross each other - this point is called a node. In the TransX MFD we
can see our orbit (green), the hypothetical orbit (yellow) and the inclination plane (grey
line). The nodes occur where our orbit is crossed by the grey line.

There are two types of nodes, the ascending node and the descending node. To work out
which node we are approaching you need to look at the orbit MFD. The orbit MFD has
markers to show where the ascending and descending nodes of the current orbit are.
Remember these are not in the same place as the nodes in the TransX, but when we are
approaching the intersection in the TransX, look to see which node we are near in the
Orbit MFD, the node in the TransX will be in the same direction.

The green line in the TransX MFD which represents where the ship is in it’s orbit is close
to the intersection point, and the green line in the orbit MFD is approaching the ascending
node.

We now need to turn the ship and fire the main engines. If you are approaching the
ascending node, turn orbit anti-normal using the Orbit Normal (-) autopilot button. If you
are approaching the descending node turn orbit normal using the Orbit Normal (+) button.
When the ships position (green line) is slightly closer to the node (grey line) than it is
now, fire the main engines until the relative inclination is as close as possible to 0. As the
ship moves past the node, the value of Rel. inc will start to grow again. If you didn’t
manage to get it bellow 1o wait until the next intersection and try again. If when you
make the burn, the inclination increases, kill the engines and change the orbit normal type
(from (-) to (+)).

Having aligned the orbital plane, we are now ready to make the ejection burn. Turn off
the autopilot. Congratulations, another stage is complete!

THE EJECTION BURN

The ejection burn needs to be controlled with reasonable accuracy for the results to be
successful. If you look at the bottom left of the TransX MFD you will see DeltaV and a
value, for me it is 3.932k (3.932km/s). This is the increase in velocity required to make
your current orbit reach Mars. This is not quite the same as the other orbit burns we have
done so far, mainly because the change in velocity (or delta v) is so much larger.
Normally we would just approximate at how long the burn would need to be, and fire half
of it before the Periapsis and half after (this is so that the average point of the burn is
exactly on the Periapsis and will result in the most even orbit). In this case however, the
orbit is going to change to a very different shape - it will be very elliptical, and the burn is
going to last a lot longer. This means that we are going to have to calculate the burn time,
and this is the equation that I use:

T = (Dv * M) / (F * Cos(θ
θ))

Where:

T = burn time
Dv = velocity change
M = mass of ship
F = force of engines
θ = tangential angle

The mass of the ship is not always the same - don’t forget a lot of fuel has been used up
getting into orbit. To find out how much fuel you have left press [F8] (twice) to the no
panels view and look to the top left hand corner. These are my stats:

I have 54.3% of my main fuel left. We can assume that we have 100% RCS fuel left as
well. To find out the weight of the fuel and the Delta Glider itself, you need to look in
the Orbiter Manual, but I will run through the calculations for you here:

Empty Glider Mass 12.0 x103 kg

Main Fuel Mass 11.4 x103 kg
RCS Fuel Mass 0.6 x103 kg
Main Engine Thrust 2.4 x105 N

To calculate the remaining main fuel mass:

(11.4 x103 / 100) x 54.3 = 6190.2 kg

Total Mass = Empty + Main + RCS; 12.0 x103 + 6190.2 + 0.6 x103 = 18’790.2 kg

The last thing to work out is the value of the tangential angle. We can assume this to be
45o and I will explain why later.

So here’s the calculation (using my data, yours will be slightly different):

Dv = 3.932 x103 m/s

M = 18’790.2 kg
F = 2.4 x105
θ = 45o

T = (Dv * M) / (F * Cos(θ
θ))

T = 73883066.4 / 169705.62.….
T = 435.36 seconds

Now we need to divide this value by 2 so that the average point of the burn is on the
Periapsis.

T / 2 = 218 seconds.

There we are, calculation done. Not too stressful I hope! We now know that I need to
start my Prograde ejection burn 218 seconds before reaching the Periapsis (as shown in
the TransX MFD). Your value will be slightly different, and if you don’t have a
calculator or anyway of working out Cos(45) you can just use my figure (you’re better of
getting it right though!)

Time warp [T] until the T to Pe value in the TransX MFD is about 100 seconds more than
your burn value (so 318 seconds for me) and then warp back to 1x [R]. Turn the ship
Prograde and wait for T to Pe to equal your burn time, and then give it full main engines!

As you apply the thrust, the value of DeltaV will start to drop. When DeltaV is as close
to 0 as you can get, shut off the main engines. To get the value closer to 0, switch to

Linear Translation mode And use [6] to add small amounts of velocity or [9]
to take small amounts away. When done remember to switch back to rotation and turn all
autopilots off.

There we go, our actual orbit should now be very similar to the hypothetical orbit and we
are well on our way to Mars. This is a screen shot of my TransX MFD shortly after
completing the eject burn.
For now you can just sit back and enjoy the ride, there is nothing that you need to do until
the value of G in the orbit MFD reads 0.00! Just before this happens, the TransX MFD
will automatically delete the escape plan stage and move on to the cruise stage, don’t
worry about this! It can take quite a long time to escape all of Earths gravity, so it’s well
worth time accelerating [T] and also changing the views to get a good look - they can be
pretty spectacular! Use [F8} to change internal views between 2D panels, 3D panels and
no panels view, and [F1] to switch between internal and external views. Don’t worry
about the fact that the Delta Glider will be rotating - provided that none of the engines are
still on this is caused by the gravity of the Earth and is to be expected.

TIME TO EXPLAIN THAT EQUATION!

I derived this equation myself, so if any of you happen to be doing/done Physics or Maths
majors (which I’m not) please don’t laugh too much!

What we need to know is how long it will take to cause a change of velocity. We also
have a few pieces of information about the Delta Glider to work with - we know its mass
and its thrust.

Using these 2 pieces of information we can calculate the acceleration caused by the Delta
Gliders main engines for a given mass using Newton’s equation:

F=MxA

Re-arranged to A = F / M. Now acceleration is m/s2 and velocity is m/s so if we divide

velocity by acceleration we get time - bingo!

T = V / (F / M)
T = (V x M) / F

This doesn’t take into account the vectors of the thrust that I explained in the last
technical blurb - so the value from this equation is wrong, we need to think in vectors. So
here is a vector diagram of the thrust (or engine force):

Z is the direction that the stated thrust of the Delta Glider is going in. What we need is X,
the portion of the force that is acting in the Prograde direction of the orbit. Y acts in the
opposite direction to Gravity, and stops the glider going back to Earth. To work out X we
use simple trigonometry:

X = Z Cos (θ
θ)

The only problem is, how on earth do we find out what the value of θ is? When the orbit
is a perfect circle, the tangent line of a point of that circle has to have equal X and Y axis:

In any triangle, the 3 angles have to add up to 180o. We already have 90o taken care of, so
the other 2 angles must also add up to 90o. Seeing as these 2 sides are the same length,
the angles have to be the same as well so 90 / 2 = 45o!

So, X = Z Cos(θ). We wanted to use this equation to split the vectors of the thrust, so we
can re-write this as:

X = F Cos(θ
θ)

Where X is the horizontal component of the thrust. Putting this back into our earlier
equation (T = (V x M) / F) and substituting our new value of the thrust we get:

T = (V M) / (F Cos(θ
θ))

There are of course problems with using this for orbital mechanics. For starters when
was the last time you saw a perfectly circular orbit with eccentricity of 0?! However,
most orbits are nearly circular and this is close enough - the amount of error the
calculation produces is fairly insignificant. The other problem with our recent application
of this equation is that when you increase the thrust (Z) the orbit changes shape and
becomes less circular so the value of θ changes. I’m currently thinking of writing a much
more complex version of this equation that incorporates the changing position around an
ellipse. This could then be turned into a short computer program to run as a looping
function. I doubt it’s really necessary to go that far though!

CORRECTION BURNS

Correction burns are required to realign small errors in your transit orbit to Mars. They
involve small thruster burns in specific directions to slightly alter your ‘orbit’, and
thankfully the TransX MFD comes equipped with a special mode to help with this.

By now the first stage (Escape Plan) of the trip should have been deleted by the TransX
MFD and it should now be showing the Cruise Plan. If the MFD still shows the Escape
Plan you need to wait longer until you are far enough away from the Earth.

The Orbit MFD will be showing pretty useless information right now - probably a small
section of your orbit with no useful figures either. Press the Button and type SUN in
the box to change the reference of your orbit from the Earth to the Sun. You will now be
able to see where you are in your solar orbit. I also like to add the orbit of Mars to this
view. To do this press the Button and type MARS. You will now see the orbit of
Mars and some information about its’ solar orbit on the right.
Before doing our first correction burn, we need to set up the final stage of the trip in the
TransX MFD. To do this press the Button. We don’t need to do anything with this
stage for now so press the Button to return to the cruise stage.

The cruise stage has a very useful function called manoeuvre mode which allows us to
adjust our present trajectory, and change it to improve our interception with the target
(mars). To access this press the Button until manoeuvre mode is visible and press
Until ON is shown underneath. We now have four variables available to us:

Base Updates

Prograde Vel

Man. Date

Outward Vel

Ch. Plane Vel

These work in very much the same way as in the escape plan set up, and can be adjusted
using the And Buttons. To change between variables press the Button.

You will also be able to see a value for Cl. App. This is the closest approach, and we
want to get this to ~ 1 G for now (just under would be great, but not essential).

When you are happy with your value of closest approach, change the views using the
Button to the Target View.
Rel V: is the relative velocity you need to burn off to make the course correction.
T to Mnvre: Is the time to manoeuvre - in this case it’s negative, but never mind!

The idea is to get the green x in the middle of the crosshairs (use [1] [3] [2] and [8] in
rotation mode for this), and then use the main/linear thrusters to reduce the Rel V as close
to 0 as possible.

Be aware, as the value of Rel V approaches 0, the x will start to move! When you’ve
completed the burn, press the Button to take you back to the Setup View.

You will need to make a few more correction burns during your cruise around the sun and
it’s really up to you when you want to make them. To update your present value of
closest approach, turn the manoeuvre mode off and on again. This will show you a more
accurate calculation of the value - the accuracy increases the closer you are to Mars.

I only make 3 more burns after the initial correction, and aim to have the closest approach
down to about 100M by the 3rd one. After this we need to make careful corrections.

Change the reference of the orbit MFD to Mars ( Then type mars) and press the no
target button

As you get closer to the planet, you will notice that the changes in the closest approach
when you turn off the manoeuvre mode become almost 0. When this happens we need to
make the final few corrections. The aim is to get the approach down to about 10 - 15 M!!
Use the manoeuvre mode to set up the adjustments as before and then press To view
the encounter mode. Press Until it is in encounter view and you should see
something like this:

You can see Mars (the small grey circle) and your orbit. There are also some other
pieces of info:

Min Alt: is your minimum altitude above the planet

Capture Delta: is the amount of velocity change needed to change your orbit to a Mars
orbit

The main thing to look for is that the orbit line is not through the middle or the wrong
side of Mars. If this has happened you need to raise the closest approach.

Make the correction burn when you are happy with what you see (press To change
back to the cruise stage and To change to the manoeuvre view). You may need
more than one burn until the approach is satisfactory.

My final value for Min Alt was 7.514M.

ORBIT INSERTION

Notice that the value of G in the bottom of the Orbit MFD has been growing and is
probably now greater than G 0.50. Also look at the value of PeT.

An orbit insertion burn is basically a very long burn to lower the value of the Apoapsis, so
we need to make the burn at the Periapsis.
Again use the equation

T = (V M) / (F Cos θ)

To calculate when to start the burn. Use 45 for the value of θ as with last time, but don’t
forget you will have used up more of your RCS and main engine fuel, so recalculate the
total weight of the ship. To find out the values, look at the propellant gauge on the
bottom right of the panel. Each minor gradient is 5%, so my values are Main 30% and
RCS 93% (RCS is a bit of a guess!)

Divide the value of T by 2 and turn retrograde just before PeT is at that value. Fire the
main engines until the value of eccentricity (Ecc) is as low as possible. If you manage to
get the Ecc to less than 0.1 then you have got a stable orbit around Mars. If not, wait for
your next pass of the Periapsis and try again.

However, if all you want is to be captured by Mars’ gravity, you only need to fire the
main engines until the value of Capture Delta has reached 0 (it will start to decrease
when you fire the engines). This will leave you in an elliptical orbit of Mars.

CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO MARS!

I managed to reach Mars having used 7% of my RCS fuel and 70% of my main fuel.
Don’t worry if you have used more, you’ll be more efficient on your next attempt! Here’s
my final TransX and Orbit MFDs:
FLIGHTPLAN CHECKLIST

Load Orbiter with the Delta Glider landed at KSC

Open TransX MFD and set target to Escape

Create the second stage and select Mars as the target

Add Prograde velocity until the hypothetical orbit touches Mars’ orbit

Adjust the eject date so that the yellow dashed lines coincide

Align the ecliptic line (grey) with the yellow dashed lines

Adjust the above values until closest approach is under 2G

Note down the eject date and return to the first stage

Set the Pe Distance to your predetermined radius (6.505M?)

Quick save the scenario and change the start date MJD in the .scn file

Load your saved scenario and launch at the heading determined by TransX when your
green orbit is close to the grey ecliptic line.

Set up a stable orbit with the PeR equal to what you determined in the TransX set up
stage.

Align your current orbital inclination with your hypothetical transfer orbits.

Make the eject burn when the T to Pe is equal to your calculated burn time value.

Kill the engines when Delta V = 0

Cruise until TransX deletes the first stage

Turn on TransX’s manoeuvre mode and adjust the values of Prograde Vel etc. to
bring down the value of closest approach. Do this several times - the correction
burns.

As you approach Mars use the Orbit MFD to decide when to burn retrograde (when
PeT equals calculated burn time) to enable capture by Mars’ gravity.
AND FINALLY!

Having followed through this guide, you are now capable of interplanetary flight using
the Hohmann transfer technique. You can use this method to fly to other planets (try
Jupiter next), but always keep exploring - look at other tutorials for making slingshots
and then you’ll be able to massively cut down on the time of your longer journeys.

It is also worth looking at the add-ons available for Orbiter. There are many available
including Orbiter Sound by dansteph and a lot of hi-resolution graphics updates that can
make the solar system and particularly Earth look spectacular!

Good sites for add-ons are:

www.spacesimmods.com/index
www.orbithanger.com

For more information on space flight mechanics visit the Jet Propulsion Lab at
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/

For Orbiter related information including add-ons, bugs, tutorials and flight plans, visit
the Orbiter web forum:
http://orbit.m6.net/v2/boardtalk.asp

Dansteph is the author of Orbiter sound, a great add on that gives much needed sound to
the simulator, and also the excellent Delta Glider mark III. His site is:
http://orbiter.dansteph.com/

For help with general physics & maths questions visit wikipedia at:
http://www.wikipedia.org

And don’t forget the home of Orbiter for news on updates etc.:
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

Most of all keep exploring and enjoying your time in space!

Bud 2005
APPENDIX

ABREVIATIONS

ALT Altitude
AN Ascending node
Ang. To Pe Angle to periapsis
ApA Apoapsis altitude
ApR Apoapsis Radius
ApT Time to apoapsis

Cl. App. Closest approach

DN Descending node
DV Delta Velocity

Ecc Eccentricity
ECL Ecliptic

HUD Head Up Display

KSC Kennedy Space Centre

LEO Low Earth Orbit

MAJ: Major body

MFD Multi Functional Display
MIN: Minor body
MJD Modified Julian Date

PeA Periapsis altitude

PeR Periapsis radius
PeT Time to periapsis

RCS Reaction Control System

Rel V Relative velocity
Rinc Relative inclination

T to mnvre Time to manoeuvre

T to Pe Time to periapsis

VACC Vertical Acceleration

VEL Velocity
VS Vertical Speed
DEFINITIONS1

Altitude Distance above sea level of the current body

Ascending node Position in orbit where the body starts moving north

Delta V Change in velocity

Descending node Position in orbit where the body starts moving south

Eccentricity A measure of how much the orbit deviates from being

circular (where 0 is a circle)
Ecliptic The apparent path taken by the sun as seen from Earth
Ellipse A type of conic section; like a stretched circle

Hohmann Transfer A transfer orbit designed by Walter Hohmann which uses

the smallest possible Delta V for a given manoeuvre
Hyperbola A type of conic section
Hypothetical orbit A theoretical orbit which can be achieved by certain actions

Launch Window The point at which the current orbit (Earth) and target orbit
(Mars) overlap

Major body The largest gravitational object in the current context (for
eject plan, Sun)
Minor body The lesser gravitational object in the current context (for
eject plan, Earth)
Modified Julian Date The day number plus fraction of a day. MJD 0.0 was
midnight UT 17th November 1858

Node A point where two orbits cross, or where an orbit crosses

the ecliptic

Orbit Path taken by an object around a central object whilst under

the influence of gravity

Plane 2D straight line that has zero thickness and curvature (e.g.
horizontal)
Prograde Direction in which an orbiting body naturally moves

Radius Distance from the centre of one object to another

Relative inclination Angular distance from one plane to another

1
Many definitions taken from www.wikipedia.org
Retrograde Direction 180o in which an orbiting body naturally moves

Tangent The exact point of intersection on the curvature of a line

Velocity Speed of an object in a particular direction

Velocity Vector Direction in which the ship moves (represented in the
HUD by ⊕)