How To

Basic

• After you enter the game by pressing the Play button and by selecting the particular space mission you want to design, you will be presented with the view of the planets in random epochs. You can start by pressing the randomize button to change the planets epochs at random. Watch the ΔV values displayed on the top right corner change while the planets position changes.
• You can then try to move the planets yourself. Hover with the mouse pointer over a planet and drag it around. Doing so you are selecting the epoch at which the spacecraft will encounter that particular planet. Watch the trajectory change in real time while you move around the planets. Also ΔV and time of flight are updated in real time.
• Using the mouse wheel you can zoom in/out. Use this feature to pin-point the planet position and improve further your trajectory.

Advanced

• Hover the mouse pointer over the little arrow that is plotted along each trajectory leg. Clicking the mouse button you have now selected the leg and the leg box appears on the right with detailed information. Note the 'Revolutions' and 'Select sol.' tags. Try to drag the planets as to increase the leg's duration. After a certain duration is reached you should be able to see new solutions (with multiple revolutions) appearing in the leg box. Try using them.
• When a planet is selected, the planet box appear on the right with detailed information. In case of intermediate planets, the fly-by radius is part of this information.

Tips

• Look for smooth trajectories (i.e. no cusps) as they are likely to be reasonable!!
• Good fly-bys have no ΔV cost at all. Look for them as they will make your trajectory score high!!
• Multiple revolution solutions can be useful to fix bad planetary phasing.