I meant how to measure them with the required precision. Another problem is that, since acceleration takes some time, isn't it totally impossible to get the ejection angle right to fractions of a degree? Is the given value the point where I should begin acceleration or should it be where I am at half time of the burn?
But whatever, using the adamksp angles which were more or less right, and several mid course corrections, I had my first Duna encounter, and got into a totally crappy orbit. Mechjeb values were completely different to adamksp (for now I assume adamksp to be the one with the correct ones).
Once I had the encounter I still needed to understand if to slow down or accelerate to get as close to the planet as possible. From then it was no problem to get into better and better orbit, I have enough practiced this on Kerbin and its Moon.
And it seems I grossly overestimated the amount of fuel required. A Nerva engine and two tanks turned out to be more fuel reserves than I need. I now sit in Duna orbit still with 1+1/2 tanks which I wont need, plus the 1/2 tank fuel in my lander. That means I probably don't even need a heavy nuclear engine to fly to Duna.
What's great is that the mini probe experiment also worked right in the first attempt. That means, I ejected some "debris" with a parachute (a "probe" - consisting of decoupler, mechjeb, backshell and parachute), the parachute actually deployed (!) and it came down in one piece.
Since I cannot brake a part once it is separated, I brought the probe on a suborbital trajectory, separated, then accelerated my main spaceship into an orbit again.
I can now switch to my separate probe, and watch the landing descent while my main spaceship circles in orbit.
One lesson I learned is that the athmosphere is VERY thin, and the parachutes will open VERY late. All the same, the probe came down safely, either because I was lucky or because I had tested it many times on Earth. It seems a very good construction.
Once the parachute opens, it will reduce your speed quickly. But look at the height!!
All the same, the probe came down with almost 8m/s, which was fast but still within the limits. I'll see later what happens when I bring down the heavy main lander (which has four parachutes instead of one)
The mini probe is interesting inasfar as a planetary Mission could consist of several probes and land at different places. As long as the encounters are so difficult ad time comsuming as they are now, it seems worthwile to be able to make more than one landing attempt per mission.
There is also a mod that allows controlling debris seperately (but currently not functional with the latest version), so perhaps I could use this in the future for fully controlled multipart missions.
