More data available to our brave kerbonauts!

I got my hands on MechJeb plugin source code  for Kerbal Space Program and decided to "improve" it. This "improvement" is completely subjective and more like "bending to my liking". I don't want ANYTHING to touch my controls instead of me so I ripped out anything that would automate vector change and showed more information in format that I fancy. This butchering of poor MechJeb has reached a point where is mature enough to show to people. So here it comes...

Getting to know new data : Surface information

Surface information is relative to your  referent orbital body (the body you are orbiting).

Altitude - not the same as altitude on the top of the screen. This is actual distance to ground. Very handy for landings, you probably noticed when you land on the Mun that altitude on top of the screen did not reach 0, but probably something around 2000m. Well, time to get it right =)

Heading, Pitch and Roll - direction of your vessel. Same as what you can read from the navigation ball, just without guessing =)

Prograde heading and Retrograde heading - are again same as you can read from the navigation ball but with exact number attached to it. And makes easier to know where to turn when icons are not visible on the ball (quite an annoyance with hard-to-turn pigs I love to fly).

Perpendicular heading + and Perpendicular heading - are headings perpendicular to your orbital direction. These are what you need when you want to tilt the orbit (orbital plane). Required for orbital plane synchronisation when intercepting another vessel (or not if you like the guesswork...).

Vertical speed - speed relative to ground. Again, handy for landings. If it is positive, you are ascending. If negative, you are descending. It is normal for this speed to be not equal to 0 for non-circular orbits. It will be positive when moving from Pe to Ap and negative when moving from Ap to Pe. You can use this value to try to circularize your orbit outside of Ap/Pe (use at own risk).

Time to surface - estimated time to ground relative to your current speed. It does not take into account if you are accelerating, so if you are descending with increasing speed you are going to hit the ground sooner than it is displayed! I might "improve" (fix) this eventually, I got distracted with other shiny things. It is "good enough" as is for now. It will display time only if your current trajectory is touching ground (you are not in orbit).

Getting to know new data : Orbital information

Orbiting - displays body you are currently orbiting. Easy!

Orbital speed - displays your... wait for it... orbital speed! It is same as one displayed on top of the navigation ball, but you have to look around the screen less when doing delicate orbital corrections.

Apoapsis and Periapsis - altitude of your apoapsis/periapsis, same as one displayed at map screen when you hover over it. This is easier to read and available outside of map view too and you does not  depend on the position of your mouse cursor.

Time to apoapsis/periapsis - time remaining until you reach apoapsis/periapsis. Handy for time warps and timing of burn.

Period - time required for full orbit. It may be handy sometime. I guess... It looked nice.

LAN - longitudinal ascend node, of course. What is it, you ask? Well... errr... (*google mode on*)ahem... it is an coordinate (longitude) where your orbit intersects with equator, when moving from down up. It is mostly not very useful piece of information, but it might get handy for comparison with orbit of the target when you are chasing other vessel.

LPe- is... errr... I don't know! I thought it was simmilar to LAN, only opposite side of the planet, but the maths doesn't match (or I'm doing it wrong). I'll have to check it out.

Inclination - it is an angle at which your orbit is intersecting equator in LAN. Now, this is important data when chasing something. To match orbits/intercept something, you need to match inclination in the point where your orbits intersect. This is interesting not only for vessel chasing, but also for Minimus insertions because it's orbit is not parallel to Kerbin's equator!

Eccentricity - measure how circular your orbit is. The lower the number, the more circular your orbit is. Important peace of information because circular orbits are easier to manipulate, less guesswork involved.

Semimajor axis- I guess I know but don't really care about it. I found it there and it is staying for now. I don't see any practical use for it at the moment, but who knows?

So to present important things again in a picture:

Getting to know new data : Vessel information

Total mass - well, the sum of mass of all your parts and fuel currently attached into mess you call a vessel.

Total thrust - sum of thrust all engines available in current stage. Mostly bragging rights.

TWR - thrust to weight ratio. Basically, how much is your vessel overpowered/power starved. If the ratio is bellow 1 you will not be able to defeat gravity at lift-off. interesting for different configurations testing.

Fuel available - sum of all fuel available in your tanks that are still attached to your vessel, in liters. Solid booster fuel and RCS fuel are not added to this. no direct use of this information, but its shiny.

Note : There is additional display available, the fable "Targeting computer". This gadget is used for chasing other vessels in current body orbit. Its description and use will be topic of another tutorial blog.

Part where you get to enjoy all these shiny things

And the updated plugin - link (updated 2012.09.22 12:08:25 for version 0.17) It is replacement of default MuMech plugin, so you need to have that one installed then replace dll in plugins directory with one from the linked archive.