The standard way to Mars

As you've already learned, the most efficient way to take off is Eastbound. But as the Earth rotates, the plane of this orbit changes. It therefore pays to wait until the Earth's spin carries you into the best orbital plane for taking off. It is best to get as close to Mars's orbital plane as possible.

Aligning orbital plane by sitting on the ground

At the beginning of the scenario, our orbital inclination relative to Mars is not very close at all. A relative inclination of 49.1 degrees means a big course correction if we take off now. If we just sit on the ground for a few hours, things will change quite a bit. This is what happens over the course of about 12 hours. The relative inclination has dropped from 49' to 4.92'

From some locations on Earth (Havana is one) you may actually arrive at one of the ascending or descending nodes. In that case, you should take off as P crosses AN or DN, and set a course of RInc degrees above (AN) or below (DN) the heading of 90'.

In most locations, just wait until relative inclination reaches a minimum.


Relative inclination at start of scenario


Relative inclination after sitting on the ground for some hours.

Those few hours of doing nothing will save a lot of rocket fuel later. Since I've already picked a good launch window for Mars, and the orbital inclination is now about as low as it will go from the latitude of Cape Canaverel, it's time to go.

Launch