Executing Manuever

[isaturk66]

Guys, i am pretty new. I started this game bacause i love space and math so i am currently learning the equations and the theoretical side of the game but ı have a big trouble with maneuver thing. i can draw and plan the maneuver but i dont know where should my spacecraft point during manuever. Required delta v is decreases for some time but after a while it starts to increase again i can never maintain orbital shape i prefer. it goes wrong. Where should ı turn my vehicles nose during manuever

[Snark]

Hello, and welcome to the forums! 

Moving this question about how to play the game to Gameplay Questions.

5 hours ago, isaturk66 said:

i can draw and plan the maneuver but i dont know where should my spacecraft point during manuever. Required delta v is decreases for some time but after a while it starts to increase again i can never maintain orbital shape i prefer. it goes wrong. Where should ı turn my vehicles nose during manuever

Take a look at the navball.  When you have a maneuver node set, then in addition to the usual little symbols like and , it will also have this symbol displayed somewhere:

^ That's the "maneuver node" indicator.  You want to point your nose exactly at that symbol when you're doing your maneuver.  Just keep your nose pointing at that symbol and burn until the maneuver's remaining dV goes down to zero.

[bewing]

But if using the maneuver indicator is too hard, then you can just treat maneuver nodes as being approximate. Forget about any other direction than prograde (or retrograde during landing), and lock your SAS on prograde/retrograde during your burn. You only need to use the manuever node to tell you when to start burning. Then you cancel the maneuver node and complete the rest of the burn by eye. Get your orbit close enough to make you happy, and then do an ajustment burn when you are halfway to your destination.

 

[Zhetaan]

On 12/30/2018 at 5:51 AM, isaturk66 said:

Guys, i am pretty new.

Welcome to the forum!  The best parts of KSP are made for mathematicians who also like explosions, so you'll have no trouble finding friends here.

On 12/30/2018 at 5:51 AM, isaturk66 said:

Where should I turn my vehicles nose during manuever

With respect to the people before me, it depends on what you're trying to do.  Since you're new, I'm going to assume that you are working just on getting orbits that you want and not yet doing anything more complex, such as rendezvous or docking.

For simplicity of training, your first orbital changes are going to be one of three types.

First is to raise an apsis of your orbit and go to a higher orbit (or transfer to another body such as the Mun).  Note that it doesn't matter whether you want to raise your apoapsis (farthest point of the orbit from what you're orbiting) or your periapsis (closest point); if you want to raise either one, then you need to point your nose prograde ().  For example, if you are starting in a low orbit and want to go to a higher orbit, then you would start by pointing prograde to raise your apoapsis to the level of the higher orbit, and when you reached that apoapsis, you would point prograde again to raise the periapsis and make the orbit circular.

Second is to lower an apsis of an orbit and go to a lower orbit (or land).  For similar reasons as before, it doesn't matter whether you want to lower the apoapsis or the periapsis of your orbit:  if you want to lower an apsis, you will always point retrograde ().

Third is to change the inclination of an orbit, meaning to tilt the plane of the orbit relative to the equator of what you're orbiting.  This is something that you need to do for more precision work, such as selecting a landing point away from the equator, polar exploration (either from space or on the ground), transferring to bodies whose orbits are inclined (such as Minmus), and orbital rendezvous.  For these, you will need to point your rocket in either the normal () or anti-normal () directions, but the one you want will depend both on the changes that you want to make and the timing of your burn.  If you're starting from a circular equatorial orbit, then it matters less, but it's still important--the wrong answer won't cost more fuel to change the inclination, but it will change the inclination the wrong way.  The reason I raise the issue is because orbital inclination changes are necessary for anything beyond single-vessel, single-body orbital operations, meaning that you need to know how to do them for transfer orbits (such as for Mun flyby missions), which will be among the next things you learn.