I need help docking!

[Public_Storage]

     So I’m an Xbox user and I’m very new to KSP. I’ve successfully got through all tutorials besides the last three. That’s the problem.

     I got to the docking tutorial and I was good...until I got to the part where I needed to get within 100 meters of the stranded ship. I was going towards the target at a steady pace of 10 m/s, just as the tutorial instructed me to. However, once I got within about 600 meters of the craft, it started to travel away from me.

     This tutorial may be adequate for others, but not me. Does anyone have a solution?

[bewing]

That is an extremely common issue when trying to rendezvous. And there are lots of tutorials on this forum about that last rendezvous step, and lots more on youtube about how to fix it. I'm sure some of the other guys will post links to their favorites.

For an advanced player, the answer is to put the Navball into Target mode, and then "push the prograde marker around on the Navball." If you want to try that method, you probably need to turn on RCS, then use your IJKL keys and see how each key moves your prograde marker when you hit them, after pointing your nose at the target.

The total newbie method to fix the problem is to stop when the target distance isn't decreasing anymore. How do you stop? Put your Navball into Target mode, and then turn your rocket around backwards by clicking SAS to "retrograde". Then gently burn your main engines until your Navball speed goes to zero. When your Navball is in Target mode, the speed that is shown is the "vector difference" between the two vessels. If that is zero, it means the two vessels are stopped relative to each other. Once you are stopped, then point your nose at the target ship, give it a little gas to get up to 4 or 5 m/s, and you will get a lot closer. But you will still miss, and you will need to turn around again, and stop again, and repeat.

 

[Public_Storage]

That helps a lot. Thanks!

[Pecan]

Be assured that docking is hard.  It took NASA several attempts to learn how to do it (that Armstrong chap was the first again).  As bewing suggests the navball is absolutely essential for this manoeuver, as is taking your time and making small corrections.  Most importantly, as he again says, make sure the navball is in target mode so you get relative velocity information, not orbital (stopping your orbit means falling out of the sky!)

Just as importantly though - you say you're new to KSP.  Docking is very much an advanced art and there's a lot you can do without learning to dock.  That includes moon-landings and interplanetary travel.  Although you'll probably want to learn docking later for other reasons I'd recommend you get into the game proper and play around.  Have some fun and make some amazing discoveries then come back to practice docking later.

One example mission that doesn't require docking but will help you learn it:
1.  Design and build a small drone vehicle consisting only of RCS tanks, thrusters and docking port.  It will also need probe core to function and you may find some other equipment essential (finding out what is part of the fun).
2.  Design and build a launch vehicle that can carry two such drones (you learnt how to save your original design as a sub-assembly, didn't you?) into 75km and 150km orbits respectively.
3.  Launch them, leave them.  When you feel like it come back and try to rendezvous them.  If you're up to it try to dock them.
4.  (Separate them and), return them to different orbits.  Repeat as required.

For the moment, stop worrying about it.  Go and land on Mun.

[AHHans]

I totally agree with @Pecan here: docking is one of the harder things to do in KSP, so if you are really new, then first have some fun doing other things.
(Another thing that isn't all that easy is landing on rocket power. That also took me a while to master. (Well, not suck at...))

A possibly more useful suggestion: there are quite a few docking tutorials on youtube you can learn quite a bit from them. And finally, when it comes to actually docking: make sure that you only try to dock docking ports of the same size to each other. The clamp-o-tron junior and the normal sized don't like mating with each other. Trust me, I tried.

Edited August 11, 2019 by AHHans
fixed typo

[magnemoe]

13 hours ago, AHHans said:

I totally agree with @Pecan here: docking is one of the harder things to do in KSP, so if you are really new, then first have some fun doing other things.
(Another thing that isn't all that easy is landing on rocket power. That also took me a while to master. (Well, not suck at...))

A possibly more useful suggestion: there are quite a few docking tutorials on youtube you can learn quite a bit from them. And finally, when it comes to actually docking: make sure that you only try to dock docking ports of the same size to each other. The clamp-o-tron junior and the normal sized don't like mating with each other. Trust me, I tried.

One way to learn it is to do it like they did in real life. Send up an capsule with an small service module with fuel and rcs but keep  upper stage with you also have rcs probe core and rcs on upper stage, decouple then train to dock, move them some 100 meter away and try again. 

One thing I learned is orientation. Docking in low kerbin orbit you do not want the target to be above or below you, in orbital view easiest is if target is north or south of you, second is pro or retrograde orientation. 
The problem with target above or below is that target will also be moving slower or faster than you so target will rotate over time relative to you so you have to also rotate target or compensate, even mechjeb docking autopilot tend to have trouble here.

For training you might want an higher orbit to minimize orbital effects, docking in Minmus orbit is much easier as orbital speeds are so slow. 
 

[Dan Kerman]

This is what got me thru docking...  now I can dock in my sleep. It does a great job explaining the nav ball symbols and how to use them.

Illustrated Guide to Docking

[Empiro]

The two biggest pieces of advice I can give to the docking itself:

• Use the Navball. When I dock nowadays, the only time I look away from the navball is to look at the distance to my target. Learn what all the symbols mean and how your translational RCS (IJLK keys) affects your velocity marker, and rely on the Navball to dock.
• Learn how to point docking ports to each other by switching ships, and using the "control from here" functionality. This makes it so that you don't need to worry about flying around your target. You just need to point right at it.

[Vanamonde]

If you want to practice the final steps of docking without flying a rendezvous first, I made a ship for that. Launches as one ship, then you can separate the two little ships and dock them with the mother ship or each other. 

[VoidSquid]

I don't know if this is true for consoles as well, but I do remember the docking tutorial for PC stated that you should use the "Chase View". Years ago, Squad changed the view modes, but  obviously didn't update the tutorials (or maybe they did in the meantime?), what used to be Chase View is now Locked View. In that particular view mode, your camera is oriented in a way that the RCS thrusters automatically point in the directions of your respective control keys, i.e. right is right, left is left, etc.

Makes docking waaay easier, if you don't have much experience and don't/can't use mods.  

[Empiro]

On 8/12/2019 at 11:51 PM, VoidSquid said:

I don't know if this is true for consoles as well, but I do remember the docking tutorial for PC stated that you should use the "Chase View". Years ago, Squad changed the view modes, but  obviously didn't update the tutorials (or maybe they did in the meantime?), what used to be Chase View is now Locked View. In that particular view mode, your camera is oriented in a way that the RCS thrusters automatically point in the directions of your respective control keys, i.e. right is right, left is left, etc.

Makes docking waaay easier, if you don't have much experience and don't/can't use mods.  

This was what I did when I was starting out with docking, but once you learn how to use the navball, the navball is even easier and faster. On the navball, the RCS translation keys always behave exactly the same, regardless of how you've set up your camera.

[dire]

One interesting thing to note about docking is that, because of the way orbits work, gravity slowly pulls ships in different directions, and this is most pronounced in low, fast orbits (I hate docking at 75 km over Kerbin, the ships slide all over the place). So just because you stop dead in space relative to another vessel doesn't mean you'll stay stopped; you'll gradually drift either closer or further apart.

It's actually much easier to dock in high Munar orbit because this orbital slip-sliding is much less pronounced, to the point of almost disappearing. So I'd land on the mun first, then focus on learning to dock there because you are minimizing one of the stranger variables. The best way to practice is to build an orbital mun base or an apollo-style munar lander.

Edited August 16, 2019 by dire

[Public_Storage]

     I really appreciate all of the solutions that you guys have offered me. I’ll put off docking for now, but when I come back to it I’ll definitely try to incorporate all of the advice. Thanks!