Steep Inclinations in orbit

[Yato]

I am fairly new to KSP so when I was sending up my earlier missions one of them got stuck in an orbit with no engine or fuel. The problem is that I want to send a rescue ship so that the Kerbal in the original ship can EVA to the other one and land safely. I have tried to do this several times but the orbit of the original ship is too steep and I can never change the new ships inclination to meet it. I don't know if I am just not making the manoeuvre correctly in space of if maybe I should change something while lift off. I am also not too confident on my rescue ship design but I will be able to figure that out or search it up. My over all question is how to make big changes to inclination while in space. 

[Scarecrow71]

Before someone else asks...got any screenshiys of the original ship's orbit?  I'm assuming the orbit you are trying to match isn't circularized, no?

[AHHans]

2 hours ago, Yato said:

My over all question is how to make big changes to inclination while in space. 

Well, that is fairly straight-forward to answer.

The first rule is: try not to have to do that! Seriously: inclination changes are *bleep*ing expensive so if there's another way to get to your target then choose that.

But if you actually have to do that: inclination changes are cheapest when done at at low orbital velocities, i.e. at large distances to the central body. So if you are in a low circular orbit and want to change into another circular orbit at the same distance then it might be better to first change your orbit into an elliptical orbit with a fairly high apoapsis - and that apoapsis being at the AN or DN with your target orbit- change your inclination there, and then change your elliptical orbit back into a circular orbit.

[After re-reading your question:] If your question is how to set up a maneuver nodes for large inclination changes, then you probably didn't consider that strong radial maneuvers will change your orbital energy, i.e. increase you AP and/or PE. So to keep radius of your orbit constant you need to add a retrograde component to you maneuver. (It's easy to see when you want to change your inclination by 180deg. Then you stay in the same orbital plane but want to go "backwards".)

2 hours ago, Yato said:

The problem is that I want to send a rescue ship so that the Kerbal in the original ship can EVA to the other one and land safely.

If you want to launch into a specific high-inclination orbit around Kerbin then it's best not to first launch into an equatorial orbit but directly launch into a matching orbit. For that you have to launch when the KSC is in the orbital plane of the target, i.e. launch at the correct time. (Which is what a launch window is.) So go to the map screen and advance time until the KSC is directly below the track of the target orbit. Remember if that launch window means that you need to launch to the north or to the south (You wouldn't be the first one to get that wrong!), and estimate the angle to the equator (or the NS direction) that the target orbit makes. Once you fixed the time and direction of the launch, you can launch into the predicted direction. You are unlikely to get it perfect directly from launch, but you should be much closer so that matching the orbits should be simple.

[Yato]

3 hours ago, Scarecrow71 said:

Before someone else asks...got any screenshiys of the original ship's orbit?  I'm assuming the orbit you are trying to match isn't circularized, no?

I do have screenshots but I'm not able to paste them into this reply. Do I have to paste them in a certain format?

[adsii1970]

1 minute ago, Yato said:

I do have screenshots but I'm not able to paste them into this reply. Do I have to paste them in a certain format?

You have to post them on a third party image hosting site and share the link here.

[Yato]

2 hours ago, AHHans said:

Well, that is fairly straight-forward to answer.

The first rule is: try not to have to do that! Seriously: inclination changes are *bleep*ing expensive so if there's another way to get to your target then choose that.

But if you actually have to do that: inclination changes are cheapest when done at at low orbital velocities, i.e. at large distances to the central body. So if you are in a low circular orbit and want to change into another circular orbit at the same distance then it might be better to first change your orbit into an elliptical orbit with a fairly high apoapsis - and that apoapsis being at the AN or DN with your target orbit- change your inclination there, and then change your elliptical orbit back into a circular orbit.

[After re-reading your question:] If your question is how to set up a maneuver nodes for large inclination changes, then you probably didn't consider that strong radial maneuvers will change your orbital energy, i.e. increase you AP and/or PE. So to keep radius of your orbit constant you need to add a retrograde component to you maneuver. (It's easy to see when you want to change your inclination by 180deg. Then you stay in the same orbital plane but want to go "backwards".)

If you want to launch into a specific high-inclination orbit around Kerbin then it's best not to first launch into an equatorial orbit but directly launch into a matching orbit. For that you have to launch when the KSC is in the orbital plane of the target, i.e. launch at the correct time. (Which is what a launch window is.) So go to the map screen and advance time until the KSC is directly below the track of the target orbit. Remember if that launch window means that you need to launch to the north or to the south (You wouldn't be the first one to get that wrong!), and estimate the angle to the equator (or the NS direction) that the target orbit makes. Once you fixed the time and direction of the launch, you can launch into the predicted direction. You are unlikely to get it perfect directly from launch, but you should be much closer so that matching the orbits should be simple.

Thanks a lot, I think that does solve my problem and yeah definitely not making the same mistake, I've sent so many rescue missions and its just taken so long. I still don't think it's going to be easy but now that you've explained it I will at least know more about how to do it.

3 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

You have to post them on a third party image hosting site and share the link here.

Any recommendations for such a site? I don't really want to be snooping around the internet looking for something which could easily become dodgy.

[adsii1970]

3 minutes ago, Yato said:

Thanks a lot, I think that does solve my problem and yeah definitely not making the same mistake, I've sent so many rescue missions and its just taken so long. I still don't think it's going to be easy but now that you've explained it I will at least know more about how to do it.

Any recommendations for such a site? I don't really want to be snooping around the internet looking for something which could easily become dodgy.

Personally, I use Imgur. It's the easiest to use and pretty straightforward. Once you upload the image, right click on it, copy the image link, and paste it in the forum. The forum's software will do the rest.

[Yato]

11 minutes ago, Yato said:

I do have screenshots but I'm not able to paste them into this reply. Do I have to paste them in a certain format?

https://imgur.com/a/WKhEkjC

https://imgur.com/a/mDEzHs2

[Yato]

5 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Personally, I use Imgur. It's the easiest to use and pretty straightforward. Once you upload the image, right click on it, copy the image link, and paste it in the forum. The forum's software will do the rest.

Thanks again you have been really helpful, sorry to keep asking I am completely new to KSP forums so it feels nice having someone there to explain things.

[adsii1970]

1 hour ago, Yato said:

Thanks again you have been really helpful, sorry to keep asking I am completely new to KSP forums so it feels nice having someone there to explain things.

Not a problem. That's what we are here for - so do not feel bad about asking questions. It's the best way to learn!

[adsii1970]

2 hours ago, Yato said:

https://imgur.com/a/WKhEkjC

https://imgur.com/a/mDEzHs2

Copy the image link using the right mouse button while clicking on the picture and select "copy image link" - you should get:

https://i.imgur.com/d72kh5I.png

You take that link and paste it directly into the forum text box area and should see the image, like this: