Docking question

[Laphtiya]

Hi all,

Okay docking I can do with no problem if both ships are travelling in the same direction (say north pole to south pole). But say I completely forget and I take off from the mun and uh oh my ships are travelling in the opposite direction (ship A: north to south, ship B south to north). I really don't want to abort and close the flight so how so I get these two ships in a position where I can dock?

Any clues on what I can do?

Thanks.

[Atanar]

Well, the simple answer is: You can't. Smashing into each other at over 4000m/s isn't healthy. You have to burn noth or south to completly rotate your orbit which takes quite some delta-v.

[Syhrus]

You might be able to change your orbit by flinging one ship around the Mun at an angle to change it's Kerbal orbit. It really depends on how much fuel you have left in either ship. And now that I've re-read your question I presume these ships are orbiting Mun already, so my suggestion is out anyway...

...

Good luck!

[Nibb31]

To dock, you need to have a relative speed of 0, which means that they are stationary relative to each other. By definition, if both ships are travelling in opposite directions it's impossible for them to be stationary to each other.

The only way around this is to reverse your orbit on one of the ships, which is the same as doing a 180° inclination change. This is going to cost A LOT of delta-V that you probably don't have.

[Laphtiya]

Ah I see, well this only happened once and my solution was to burn the cmd to mimnus and come back at the Mun and correct my rotation accordingly. I just wanted to see what others have attempted or if there was a easier solution other than "don't mess up in the first place"

[georgTF]

If you can't adjust the orbit of one ship, split the difference and have both adjust their orbit. Have them both head west for example. It should be cheaper to burn normal/anti-normal if you are further away from the body you are orbiting, unless i got that wrong.

[Laphtiya]

Well I think I've had everything answered that I want to know Thanks all for the input!