lizarddan

Well, guys. I figured it out. UNFORTUNATELY, my save was tragically deleted through some stupidity on my part. I'd been cleaning files in a frantic attempt to find a paper I had due in a course. However, I did a tutorial, watched the same videos REPEATEDLY and discovered my issue. Number 1 - I suddenly realized that the TARGET intercept was the one with the dotted line. Wow. When they said line up the intercepts, I thought they meant the purple and orange intercepts on the same orbit! How silly of me. Number 2 - I knew about clicking to target velocity, but I think I forgot to do that on some occasions. I was able to successfully rendezvous and dock in a scenario when I corrected my mistakes. What now? Well, I'm not one to ignore a challenge. I'm going to launch another Kerman at a 76km orbit without fuel, to replicate my last predicament and use a rescue probe to get him down. I'll also mark this as answered, as I received so many brilliant responses. Thank you guys! I'll update this soon.

Quick question. To find the radius of an orbit that isn't circular... Let's say the apoapsis is 100,000 and the periapsis is 60,000, how would I calculate that? I found the formula for the radius of an ellipses here: http://www.mathopenref.com/coordgeneralellipse.html It's been awhile since I've done this type of algebra and I'm at a loss. Heh, thanks all! Still trying to get Kerman down....

So, I'm getting closer. I managed to make target velocity 0ms, with fuel to spare. However, when I burned retrograde, my orbit went away completely and I ended up going towards kerbin. In the tutorials I see, when they burn retrograde their orbits match up with the target. Since my orbit is originally bigger than the target's, should I be burning prograde? Thanks all .

Hey all, I'm very sorry about the confusion, I should have been way more descriptive. First, I'd like to clear up that they are going the same direction, east. I used the same orbit techniques for both, at a heading of 90 degrees to 0, both ships are orbiting at the same heading. Second, it's a vanilla game, no mods - I want to clear that up for a poster who asked if it was modified. Third, I have read a LOT of tutorials on this, which is why I came here for help. So, basically what I need to do is either widen or lower my orbit and timelapse until one catches up with the other? Any lower of an orbit and I'll be pulled into the atmosphere, so maybe I need to make a higher, slower, orbit and wait for the ship to catch up? Then I could make an intercept at the approximate point the ship is going to be, brake, and save Kerman? Again, I'm sorry for all confusion. I appreciate the help so much guys . Even though it's confusing, I'm having fun. Solving this problem is entertaining and I find myself laughing when I end up shooting my Rescue ship into the water through too low an orbit and not enough fuel. Plan B will be push into the planet, but I'd really like to nail this orbital maneuver.

So, smaller orbit = faster velocity and a larger orbit = slower? That'd explain a lot if so. However, it seems when I achieve a lower orbit then my fellow, the apsis shrink without a burn. Most likely because he's already so close to Kerbin's atmosphere! I'll have to make both apsis minutely smaller and play the waiting game. Is there a calculated approach to this? I.e a way to know when they'll reach a certain destination given the speed?

Screen shots ahoy! I'm sorry I didn't screen cap when I had it in exact orbit, kind of a silly thing to not do. But this one got close, yet... so far :|. The ships are going the same direction, east. Orbital Inclination always ends up at 0 degrees on the mark, my intercepts stay constant. I'm at a loss! Thanks for the quick reply, by the way, guys . Much appreciated!

Hey buddy, read this EXCELLENT/short guide: http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1bi7pv/rocketry_for_brigands_hooligans_vagrants_and/ It teaches you the why. It allowed me to make my own designs and have a way of calculating to see if they were able to reach my goals.

Hi all I've played KSP for maybe 10-20 hours overall. I have a grasp on the fundamentals, can reliably get into orbit, etc. However, one of my few attempts at orbiting went sour when I ran out of fuel. Now, Kerman has been patient for the 9 hours or so he's been up there - so I decided to take on the challenge of getting him down. Since I'm in career mode, parts are somewhat scarce, I don't have RCS yet. But, I managed to make a pretty robust ship using liquid and solid fuel engines. The total Delta Force is 5420m/s, the beginning stage's TWR is 2.7. Orbit inclination, setting the rendezvous intersection and even making the orbit IDENTICAL is easy. The hard part is that Mr. Kerman (in a Low Kerban Orbit of around 70km) is going 4,000m/s. I don't have enough fuel in the world to brake enough for this guy, how would I handle this? Optimize launch time? Wait for him to come around the bend? Should I eject kerman from his lightning-probe and make him stay still? Taking all suggestions! Thanks all!