paul23

I'm right next to it, any small puff of rcs will switch it over to the other side. Actually if I move "back" 2 meters the difference in markers is impossible to notice. Also the "auto joiner" is working, I hear the ship automatically trying to align itself, however it can't due to angle to big. But the misalignment is besides the point (as I said, it's due to the reaction *after* I touched the port, the automatic aligner actually moves me away). The bigger problem is that I hit the other port under a 80+ degrees angle.

Is it possible (or not by design), to switch contained type of a tank/container during flight - obviously when it is empty -. This would be useful in say a space station: a vehicle first brings supplies, then attaches itself and serves as a container for other things.

Is there a way to return a fuel connector? My connector is some way "bugged" and shot off to infinity: how to "return" it? clicking the fuel station only gives the option to change link mode.

This is exactly where seperatrons (notice name) are designed for.

Well the idea is that you can't always have lucrative things to do: in a carreer you have to sometimes do other things you might not do "for fun" - that's sandbox.

Well I'm using mods to fabricate "in space" - but those need kerbals active. So I'm creating a station far away, and don't really plan on returning kerbals back. A "one way ticket to mars", but with a luxury hotel and everything I can do to make kerbals happy, if you will.

On the topic of colony supplies/timer: is it posible to go "infinite", or at least 100+ years? I use the outer planet mods and even have a few "outer outer planets" added, so my end game missions will take many years, actually I *wish* to make some midway base which also has a launch system, thus being able to create new ships far from home. Could I do this with usi? Or will homesickness be impossible to beat?

Earth has had much larger craters. We had a collision that formed the moon. Also remember than kerbin is about 2.5 times as small, and gravity is too. This means that a crater "look bigger", and less gravity means the ridges will become larger, and erode slower.

I'm afraid this is probably due to unity (and physx) being less optimized for linux than windows. It sounds to me that the physics calculation can't keep up. Is the timer you see in top left going red (or orange)? You could debug by using the debug menu alt+f12, and look into the performance tab there.

Well this print screen is "exactly" the problem (notice that the prograte marker is "off" but that's only due to almost zero distance, I kept it exactly at the pink position) After this I bounced of making it near impossible

Hmm so that's a feature of remote tech? (the part where you can "recover" used vehicles and launch them directly, without rebuilding).

I'm not looking into ssto at all? Using stage recovery to recovery with parachutes.

Well they could make the nearby bodies perfect spheres. And only have this effect when further away - that way it's easy to start. However once you get to the outer system it isn't "just more of the same". That currently haunts ksp: once you can escape kerbin and can do a transfer window planning, each other body is the same. Whether you get to jool or eve or moho, the orbital mechanics won't change anymore. Well english isn't my native language....

Of course that's possible, however that would mean it's not integrated in the rest of the game. It would be nice if certain missions actually depend on this. That you require putting the object in an orbit that keeps it in the sun lest the item cools too much and breaks. Or if the system is extended by custom made planets: if the gravitational pertubations were part of the core KSP system each custom planet would have those set. However if it is just an add on, those extra planets will not have those set and will still be considered perfect spheres.

Perfectly "equal" orbits will stop existing. However the effect is, unless going into an orbit that elongates this effect self cancelling at larger distance (acceleration vector reduces with distance squared for J1 & J1,1 - where gravitational acceleration reduces with distance linearly). Hence an object will still be "captured". Only very low orbits will be unstable (again depending on the constants to which part). For earth: This paper shows the clear results on the orbital parameters of J2, solved numerically - so just like kerbal space program would do. As can be seen in figure 2 of the linked paper, the effects on all except the longitude of ascending node (RAAN) cancel out again. Where the longitude of the ascending node slowly diminishes over time. This effect is actually often generalized by just a linear function when designing a mission, and the steepness depends on altitude + inclination. Using both you can make sun synchronous orbits - an orbit that will rotate around earth but always face the sun at the same point, practical example is a molniya like orbit that rotates just enough so that always the fast/periapsis is at the shadow side of the body you revolve around. Or you can make Geosynchronous orbits at low altitude - by making sure the change in RAAN has the same average change per time as the angular velocity of earth. Or you can "change" the plane to match that of another station, without expending delta-V and just by make a small nudge to the altitude and later changing it back. There are many possibilities for advanced maneuvers with this. Really some higher level planning can be done instead of making each solution "more delta-v". And the good part is: it is not chaotic at all, unlike n-body systems the effect of J1 (and many other perturbations) "cancel" out, even the ascending node will come back to the original, after it changed 2*pi. PS: notice that the paper also included effect of the sun on orbits around earth, the timescale is massive, from "orbits periods/hours" to "years", for similar effects. Also notice that the simulation there is done at geostationary altitude, the effect of J1 (J2 in paper) grows with distance cubed, so at altitude of ISS (1/6 of the distance) the effect is more than 200 times as large.

As I just showed in the first post: it's no more difficult than adding an acceleration to the object. That exactly the same as a constant thrust, but instead of prograde (or whatever) it's radial in/out.

Well allegedly KSP2 supports burn-during-time-warp. While this is amazing in making certain manoeuvres and engines useful. (Helical orbit using ion/very low thrust engines). There are more effects that are even "better" to use. I'm mainly looking at gravitational pertubations due to non spherical shape, those effects are not "hard" to calculate (like n-body dynamics). And they are fun. While at first glance those might make things very hard. You can actually use those effects for the greater good. In real life for example the J1 effect (oblate sphere) is used for station keeping. Any non equatorial or polar orbit will have their longitude of ascending node shifted due to this effect; it's a "free" shift. The amount depends on altitude and inclination, but it's both used to launch satellites into correct orbit without having to wait for the transfer window (allowing multiple at once), and it is used to have a geosynchronous orbit at low altitude, for weather observation satellites. Similarly J1.1 (more mass east of meridian than west) allows for "skipping ahead" in orbits, while I don't know any place where this is actually used, I know GPS satellites have to take it into account. Basically each pertubation is a mathematical "harmonic" over the gravitational field. J0 is just the standard gravity. J1 is a half period north south, J2 a full period (so if positive north has more mass than south) etc etc. The Jn,m effects are similar but east-west. The good thing is that each level is always magnitudes larger than the level below: J0 >>> J1 >>> J1.1 / J2 etc. And since they are just harmonics, in real life there are infinite many, but in game they can be modelled by (say) only using J1 (and maybe J1.1). The function (courtesy of wikipedia) is slightly "complex", but not that hard: The left summation is for the north south terms (J1, J2) etc. The right for J1.1 etc. The theta and phi are the location of the current object (spherical coordinate system), and the P_n^m and C_n^m terms are just constants based on the natural gravitation (so one can just use tabular data here, which can be calculated during game compilation). J_n and J_n^m terms are the interesting ones that "define" how a body looks (gravitational). A better explanation than I can give is at wikipedia. Wouldn't this be amazing, actually making different *type* of orbits possible. Opening new manoeuvre methods. If only using J1 pertubation it's also really simple, there is a "extra phantom acceleration" acting on the craft (positive is "away" from the planet) given by: u = J_1 * sin(theta) / r^2

It's supposed to be that way?

Well the problem I reported earlier seemed to magically disappear when I got to minmus. (flyby). When I got there I just got always 3 missions "launch station". However now the following mission pops up: The mission is giving negative funds? (And failing gives a positive fund)

Hey I have to perform "visual observation" - how can I do this?

It's more of a challenge, but in the future I plan to make an station consisting of many parts joined together, so that the wobbling will make turning near impossible. I tried following the rules of putting my control from, and target to the docking ports. However if I then follow the guide of putting prograte at the target, I "touch" the other component under a ~30 degree angle, and the magnet docking will actually hurl me away. So back to the original post: how to line up the ports so they face each other. When I cannot rotate the station.

Wait I can reattach parts while kerbals are inside the vehicle? Or how do you prevent them drifting off?

So... I've got the "space camp" mission. I'll have to make room for 18 kerbals. Do those need to be at the same station at the same time?

How can I do that (in orbital eva)?

Hmm is it possible to let the scrapyard "repack" parachutes? It's quite annoying when you have a re-usable vehicle that uses parachutes to land, only to discover that after lift off the parachutes are still "broken".