VincentMcConnell

It\'s KERBIN and no, there is no way to do that.

A GUIDE ON ORBITAL RENDEZVOUS By Vincent McConnell. There are few things one really needs to learn about the prospect of getting one spacecraft to link up with another that is 60 miles overhead and moving at nearly 3,000 meters per second, or 500 meters per second. The basic principles are something you can simply practice with different orbits. This guide will teach you how to orbit a spacecraft nearly perfectly and then to get another spacecraft to pull up to it. ESTABLISHING A TARGET VEHICLE ORBIT The first step is, of course, to put a target vehicle in place where it can be docked or rendezvous\'d with. I highly recommend that the average player on Kerbal Space Program gets very good with circular orbits and plane change maneuvers. Both of which are important to a successful link up. Launch into orbit the way you normally would, an eccentric orbit is fine for now. My best advice would be to use fairly weak RCS thrusters. This will ensure that you can bring an orbit down to a nearly exact number. Let\'s assume for a moment that your orbit is 104x99 KM. The best thing to do is begin pro-grade thrusting with your RCS to turn the closest number into 100KM. In this case, it would be 99. A few pro-grade thrusts will put that up to 100KM. As you would do a circularization burn, you want to circularize this 104x100KM orbit. Wait until you hit the point in your orbit which is 100KM (probably your Periapsis) and begin retro thrusting so that you circularize the orbit from 104 to 100KM. The end result of this will be a 100KM orbit that is off by something in the neighborhood of only about 30 meters. If your orbit is perfectly equatorial, pay no attention to this next part: If you notice your orbit is tilted and looks like utter garbage, you are going to want to fix that. The best way to do this is a “plane change maneuverâ€. As you cross the equator of Kerbin or the Mun, you want to thrust either north or south, depending on which way you are moving. If your orbit is tilted downward and you are moving south, you will want to thrust NORTH. The North and South indicators are directly in between pro and retro. North is characterized by an orange line. You will notice that your orbit begins to tilt back towards the equator. You can always use your main engine for a plane change maneuver if you\'d like. If you have followed this correctly – there are plenty of guides elsewhere on how to get into orbit – you should be maintaining a circularized orbit of 100KM x 100KM that is near perfectly equatorial. LAUNCHING YOUR DOCKING VEHICLE Launching your docking vehicle is essentially the same maneuver. Here is the difference: Your docking vehicle will probably be at a lower altitude of orbit than your target vehicle. For Munar rendezvous, I recommend a rendezvous about 100KM above the Mun. For Kerbin rendezvous, I recommend 200KM. Circularize your docking vehicle\'s orbit at 90KM for the Mun or 190KM for Kerbin and make sure it runs along the same plane as your target vehicle. At this point, you will notice that your docking vehicle, being at a lower altitude, is moving faster than your target vehicle. It may take a few orbits for the two to begin to run along side each other, so engage time compression and wait. ALIGNING YOUR ORBITAL ALTITUDE Once your docking vehicle is running at a lower altitude, yet along the side of your target vehicle, it is time to RAISE your docking vehicle\'s orbit to the same orbit as the target vehicle. This will result in the two spacecraft at the same altitude, moving along side eachother at the same speed. To do this, begin prograde burning to put your AP or PE to the same altitude of orbit as your target vehicle. This requires what is known as a Hohmann transfer. A transfer from one orbit to another requires two or more burns. Once you have a PE or AP at the same altitude as your target, warp away until you reach that AP or PE and then pro grade thrust some more. Circularize your orbit to 100KM or 200KM so that you are at the same altitude as your target vehicle and are now running along side it. If this was done correctly, you will notice that your target is probably only a few kilometers away. FINE CONTROL, FINAL APPROACH, RENDEZVOUS It is important that you understand your RCS like the back of your hand. It will be your only assistance in this final phase. Point your docking vehicle at your target and begin thrusting towards it. This is a thing best done nice and slowly. You have plenty of time to approach it and the slower the better. There are THREE planes that you want to watch out for at this point. Side to side velocity, up and down and forward and backward velocity. Begin pushing slowly towards it, moving side to side as you do. Hopefully, you know about RCS at this phase, because the purpose of this guide is not to teach you how to control your spacecraft to the basics. As you drift closer towards the target, watch it\'s movement. You will not appear to move, although it is the other way around. The target is not moving, it is you who is moving. As you thrust backwards and forwards, side to side, up and down, the target will begin it\'s slow drift towards the center of your approach. You will notice it starting to get ever so closer. Within meters, you want this to be the slowest approach. Watch all three planes of movement so that you don\'t screw up. Hopefully, if you fine control this, much like a landing on the Mun, you will touch the two spacecraft together and prepare yourself for .15\'s update of docking. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here is my first lunar orbit rendezvous, which I just completed tonight! http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=9058.0

I hope it works. Here is a guide I wrote on getting to the mun. I did this when I didn\'t even have KSP for a while, too. LOL http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=7787.msg114042#msg114042 I\'m going to begin writing up a guide on rendezvous so I\'ll send it to you when I\'m finished.

I\'m thinking about writing up a guide to it. This was actually my second attempt at Rendezvous and despite a single previous failure, I felt confident that as long as I did what I believed would work, I would complete the rendezvous. If some guys in the 60\'s could do it with poor technology, then by-science I was to do it with good technology! hahahaa. I\'ll probably work on my guide tonight and tomorrow. I think it\'s a thing that takes practice and a good knowledge of your RCS. Put all of your faith into your eyes and your RCS and you should have very few problems. You were the first Kerbalnaut to EVA. I think you will get rendezvous. How did you do that EVA anyway?

I have a pretty good idea about returning actually, lol. You don\'t need that much fuel. Maybe 45-50 seconds worth for establishing an orbit around the Mun of 100KM and then a burn at Kerbinrise until AP reaches about 13,000KM. If I were you, I wouldn\'t focus on the parameters of your Mun mission yet. You have to get Kerbin orbit down first. It is very important to understand orbit really well so that you don\'t screw up and end up in Solar Orbit after your Mun mission. When you are getting ready for a launch to the Mun, let me know.

Lunar Orbit Rendezvous from the surface. If I\'m not the first ever to do it, I\'m one of the first and among very few here. I take pride in that and I thank Scott Manley and some people here for their theories on orbital rendezvous. Doing it over the Mun was really a different thing than Kerbin, however. I felt further from the planet. Detached from the security of a safe return to the ocean if I failed. It was a lunar liftoff from McConnell crater and an eventual rendezvous in lunar orbit. I take comfort in knowing that I can now dock when it is released. I hope to have accomplished a lot from this. The mathematics surprisingly weren\'t as complicated as I thought they\'d be. Here is the link to my post and photos of my rendezvous: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=9058.0

Oh, ok. With 100% Vanilla, you already have the relatively weak RCS. Good. I posted my Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, it was successful. Just keep playing around with getting good orbits and what not. If you have any questions about trying to perfect an orbit, don\'t hesitate to ask.

Use RCS in short bursts for fine controls. Right now, I\'m about to make my first surface to orbit rendezvous around the Mun at 100KM. This requires some intense fine controlling and a little bit of skill . My advice would be WEAK RCS thrusters in short spurts.

What is your AP and PE? How are we supposed to know how good your orbit is if we don\'t know the altitudes? Right now I\'m in an orbit of 100.0049 KM x 100.0056KM. Only seven meters off.

OK. How many Mares are on the Mun? Most voted for the sea of instability for the largest mare on the near side.

If you\'d like to name it Sea of Desperation or something along those lines, go ahead and land in an area you see fit, name it that and send me the coordinates. That\'s a good name. Although for me, I usually confront the landing sequence very easily and concentrated.

I hope we can get a pockmarked lunar surface when you land on it. Craters and small bumps and dunes everywhere with piles of rock and all that. I think they mun -- if done right -- will look REALLY epic with the new engine. I love the way Kerbin looks and can\'t wait to orbit it.

Don\'t worry. Old Tsiolkovsky will get a good mare region named after him. I\'m thinking about the one near the South Pole being named 'Tsiolkovsky'. But it really is up to you guys. I don\'t want to force a bunch of names onto the Mun. I want them to be accepted before then, and I\'ve already named 2. Good luck with your exploring! After dinner, I\'ll work on a word document outlining all the names. I think you should have to land so that we can get coordinates. If we can get coordinates, they\'re easier to write down and will help with making a map at a later time.

NEW CRATER At the risk of naming too many things in my favor, I\'ve decided on naming this ONE last crater after my own name. Maybe I\'ll do some more in the future, depending on how many people submit, but right now, I will leave a lot of the land open for now. It\'s called 'McConnell Crater' Coordinates are: 1\' 19\' 28' N | After the one, there should be a degree symbol. 16\' 4\' 25' E | I did purposely land in this crater but did hit the Eastern Edge. The crater is still in those coordinates, though.

Sure! Find a nice crater and land in it and then send me the coordinates. I wish I would have landed near Mount Maxwell, but it\'s ok. I CAN land on the Mun, as can be seen by many other posts I have made.

CONGRATULATIONS TO CANDRE FOR NAMING A LARGE MARIA REGION ON THE MUN! The new region is called, 'Mare Tenebris', which means, Sea of Darkness. As you can see, my craft has landed in Mare Tenebris and so I APPROVE the naming of an arbitrary crater, 'Mare Tenebris'. As this region is usually shrouded by darkness on landing flights, I have chosen this crater.

When will the new terrain generator come out and what will it look like?

I like the name Mare Tenebris and Ingens. We could use Tenebris to name the one giant Mare on the far side of the Mun, as you just cross into the side that leads towards the near side when traveling from East to West.

I plan to leave room to name other Mares too. I may get started on my Mun map right now. I\'ll let the leading vote get at least 10 before I name something, though.

So true! I encourage people NOT to name everything with a K. That\'s so annoying.

You think so? Mostly the role playing forum is like governments and wars and all that. My intention was just to encourage people to begin naming locations on the Mun so we can get a good map of it. It\'s important to name locations, especially when traveling to them all the time.

During my latest little Lunar orbit mission of 11KM, I decided to name a mountain after my dog, Max. I orbited for about .75 of a rotation until I decided on a specific mountain. I took screenshots as I came over it. I hope that if there is ever an official map of the Mun made, that this mountain will be listed on there. I have considered making an entire map, but I\'m not sure if I have the patience. If anyone wants to have a mountain named after them if I get around to my mapping idea, post pictures on this thread. Make sure to show it from close up and then medium and then afar. This way we can get the general vicinity in which it is located on the Mun, and then a little closer to see where in that vicinity it is and then super close to get good detail of the mountain. The idea was inspired by Jim Lovell\'s naming of Mt. Marilyn after his wife as he orbited the Moon on 8. A whole Mun map would be really cool! Are any of the Mares named on the surface or should I have a poll on this thread to name each one? I personally think a detailed map with lat and long and names of all the different locations would be really helpful in the colonization of the Munar surface at a later time. Anyway, here are my photos from Lunar Orbit of Mount Maxwell. Mount Maxwell from up close at 11KM. Mount Maxwell from a medium altitude, showing the south western region of the mare on which it is located. Mount Maxwell in its general vicinity from a standard picture of the Mun.

Welcome to the forums. There are plenty of helpful people here that will basically walk you through a trip to the mun. Scott Manley has a great video on how to do it.

You don\'t need to know the speeds of your orbit, really. It\'s not that important. In theory, if it could ever be done, a perfect 100KM orbit around Kerbin results in a velocity of 2245.6 m/s or so. Most of my 100KM orbits have only gotten to within about 30 meters of being perfect.

Mine deploy at 630 meters.