aluc24

@nightingale , I wanted to ask, if I may - I heard rumors that this contract pack is abandoned and won't be updated anymore - is that true? (Hope not!)

So... Um... Any advice?

That's really unfortunate. But couldn't TCA control pitch-roll-yaw in To Orbit autopilot mode, sames as Mechjeb does? It would allow for TCA to control gimbals too.

Yeah, I saw it... My shuttle is completely different, though. Thrust is off-axis because there are no powerful engines on shuttle itself, only on the fuel tank. The idea is that at the launch, the thrust of the main engine and gimbals are required to balance the thrust. When SRB's separate, shuttle is unbalanced, but can compensate with aerodynamic surfaces, and by the time there is no air to work with, the fuel levels drop to a point where the craft can be balanced again (by gimbals). It's very complicated, because it requires to control gimbals, thrust, and elevons. I could *almost* fly the ascent manually, except for the launch. Anyway, it proved to be too complicated, so I just built another launcher - two rockets attached to the wings of the shuttle. Lots of struts, but far less complicated to launch.

Well, that's true, it's more important to get the encounter date right, rather than exact trajectory that far out. Still, I use external tool for finding these fly-bies, so I would like to double-check with KSP predictions just to be sure that the Kerbin will be on that side of the Sun when I arrive

I want to make a Kerbin-Eve-Kerbin flyby mission. I'm planning an initial maneuver node from Kerbin. I can set up encounter with Eve easily. Now, after that encounter, I need to hit Kerbin again. Problem is, I cannot target the Kerbin while I'm orbiting it, so I can't see closest approach prediction to Kerbin after Even fly-by. Shooting in the blind until I get exact encounter is frustrating. So, how can I work around this limitation? How can I see closest approach predictions back to Kerbin while planning a maneuver from it's orbit?

Hey, @allista , I am now attempting to use TCA with my Shuttle style ascent vehicle, and I have a question. Since the center of mass is off the thrust axis, I have added several more engines so that it would be possible to stay at full thrust, balancing attitude solely through engine gimbals. However, when I set TCA To Orbit autopilot, it doesn't utilize gimbals to their full ranges, but instead, throttles down some of the engines. Obviously, that results in loss of thrust, which is very bad for ascent vehicle. So, my question, how do I make TCA utilize gimbals first, and throttle down some engines only if gimbals cannot do it alone? P.S. One more question. It seems to me that TCA is horrible at maneuver node burns, because it underestimates the time it will take to make the burn with some of the engines throttled down for balance... Any way to fix this?

Yeah... Would be easy if half of them weren't dependent on the other half

I'm running 56 mods... Isn't there a faster way than adding these mods one by one until some of them shows the conflict?

@Thomas P. , could you please take a look at my inquiry just above?

Hey, @Thomas P., I'm not sure if I'm the only one having this problem, but when I install Kopernicus (and it's dependencies), the fps drop sharply in the KSC. I mean, normally I get 60 fps in KSC, but with Kopernicus, it drops to 38 fps (even without any addon planets installed). Is this a normal thing? Or could it be some incompatibility issue? I have a lot of mods, if you need, I can provide a list.

Hey, @CaptRobau, is OP compatible with KSP 1.2.2? The topic title says 1.2.1, but nobody has been discussing here lately, so I assume it works?

Yeah, I do that quite a lot too. Huh, maybe I should try Realism Overhaul when it's updated to 1.2.2 I heard every meter of dV is precious as silver there. Sounds like my kind of overhaul.

Good advice. Thanks. I have yet to land on top of my target, but I'm getting there. Well, I agree, I guess I'm just a kind of precision freak, I like to plan missions in advance and do them lean. More challenging than the usual "moar boosters" approach. I still pack a 100m/s extra dV for every mission, but rarely more than that. I just like knowing that I performed something as efficiently as it is reasonably possible.

Well, they are showing up in navball, but they aren't considered legit targets - BurnTime addon doesn't see it as rendezvous, and it doesn't provide the calculation to time the burn start. Well, yes, my orbit before the burn is usually 5x5km (sometimes lower if there are no obstacles). 50km+? That's wasting a ton of fuel... As for the rover, yeah, it can be made, but what if I want to make a Mun base later on? Flying new modules in will require accuracy down to 10-20 meters (unless I stick rover wheels to everything, which is kind of silly).

Well, I mean, the only sacrifice in performance is that I set the throttle to 90% instead of 100% in the last few kilometers of distance... I do the whole burn and landing in a single, continuous burn. The loss of performance is marginal, I think. But technically you are correct All I wanted was to work out a way to make this calculation so that I don't have to eyeball the whole burn.

Guys, thanks, but as I said, I worked out the formula I quoted above, and it has gotten me very close to the precision I want. I now just burn 1km earlier than the formula provides, and then eye-ball the throttle when I'm down to the last hundred of meters of velocity above the target zone. My record today was 76 meters away from the target marker (103 second burn). I don't see why I should bring more fuel or accept worse accuracy if this formula +1km gives such great results Of course, it would be better if I could get an auto-pilot to execute that burn when the distance from target hits the threshold, but even manually, it is close enough for practical uses.

True. I wonder if it's possible to work out a formula that would account for all these variables. I worked out a simplified formula (see my reply just above), which worked pretty fine, but I would be interested in more accurate solution as well. I am not familiar with calculus, though.

I finally worked it out. The formula is BrakingDistance = ∆ V /2 * BurnTime /1000. ∆ V is in orbital velocity in m/s; BurnTime is the time it will take to burn down that velocity, in seconds; /1000 is just to convert the braking distance into kilometers. I tried it out just a few minutes ago, and it landed me within 700m of the target zone in a 102 second burn (I need to work on my timing to get closer). Hopefully this will be useful for someone too.

Come on, man, if you don't know how to calculate it, just say so. I'm trying to figure out a precise, efficient solution here, not "just bring more fuel".

If I right click on waypoint, it gives me a dialog to "activate navigation" and "delete waypoint". Not to select it as target... I know how to calculate burn time, but could you please tell me how to calculate the distance the craft will travel until it finishes that burn?

Could you please tell how? I've been playing KSP for a while, yet never seen a way to do this.

Sometimes I get contracts to land in a very specific spot on Mun, and then do some science there... Thus my need for precision. What about manual calculation? I mean, if the burn time is known, then it should be simple math to determine the point to start that burn to end up in specific location?

Alright, but I assume I need a flag over there to have it as target? What if I only have a waypoint (I'm using Waypoint Manager)?

I can't find it... I probably haven't unlocked that part of Mechjeb functionality in my career yet. Does Engineer have this readout? I can't find it either.