hhatch

I'm using an MK 1 lander can. I put a pilot in it and got it operational. I think I read somewhere that I need an engineer to repack chutes. Is this true ? If so I only have room for 1 in the lander and that is currently a pilot. I haven't even got into remote control issues yet. I'll look at that later.

I made it to Duna so now I want to take a lander to Duna, land and rendezvous with the command module and return to Kerbin. However, I can't figure out how to control the lander after separating from the command module. I think this has something to do with the re root tool but I can't figure out how to manage the command module and lander once they have separated.

I figured out why I had so many problems getting an encounter with Duna. After experimenting,I found that the phase angle I got from the transfer calculator was not correct (Olex).I don't know if this is related to the recent updates or maybe just user error. So using some of the suggestions I got here I can now put my craft as close as I want. I'm still working on trying to do a better job of shaping my orbit and I am still not very efficient at using fuel. However, after 400 hours I am starting to get a better understanding of how to use orbital mechanics. I don't know about the experiences of other people but for a non science person like me learning orbital mechanics is very hard. This "game" is very hard. It is also very addictive. That and this forum have kept me going. Thanks.

No I do not have RCS on this one. I'm assuming I burn prograde or retrograde based on whether I left too early or too late

I've managed to get into Duna orbit a couple of times but I think I just had some luck. I'm confused about making orbital adjustments. Below are 2 screenshots at different points on way to Duna. One shot shot shows things after doing an initial burn and correcting inclination. I could not get an encounter initially so I went ahead and did the burn. I did another maneuver and burn about half way to Duna and got an encounter. The other shot shows the ship ready to burn to go into Duna orbit. I'm a long way off and the burn is almost 4 minutes. How can I make better adjustments so I can get closer and not burn so much fuel ?

I installed this and can't get it to run.No red marker after selecting target port .Will this run on the recent update ?

The "trick" appears at about 13:30 of this video. In order to get oriented in the right direction to the target port turn off RCS and use WASD keys to orient the rocket. Imagine a line traveling through the center of the target docking port. Use the WASD keys to visually match the direction and angle of the imaginary line. Then turn RCS back on and move the rocket up and down and L R as needed. I did this about 25 meters out. I then moved in and re checked and adjusted as needed. Go slow. I used chase view as suggested in the video. For now this seemed to work better for me using East West oriented ports as I could get better camera angles for up down adjustments.

I think I'm back in business. I knew I was having problems with port alignment and I came across a video by Scott Manley and picked up one small trick which made all the difference. I just did 6 dockings in a row. Thanks for the responses.

I downloaded Port Alignment Indicator and put it in the game data directory which is where I put Kerbal Engineering. However, the icon does not appear when I designate a port as target. Did I miss something ? The screenshot below is typical of how things look just before a failed docking attempt. I know the alignment is not perfect and I've had other attempts with better alignment which also missed. I've seen videos of successful dockings with much worse alignments. How bleeping accurate do I have to be ?

I took some time off and have returned to KSP. I did a quick refresher of the things I had learned and things went ok except now I can't seem to dock anymore. I normally get close, target a docking port which is a north or south orientation, designate my port as control from here and then switch to RCS and slowly move in. I noticed that a cannot kill my speed when getting very close. l always seem to be moving. I can kill speed if I go at least 1/ms and switch to prograde but that is too fast when real close. I did discover that my thrusters were not located on the COM so I adjusted and that did not help. I did use the COM for the stage on which the thrusters are located, not the whole rocket. At this point I can't figure out how or why I forgot how to dock.

I'm accustomed to games with a steep learning curve but this one may get the gold medal. I nearly gave it up several times. If I can dock and do precise landings I think I can get to Duna. As a non math person playing this game I think it is almost unplayable without some mods. KER should be part of the stock game. If I didn't have it I would already be gone.

After all this I don't have enough fuel. I need to go back and do some redesign of the ship then try again. I will try out some of these tips and hopefully will make it to Duna and back. Thanks everyone. This is a tough game.

At the moment I am in orbit at about 106 km. The instructions indicate I should burn until I reach a velocity of 3289 m/s which I assume is escape velocity. Should I just eyeball the escape trajectory until the path looks parallel and stop the burn ?

Not sure on the aerocapture. I thought I would try it to save fuel. I need more data on the density and thickness of the atmosphere I suppose.

This picture was prior to the burn. I was going to adjust inclination with another burn if needed. Should I adjust inclination before the burn ?

I cannot get an encounter with Duna after days of trying. I've tried everything without success. This photo shows the closest I've been so far. I've tried making all kinds of adjustments but nothing works. I am lost.

Thanks for this info. I think it should help.

I'm trying to figure out how to use the Olex transfer calculator to get to Duna and I have questions on the instructions. The instructions say to have a 0 degree inclination in a parking orbit. I know how to match inclinations for things like a rendezvous but I've never set an inclination to a specific value so how do I do that ? Then I'm supposed to warp to the phase angle. I have KER so I know what the phase angle is as the ship moves. I've been fast forwarding in the tracking station to do that. I sort of guess how long to warp so it's not too precise. Negative and positive phase angles are mentioned. I think a positive angle is just for bodies outside of my orbit and negative is for those that are inside my orbit. Is this correct ? The next instruction is to position myself at the right ejection angle. What is that ? Does it refer to the position of the node relative to Duna ? Do I just eyeball it ? What is Kerbin prograde ? The only mod I have now is KER and I want to limit the number of mods and calculators I use, but other than KER and the Olex calculator are there any other mods I might need like Kerbal Alarm Clock ?

Thanks for the info and comments. I just launched another ship to Minmus and want to do a precision landing next to the ship I landed before. After I screw that up I'm sure I'll be back here.

I just went to Minmus and ending up landing on the dark side. So I went back and was trying to figure out how to land on a flat area on the sun side. I tried creating all kinds of maneuvers and finally I just had to bring down apoapsis and go into a low orbit. Is there another way to do this without expending too much fuel ?

I do think experience with flight simulators did help me.Like docking, landing a plane requires continuous small adjustments and a light hand on the controls. It helped a bit with the navball but the environments are quite different.

I looked at this video and it looked a lot like some other older videos I have seen. I was not even aware until very recently there were aids you mentioned above so I was trying to dock basically using the procedure outlined in the video. It became much easier once I started using those aids. However, I went back and used the chase camera view and tried maneuvering again without aids. One of the things I did not do was when I wanted to go in one direction I did not do enough of a counter thrust to stop the motion. Moving in a vacuum is a lot different than my flight simulators. Looking at the direction of the thrusts helped me stay oriented. I think with some practice I might be able to do it. Thanks to all for the help. I think there is a need for updated videos although the basics of the old ones are still valid.

Look what I found.

Thanks for all the info. I just tried again using some of the techniques you suggested. I was within 3 m of docking but could not make it. I'm just not comfortable with RCS controls yet. Can RCS be used in conjunction with SAS ? I'm assuming when real close I would not use SAS. My problem seems to be that I'm disoriented. I don't know what's up, down. left , right and so on.

Well thanks to the success of "Operation Quick Save" I was able to get back to Kerbin in one piece from the Mun. Now, like a fool I decided to tackle docking and have a number of questions. When doing a maneuver to create the 2 sets of intercept points should I always use the orange ones or can I just pick the set with the closest separation ? Also, It takes me a long time to get near my target. If I take too long I assume the separation distance becomes greater. Does this make it more difficult to dock ? I've had some difficulty getting a good burn to adjust my inclination to the target. This morning I did many burns and the inclination was almost always off by .1 degrees. I finally redid the maneuver node even though the one before was at 0 degrees and I hit the burn first time. Is there some trick I'm missing ? There are times when I'm getting close to target that I cannot use the shift key to do a slow burn. I can use X only. There are also times when the retro and prograde options are not available on the navball. I've gotten pretty good at getting close to the target burning toward the target then zeroing out velocity. Using RCS mode has been hard. Things get screwed up when I try and close the deal. It seems like all of a sudden the target will zip by and then start moving away from me. I've actually gotten within 10 meters but then I usually crash. I'm going to put plan B into operation. I'm replacing mono propellant with beer.