Maxwell Fern

I simply refuse to send Kerbal on one-way missions. Unmanned probes are ok, but planting a flag means the Kerbal is coming back. That must be why I only have flags on Mun and Minmus...

Holy **** I was expecting some solution based around some unknown options, persistent file editing or some sort of debug cheat... But no. No no no. You all suggested that I build more insane stuff to clear the afterfall of my past mistakes with more explosions and destruction. I love this game. I love you guys.

Hi there fellow kerbalnauts, sorry if this has already been answered, but how do you get rid of the tons of debris lying aroung KSC, such as pieces of failed spaceplanes, destroyed rovers, exploded-on-ignition rockets, and so on ? I could end flight them one after the other, but it'll take me till the end of the week...

It seems like your junction between the launcher and the fuel tanker is a small decoupler attached to a regular docking port, am I right ? If so, this is highly fragile, as if the docking port and the decoupler had no point of contact. You're basically trying to push a fully loaded tank without actually being attached to it, if not for those 4 struts. No wonder this is wobbly. Consider using a large docking port and a large decoupler, or a LOT more struts, or no docking port on that end of your tanker. You also might wanna try using two docking ports already connected, above the decoupler.

You have a problem with your ship's design. It is probably heavy, with little torque and has badly placed RCS thrusters. Try adding less RCS thrusters (or deactivating some of them), lighten it up, balance it better. You should be able to have RCS and ASAS on at the same time without emptying your RCS fuel. Or, start small. Dock some pods together until you get the hang of it before trying to dock 400 tons refueling modules. I made that same very mistake and it took me 3 days before I could perform my first succesful docking... With 2 small pods.

I'm glad if that could help anyone Don't hesitate totell me if some parts are not clear enough.

Hi KSP forums ! I know there are lots of docking tutorials out there, but when I wanted to learn how to do that a couple of weeks ago, I never found one that was clear, simple and methodological. And not in video, because for some reasons I prefer written tutorials. So here's my attempt at a as-concise-as-possible tutorial for docking in three steps. We'll dock two identical docking-capable small ships. I use a slightly modified version of the stock Kerbal X (with docking port, RCS, ASAS, no landing gears). It is pretty light and maneuverable, has a nice torque and lots of RCS fuel. Here's the craft file. Both ships are in circular equatorial orbit. One is 100km high, the other, "behind", is 80km high. We'll take control of the latter, and set the first one as target. Get close Wait until you are close enough to your target, place a maneuver node. Push prograde until your predicted orbit crosses your target's and 2 intersect points appear. You want those points to be as close to each other as possible. Move the maneuver around until you find a place where one of these two intersect nodes has a small separation (1km or less). Execute the maneuver. By the time you reach the intersect node, your navball has switched to Target Mode. Burn retrograde until you kill the relative velocity. Congratulations, you are now less than 1km away from your target, on a nearly identical orbit. Get closer Point your ship towards your target (the round pink reticule) and burn to 10 to 20m/s depending on how far you are. Prograde and target reticule are superimposed: you are moving towards the target. Move retrograde, and gently kill the speed as you get closer. You're now a stone's throw away. Tip: as you burn retrograde to kill your relativy speed, you'll notice your ships reticule tends to "push" the retrograde. Try to always keep it on the opposite target reticule (the pink cross) by rotating your ship to make sure you're going in the target's direction. Dock Two essential things to do before docking: - Rotate your ships, one points North, the other points South (use [ and ] to switch between ships). Activate ASAS. - Change your camera mode to CHASE (v key). This ensures that the camera position matches the RCS thrusters that we'll use. Don't even try without it. Move your camera over the rear of your ship. Now just dock by "straffing" with IJKL and moving forward/backward with H and N. When the target reticule matches your ship's, you're straight in front of it. Don't exceed 0.2m/s for the contact. There you go ! Arguably your first trials will be a little hard, but don't give up ! Docking is the most rewarding thing I've exprienced in KSP, and once you get the hang of it you'll be assembling huge space stations on inclined elliptic orbits with one hand in the back Common mistakes: Although you can dock a ship on any orbit, circular ones are easier, especially when trying to find the right place for your maneuver node. The more height difference between orbits, the more relative speed you'll have when intersecting. The more you overshoot your target's orbit (distance between intersects), the more relative speed you'll have when intersecting. Try at first with light and maneuverable ships. If your ship can't have RCS and SAS on at the same time without depleting its RCS fuel tanks while wobbling, it is too big and not well balanced, RCS wise. Use your navball. You only need the orbit view to see your target's distance (and to roughly align in the end). Be patient. Moving towards your target at 100m/s is not a good idea. Nor is it fuel efficient, eventually use time warp. Hope this is helpful, anyway it's my contribution to this great community after weeks of lurking