blizzy78

That I can't answer because you're not really helping us help you. Obviously others don't have any problem lifting large masses into orbit, only you do. So I guess you should provide more information so that we can help you.

The funny thing is, a synchronous orbit is not so much about exact apoapsis and periapsis, but about an exact semi-major axis. You could have saved yourself some more time

Please explain how your gravity turn looks like. It is not supposed to mean "at 10 km, turn hard east and point to the horizon." It's rather a gradual tilt towards the horizon while still going upwards.

Um. Not sure if trolling I must admit. The Zenith rockets most definitely are capable as advertised. Perhaps you could post your .craft file, that would help with this thread.

Too much thrust. Perhaps you should go for a traditional hover design with lifting engines only? If there's any need for downwards-pushing engines, it's only to compensate for too much thrust from the lifting engines.

Just take a look at the Zenith rocket family I posted about earlier: The lifters look (relatively) small and compact, yet they can lift quite some large amounts of payload. Bigger is not always better. It's what you make of the fuel available to you. (Plus, he used a bit of trickery like part clipping to get more engines under the tanks given the available surface area.)

Last I hear is that the MechJeb author(s) lost interest in maintaining the addon. Anyway, I think docking is fun once you really got the hang of it.

Actually it's easier this time, because the player will do all the work. In the docking tutorial, there is extra code to bring the pod into a specific starting position. You'll see. But I guess we should not further derail this thread

heh, no promises yet

Personally, I chose to ignore it. I'm either right on the spot, or I adjust my heading manually to get back onto the maneuver node marker once I think it's too much deviation. At the end of maneuver node burns, I also tend to switch off the engine, correct the heading, then burn the rest of the maneuver node. Those few seconds of not burning usually don't matter all that much.

What lammatt said. Keep in mind that the transfer stage will add to your liftoff payload.

A common trick seems to be building base modules on rover bases (like I did here). With those rovers, it's actually pretty easy to overcome slight height differences. Just accelerate the rover so much that the wheels go up, taking the whole module (and the docking port) with it. Just be careful not to overdo it and flip the whole thing on its back

This is perfect advice, but I think the whole "pushing/pulling the markers" is advanced stuff that beginners shouldn't bother with. To start out, it's easier to just slow down to zero relative velocity, then accelerate slowly directly towards the target marker again. Of course this will take more fuel, but not so much that it should be significant.

First off, you're burning way too soon. In the video, your first braking attempt is going down from 114 m/s relative velocity to nearly zero in 15 seconds. Try burning at 8 seconds until closest approach. Exactly AT closest approach does work to, the most you could overshoot is by 114 x 15 = 1710 m. (I'm pretty sure the maximum overshoot while braking can be calculated Second, you should try to aim precisely at the "target" retrograde marker. In the video, you burned slightly to the side of it. That, combined with the early burn, increases your closest approach distance by a large amount. Other than that, I think you've got it right so far.

You know, percentage math doesn't work like this Also, the payload fraction can be higher than 10%.

Same answer as in the "Lifting Capacities" thread: How to calculate what you need

How to calculate what you need (or you could just use one of the Zenith rocket family lifters)

So I'm officially working on that now. Not sure if it's going to be a separate plugin or bundled with the docking tutorial. Stay tuned.

How so? /10chars

Technically, the effect applies to everything. Though you might not notice it at the slow speeds a car is going, for example.

Made myself a Kethane mining base on the Mun, complete with refueling station in orbit. (see complete program profile with more pictures of all missions)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hadfield

Maneuver node on KSP wiki

Hmm, this really shouldn't happen. The "please wait" phase is essentially always the same, regardless of being docked or not. It would undock the pod (if docked), switch to the pod vessel, move it to the docking axis, and place it some distance away from the docking port (exact distance depends on the next tutorial step.) The drifting away never happened to me in testing. Also, the maximum distance it should place the pod away from the docking port is 20 m. Anything significantly further out would be a bug. Or I suppose the plugin managed to get the exact distance right, but didn't switch to the next tutorial instruction page.

There's an easier way: Activate RCS, then press H to go forwards. Just tap the key shortly, you only want to see which way it thrusts. The way the smoke comes out is the rear end