giddonah

Thanks everyone for your input and encouragement. hahah, yeah, the claw was deployed The two craft are both probes, so I'm not really losing anything by leaving them up there. I did get them rather close and stable, but my attachment failed. I'm thinking this has to do with my angle of approach and my speed being a little too high. I'll try the claw again some other time. For now, I'm going to take everyone's advice and just build a couple simple rockets with docks and rcs and just practice before making this part of some inter-planetary mission. I'm sure I'll get it eventually and it won't be such a big deal anymore (like landing on Mun was). Right now I want to get to the point where I can transfer fuel, so having an actual goal makes me want to stick with it. Thanks again everyone!

There's a claw thing that you can grab stuff with. It can be used instead of docking ports. You just float up to another rocket and "grab" it, and you're "docked". I don't get the details though, because I've rammed that thing into another rocket and it didn't grab at all. And by "rammed", I mean at 4m/s. Which is why I'm inclined to just give up and use RCS thrusters and docking ports.

I'm not using docking ports. I repeat: I'M NOT USING DOCKING PORTS. I think I'm just going to abandon both flights and rebuild the ships using RCS and docking ports.

Thanks for the help, but I'm not using any mods. Zero. No docking ports, I'm using the claw thing. No RCS on the ships I'm attempting with. I realize mods might make this easier, but with updates I hesitate to run anything that might break. Plus, it's possible without mods. My approaches are under 5m/s, but they're not under 1m/s, I'm not that good. I end up burning in circles if I try to approach too slowly. I approach slowly, then the orbit changes and then all of a sudden I'm getting further away. So I burn towards the target. Orbit changes, and I'm moving further away... rinse and repeat. Bash head on desk. Can I attach the .sfs directly, or do I need to link to it?

Ok. I'll admit it. I'm frustrated. Docking is what made me give up the game last fall. I've been back since the .24 update and it's awesome, but I'm at my same old problem now. ....ing docking is a huge pain in the ass and I don't get it. I have two craft within 20m of each other. I've actually managed to bump them into each other even. The claw is supposed to make this easier since I can "dock" with a craft that doesn't have a docking port? I'm not getting it. I've watched the videos, I've read the posts. It just doesn't make sense. Is this possible without RCS? Do I need to just abandon the flights that are currently 20m apart and just use docking ports? Do I need RCS engines and tanks on every rocket? This is supposed to work. I've seen videos of this working. I don't use any mods. Mostly because I don't have the time to invest into what mods will work and won't work with each update, and I don't want to start using a mod that will break with an update. So I play the vanilla game. WTF. I just want to transfer some fuel. I'd like to build a space station some day, but if I can't even "dock" two rockets, that seems impossible. Someone please help me. I don't get it. Docking mode? Nothing happens! I go back and forth wasting tons of fuel just to get them close to each other, and they just bounce off and now I'm scrambling and wasting even more fuel. I sure would like this to work.

Heh. So I skipped the inclination change and headed straight for Kerbin. Check out this Mun sling-shot. It'll do the inclination for me by coincidence:

Thanks for the tips! Ok, I did wait until Minimus was at the point of being even with Mun's orbit, figuring that'd take some of the calculation away (as well as save fuel). At this point, I'm really just headed to Kerbin after a fly-by for science points, so if it's less energy to just skip Mun, I'll just do that. This is the farthest I've been out, so I'm still getting a handle on orbit dynamics.

I'm about to come back from Minimus and I realize I have two options here. I can align the plane of my next orbit with Mun (to hopefully take advantage of some gravity assisted slow down?) or I can leave Minimus orbit, then do a second burn later to align orbits. Or I guess a third option to make both the orbit burn and the inclination burn at the same time? OR, which I just thought of, screw it, and just leave Minimus orbit and just burn to orbit Kerbin directly and skip Mun. Thoughts? Is one method preferred over the other depending on the situation?

That right there is a hot tip I'll take note of. Thanks!

Nice. This guy is in orbit again. I never would have seen that. THANKS!!!

damn you have a good eye for that. I still don't see what you're looking at, but I'll try it.

So right. Sorry.

So I'm trying to get back into this after 10 months, so I'm not just rusty, but even then I was new. I built a rocket with 5 liquid engines for stage 1 with a bunch of fuel tanks. They run out around the point where I'm supposed to cut engines and coast to the orbital burn point (~70k-100k). All is fine, I'm at 80k, 1500m/s and I drop them and go for a state 2 burn. Except the engine provides zero thrust. My speed just keeps dropping slowly. I thought it was a staging thing, so I tried having the separation in one stage and the engine in another (so stage 1, all 5 ignite, stage 2 drops those 5, stage 3 engages the secondary engine) and both in the same stage (dropping the 5 also ignites the secondary engine). Zippo. If I go to stage 3, the capsule separates from the engine/tanks and it just drops away, with the engine at full power. It just drops off like I let go of a rock. What in the hell? Does this need to be a bug report, or am I just missing something painfully obvious?

Thanks. That was way easier than I should have had trouble with.

How do you "Edit your original post"?? It all sounds simple unless you know where to start...

I think every tutorial should be redone with a scottish voiceover. Edit: Thanks guys. I tried searching and found nothing helpful. This is awesome. I feel like I'm back in physics class though. Lots to learn! I think this is exactly what I was needing. Another Edit: I never figured out how to mark threads as answered. Help?

Ok. Another easy question for you guys. How in the hell do I transfer fuel from one ship to another??? I started reading MechJeb was messed up for the current version? I never used it in the first place. That would help me match orbits I think. I have two ships in orbit a few km apart. I have no idea how to efficiently dock them. They both have the mini docks on the nose of each one. Right now it's just an exercise in getting a fuel depot in orbit, but I'd like to launch a ship and refuel for a longer voyage. I currently have no mods installed, since I don't have enough time to figure them all out before the next update and they all break anyway. Do I really need a mod? Can I do this with the unmodded game? I mean, I'm sure I can, but how? Thanks in advance. You guys always steer me right.

possibly. I'll have to try it out a few times to sort it out. So there's no time delay between commands and action if the probe is way far away?

I made the solar panel mistake before, so I was sure to extend them. I'd rotate the probe and the panels would rotate towards the sun. The stock probe has two batteries on it, plus the probe body has a charge too. I just went back (have the game minimized) and I have control again. Am I supposed to have line of site to the control station or something?

Sorry if this is simple, I tried searching. So I loaded up the stock ion powered probe and launched it into solar orbit and now I can't control it. I went back and added solar panels and lost control again. What's the rule to controlling probes? I sent a command and waited, so it's not a time delay issue. It's not electrical power. The communication dish isn't really functional yet, right?

This solution is also just a curiosity about launching two craft at once. When you separate, do you end up with two independently controlled craft? I also see no problem with the lazy solution though

Ah hell. Thanks again guys. I put solar panels on it, but didn't extend them before I ran out of power. That makes lots of sense.

I'd like to eliminate debris. One solution is to put a remotely controlled module on the rocket, and separate it and turn it around and do a retrograde burn and let it crash while the main capsule continues. How do you guys deal with debris on stages that are separated in orbit?

I launched an unmanned ship and lost control during orbit, I assume is due to the fact that there's no line of sight to the ground station. Is there a way to fix this without mods? How do communication satellites work? The game evolves so quickly that any information I see in a google search is long outdated, or uses some mod and who knows if that mod even works with the update...

Solved! In Steam Library right click and Delete Local Data I also had to delete the KSP folder in Steamapps/Common <---- Then re-download the game. Unless I deleted the folder as well, saved games persisted along with video and audio settings. That was frustrating... Thanks to everyone who replied!!!!