GungaDin

What's autostrut?

I've been doing that but my concern is that once I refuel at my depot I will have to adjust to 0 before I head off to Moon or Mars. I guess that's still more efficient then dragging all of that fuel up from earth.

OK so I am mid career and ready to get serious about building a space station. My intention is to basically construct a fuel depot and Kerbal way station to send off and receive deep space ships. My fist question is how to you attache and uncouple the various bits that I loft into space? Obviously I know how to dock and undock using the stock docking port but is that the only connection point or are there other ways to do my Leggo building in space? Thanks as usual . . .

Thanks to both of you. I'm learning these maneuvers mostly by instinct and I've always been very good at visual leaning which is also important when you are math deficient like me. These are good points. I did not know the 'slow' principle. I have figured out to do my burn at descending or ascending nodes but I suppose that I may have chosen the wrong node at times if I was not in circular orbit. Ah! So for me - sitting in a 13 dig inclination - I wonder if it would help for me to do my inclination burn BEFORE I circularize my orbit? In the past I would circularize first for simplicity sake and that may be a mistake. Where's Scott manly when you need him?

I've become a damn pro at rendezvous and docking but I'm still wasting lots of precious fuel by launching from my base which is about 13 latitude. I always end up with an inclination of about 13 and then have to spill gas to get closer to 0. is there an efficient way to get to an equatorial orbit from a higher latitude?

For the first time I have a few clampatron docking ports that are misbehaving. I got them to touch perfectly but they don't like each other! - In my research here I saw that it's possible that I 'have them in backward' but how is that possible? - Is it true that the docking ports must be designated as 'control from here' and 'target' in order for them to operate (clamp together)?

- Is it safe to leave a space station manned only by an engineer or will he lose control of it? - I assume if I leave one empty I would lose control of it and not be able to return and dock? - Is it safe to leave a male and female Kerbil alone up there? Thanks

With lots of help from this forum I have moved forward in a successful career. However I am just a bit strapped for cash. I have developed the ability to : - dock in earth orbit like a champ - orbit the moon with Kerbils on board - built a fuel station in Earth orbit to assist future space travel Any tips on making my company more profitable at this point. I'm in a bit of a slump where I take contracts using these skills but my rockets are costing me almost as much as I generate... Thanks as usual...

I lost contact with a science probe which was chasing after Mars. It has electricity and 2 High Gain antennas and my tracking center on Earth is fully upgraded. Any ideas on why this might have happened?

No and no. I can only imagine that the debris is orbiting below the surface of the moon since the Mun is smaller then my KSRSS Moon.

I upgraded my Earth tracking to level 3 now. When I'm in map mode and click on my target - the only option I get is to "View From Tracking Station". I do that and this is what I get - my target but with a red line leading to Earth. My thought here is if my locking and tracking is done from Earth and not from my ship - then it can only be done when my target is visible from Earth and it is in a VERY low lunar orbit so not trackable 50% of the time.I will wait until both it and my ship are on the Earthward side and try to lock on it then. ---- No luck with that idea. Both of us Earthward and I still can't lock on it. I might have to break out pencil and paper and do some math. Anyone have a good book on Orbital Mechanics? I think I can get close to it but with no read out of relative speed I don't think I can do it. (I do NOT have RO installed - only KSRSS)

OK so I'm going to save the game and then cheat by borrowing money to upgrade my ground facilities to see if that's it.

See here. I'm at periacsis now in a normal lunar orbit. The debree I'm trying to reach is called Crisdon's but I can't target it from my ship. Maybe I should have brought a high gain antenna?

My good guess is that I would be able to see her orbit if I had enough money to upgrade my tracking station...

Thanks guys but pick up the pace around here. Took you almost a minute to respond! Well I did find her but there is no orbital data. I'll try going out there and see what I can do. On another note i noticed just now that I left a lot of debris all over the place. Do I get anything for cleaning that up?

I don't want to risk going all the way out there unless I'm sure she's there...

I signed a contract to rescue someone orbiting the moon but I do not see anything hanging in lunar orbit from my map screen. I'm going to head on over there and just hope that I pick her up when I get closer.

Boom! This was not easy. I put a starboard and port hatch on that central piece and the last ship to dock has a few rcs thrusters on it which I just used for brakes occasionally. Then I tried to get into a parking orbit like 100 meters off port or starboard of the mother ship. If I got close to stable there I would switch to the mother ship and maneuver it to be at 90 degrees...then switch back and close in at like .2m/sec praying all the way. I bumped a few times at that speed with no apparent damage and eventually caught hold. I know this is primitive construction so any building tips would be appreciated. PS you can see that I have pasted more and more solar panels on these ships in an attempt to meet a contract requirement but now I realize that it is batteries that are required... next few flights I guess.

Ah OK then - looks like I need to get a few Z-1Ks up there then . Thanks for clarifying. At one point I was maneuvering in to dock and didn't realize that I was in the shadow of Earth until I lost all control. The sun came up just in time to avoid a nasty collision. Fun times but I'll need to acquire a few larger batteries anyway to avoid this. Thanks guys.

I signed a contract to build a space station for 5 Kerbils. No problem....but how do I also generate 2500 units of electricity? At this point ion my career I only have OX-STAT panels and I pasted them all over the place like post -its but I'm not sure what that does. What is an electrical 'unit' and where are they listed on the parts manifest? Any help would be appreciated as usual.

Best way I have found to dock with no RCS is to switch back and forth several times while very close but I can't get the cursor to find the other craft from the map view when close. Why the hell don't they allow 'switch to' from the camera view?

Hazaaa! Thanks so much to all of you. My first dock and I had no RCS system.... Now I have to start building my gas station in the sky. LOVE THIS SIM! (As I approached my target I had to make adjustments at several different moments. From my point of view it was almost like docking with a stationary submarine underwater but not quite. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thin that as I make these smaller adjustments I am basically putting the final touches on matching my orbital altitude, inclination and eccentricity an exact match with my target.)

I am finally getting the feel of space navigation but boy it can be disorienting at times. I'm getting to be a bad ass though like when I manage to adjust my inclination and apoapsis with a single burn.... Here are a few basic questions I'm still playing with : 1 - Is this an inefficient procedure? My lazy way of quickly getting into a stable, circular orbit. Once I punch most of the way out of the atmosphere I begin to tilt over to 45^ and then all the way to 90^. Then I start to keep track or my periapis and apoapsis. Once my apoapsis is where I want it I turn off my engine and glide up to it - then i resume thrust at 90^ until my periapsis matches. This works but I'm sure that I lose efficiency while gliding up to apoapsis. Question is - what is a better solution to save fuel? 2 - I'm still struggling with the concept of rendezvous in the following example. I am in a stable, circular orbit with no eccentricity, at velocity X and altitude Y. My target is in my exact orbit and inclination 1 Km in front of me. By definition we are moving at the same velocity. (If we were not at the same velocity we would NOT be at the same height and eccentricity right?) I want to start to close the distance between us. Am I not in a 'you can't get there from here' situation? If I speed up (by thrusting toward target) I add altitude. If I slow down I lose altitude. Must I do this in 2 moves by diving down first and then thrusting forward - sorta like a 'Fokker bounce'? Excuse my dog fighting reference but I don't know how else to describe it. Thanks for any answers here.

I have tried tweeking the colors on this but only seem to get a white light. Am I barkin' up the wrong tree? (I'm running KSP 1.73)

I think this orbit already matches the contract requirements of AP 760 and PE of 182. What I don't understand is the final requirement of "longitude of descending node at 233 degrees". I don't have a decending node and don't know how to move it if I did...