How do I keep my nose pointed down during orbit?

[noneyabidnis]

Question is for both the Mun and Kerbin. I want to have the nose of my craft pointing straight down at the surface during orbit. I know I can do this by pointing it down and then pressing 't' to lock it in place, but I\'m wondering if there is another way. If it is possible any other way, how can I go about doing it?

[Doctor Lag]

It\'s not possible with the stock game. Although using SAS will keep your ship\'s \'absolute\' orientation, you\'ll find that it\'ll drift in relation to the surface as you orbit and you keep having to make manual corrections.

I don\'t know if MechJeb or other mods have the capability of maintaining your relative orientation...

[UmbralRaptor]

MechJeb is supposed to be able to in SURF mode. (set it for -90 pitch)

[Cepheus]

The game simply doesn\'t work that way, at least, it doesn\'t now. However, there are ways to force it. There\'s Mechjeb, and this (http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=11622.0). Good luck.

[Korbat]

lol [glow=red,2,300][shadow=red,left]cepheus[/shadow][/glow], same avatar ;D

you can use the MechJeb plugin but, it does not support warping (time forwarding), you can tell MechJeb to stay faced to kerbin but it does only what you want if you stay at normal time speed.

So if you use time forwarding your spacecraft still turns around while in orbit and turns back to the position you told MechJeb to stay in if you set the warp back at 1x.

The turning is caused by Fixed Stars and you can only prevent that by using Control Moment Gyroscopes and we don\'t have those in KSP

Earlier this year i\'ve posted an topic about this subject so you can read some more information about your problem there. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=8719.msg129146#msg129146

I hope I helped you out a bit more

[Jontu]

lol [glow=red,2,300][shadow=red,left]cepheus[/shadow][/glow], same avatar ;D

you can use the MechJeb plugin, but it does not support warping (time forwarding), you can tell MechJeb to stay faced to kerbin but it does only what you want if you stay at normal time speed.

You can\'t do anything during TW, it\'s not meant to be played. Smart A.S.S. will return to whatever is turned on when you leave TW. The button for nose down is 'Rad -'.

[cardgame]

There is a plugin that allows for this, even during timewarp. It\'s called PowerTech, and AFAIK only applicable to deployed satellites, aka something you would decouple and therefore have no control over.

I\'m not 100% sure on that though, so check out the thread.

[Cepheus]

'Rad -'.

That setting isn\'t actually 'nose down' because, in space, there is no 'up' or 'down.' It\'s all relative. NML+ for normal, and NML- for anti-normal (the normals are at 90 degrees to the prograde-retrograde plane) and RAD+ for radial outward (away from the SOI), RAD- for radial inward (towards the SOI).

[Alchemist]

I\'ll soon release an advanced attitude controller for any craft with even more abilities than currently implemented in PoweSat.

[VincentMcConnell]

Use MechJeb, activate the Smart A.S.S. and press the button that says, 'Pro'. It will keep you locked on a pro-grade vector, only broken when you warp because you\'re placed on rails. As soon as you 'unwarp', you\'ll go back to pro-grade.