Rendezvous

[Starchaser]

Well,

I was able to rescue a kerbal, but my second rendezvous attempt is being a disaster in progress. I watched 5th horseman's video tutorial, but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to figure out which way to turn to draw parallel. It's not helping that every time I do get some idea of which way to draw parallel, I input the 270° direction from it, then the 180°....so I am making 4 direction changes to get pointed in the right direction. Any hints, or suggestions on another tutorial? The more information, the better.

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I'm getting within 2 meters, but I can't get those last 6 feet.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Starchaser

[Superfluous J]

So you're able to get next to the target, and get pretty much stationary?

Pretty much from this point on you need to practice. :/ I hate to send you elsewhere from my fabulous* tutorials, but have you tried watching a few from others? Some people teach and learn differently and maybe someone else will be able to help you better.

But I suspect you just need time and effort, and patience. You are learning something that is not only new, but tantalizingly familiar at the same time. You need to not only learn new habits but break old ones. Keep at it.

I wasn't lying when I said that docking and rendezvous were among the hardest things in the game to learn. The good news is that they get easy, once you DO learn them.

*My tutorials may or may not actually be fabulous.

[Landge]

2 meters! That's more than close enough. Unless you were zooming past. You need to switch to the Kerbal using your bracket keys [ or ] then press the R key to switch on his jet pack to move him to your ship. He won't move on his own. Switching to another craft or Kerbal using brackets only works with-in a 2.3 km range.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Landge

[Taki117]

This is the best help I can offer.

[Starchaser]

2 meters! That's more than close enough. Unless you were zooming past. You need to switch to the Kerbal using your bracket keys [ or ] then press the R key to switch on his jet pack to move him to your ship. He won't move on his own. Switching to another craft or Kerbal using brackets only works with-in a 2.3 km range.

Oops. I'm sorry, I mentioned the kerbal rescue to say that I've done a rendezvous once before.

I am trying to grab Munar lander that I only had enough fuel to get back into orbit + 110 dV. I'm carrying enough fuel to refuel it and get both craft back to Kerbin. So I don't really have the option to swap to the target and jet there, I'm also not going to a docking port, so the docking assist mod won't help. And my last issue, I forgot to put RCS onto my rescue craft, so I am doing it all on my rocket engine.

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And my inability to get the last 6 feet is more due to making the exact wrong directional input every time. By the time I get my ship pointed the right way, what was 1.7 meters is now 7m

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I saved it off with me about 20m from the target with a 0.4m/s velocity dif. I was within 6 meters, and thought I had it, then my cat nudged my hand and I hit Z instead of shift, the resulting collision ripped off my pV panels. I reloaded my quicksave, but didn't have the heart to try one more time tonight. I'll get it in the morning.

[Deutherius]

Oops. I'm sorry, I mentioned the kerbal rescue to say that I've done a rendezvous once before.

I am trying to grab Munar lander that I only had enough fuel to get back into orbit + 110 dV. I'm carrying enough fuel to refuel it and get both craft back to Kerbin. So I don't really have the option to swap to the target and jet there, I'm also not going to a docking port, so the docking assist mod won't help. And my last issue, I forgot to put RCS onto my rescue craft, so I am doing it all on my rocket engine.

- - - Updated - - -

And my inability to get the last 6 feet is more due to making the exact wrong directional input every time. By the time I get my ship pointed the right way, what was 1.7 meters is now 7m

- - - Updated - - -

I saved it off with me about 20m from the target with a 0.4m/s velocity dif. I was within 6 meters, and thought I had it, then my cat nudged my hand and I hit Z instead of shift, the resulting collision ripped off my pV panels. I reloaded my quicksave, but didn't have the heart to try one more time tonight. I'll get it in the morning.

First off, LOL at the cat part

Second, I think you pretty much got this. Just don't overcomplicate it too much. When you are this close, forget about complex orbital adjustments - just go with the navball.

Make sure to be in a "target" mode.

Turn to the retrograde marker. Thrust with your main engines until velocity goes to 0.0 m/s or very close (if your engine is too powerfull, right click it and set the thrust limiter to something small, like 10 % - this makes your throttle slider go from 0 - 10 % of engine's max thrust).

Now turn your nose to the target. Give it a small burn with the main engine (not more than ~0.5 m/s).

Watch your ship slowly move to the target. If it hits, you're done. If it misses, just repeat the procedure (turn to retrograde, wait until you are close, burn to zero out relative velocity, etc).

Oh, and don't forget to arm your grabber, otherwise it won't grab anything

Good luck

[Starchaser]

I finally got the lander. Although, I am not sure how I was able to transfer fuel, since I grabbed him by a photovoltaic panel, lol. Anyway, all kerbals are safe at home. Jeb might have a complex though. His lander hit hard enough on the mun to bounce up in the ...erm...lack of air like a football, he didn't have enough return fuel, then after refuel, and Munar escape, he burned for kerbal re-entry, only to have the Mun grab him again, and delay his periapsis by 3 hours, His areobrake went perfectly, but he wound up touching down in the mountains and rolling down one. Kaspar, meanwhile, had an almost perfect flight, with the only trouble being the hookup to the Lander, and landed within 20 km of KSC.

[eddiew]

I input the 270° direction from it, then the 180°....so I am making 4 direction changes to get pointed in the right direction.

This intrigues me... you sound like you're not piloting manually (in which case you'd just have to point target-retrograde and burn gently until stationary)...

Glad you got it sorted though

[Starchaser]

This intrigues me... you sound like you're not piloting manually (in which case you'd just have to point target-retrograde and burn gently until stationary)...

Glad you got it sorted though

I am piloting manually, but...

In the tutorial I was using, the instructions are to head your ship so that the target is coming to a parallel track to yours and then thrust until you are beside your target, and relatively motionless, then aim toward the target, and apply gentle thrust to approach, then repeat the process. When you are lining up a parallel approach, you aren't pointing prograde or retrograde....What I am trying to say is that if I need to move the nose of my craft to the right side of the screen, for example, I'll wind up moving my nose toward the bottom of the screen, then have to correct, then I move it to the left of the screen, then correct, and finally get the nose moving in the proper direction.

[Melkor X]

I find using the chase cam helps immensely with this.

[Superfluous J]

I am piloting manually, but...

In the tutorial I was using, the instructions are to head your ship so that the target is coming to a parallel track to yours and then thrust until you are beside your target, and relatively motionless, then aim toward the target, and apply gentle thrust to approach, then repeat the process. When you are lining up a parallel approach, you aren't pointing prograde or retrograde....What I am trying to say is that if I need to move the nose of my craft to the right side of the screen, for example, I'll wind up moving my nose toward the bottom of the screen, then have to correct, then I move it to the left of the screen, then correct, and finally get the nose moving in the proper direction.

It sounds here like maybe your'e not in the correct mode on the navball. If you click where it says "Orbit" it'll toggle between 2 modes, Orbit and Surface. If you have a target set (and you should) you'll have a 3rd mode, Target mode. Then you can aim at your retrograde marker and burn until your speed relative to that target is 0 m/s. Makes it a LOT easier to sidle up next to your station.

[eddiew]

What I am trying to say is that if I need to move the nose of my craft to the right side of the screen, for example, I'll wind up moving my nose toward the bottom of the screen, then have to correct, then I move it to the left of the screen, then correct, and finally get the nose moving in the proper direction.

Ignore the screen, watch the navball and the retrograde/prograde markers on it Will disambiguate right/left/up/down problem. You can get to within a hundred metres of your target, stationary, using only map mode; which I often do, since seeing the ships tends to be a distraction rather than a benefit.

[Superfluous J]

Also, if you change camera mode to "chase" and orient your camera behind your vessel, what happens on the screen will match the navball.

But yes, Eddiew is correct. The rest of the screen is there to be pretty. The navball is king.