EVA causes ship to spiral out of control

[Wakaleo]

Gidday all you KSP gurus,

I'm only new to the game and have been getting my career going using Scott Manley's videos. Pardon me if this topic has been already raised but I couldn't find any that told me specifically what was happening and how to fix it.

Every time I try to EVA while orbiting Kerbin the ship immediately starts spinning and turning, making it impossible to let go and recover the results from science experiments like the mystery goo. If I make the Kerbal let go, the ship heads off in one direction and Jebediah, Valentina or whoever tumble away in another. I've tried chasing the ship using RCS but with it tumbling so chaotically it's impossible to get a grip and board (for me anyway).

What can I do to prevent this, or at least work with it? Thanks in advance for your answers.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Wakaleo

[Dman979]

Let me guess: when you leave the ship, yellow text says "No Pilots aboard and no SAS modules"

You can't stop that. However, you can warp time for a bit to stop the rotation once you are off the ladder. And then do whatever you need to.

[Claw]

Three things...

One, make sure it's not moving at all before you exit the craft.

Two, make sure there isn't anything around the hatch. If something is too close, your kerbal might be colliding with that part and causing the ship to spin. Since the kerbal is hanging on to the outside, SAS will not stop the spin once it starts.

Three, take control of the ship and press MOD KEY+X (ALT+X if you are using windows). This will zero out the trim. So when you go EVA and the SAS turns off, there won't be trim input causing it to spin out of control.

Cheers,

~Claw

[Wakaleo]

That was a quick response! Thanks Dman979 and Claw, I'll give those a try.

- - - Updated - - -

Claw, (1) the first time I tried to EVA the ship was motionless (well, obviously in orbit but motionless on the nav ball) but it still spiralled out of control when Jeb went extra-vehicular. Fortunately he was still hanging on so I could board again. (2) I do have a couple of mystery goo containers and batteries but they are mounted on the sides. Is that still too close to the hatch/ladder? (3) And do you mean I should press Alt+X while still in vehicle, because when I tried it while hanging on to the ladder both the ship and Jeb went haywire and flew apart from each other.

[Wakaleo]

Claw, your third suggestion worked for me. Pressing Alt+X before going extra-vehicle kept the ship and Jeb stable. Thanks heaps for the advice. Still lots to learn but loving every minute of it.

[Claw]

Claw, your third suggestion worked for me. Pressing Alt+X before going extra-vehicle kept the ship and Jeb stable. Thanks heaps for the advice. Still lots to learn but loving every minute of it.

Yes, this is the one I meant. Or you can use ] or [ to "switch vessels" while EVA and press Alt+X to zero out the trim. Although at that point, the ship will already be spinning so it won't matter much.

The trim indicators are in the bottom left of the screen. You can see how much work the SAS is doing by looking at these indicators with SAS on. When you turn SAS off, the indicators will show you your trim state. You can input trim by holding ALT and pressing WASDQE (or whatever you have your steering keys mapped to). Alt+X returns this trim to zero on all three axes.

Glad you have it sorted out.

Cheers,

~Claw