Docking, How do I allign two ships?

[ToukieToucan]

Did it worked out ? It's the easier way to handle docking.

1- Taget the dockling port, Go near it (10m) with SAS activated

2- Swith to other ship, control from the targe doching port

3- rotate your ship to your docking port is aligned, wait for perfect stabilisation

4- Swtich again to first ship. Simply go forward slowly

This way, you don't have to translate sideways, but both ship must be able to rotate (they usually can, even very slowly).

This is the easiest way to dock without indicator mods. Personaly, I use indicator mods, because I love to translate around target ships and end perfectly docked. I find it that much relaxing.

I'm using a new smaller ship now. how do I move the green cross?

[Corw]

Move yellow prograde marker towards it

[ToukieToucan]

how? I miss the ship each time. This is frustrating...

[Warzouz]

The green indicator is where you want to translate to.

If the line are red : you are on the other side of the ship (distance is usually negative).

If the line is grenn : you are on the right side of the target

If pograde/retrograde vector is where you go. If lines are red, beware not to go straight to the target, you would hit it.

Translate so you prograde go near the green intersect. Meanwhile shorten your distance (the right one) be not below 2 meters. Wait for the green intersect to comme to the middle : your are alinged. Finish by going forward a little.

I recommend that your prograde never go farther than the green intersect.

With this method, you use very little RCS fuel. Don't forget you can warp to go faster instead of expending RCS fuel.

Another tip : if your ship isn't well balanced, you might rotate when you translate sideways. Don't bother too much because when you'll translate back, your ship will mostly correct its aignment. That only works for small imbalance.

Further more, I noticed you have a lot of RCS. Except for refueling a station, Docking require very little RCS. I can dock a 7tons lander with only 2 to 5 unit of RCS fuel. Take your time, that's the secret.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Warzouz

[ToukieToucan]

I did it! (in training mode) didn't use the docking alligment though since it was kind of confusing. I just need to point the prograde into the target marker right?

okay now this was hard enough. going to dock in my main game soon!

[Warzouz]

I did it! (in training mode) didn't use the docking alligment though since it was kind of confusing. I just need to point the prograde into the target marker right?

okay now this was hard enough. going to dock in my main game soon!

You do that only if you're perfectly aligned with target. that's my first method :

- Align your ship

- Align the other ship

- go forward.

[Corw]

Congrats You really did one of the hardest things in game. Feel free to feel smug a bit. Now practice till it becomes easy

[The_Rocketeer]

I did it! (in training mode) didn't use the docking alligment though since it was kind of confusing. I just need to point the prograde into the target marker right?

okay now this was hard enough. going to dock in my main game soon!

No.

If you're on the wrong side of the station/other craft and you simply prograde toward the target marker on the navball, you'll crash straight into the wrong end of it. You need to move around to the correct side first.

Even then, you're not aligned unless you're directly below/away from the docking port you're attempting to dock to. The prograde marker simply means 'your control part is moving towards this'. It doesn't mean you're approaching from the proper angle, and the proper aligned angle is 0.

This is why I suggested lining up to normal/anti-normal or 0/180 on the navball horizon. Then you are very nearly already aligned to 0, and all you have to do is RCS thrust in straight lines until the target marker is on the crosshairs of your navball, then thrust directly forwards.

If you're not properly aligned you can still dock, but only if you haven't crashed into the wrong part of the station and if your speed is low enough/your mass is low enough/you were accurate enough for the magnetism of the docking ports to pull you into the 0 alignment. Making contact this way would be extremely damaging to the docking rings/hubs in RL, and the attracting force in KSP simply doesn't exist in RL.

[ToukieToucan]

No.

If you're on the wrong side of the station/other craft and you simply prograde toward the target marker on the navball, you'll crash straight into the wrong end of it. You need to move around to the correct side first.

Even then, you're not aligned unless you're directly below/away from the docking port you're attempting to dock to. The prograde marker simply means 'your control part is moving towards this'. It doesn't mean you're approaching from the proper angle, and the proper aligned angle is 0.

This is why I suggested lining up to normal/anti-normal or 0/180 on the navball horizon. Then you are very nearly already aligned to 0, and all you have to do is RCS thrust in straight lines until the target marker is on the crosshairs of your navball, then thrust directly forwards.

If you're not properly aligned you can still dock, but only if you haven't crashed into the wrong part of the station and if your speed is low enough/your mass is low enough/you were accurate enough for the magnetism of the docking ports to pull you into the 0 alignment. Making contact this way would be extremely damaging to the docking rings/hubs in RL, and the attracting force in KSP simply doesn't exist in RL.

I'll keep this in consideration for the next docking, thanks.

[Snark]

My ship was too bulky and had RCS in wrong places so docking would be near impossible for a beginner like me.

also, lining ships up would be very hard for me since I had a massive bulky ship with wrong RCS placement. Also no reaction wheels.

Or at least have a TON of reaction wheels so unbalanced jets aren't as big a deal.

Fortunately, the game has a good (though unfortunately, not very well documented) feature that enormously helps with unbalanced RCS thrusters:

Use fine control mode, because it activates RCS auto-balancing.

You toggle it on and off via caps lock. Read this post for details, but what it boils down to is that when you turn it on, the game automatically does proportional thrust adjustment for each individual RCS thruster on your ship, in order to balance them out so that you can thrust left-right-up-down without rotating your ship or wasting scads of monopropellant.

It's an incredibly useful feature, and one of the game's best-kept secrets.

(That's not to say you should ignore RCS placement completely-- the more balanced they are, the better this feature can help you-- but it can make the difference between frustrating impossibility and a fairly stable, if slow, experience.)

[Superfluous J]

Use fine control mode, because it activates RCS auto-balancing.

One of the things I both love and hate about this game is how you can learn something so basic after years of playing.

I've actually benefited from this before, but figured it was just that my reaction wheels were better able to compensate.

[Snark]

One of the things I both love and hate about this game is how you can learn something so basic after years of playing.

I've actually benefited from this before, but figured it was just that my reaction wheels were better able to compensate.

Yeah, I was playing KSP for nearly a year before I found out about this feature... now I trumpet it every chance I get, it's just too useful for folks not to know about it. I really wish that Squad would surface the feature better. For example, in low-difficulty mode, the game could auto-detect a badly unbalanced ship when you turn on RCS, and pop up a little dialog that says hey, your RCS is lopsided, consider activating fine control mode.

[Skorpychan]

For me, it's pretty easy. Admittedly, I use mechjeb to get to within 200m, but I CAN do that on my own. I just don't like to because it makes my brain hurt.

Once there, though, the best way is to get near the docking port you want, then rotate around to face it. Then turn the camera around so it's behind the ship, and align it while looking that direction. Once that's done, check it from behind the other ship, and get closer. Control from one port, target the other, and use the navball to judge relative speeds. Approach slowly, then give a final push of a few m/s to make them connect.

It's a lot like parking a car, I find. Or like getting a key into a lock.

Mind you, my brain works in strange ways. What's easy for me may be tricky for you. There's always mechjeb, though.

[ToukieToucan]

For me, it's pretty easy. Admittedly, I use mechjeb to get to within 200m, but I CAN do that on my own. I just don't like to because it makes my brain hurt.

Once there, though, the best way is to get near the docking port you want, then rotate around to face it. Then turn the camera around so it's behind the ship, and align it while looking that direction. Once that's done, check it from behind the other ship, and get closer. Control from one port, target the other, and use the navball to judge relative speeds. Approach slowly, then give a final push of a few m/s to make them connect.

It's a lot like parking a car, I find. Or like getting a key into a lock.

Mind you, my brain works in strange ways. What's easy for me may be tricky for you. There's always mechjeb, though.

Yea I'll use mechjeb for docking but so far I don't have that tech.

[Warzouz]

Beware that docking with MJ uses a LOT of RCS fuel.

[Slam_Jones]

Practice! I've considered doing my own docking tutorial, but I think there might be enough of them out there at the moment