Docking fun

[purpleivan]

Ah docking... great fun, especially parking a large vehicle and it's a tight squeeze.

This was the first docking I did, with a crew vehicle sent up to my first space station.

Back in the distant past, when I didn't know how to hide the HUD.

[Warzouz]

17 hours ago, Mitrae said:

...

And then I remember how I used to dock with only main engine... #facepalm.

I hope you had a powerful reaction wheel !

[sormi]

I actually figured out the rendezvous pretty quickly, but the last 5km was full of pain. Probably around an hour of several attempts and dozens of near misses I realized that I should just stare at the navball instead of the spacecrafts

Edited April 1, 2016 by sormi

[Zoidos]

On 3/30/2016 at 11:10 PM, Yanksxx21 said:

Just made my first docking with another spacecraft and it took a little bit of practice! Anyway I was wondering how long it took you guys and what you docked together your first time.

Welcome to the forums! Don't remember exactly when but it was in my first carreer. I started to build a small station in lko using 1.25m parts. It took quite a while and several redesigns ("huh. should've put rcs thrusters on this thing...") but once finally docked it was one of these awesome ksp success feelings.

I actuallystruggled a lot more with mastering orbital rendezvous.

[Archgeek]

I think mine was either the lander of a single-launch to Laythe mission to its transfer stage that I'd neglected to put a probe core on and so showed up disturbingly as debris (and which I at one point bumped and sent spinning, further complicating things), or the fuel pod seen at the rear of vehicle in my avatar, as a strange bug that was causing it oscilate wildly with negative attenuation and tear itself apart, requiring I reload it.  The pod needed docking because undocking it somehow stopped the problem, and the forward port wasn't working anymore so I had to dock to the aft port.  The thing also had no control and was spinning, and I had to chase it down first, as it had significant momentum from the oscilation when I undocked it.  A rather intense 40-odd minutes, if I recall.

[theorigin]

the bigger the better ...

[lobe]

Rendezvous I can do easily. Docking involves doing much to align myself and the target and then gets frusturating. However it does make more sense when making large vehicles over 100 tons.

[Freshmeat]

My first docking was a ship with unbalanced RCS. I do not recall how long it took, but I have had ships running out of monoprop during docking attempts. Now i use an alignment indicator and RCS aid during construction, and docking is a routine operation.

[something]

First docking was still performed in the 1.0 demo which basically was a RCS aided rendez-vous to exchange crew from a station to a transfer vehicle.

When I got the full game I found that doing the actual docking isn't much harder than the rendez-vous if you use the alignment mod. All together I have to admit it took me longer to get the hang of orbiting Kerbin than to dock. And yeah ut is fun. Doing all the dockings manually.

[samstarman5]

On 3/31/2016 at 9:42 AM, Mitrae said:

And then I remember how I used to dock with only main engine... #facepalm.

Anybody who is anybody should challenge themselves with docking only with the vehicle's engine(s) and not use RCS whatsoever.  It really gives one a feel for the strength of the engines at low power.  Of course, now we have the chance for flameouts at low throttle to add to the fun!

[max_creative]

I rendezvoused yesterday for the first time, then realized I forgot the docking port. FACEPLANT.

[spacebrick3]

I put a space station core in LKO, and then forgot all about it for ten years while I went to Duna, Jool, and Sarnus (OPM). Then I realised I should send something up, and put a massively overweight thing in orbit to try to dock. Missed by about 300m the first time, and did even worse the second. Rage deorbited, completed the docking tutorial, and sent up a stripped-down version of the first. Docked in about 20-30 minutes.

[jwbrase]

I had performed my first dockings in Orbiter, and could do it fairly confidently when I started playing KSP, but was always a bit on-edge with docking because Orbiter's alignment tolerances for a succesful docking are fairly narrow. KSP's wide tolerances took me rather by surpise, and with the whole "magnetic" effect, I found myself suddenly docked at right about the point that I expected things to become especially demanding.
 

[Skorpychan]

Took me a few hours of gameplay after having mechjeb do it a few times to show me.

I still use it for rendezvousing, because I just don't have the patience for it.

[Wemb]

On 30/03/2016 at 10:48 PM, Enorats said:

One thing that can help is Mechjeb's smart a.s.s. The stock pilot heading system might work too. Control both vessels from their respective docking ports, then  set the docking port of the otger vessel as the target an set each to "target +", so they face each other. Cancel out relative velocity, then while facing the target just move forward. Since both vessels are facing each other at all times they dock perfectly. It can help to disable the smart a.s.s. just prior to docking though, as it can go haywire at super close ranges right before docking.

Even better than the +TGT mode is the PAR mode - at least, I find this - it keeps your craft co-axial with the docking port, meaning you only have to worry about translation - this makes life a lot, lot easier.

 

Wemb

[Skorpychan]

10 hours ago, samstarman5 said:

Anybody who is anybody should challenge themselves with docking only with the vehicle's engine(s) and not use RCS whatsoever.  It really gives one a feel for the strength of the engines at low power.  Of course, now we have the chance for flameouts at low throttle to add to the fun!

As someone who had to teach themselves this after FORGETTING TO PACK MONOPROPELLANT, I can say it's easier than it sounds as long as you've got a decent TWR and enough reaction wheels to swing the craft around quickly.

[Servo]

The first time I did a docking was on an Apollo style (I knew how to rendezvous), and for some reason, the docking ports kept sliding off of each other for like fifteen minutes. After a bit of frantic web searching, I backed off, approached, and remembered to turn off SAS. I was docked in like 30 seconds.

[NeoMorph]

On 30/03/2016 at 10:10 PM, Yanksxx21 said:

Just made my first docking with another spacecraft and it took a little bit of practice! Anyway I was wondering how long it took you guys and what you docked together your first time.

#The first dock is the sweetest, baby I know, the first dock is the sweetest (sung to Rod Stewart First Cut Is The Deepest).

Seriously though, learning to rendezvous and dock is the first real tough hurdle in KSP. Getting to orbit is hard but getting two ships together is crazy hard at first. Then you learn about relative velocity and it all makes sense. Before I got that I would see my target shooting past me sooooooooooo many times and then when I got confused because I hadn't got my view in chase mode (nowadays you have to use Locked view mode but back in the day it was Chase cam) so everytime I went to go left I would go down or right or up... every way but the one I wanted.

I remember when Romfarer made the Lazor Docking Camera which made life a lot easier... Then someone made the docking alignment indicator... and manual docking became a TON easier...

But the first unassisted docking will always be the best milestone of every KSP pilot in my book, because you have to learn a ton of things that lead up to that docking... that is if you go fully manual.

[pipercarman]

You are doing well. I've played about 116 hours and never docked once

[Madscientist16180]

The very first time i tried to dock was about a week into playing KSP. As i always enjoyed tycoon-type game, my first move had been to go career, never been a Big sandbox gamer.

So, after seeing the "rescue XYZ Kerman" contract, i tought i would need to dock so i grinded the necessary tech. Rendez-vous was tougher than i expected, but my prior understanding of orbital mechanics helped and after some reloads, both craft were together and i realised i did not needed to dock. Just about the same time i realised that i had forgot to place chute on my recovery craft...

So, i decided to send a replica of the craft, and to dock it, this time adding chutes lol

Got lucky and docked both craft easily. They where both under my control, small, with réaction wheels and rcs. It pushed me into mystakenly thinking docking was awfully easy.

So, let's try this " build a station around Kerbin" contract i tell myself... Send the first part without a problem, so i decide i want fuel up there, loads of fuel. So, station module #2 endsup being huge and Heavy, and i plan on using some fuel from the reserve tank to complete rendez-vous and use about 1/2 my monopropelant to get real close (that was a mistake!). Strt the docking, and all hell break loose! My rcs thrusters are now not on my CoM since i used some fuel and way too much monopropellant. Every translation was inducing some amount of rotation, and it took me hours and an unimaginable amount of quickloading to achieve it.

At least i had learned to be mindfull of what fuel usage would do when placing my rcs.

Have great KSP fun everyone!

[zuuhis79]

My first docking was in version 0.22 career mode, after I had collected enough science to unlock RCS and docking ports. I probably build some crappy space station from 1.25 meter modules, and used A LOT of monopropellant to get it done. Nowadays I don't even bother to put RCS thrusters or monopropellant to all of my space station parts, because it's getting easy to do it with only rocket engines. Experience and training has that effect...

[Guest]

9 hours ago, jwbrase said:

I had performed my first dockings in Orbiter, and could do it fairly confidently when I started playing KSP, but was always a bit on-edge with docking because Orbiter's alignment tolerances for a succesful docking are fairly narrow. KSP's wide tolerances took me rather by surpise, and with the whole "magnetic" effect, I found myself suddenly docked at right about the point that I expected things to become especially demanding.

I like to turn down the magnetic effect to pretty much nothing with a ModuleManager script; It's seriously annoying and very unsatisfying.

[cantab]

My first docking was with a ship that decoupled and then redocked, so I could get a feel for it. With the rendezvous stage out of the way it was fairly easy flying around. I already had some experience EVAing Kerbals which is a similar skill.

My first rendezvous was in the demo, after about a dozen hours of play, and I needed a couple of goes. There was a guide on the KSP Wiki that helped me through it.

My first EVA was also in the demo, and I promptly got the Kerbal hopelessly stranded in space.

[max_creative]

FIRST DOCKING TODAY!!! I docked the Dres 5 and a Dres CTV. The CTV is the size of the Kerbal X. The Dres 5 you can see from 5 kilometers away. DRES HERE WE COME!!! Any advice on assembling Dres station 1?

[KerikBalm]

17 hours ago, zuuhis79 said:

My first docking was in version 0.22 career mode, after I had collected enough science to unlock RCS and docking ports. I probably build some crappy space station from 1.25 meter modules, and used A LOT of monopropellant to get it done. Nowadays I don't even bother to put RCS thrusters or monopropellant to all of my space station parts, because it's getting easy to do it with only rocket engines. Experience and training has that effect...

I used to dock without RCS, just using the main engine and switching between craft to rotate them... but as my craft got bigger, I started appreciating the ability to translate... especially when frame rate gets low.

Vernors or monoprop RCS thrusters are now standard on most craf that I intend to dock. Small craft I will often go without them though.