Don't quite understand how to dock..

[Kerbal the Kerbal]

Im not that smart about rocket science, astronomy and all that. I have been wondering this ever since i have bought KSP. "How do I dock ?" The mods i have on are Hyperedit, WindowShine, and Scatterer. My KSP edition is 1.2.1. I run KSP on a mid 2015 model macbook pro laptop, 15" screen with retina display, 2.2 ghz intel core i7, 16gb 1600 mhz  DDR3, and 256gb storage. Graphics is Intel Iris Pro 1536mb.

Thanks! 

[Capt. Hunt]

There is a docking tutorial in the training missions.  Beyond that, I'm not entirely sure what you mean.  What part of docking has you confused?

Docking is fairly straight forward.   See what I did there?  Once you're near your target, you line up with it, point your docking port at the target port (which you can make easier by right clicking the target port and selecting "set as target," which aligns the target piper, [  ] Shipname in the main view or on your nav ball, with the port itself instead of the root part).  If your rocket's command pod is not inline with the port, you can right click on the port on your end and select "control from here," which re-centers the  RCS controls and nav ball to line up with your port. Once you are satisfied with the alignment, you push the two ports together (within a meter or two they will be magnetically attracted).  You can control translational (forward, back, side-to-side) RCS movement either by using the IJKL keys (as opposed to WASD) or switching to docking mode (Del key) which remaps translation to WASD and engages a few useful UI widgets.  With higher level pilots, you can use the SAS to point toward your selected target by clicking the SAS mode button that looks like inside a red circle.

 

Rendezvous is the hard part, and where the rocket science factors in.   I suggest for the first few docking attempts you try something more Apollo 9 style, launch the docking target in the same rocket as your ship, so that you can practice without the rendezvous.  Even under normal circumstances, it's a whole other kettle of fish.  I won't bore you with the orbital mechanics, but a ship at a lower orbit travels faster then one higher up.  You change your orbit's altitude by speeding up or slowing down.  You don't want to start with both ships in the same orbit, because if they're more then a few kilometers apart, you'll never catch the target by chasing it.  First, you need to match the  inclination of the orbits as precisely as possible, within less then a degree (should be easy if you're launching everything equatorially).  Then, to rendezvous, you want to wait until the lower ship is about a quarter of an orbit behind the higher ship, preferably as you pass either AP or PE, as that will be cheaper fuel-wise.  Once there, you need to change the orbit until the two cross where the two ships will be at their closest intercept (you will see two sets of marks appear on the orbits where they cross if you have it in the right spot).  If you are the higher ship, burn towards retrograde, () to lower the orbit.  If you are lower, burn towards prograde () to raise it.  You want this intercept to ideally be within 2.3 km, but the closer the better.  If you haven't already set the other ship as the target, now is a good time to do so.  that will make the velocity display switch from orbit relative to target relative.  As you approach the intercept point, you'll need to match orbital speeds, or else the target will shoot right by you (or worse, collide with you at several hundred m/s), so burn either or (usually the opposite of the previous burn) to bring the target relative speed down as low as possible.  You should aim to match speeds within 2.3 km, so you can see your target (any further out and it won't render).  From there, see the docking instructions above.

Edited November 6, 2016 by Capt. Hunt

[Kerbal the Kerbal]

Well, About docking, I know this: You need to stay with the  on your navball, going .2 m/s, toward the docking port on the other ship you want to dock with. I usually set the target on the docking port on each ship (I also activate RCS, I think it gives you a stability boost). Then, I go on the navball for the K-MSS2 (second part of the K-MSS (Kerbin-Mun Space Station)) and go on SAS, (which gives a huge boost for pretty much anything) and target the . Next, i switch to the K-MSS crew ship (I'm building a space station around kerbin if you did not know! ) I usually have a habit of putting the docking port behind the K-MSS, so i have to put it on the . Do you need to align the  &  to dock? Ive watched a tutorial on youtube about this, and he explains that you need to align the  & . The orbital stuff is a bit too early for me, I've started KSP last week.

 Also, any idea on how to paste a screenshot from KSP to a post? Ive only joined the forums yesterday. 

[James Kerman]

Docking is easy, it just requires patience. 

The first thing I do when setting up a dock is to match inclination with my target. Make a manoeuver node at either the An (ascending node) or Dn (descending node) and mess with it until you get as close to 0 as possible.

Once you have matched inclination you need to make an orbit higher than your target if you are behind it (this means you will be travelling slower and your target will catch up to you) or make a lower orbit if you are behind your target.  This may take some time if you are far away from your target but it will eventually get down to 20-30km.

Once there I try to "almost" match my target's orbit remaining slightly above if the target is behind me or slightly below if I am chasing the target.  At this point I quicksave.

Once my target is within 10km or so I set up a manoeuver node and mess with it until I get an intercept of 2km or lower.

So at this point I switch to RCS and align my target or anti-target marker with either the prograde marker or retrograde marker making small adjustments as I approach.  I will then switch to the target vehicle and align it to have the docking port I want to hit with my approaching vessel.  Slow and steady is the way to do this last stage and you should dock.

53 minutes ago, Kerbal the Kerbal said:

 Also, any idea on how to paste a screenshot from KSP to a post? Ive only joined the forums yesterday. 

You should create an imagur account and post the link into your post - it should automatically format.

[Capt. Hunt]

Yeah, you should try to line up the prograde and target-prograde markers, Prograde always points in the direction your ship is moving relative to either the celestial body your orbiting or the target if you have one selected, so lining those up is a good idea if you are controlling from the port.  RCS and SAS don't just provide "stability boosts," those are your maneuvering control systems.  SAS uses gyroscopes and reaction wheels, to change your vehicle's attitude (the direction it's pointing relative to the horizon).  RCS uses thrusters to do the same thing, but as an added bonus can also control translational movements.  Without either RCS or SAS, the only way to maneuver your ship in space is to accelerate with the main engines.

[Kerbal the Kerbal]

Alright. I understand what you mean. i will try my best and tell you if anything is wrong. thanks so much for the help!