Advice needed on an elliptic randezvous

[Ghery88]

So I decided to start cleaning up. Designed the Grabber 2 for the task.

So Grabber 2 chases Munar 1 debris on virtually the same (inclined) orbit. Plenty of fuel and RCS left, I just lack the knowledge of not screwing up this setting. Anyone up for this? (Please?)

[pebble_garden]

I\'ve not done this yet, but I\'m planning to, and here\'s what I intend to try:

1. Align your orbital planes first, if they are not already aligned.

2. Match the target\'s ellipse as precisely as you can:

a. Raise your apoapsis to the target\'s periapsis by burning prograde on the opposite side of the orbit. Call this point A. (Around 1 o\'clock in the picture you provided.)

b. Carefully timed prograde burns at Point A to drive a new apoapsis out to match that of the target. Call that Point B. (Around 7 o\'clock in your picture.)

c. Might have to do this over several orbits, as burning too long before or after periapsis (Point A) might muck up the angle of the ellipse.

4. Now use standard rendezvous techniques (raise/lower orbit slightly to speed up or slow down relative to the target), but with ellipses rather than circles.

Once I get this down I\'ll be sure to make a tutorial.

[Ghery88]

I\'ve not done this yet, but I\'m planning to, and here\'s what I intend to try:

1. Align your orbital planes first, if they are not already aligned.

2. Match the target\'s ellipse as precisely as you can:

a. Raise your apoapsis to the target\'s periapsis by burning prograde on the opposite side of the orbit. Call this point A. (Around 1 o\'clock in the picture you provided.)

b. Carefully timed prograde burns at Point A to drive a new apoapsis out to match that of the target. Call that Point B. (Around 7 o\'clock in your picture.)

c. Might have to do this over several orbits, as burning too long before or after periapsis (Point A) might muck up the angle of the ellipse.

4. Now use standard rendezvous techniques (raise/lower orbit slightly to speed up or slow down relative to the target), but with ellipses rather than circles.

Once I get this down I\'ll be sure to make a tutorial.

Orbits are quite precisely aligned, I can barely tell the difference visually at most parts. It\'s just they\'ll never meet at this state, at least it seems so after 10-15 orbits. So I need to frequently use F3 and contolled burns. Oh god, this will take seemingly forever...

But first of all, thank you for taking the time to answer (and for the upcoming tutorial, of course)!

[pebble_garden]

I had a few minutes to tinker with an elliptical rendezvous, and confirmed something I\'ve been meaning to test.

You can rotate the angle of your elliptical orbit by thrusting toward or away from the planet at apoapsis or periapsis. I haven\'t tested to see what happens if you do it at other points in the orbit.

If the major axis of your ellipse (the line drawn between Ap and Pe) is not quite aligned with that of the target, you can do a burn to rotate it into place.

Let\'s say you\'re orbiting East (counter clockwise, seen from the top).

Thrusting straight down toward the center of the planet at periapsis will push your apoapsis counterclockwise, further away around your orbit.

Thrusting straight up, away from the planet will rotate the major axis of your ellipse clockwise, pulling your apoapsis closer to you.

I\'ll do more experimenting later.

[Ghery88]

Just played around a bit, I managed to reduce the distance between them to approx. 1.3 kms. Then I messed up a bit and tried to load a quicksave, which I presumably made before messing around. Pressed and held F9 -> Grabber 2 was on the launchpad.

:\'(

Just downloaded my own presitent file...