How to go to duna without maunevor nodes?

[nascarlaser1]

Hi guys!

So here is my question. I have my rocket, I will have my launch window (I had to reset my save so once I make a new one I'll get a new window). My biggest problem doing this is the fact I don't understand maneuver nodes. I tried the ingame tutorial and I still get confused. Is there either

A, a way to go to duna without the maneuver nodes or

B. a mod that sets the nodes for me so that I just have to execute them? (I have no problem executing them)

 

Thxs!

[Snark]

On 7/10/2017 at 8:42 AM, nascarlaser1 said:

Is there either

A, a way to go to duna without the maneuver nodes or
B. a mod that sets the nodes for me so that I just have to execute them? (I have no problem executing them)

I would recommend "C:  Learn how to use maneuver nodes, you'll be really glad you did." 

I'm not being flippant, or trying to minimize the frustration you're feeling.  I totally get where you're coming from.  They can be really frustrating... until you learn to use them, and then you wonder how the dickens you ever got along without them.  Don't feel bad, you have plenty of good company-- they take some getting used to!

If you've been playing KSP without using them... I'd strongly suggest mastering them.  Although the design's not perfect, they're incredibly useful.  I've been playing KSP for three years now and consider myself a navigational expert... but other than going to the Mun and back in early career game, I don't go anywhere without using them.  (And only go to the Mun without them when I absolutely have no choice because it's early career and I can't afford to upgrade the necessary buildings yet.)

Having them not only vastly simplifies the navigational aspect, but it also really helps with mission planning (because you can see how many meters per second of dV you'll be needing to do various burns).

One of the things that can make maneuver nodes appear to be harder and more confusing than they have to be is that they have several cool features that are very easy to miss-- that is, unless you know to look for them, they can be hard to discover accidentally.  Just to make sure we're on the same page here, I'll call out a few of these features, in case you missed them.  ('Coz I know that I sure did, in some cases for an embarrassingly long time, when I was starting out on KSP!) 

So here are a few of their not-so-obviously-discoverable features in a spoiler section:

Spoiler

• The handles are pushable as well as pullable, and work exactly as you'd expect:  i.e. pushing on does the same thing as pulling on .  So each one can do double duty.
• If you only need to adjust a maneuver node a teeny-tiny amount, you can do it this way:  mouse-over the handle you need to tweak (i.e. or whichever), and scroll the thumb wheel just a little, a notch or two at a time, instead of pushing/pulling the handle.  Can do it up or down.
• You can slide the whole maneuver node forward and backward along the orbit (i.e. adjust when it's for).  Just mouse over the node and grab/drag the white circle in the middle of it.  (I'm embarrassed how long it took me to find this out.  I was playing KSP over a year before I discovered it, and even then it was only from reading something someone posted in the forum.  Sheesh.  And holy cow, this is a useful thing to be able to do.)
• If you're adjusting a maneuver node inside one SoI to go to another SoI (e.g. "do a burn in LKO to send me to a Duna encounter"), and you need to be able to see the trajectory inside the other planet's SoI (e.g. to fine-tune the Pe), you can do that.  (This is a fine-tuning technique that you use after you've gotten an SoI intercept on the target.)  Just set the map to focus on the target planet, and it will show you your dotted-line projected trajectory relative to the planet.  Then, while still focused on the target planet, you can rotate the camera until you can see your node, and then fine-tune it to get just the path you want.
• In the map mode, you can "pin" the various markers (like "closest approach", or "Pe", or "AN" or what-have-you) so that they stay in the "displayed" state (with numbers and everything) even when you're not moused-over them.  Just mouse-over the marker you want and right-click it.  There, done.  This can be handy when, for example, you're fine-tuning your closest approach.  Let's say you've made your maneuver and gotten the intercept good enough that the closest-approach markers appear, but you're still half a million kilometers off.  Pin that marker (so you can see the distance), and gently try pulling each one of the six handles until you see which ones make the distance get smaller, and switch back and forth on them until you zero in to an intercept.
• You can have more than one maneuver node at a time.  When you drop a node and give it some dV, you'll see a dotted line that projects your trajectory after doing the burn.  Guess what?  You can drop a second node (and a third, and so forth) on that dotted line!  This allows you to plan out a detailed mission ahead of time, if it'll need more than one burn to get where you're going.

 

So, here's a step-by-step set of instructions for how to navigate your way to Duna from Kerbin.  This works anywhere, but I'll use Duna and Kerbin as an example.  By the way:  If you'd like to "start small" and practice little stuff first, a really good way to practice your l33t maneuver node skillz is to navigate from Mun orbit to Minmus orbit, or vice versa.  If you can master that, you can handle the transition from Kerbin to Duna.  But I'll describe Duna navigation, below.

Phase 1:  Initial setup

1. Plan your launch window.  There are various planners to help with that, but my favorite is http://ksp.olex.biz because it's so simple to use and has really nice, easy-to-read graphic output.  You just put in your origin (Kerbin) and your destination (Duna) and the height of your parking orbit around Kerbin, and it gives you everything else.  It tells you how big your burn's going to be, and gives a graphical picture of "here's where Kerbin should be, relative to Duna" and also "here's where in your low Kerbin orbit you should put your maneuver node."  So, start with that.
2. Timewarp in the tracking station until Kerbin's about in the right place relative to Duna.
3. Launch to LKO.  The more perfectly circular you can make it, and the more perfectly equatorial, the simpler your navigation will be, but it's not the end of the world if you're slightly off.
4. In map view, set Duna as your target.
5. Drop a maneuver node in about the right spot in your orbit around Kerbin (as illustrated from the launch planner).  To go from Kerbin to Duna, you'll be wanting to burn in the solar-prograde direction, i.e. when you're over Kerbin's night side.  Viewed from above Kerbin's north pole, you'll be starting the burn slightly to clockwise from the "midnight point", since Kerbin's gravity will bend your trajectory somewhat as you leave.
6. Drag the handle on your maneuver node until it has about the amount of  dV that the planner told you.  (If you're in a 100km circular orbit over Kerbin, this will be about 1040 m/s).
7. Zoom way way out so you're looking at the solar system.  You can see the interplanetary orbit you're going to end up at.  Now go on to Phase 2.

 

Phase 2:  "Hey!  Why don't I see closest-approach markers?"

If everything went perfectly in Phase 1, then when you zoom out to see the solar system, you should see the pale blue "closest approach" markers-- one that shows where your ship will be at closest approach to Duna, the other showing where Duna will be (and how far away from the ship).  They should be reasonably close together.

If you see that, then you're golden, and you can skip the entire rest of this phase and go to Phase 3. 

So, if you don't see that, it means one of two things happened.  Either your closest approach markers are way far apart from each other, or else you don't see them at all.  A couple of things to check:

First, make sure your projected orbit actually reaches Duna's.  If you've slightly gotten the positioning of the node wrong, or your burn amount is slightly off, then maybe your solar Ap doesn't quite reach Duna's, with the result that the game doesn't show a closest-approach.  If this happens, just drag a smidgeon more on the maneuver node, while watching your solar  Ap, and gently raise your solar Ap until it kisses Duna's orbit.

The next possibility may be an inclination issue, since Duna and Kerbin are not quite co-planar.  If you're not launching right when you're at the AN/DN of their mutual orbits (which you probably aren't), it means that when you eject from Kerbin, your resulting orbit will have a smidgeon of inclination relative to Duna.  This could mean that at the closest-approach location, you're actually passing "above" or "below" Duna, rather than in the plane of its orbit.  If that's the case, look at your AN/DN markers in interplanetary space.  Somewhere between Kerbin and Duna will be one of these markers.  In that case, place a second maneuver node right at the AN or DN, and then drag (if it's at the AN) or (if it's at the DN) until the relative inclination marker changes to zero.  That will give you a nice Duna orbit crossing, and the closest-approach markers should appear.

At this point, you should be good to go for fine-tuning.  Go back to your original maneuver node around Kerbin, and proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3:  Fine-tuning the intercept

This phase assumes that you have successfully gotten your maneuver node mostly right, such that you have closest-approach markers showing on your projected orbit, and the closest approach is "reasonably close" to Duna.  (If that's not the case, something has gone wrong-- either go back to an earlier step or ask about it here.)

Even assuming you've got it that far, though:  unless you're either lucky or an ace maneuver-node jockey, you probably don't have an actual intercept yet, i.e. you probably aren't hitting Duna's SoI.  So this phase is all about fine-tuning that until you get an SoI intercept.

What you do is this:  Mouse-over the closest approach marker.  When you do this, it displays some extra information.  The magic number that you're interested in is how far from Duna are you at closest approach.  Now, pin the marker by right-clicking on it.  This will cause it to stay displayed even when you're not mousing over it, because you're going to want to be looking at it as you fiddle with the maneuver node.

Having done that, now the fiddling:

Go to the maneuver node, and very gently nudge it either or .  (You may want to use the thumbwheel-scroll for a light touch.  Lightly, lightly.)  Note whether the closest-approach distance gets bigger or smaller when you do this.  You want it to be as small as possible, so use that to guide you.  For example, if you tried and the number got smaller, keep doing some more .  Or if the number got bigger, which is the wrong direction, switch to instead and then watch the number get smaller.

Do this to make the number as small as you can.  It probably won't go down to zero, unless you got lucky.  What you'll see is that the number will get smaller and smaller, until it reaches a certain minimum and then starts to get bigger again.  When you see that, stop, and go on to the next step:

You've now gotten your amount as good as you can get it.  So switch to instead.  Do the same thing with those two as you just did with .  Again, fiddle it until you make the number as small as you can.

Next, switch to and do the same thing again:  fiddle it up an down until the number is as small as possible.

Now go back to again, and repeat the process.

With each successive step, you're zeroing in closer and closer to getting the number down to what you need it.  At some point, you'll see the map view change because you get an intercept with Duna's SoI.  When that happens, STOP.  You're good!

(Note that at this point, even though you have a Duna SoI intercept, there's a good chance that it has a pretty high Pe over Duna.  Don't worry about this.  You can fine-tune it later.)

 

Phase 4:  Ejection burn (and maybe inclination match)

Just execute the maneuver node when the time comes.  Execute it as precisely as possible.  Try to get it down to 0.0 m/s of dV remaining.  If it's not quite at 0.0, you're okay, but definitely get it under 1 m/s.  Once you're done with the burn, delete the node by clicking the "X" next to the navball.

At this point, you may still have another maneuver node waiting for you a few weeks ahead, if you had to place one at the AN/DN as described in Phase 2.  If that's the case, execute that burn too, when the time comes.

 

Phase 5:  Fine-tuning your flyby

Congratulations, you're now en route to Duna's SoI!  But you're still not done, because you're probably still going to miss Duna by a few thousand kilometers, and you probably want to fine-tune it (such as hitting atmosphere for aerobraking).  Not to mention wanting to make sure you're not due to smack right into Ike on your way in. 

So here's how you fix that:

1. Set a maneuver node on your interplanetary orbit, a couple of weeks before you get to Duna.  Don't give it any dV yet, just leave it at 0.0 m/s for the moment.
2. In the map view, switch your focus to Duna.
3. Note that you can now see your projected trajectory, relative to Duna, as it crosses through Duna's SoI.
4. Rotate the camera view around until you can see the maneuver node that you left sitting there in Step 1.
5. Gently try dragging the handles to adjust your path past Duna.  It's a similar process to what you did in Phase 3 above, except that instead of just watching a number and trying to make it smaller, you're actually seeing your path in the map view and making it go where you want it to go.
6. When you get your trajectory where you want it, stop!  You're done.
   • Protip:  If you're planning on aerobraking at Duna, then you probably care a lot about how high your Pe is.  In that case, you can just pin the Pe marker by right-clicking it in the map view-- then you can watch that number as you twiddle the maneuver node handles, to tell whether you're getting closer or farther away from Duna.
7. Warp until you get to the node, then do the burn.

 

...And that's it! 

[Human Person]

A yes:

1 Warp to the transfer window, guess the right angle for your ejection burn (You want to leave Kerbins SOI parallel to its orbit). 

2 Burn until your aphelion roughly intersects Dunas Orbit (good thing Duna's Orbit isn't inclined) and you get Close-Approach Markers.

3 now watch your close approach distance, set your thrust very low, point in any direction and give just a little thrust. try to find a direction that will decrease your close-approach distance.

4 repeat step 3 until you have an encounter.

 

But: You can do exactly what I described above with maneuver nodes, it's easier and less guesswork. 

 

B: Yes, MechJeb. It can even execute the maneuver if you want it to.

 

Edited July 10, 2017 by Physics Student

[nascarlaser1]

12 minutes ago, Physics Student said:

A yes:

1 Warp to the transfer window, guess the right angle for your ejection burn (You want to leave Kerbins SOI parallel to its orbit). 

2 Burn until your aphelion roughly intersects Dunas Orbit (good thing Duna's Orbit isn't inclined) and you get Close-Approach Markers.

3 now watch your close approach distance, set your thrust very low, point in any direction and give just a little thrust. try to find a direction that will decrease your close-approach distance.

4 repeat step 3 until you have an encounter.

 

But: You can do exactly what I described above with maneuver nodes, it's easier and less guesswork. 

 

B: Yes, MechJeb. It can even execute the maneuver if you want it to.

 

Thxs! Is therea a tutorial on how to use mechjeb 2? All the menus confused me when I tried using it and I couldn't figure out how to get the autopilot open .

[Human Person]

3 minutes ago, nascarlaser1 said:

Thxs! Is therea a tutorial on how to use mechjeb 2? All the menus confused me when I tried using it and I couldn't figure out how to get the autopilot open .

Noo, I shouldn't have said that. you should learn to use nodes! Mechjeb is for those old players that already know how to use them. 

I'm sure there are tutorials somewhere, not that I know of.

Edited July 10, 2017 by Physics Student

[Jas0n]

You really should learn how to use maneuver nodes, they'll make your life so much easier.

If you search on youtube there are a number of tutorials. You can also look on the wiki page for detailed descriptions.

 

[nascarlaser1]

1 hour ago, Snark said:

I would recommend "C:  Learn how to use maneuver nodes, you'll be really glad you did." 

I'm not being flippant, or trying to minimize the frustration you're feeling.  I totally get where you're coming from.  They can be really frustrating... until you learn to use them, and then you wonder how the dickens you ever got along without them.  Don't feel bad, you have plenty of good company-- they take some getting used to!

If you've been playing KSP without using them... I'd strongly suggest mastering them.  Although the design's not perfect, they're incredibly useful.  I've been playing KSP for three years now and consider myself a navigational expert... but other than going to the Mun and back in early career game, I don't go anywhere without using them.  (And only go to the Mun without them when I absolutely have no choice because it's early career and I can't afford to upgrade the necessary buildings yet.)

Having them not only vastly simplifies the navigational aspect, but it also really helps with mission planning (because you can see how many meters per second of dV you'll be needing to do various burns).

One of the things that can make maneuver nodes appear to be harder and more confusing than they have to be is that they have several cool features that are very easy to miss-- that is, unless you know to look for them, they can be hard to discover accidentally.  Just to make sure we're on the same page here, I'll call out a few of these features, in case you missed them.  ('Coz I know that I sure did, in some cases for an embarrassingly long time, when I was starting out on KSP!) 

So here are a few of their not-so-obviously-discoverable features in a spoiler section:

  Hide contents

• The handles are pushable as well as pullable, and work exactly as you'd expect:  i.e. pushing on does the same thing as pulling on .  So each one can do double duty.
• If you only need to adjust a maneuver node a teeny-tiny amount, you can do it this way:  mouse-over the handle you need to tweak (i.e. or whichever), and scroll the thumb wheel just a little, a notch or two at a time, instead of pushing/pulling the handle.  Can do it up or down.
• You can slide the whole maneuver node forward and backward along the orbit (i.e. adjust when it's for).  Just mouse over the node and grab/drag the white circle in the middle of it.  (I'm embarrassed how long it took me to find this out.  I was playing KSP over a year before I discovered it, and even then it was only from reading something someone posted in the forum.  Sheesh.  And holy cow, this is a useful thing to be able to do.)
• If you're adjusting a maneuver node inside one SoI to go to another SoI (e.g. "do a burn in LKO to send me to a Duna encounter"), and you need to be able to see the trajectory inside the other planet's SoI (e.g. to fine-tune the Pe), you can do that.  (This is a fine-tuning technique that you use after you've gotten an SoI intercept on the target.)  Just set the map to focus on the target planet, and it will show you your dotted-line projected trajectory relative to the planet.  Then, while still focused on the target planet, you can rotate the camera until you can see your node, and then fine-tune it to get just the path you want.
• In the map mode, you can "pin" the various markers (like "closest approach", or "Pe", or "AN" or what-have-you) so that they stay in the "displayed" state (with numbers and everything) even when you're not moused-over them.  Just mouse-over the marker you want and right-click it.  There, done.  This can be handy when, for example, you're fine-tuning your closest approach.  Let's say you've made your maneuver and gotten the intercept good enough that the closest-approach markers appear, but you're still half a million kilometers off.  Pin that marker (so you can see the distance), and gently try pulling each one of the six handles until you see which ones make the distance get smaller, and switch back and forth on them until you zero in to an intercept.
• You can have more than one maneuver node at a time.  When you drop a node and give it some dV, you'll see a dotted line that projects your trajectory after doing the burn.  Guess what?  You can drop a second node (and a third, and so forth) on that dotted line!  This allows you to plan out a detailed mission ahead of time, if it'll need more than one burn to get where you're going.

 

So, here's a step-by-step set of instructions for how to navigate your way to Duna from Kerbin.  This works anywhere, but I'll use Duna and Kerbin as an example.  By the way:  If you'd like to "start small" and practice little stuff first, a really good way to practice your l33t maneuver node skillz is to navigate from Mun orbit to Minmus orbit, or vice versa.  If you can master that, you can handle the transition from Kerbin to Duna.  But I'll describe Duna navigation, below.

Phase 1:  Initial setup

1. Plan your launch window.  There are various planners to help with that, but my favorite is http://ksp.olex.biz because it's so simple to use and has really nice, easy-to-read graphic output.  You just put in your origin (Kerbin) and your destination (Duna) and the height of your parking orbit around Kerbin, and it gives you everything else.  It tells you how big your burn's going to be, and gives a graphical picture of "here's where Kerbin should be, relative to Duna" and also "here's where in your low Kerbin orbit you should put your maneuver node."  So, start with that.
2. Timewarp in the tracking station until Kerbin's about in the right place relative to Duna.
3. Launch to LKO.  The more perfectly circular you can make it, and the more perfectly equatorial, the simpler your navigation will be, but it's not the end of the world if you're slightly off.
4. In map view, set Duna as your target.
5. Drop a maneuver node in about the right spot in your orbit around Kerbin (as illustrated from the launch planner).  To go from Kerbin to Duna, you'll be wanting to burn in the solar-prograde direction, i.e. when you're over Kerbin's night side.  Viewed from above Kerbin's north pole, you'll be starting the burn slightly to counterclockwise from the "midnight point", since Kerbin's gravity will bend your trajectory somewhat as you leave.
6. Drag the prograde handle on your maneuver node until it has about the amount of dV that the planner told you.  (If you're in a 100km circular orbit over Kerbin, this will be about 1040 m/s).
7. Zoom way way out so you're looking at the solar system.  You can see the interplanetary orbit you're going to end up at.  Now go on to Phase 2.

 

Phase 2:  "Hey!  Why don't I see closest-approach markers?"

If everything went perfectly in Phase 1, then when you zoom out to see the solar system, you should see the pale blue "closest approach" markers-- one that shows where your ship will be at closest approach to Duna, the other showing where Duna will be (and how far away from the ship).  They should be reasonably close together.

If you see that, then you're golden, and you can skip the entire rest of this phase and go to Phase 3. 

So, if you don't see that, it means one of two things happened.  Either your closest approach markers are way far apart from each other, or else you don't see them at all.  A couple of things to check:

First, make sure your projected orbit actually reaches Duna's.  If you've slightly gotten the positioning of the node wrong, or your burn amount is slightly off, then maybe your solar Ap doesn't quite reach Duna's, with the result that the game doesn't show a closest-approach.  If this happens, just drag a smidgeon more on the maneuver node, while watching your solar  Ap, and gently raise your solar Ap until it kisses Duna's orbit.

The next possibility may be an inclination issue, since Duna and Kerbin are not quite co-planar.  If you're not launching right when you're at the AN/DN of their mutual orbits (which you probably aren't), it means that when you eject from Kerbin, your resulting orbit will have a smidgeon of inclination relative to Duna.  This could mean that at the closest-approach location, you're actually passing "above" or "below" Duna, rather than in the plane of its orbit.  If that's the case, look at your AN/DN markers in interplanetary space.  Somewhere between Kerbin and Duna will be one of these markers.  In that case, place a second maneuver node right at the AN or DN, and then drag (if it's at the AN) or (if it's at the DN) until the relative inclination marker changes to zero.  That will give you a nice Duna orbit crossing, and the closest-approach markers should appear.

At this point, you should be good to go for fine-tuning.  Go back to your original maneuver node around Kerbin, and proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3:  Fine-tuning the intercept

This phase assumes that you have successfully gotten your maneuver node mostly right, such that you have closest-approach markers showing on your projected orbit, and the closest approach is "reasonably close" to Duna.  (If that's not the case, something has gone wrong-- either go back to an earlier step or ask about it here.)

Even assuming you've got it that far, though:  unless you're either lucky or an ace maneuver-node jockey, you probably don't have an actual intercept yet, i.e. you probably aren't hitting Duna's SoI.  So this phase is all about fine-tuning that until you get an SoI intercept.

What you do is this:  Mouse-over the closest approach marker.  When you do this, it displays some extra information.  The magic number that you're interested in is how far from Duna are you at closest approach.  Now, pin the marker by right-clicking on it.  This will cause it to stay displayed even when you're not mousing over it, because you're going to want to be looking at it as you fiddle with the maneuver node.

Having done that, now the fiddling:

Go to the maneuver node, and very gently nudge it either or .  (You may want to use the thumbwheel-scroll for a light touch.  Lightly, lightly.)  Note whether the closest-approach distance gets bigger or smaller when you do this.  You want it to be as small as possible, so use that to guide you.  For example, if you tried and the number got smaller, keep doing some more .  Or if the number got bigger, which is the wrong direction, switch to instead and then watch the number get smaller.

Do this to make the number as small as you can.  It probably won't go down to zero, unless you got lucky.  What you'll see is that the number will get smaller and smaller, until it reaches a certain minimum and then starts to get bigger again.  When you see that, stop, and go on to the next step:

You've now gotten your amount as good as you can get it.  So switch to instead.  Do the same thing with those two as you just did with .  Again, fiddle it until you make the number as small as you can.

Next, switch to and do the same thing again:  fiddle it up an down until the number is as small as possible.

Now go back to again, and repeat the process.

With each successive step, you're zeroing in closer and closer to getting the number down to what you need it.  At some point, you'll see the map view change because you get an intercept with Duna's SoI.  When that happens, STOP.  You're good!

(Note that at this point, even though you have a Duna SoI intercept, there's a good chance that it has a pretty high Pe over Duna.  Don't worry about this.  You can fine-tune it later.)

 

Phase 4:  Ejection burn (and maybe inclination match)

Just execute the maneuver node when the time comes.  Execute it as precisely as possible.  Try to get it down to 0.0 m/s of dV remaining.  If it's not quite at 0.0, you're okay, but definitely get it under 1 m/s.  Once you're done with the burn, delete the node by clicking the "X" next to the navball.

At this point, you may still have another maneuver node waiting for you a few weeks ahead, if you had to place one at the AN/DN as described in Phase 2.  If that's the case, execute that burn too, when the time comes.

 

Phase 5:  Fine-tuning your flyby

Congratulations, you're now en route to Duna's SoI!  But you're still not done, because you're probably still going to miss Duna by a few thousand kilometers, and you probably want to fine-tune it (such as hitting atmosphere for aerobraking).  Not to mention wanting to make sure you're not due to smack right into Ike on your way in. 

So here's how you fix that:

1. Set a maneuver node on your interplanetary orbit, a couple of weeks before you get to Duna.  Don't give it any dV yet, just leave it at 0.0 m/s for the moment.
2. In the map view, switch your focus to Duna.
3. Note that you can now see your projected trajectory, relative to Duna, as it crosses through Duna's SoI.
4. Rotate the camera view around until you can see the maneuver node that you left sitting there in Step 1.
5. Gently try dragging the handles to adjust your path past Duna.  It's a similar process to what you did in Phase 3 above, except that instead of just watching a number and trying to make it smaller, you're actually seeing your path in the map view and making it go where you want it to go.
6. When you get your trajectory where you want it, stop!  You're done.
   • Protip:  If you're planning on aerobraking at Duna, then you probably care a lot about how high your Pe is.  In that case, you can just pin the Pe marker by right-clicking it in the map view-- then you can watch that number as you twiddle the maneuver node handles, to tell whether you're getting closer or farther away from Duna.
7. Warp until you get to the node, then do the burn.

 

...And that's it! 

OH thank you thank you thank you!!!

[Spricigo]

9 hours ago, nascarlaser1 said:

Hi guysMy biggest problem doing this is the fact I don't understand maneuver nodes. 

Are you sure?  

-The center of the node is where the maneuver will be performed. Drag it to change where(/when)  the maneuver occur.

-There is six signs representing six direction.  Push/pull to increase/decrease how much you want to burn in that direction. 

-Point in the direction of the blue marker (maneuver indicator)  to perform the maneuver you set. 

That covers the basics.  As @Snark pointed there is some 'advanced'  functionality. 

Now,  I really think your problem is not understanding maneuver nodes, but rather is learning the basic maneuvers, which in turn are addition of vectors (velocity + deltaV). 

If deltaV is in the same direction of velocity it only change intensity. If perpendicular only change direction. 

[Alshain]

I think you should learn to make maneuver nodes but since you asked...

 

[Jas0n]

Also you can use your mouse scroll wheel for fine adjustments of your maneuver nodes

[invision]

the easiest way is to have duna in its optimal position, warp till the sun is behind kerblin and do a direct burn strait to duna from behind kerblin.

no nodes needed, no fancy calculations.

[Spricigo]

11 minutes ago, invision said:

the easiest way is to have duna in its optimal position, warp till the sun is behind kerblin and do a direct burn strait to duna from behind kerblin.

no nodes needed, no fancy calculations.

No nodes,  no calculations.  No precision,  I guess. 

How much that will cost? Assuming an inexperienced player that didn't figured the details of Interplanetary transfer yet. 

[JAFO]

13 hours ago, nascarlaser1 said:

My biggest problem doing this is the fact I don't understand maneuver nodes.

<just kidding mode>

Over 900 posts here, and you still haven't gotten to grips with maneuver nodes?

I think I see your problem. Spend a lot less time on the forums, and a lot more time playing the game instead. 

</just kidding mode>

Follow Snark's excellent guide and you'll do fine! Good luck!

Edited July 11, 2017 by JAFO
made my warped sense of humour a bit more obvious

[invision]

1 hour ago, Spricigo said:

No nodes,  no calculations.  No precision,  I guess. 

How much that will cost? Assuming an inexperienced player that didn't figured the details of Interplanetary transfer yet. 

i get what your saying. but if he doesnt understand the mumbo jumbo of space im giving him the easiest direction there, maybe then it would make some sense to him at that point how it works and then learn how to fine tune it for optimal fuel and approach.

i played this game for 2 weeks and could not reach the mun no matter what i did or read. it simply looked all nerd talk because i never took space flight or rockets as something id like to learn until kerbal punched me in the face and laughed at me.

scott manly had a part in a video that he something like "just aim the rocket at mun after it comes over kerblin and fire"

it works O.O

then after i played with the mun and practicing landing it started to all make sense how those orbits work.

 

[Spricigo]

@invision burning at munrise to reach the Mun is a good and effective way to explain if one is struggling with setting the maneuver node. 

I'm genuinely curious how effectively that approach can be extended to Duna (and maybe Eve). Appreciated if you may share deltaV expenditure estimated with base in your experience.  

[invision]

47 minutes ago, Spricigo said:

@invision burning at munrise to reach the Mun is a good and effective way to explain if one is struggling with setting the maneuver node. 

I'm genuinely curious how effectively that approach can be extended to Duna (and maybe Eve). Appreciated if you may share deltaV expenditure estimated with base in your experience.  

if the planet is on the same plane there will always be a window you can do a direct burn to and fine tune it so you come right in on it.

this rocket will take you all the way to Jool doing a direct burn

 

[Mr Shifty]

On 7/10/2017 at 11:43 PM, invision said:

if the planet is on the same plane there will always be a window you can do a direct burn to and fine tune it so you come right in on it.

Not sure what you mean by "direct burn", but if you mean pointing at a planet and firing your engines, it's mostly only a coincidence when it works. For Moho, for instance, it would never work even if Moho were co-planar with Kerbin because the angles are wrong. It sort of works for planets that are close to Kerbin (e.g. Duna and Eve) because their years are less than a factor of 2 different than Kerbin's year, thus the phase angle for transfers is slightly ahead of (Duna) or behind (Eve) Kerbin and the prograde or retrograde ejection angles point in those directions (though not exactly.)

[invision]

2 hours ago, Mr Shifty said:

Not sure what you mean by "direct burn", but if you mean pointing at a planet and firing your engines, it's mostly only a coincidence when it works. For Moho, for instance, it would never work even if Moho were co-planar with Kerbin because the angles are wrong. It sort of works for planets that are close to Kerbin (e.g. Duna and Eve) because their years are less than a factor of 2 different than Kerbin's year, thus the phase angle for transfers is slightly ahead of (Duna) or behind (Eve) Kerbin and the prograde or retrograde ejection angles point in those directions (though not exactly.)

direct burn meaning from the back side of kerblin right to the other planet.

it works when they are on the same orbital plane, so yes moho wouldnt be possible because of its angle, however if you lined up the angle first you could burn right to it the same way.

you dont point at the planet either, you go behind kerblin and fire toward AP

[invision]

so heres an example.

from kerblin to the front door of Jool. because it wasnt in prime location we had to overshoot and come back a bit