How to use the maneuver thingy?

[EljOt]

Sorry if I posted in the wrong section, but it said Gameplay Questions and Tutorials, and this is a question and I need to be guided so this actually the right section and I can't be wrong because I don't know why am I writing so much in here.

 

Soo, I was and am visiting planets with HyperEdit, but apparently, I can get there without cheats! So I played the tutorial to see how it works. But it was too complicated for a dumb person like me, so I am stuck with HyperEdit. What I've heard is, you just need to edit it and when you enter the maneuver increase throttle or what is it called. But no, or I am just an idiot or it doesn't work. I am using 0.25, so my guess is I can't play fairly because no one plays 0.25, am I right? But how are y'all doing it in 1.3 or what version are y'all using... I've played the tutorial, if I am correct... 29 times. But I STILL DON'T GET IT.

 

That's it. Yeah. Thanks. Right? What am I doing here

 

Sorry for meh bad english.

 

 

yee

[OhioBob]

0.25?   Dude, that's from three years ago!  If you update the game there are some tutorials that will guide you through some of this stuff.  I'm sure you can also find some YouTube videos.  Doing an in-game tutorial and or watching a video will probably make it much clearer then what any of us can describe with words in the forum.

 

Edited October 30, 2017 by OhioBob

[bewing]

Can you get to orbit without cheats? The first step to getting to the other celestial bodies is getting to orbit. And getting to orbit is quite tricky, too -- but at least if you can do that much, you should understand what prograde, Ap, and Pe are, and you don't need maneuver nodes to get to orbit. But basically it comes down to: Wait for a launch window. Get to orbit. Place a maneuver node in the right place on your orbit. Pull on the prograde handle of the maneuver node until your Ap reaches your destination planet. Turn on SAS to lock your ship in the prograde direction. And go to full throttle when the maneuver node tells you to.

 

[LN400]

A question first: Can you get to a consistent orbit around Kerbin? By that I mean, every time you launch, you are able to have the same apoapsis, periapsis and inclination within a small or smallish tolerance.

Next: Can you get to Mun and Minmus just fine again with consistent encounters in terms of periapsis over the moons as well as travel time?

If not on the 2nd question, practice that and make a good note of where Mun/Minmus are relative to where you make the transit burn and equally important, where they are going to be when you encounter them. For Mun, it should be in the neighbourhood of 100-135 degrees ahead of where you make the burn and it will travel about 45-90 degrees give or take by the time you encounter it. Play around with these angles and see how it affects travel time and delta v requirements. For Minmus it should be in the same neighbourhood but here you also have the 6 degrees inclination to consider. One thing you will notice is, you will encounter the planet roughly at the opposite side of the planet/the sun from where you made the burn. This will be true for all planets, and moons.

Getting to another planet is really nothing different other than you will be orbiting the sun and not Kerbin when you make the transit burn. The mechanics are exactly the same for getting to the outer planets but the angle will be different for each case within some margin. For the inner planets, the target needs to be lagging behind your burn node. (Yeah you could perhaps do a single burn directly from Kerbin orbit but that takes a great deal of practice. Getting out of Kerbin's sphere of influence and into an orbit around the sun before making the transit burn makes life easier imo).

As for the node, there are 6 terms you should familiarize yourself with:

Prograde: The direction of travel at any given moment and place in your trajectory/orbit. Add velocity prograde will increase your orbital speed and raise the orbital altitude at the opposite side of the body you are orbiting.

Retrograde: The exact opposite direction of prograde. Add speed retrograde will slow down your orbital speed and lower the orbital altitude at the opposite side of the body you are orbiting.

Prograde and retrograde have yellow markers on the maneuver node.

Radially In/Out. The direction perpendicular to the point in orbit you are at that moment,  outwards or inwards. Use these to raise and lower the orbit any other place than the opposite side of the body you are orbiting.

Radials have blue markers on the maneuver node.

Normal/Anti normal: These are perpendicular to your orbit but parallell to the surface of the body you are orbiting. If your orbit is equatorial, then they should point towards the north and south pole of the body you are orbiting. If your orbit is polar, then they will point east/west. These, in combination with prograde and retrograde, are used to change your inclination.

Normal/Antinormal have purple markers on the maneuver node.

 

In a stable orbit around Kerbin, play around with all 6 of these without making the actual burn, just to familiarize yourself with how adding or subtracting speed for all 6 will affect your orbit's apoapsis, periapsis and inclination. If you are familiar with vector addition then it should become clear why adding or subtracton  speedfor one might require some change of one of the others. This is particularly important for inclination changes where you don't want to change the apoapsis and or periapsis.

 

Now, you might know or you might not know but after you have set a maneuver node, you can right click on it and it will change. Instead of 6 arrows, you get a big fat X for deleting the node as well as 2 blue icons for delaying the burn in terms of full orbits to complete before the burn. Do play with these blue icons when setting up for an encounter with Mun/Minmus and understand why that changes the time of the burn and therefor your arrival time and place.

 

Once you have this down well, set up for a journey outside Kerbin's sphere of influence. Target either Duna or Eve (because they are relatively speaking close and with little inclination, as well as massive enough for an easier encounter than say, Dres). Set up a node not too far ahead and again, play with the 6 arrows on the node and make notes of how that affects the projected trajectory. If you can not get an encounter when matching the apoapsis for Duna or Periapsis for Eve, move the node around your orbit, minding that it will most likely change your projected apoapsis and periapsis so make any correction for that. If you can not find an encounter after trying the entire orbit, click the blue round ball that says + to add 1 orbit and try again. Keep doing this and you should find an encounter at some point.

Edited October 30, 2017 by LN400

[RX2000]

If I were you I'd upgrade to 1.3.1 & then start playing through the career mode, taking missions as they are offered. It will ease you into the game. You seem like you are probably rushing & trying to do things too quickly. You need to learn how to get into orbit around Kerbin first, then learn how to go to the Mun & Minmus, then once you have done that a few times you can start trying to go interplanetary.

[EljOt]

Yeaa, sry for a rly late relpy again

So, let's see, I just downloaded 1.3.1, I can only get to orbit around Kerbin (and Mun, but it once took me an hour lol), and it's pretty damn confusing with all those colors and arrows and those stuffs.

But yeah ty LN400 actually it did ease up (and no I'm not sarcastic I dunno what to say not to make this look like I am xd)

 

So lemme see

Prograde and retrograde is the direction I'm travelling, and retrograde can also be used for landing, which I figured out a while ago xd

Radially in and out are used to raise and lower the orbit?

Normal and antinormal are used to uhh, how to put it... dammit, maybe changing the degrees lol or maybe the inclination? yah

Guess after a year I might finally get it? my brain is the size of a peanut

 

ty everybody and plz dont yell at me for replying 2 an old thread ?? ty xd

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by EljOt

[OhioBob]

4 hours ago, EljOt said:

Radially in and out are used to raise and lower the orbit?

Normal and antinormal are used to uhh, how to put it... dammit, maybe changing the degrees lol or maybe the inclination? yah

Radially in and out changes the shape of the orbit, but not it's mean radius.  For example,

 

To change the mean orbital altitude, you have to use prograde or retrograde burns, often employing a combination of burns.  For example, one burn to raise the apoapsis, and a second burn to raise the periapsis.

Normal and antinormal change the inclination of the orbit.  I.e. how much the plane of the orbit is tilted in respect to the planet's equator.

(edit)  Looking at the posted image, I see that the different colored orbits and descriptions presume the initial orbit is retrograde (clockwise).  That's backwards from what is normally the case.  For a prograde orbit, the arrows and descriptions should be reversed, with the green orbit being the result of an outward radial impulse.
 

Edited March 27, 2018 by OhioBob

[GrouchyDevotee]

Scott Manley has some excellent youtube videos