Your first time docking

[Orc]

On 5/12/2019 at 12:55 AM, farmerben said:

<<much snipped>?

I still bungle it sometimes when using the clamp-o-tron jr.  It has very low tolerance for docking misalignment.

Hi all and farmerben in particular,

Would you say that docking with the JR is harder than with the regular port?

Why I ask is I recently did a "Rendezvous and Dock in Kerbol" mission. Because it was still relatively early in a career game I was using Mk1 Capsule and Jr clamp-o-trons. Getting within 3 meters was easier than I remembered it. Staying within 3 meters not so much..., getting the silly clamp-o-trons to clamp... well, much less fun. I do not remember having this much trouble last time I did a docking, which was with a pair of SRs joining essentially a large fuel tank to a Duna explorer craft using the three-kerbal capsule.

 

Regards

Orc

 

[Nich]

My first docking was the tutorial docking and was super easy as it had nicely balanced rcs and target hold mode SAS.  My second docking was a nightmare with poorly designed rcs and only basic SAS.

 

Worst docking I ever did was building a tower on minimus.  Docking in gravity SUCKS.  not to mention after about 150m the tower was always swaying around.

[purpleivan]

36 minutes ago, Nich said:

My first docking was the tutorial docking and was super easy as it had nicely balanced rcs and target hold mode SAS.  My second docking was a nightmare with poorly designed rcs and only basic SAS.

 

Worst docking I ever did was building a tower on minimus.  Docking in gravity SUCKS.  not to mention after about 150m the tower was always swaying around.

Reminds me of the time a few years ago when I sent a science base to Minmus, only to realise that it had almost no battery capacity, so transmitting data was a problem. I sent up a tiny module which was a stack of batteries with a monoprop tank and some RCS attached to it, along with a probe core, to dock to the thing.

It so light that it was almost completely uncontrollable as I tried to dock it on to the top of the base. Finally I made it, but thankfully I've not had to do that kind of thing again.

[A Random Kerbonaut]

It took me a day. I already knew the basics by watching Matt Lowne, Scott Manley, and other Kerbal Space Program YouTubers. I tried and I tried, but I couldn't seem to do it. I was doing one last attempt and I finally did it. I got a bunch of fuel and I made a lot of corrections. It felt really good when I did it. I'm trying again today.

Edited May 16, 2019 by A Random Kerbonaut

[Dan Kerman]

Docking at first was like my first day in calculus class....  not a clue. Once I got to understanding of rendezvous... not so hard...  actual docking was a bear. Once I learned the navball and how to manipulate the my manuvers, well, docking is easy peasy now. Been using the claw now to capture aircraft and managed a type A asteroid. The asteroid is tough making an intercept because of the high deltaV.

[Kryten 2X4B 523P]

Took me about 4 hours, many reloads and step by step referencing to a tutorial video. Most satisfying feeling ever when it finally all clicked.

[farmerben]

On 5/16/2019 at 3:49 AM, Orc said:

Hi all and farmerben in particular,

Would you say that docking with the JR is harder than with the regular port?

Why I ask is I recently did a "Rendezvous and Dock in Kerbol" mission. Because it was still relatively early in a career game I was using Mk1 Capsule and Jr clamp-o-trons. Getting within 3 meters was easier than I remembered it. Staying within 3 meters not so much..., getting the silly clamp-o-trons to clamp... well, much less fun. I do not remember having this much trouble last time I did a docking, which was with a pair of SRs joining essentially a large fuel tank to a Duna explorer craft using the three-kerbal capsule.

 

Regards

Orc

 

Larger docking ports are definitely easier to use.  When your docking ports are 5 degrees or so off axis with each other, there will be a series of violent jerks.  If the magnets of the port can't align the ships, then the ships will fly off spinning.  The Sr port holds better against those left right jerks.