Help! New to docking

[paul_c]

Ok I know its not orthodox but the guy who sold me them said there were powerful magnets which should dock them together.

The science lab space station fell over during landing but is otherwise undamaged; and in fact seems to work better for crew access etc on its side. The horizontal lander is a bit unusual, in that it has a centre-mounted, downwards facing engine and also it can safely roll over onto its back to offer various different height with which to mate to other craft.

I think they're close enough - have I fitted the docking connectors properly (eg not backwards??) Do I need to target one with the other, or anything like that? Are my angles okay??

[king of nowhere]

those docking ports are mounted wrong. they can only connect in the other sense.

i made that mistake too the first time

 

EDIT

by that i mean,

the side pointing upward in this image is the one that connects to another clampotron of the same size. the other side does not connect

Edited November 15, 2020 by king of nowhere

[paul_c]

Aaaah there's no hope then! At least not for today. Oh well, I'll put the little fella back on his feet - strangely, in my quest for weight saving I didn't think to fit solar panels on the underside.....and the top extended one broke off. Also I broke the aerial (it WAS fitted to the underside, for protection) but my no stars engineer can't fix it, is that the way it is until he gets a gold star or two?

 

Lucky I've not constructed and put into orbit 7 space stations all with the docking port fitted the wrong way round...... 

[king of nowhere]

1 minute ago, paul_c said:

 Also I broke the aerial (it WAS fitted to the underside, for protection) but my no stars engineer can't fix it, is that the way it is until he gets a gold star or two?

 

don't know what is your aerial, but an engineer can only fix a wheel or landing leg with the "broken" condition. something i've never, ever seen, despite driving rovers around many planets and blowing them up a lot of times. but i've never seen a damage that can be fixed by an engineer, even if they are supposed to exhist

[linuxgurugamer]

May also depend on what mods are installed

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by linuxgurugamer

[paul_c]

No mods installed (yet).

Forgot to mention too, the horizontal low slung concept worked! Just a few tweaks needed really. Landed at an angle on an almost 30 degree slope.....

Many thanks for the replies

[paul_c]

Next problem.....I thought this might come up.....is it possible to configure something during the build, to indicate that the engine is downwards (well..it was sideways in the VAB) mounted? The nav ball isn't giving the correct indications, I had a job getting into a stable orbit with the wonky controls but the RCS saved the day and I used it instead, to stop my brain hurting. But I need to get out of Minmus' orbit and home and I don't fancy doing those burns the wrong way! 

I guess I can try little blips of the throttle at different positions and suss it out. It wasn't such an issue during the landing because I was able to visually orientate myself, and in any case I'd put the mothership into a low orbit so there wasn't too much to do orbitally, it was a pretty quick transition to level (well, controlled slowing down and descending) flight.

 

[Vanamonde]

You can r-click on many parts and choose "control from here." The orientation of that part becomes the orientation of the craft for steering purposes. 

[DeadJohn]

1 hour ago, paul_c said:

Also I broke the aerial (it WAS fitted to the underside, for protection) but my no stars engineer can't fix it, is that the way it is until he gets a gold star or two?

Engineers can't fix a broken antenna nor solar panels. Wheels, though, are repairable.

It's possible to edit a savefile to fix an antenna. If I recall correctly search for "BROKEN" and replace with "EXTENDED". Make sure you are editing the correct vessel, and make a backup copy of your savefile before changing anything.

[paul_c]

That's a handy tip! I gave up on the aerial in the end (there's the one on the controller and the cockpit for other non-science comms) and the science is in the storage box which is coming with me all the way to the surface of Kerbin.