bsalis Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 (edited) So this is the challenge. Pretty straight forward. Your aim is to dock with another craft in orbit. I don't care where. You have to do this without using RCS at all. Just your main engine(s).I'm not going to stipulate a bunch of rules. I will leave this to your own honesty. Mods are fine as long as they don't magically dock for you.Some pics would be nice. Taking an existing design and removing all RCS thrusters would be an easy way to show authenticity too.Honors Roll===============================Mazlem in ChaddunMazlem (again!) in MunBuggyMe! In an RCS-less Orion, see below.LaunchApproachParkedAlignedDocked Edited May 4, 2013 by bsalis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFalcon Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 LOL I did this a while back when I was learning to dock, technically - the first attempt was a real screw-up and resulted in my wasting my entire stock of RCS and having to sync orbits with the station again... the second time, I managed it, using the main thrusters only...Not something I'd like to repeat though... without the RCS, that last few metres gets fiddly (hint: keep the ship short so it can rotate quickly without RCS and don't take too big an engine for the last stage). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broco Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Yeah, a short ship makes things easier. Its not THAT hard though. Select the docking port as target select "control from here" on your docking port and make good use of the artificial horizon.Have the target and the prograde symbol aligned perfectly in the centre of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3_bit Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I know Scott Manley did it once... Can't get you a link though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcusQ Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I know Scott Manley did it once... Can't get you a link though.Scott Manley can do anything... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xCryonic Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I had to do it once in Minmus orbit, forgot to stick some RCS engines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skykooler Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Can we use action groups to turn engines on / off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsalis Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 I had to do it once in Minmus orbit, forgot to stick some RCS engines Do you have any pictures?Can we use action groups to turn engines on / off?Yes, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supermap Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 my worse docking experience was trying to dock a giant octopus with a large needle... neither with RCSBoth crafts weighting more than 20t and having more than 900kN of thrusti felt proud after achieving it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom1499 Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Haven't got pics but I did this when my tug ran out of monopropellant, and I wasn't going to give up, but it was hard. Harder was docking my tug with a fuel tank attached, completely unbalanced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xeldrak Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Yeah, don't have pics either, but I did it once on a lander I forgot to stick RCS on (it had monopropelant Tanks ), But even worse - the Docking port was in the same direction as the engines. So you would have to get to a good position, fly toward the target port, cut power, turn around and hope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazlem Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 (edited) Built this little guy just for you Bsalis!LaunchingBurning for orbitBacking it in (I of course wasn't lined up quite right and had to make a few corrections)Docked! Funny enough that's my fuel station but it was empty. Since the ship still had fuel though I sent Chaddun homeLanded a bit short of the VAB Edited April 30, 2013 by Mazlem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
occar Posted April 29, 2013 Share Posted April 29, 2013 Do you have any pictures?Yes, of course.Ion drive it is..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merinsan Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 I've done this a few times, from running out of RCS. I did it once with a robotic mission, which was over 80 tons in mass - that was a real pain, since it was so slow to turn. In the end I just pointed at the docking point and went about 1m/s, because everything was rotating randomly, and got lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsalis Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 Built this little guy just for you Bsalis!Thanks Mazlem, looks great. Using a docking port at the back end is a neat idea too. I'll start that Honors Roll now.Glad to see someone actually setting out to do the challenge, rather than posting a story like "This one time at Duna Space Camp..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazlem Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 I was driving around with the MunBuggy an decided to do this challenge again using that. Took a bit more work cause it doesn't have any computer controls. Got it up an docked with the Munsion Junction station, refueled an sent it back down. It came back with less fuel than when I started but hey that's what the refueling station is for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsalis Posted May 4, 2013 Author Share Posted May 4, 2013 Congrats again Mazlem!It's good after you do this couple of times and feel confident doing it. Since it opens th option of docking smaller craft that don't have RCS, or building small craft without it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolecatEZ Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 You don't need RCS for anything under 50 tons, ever, so long as the docking port is aligned with the cockpit/engines. I stopped putting RCS boosters on my landers/re-orbit vehicles a long time ago. Just use smartass (or do by hand) and hit REV (-) and TGT (+) until you get your "rendezvous max distance" to under 2 meters, then just let it drift - no SAS, no RCS, no fancy alignment procedures, just pure raw ugly bumping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fel Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 If by "RCS" you mean translation... I rarely use translation at all; slowly work at aligning.*Well, I removed rotpower so I need rcs to maneuver in my designsIt is actually easier than it sounds... but I can see how translation can turn docking into childsplay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mizzou Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 I am not sure how to use RCS in docking quite yet, connected two "Starships" together using those big thrusters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 In my humble opinion with some patience I think its actually easier to dock without RCS. Since you don't get knocked out of orbit by the RCS thrusts.I did this earlier. I had just updated to 0.20.2, so all my parts were stock. I orbited up a docking ring. But then I realized I had no power generation on it (it had a drone body). So I went to take up some power and some Kerbals to sit up there as well.I used only my poodle engine and use of the nav ball and the target velocity indicator. I had planned to use RCS, but I had forgotten to add any (whoops). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oggylt Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Well i got that by doing my moon exploration adventures story (in my sig)wasn't that hard after all, docked in first try. well if magnetism would be off, then I would have had a bit more problems Also I feel that something is totaly off in this sentence please correct me if i am wrong."then I would have had a bit more problems" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullShifts Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 I managed to pull this one off while trying to refuel over Tylo. I got all the way there, and realised I had no RCS. So I didn't want to relaunch all the way back out there and I just docked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tortoise Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 I just did it because I forgot RCS on my ship. It was actually easy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantab Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Really old challenge. If you want to revive it you should probably start a new thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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