Please help me align the planes for docking

[bainbridge]

I have got to within a few metres but due to the orbits not being exactly on the same plane I'm unable to dock.

Please can someone help? I've got a manned lander and unmanned interplanetary stage that needs to be docked in order to do my first long range return mission.

[Vanamonde]

If you are not close to your target, wait until you are passing over the orbit of the target, on the same plane. If from that point you are going to pass south of the target's orbit, turn 90 degress to the north and burn, and you will see the path of your orbit rise to match that of the target. If you are going to pass south, turn north and burn. However, if you are already within just a few meters, all you need to do is make sure you are in target mode, point your nose at the target-retrograde marker, and burn until your velocity reading is zero. This will kill ALL of your motion relative to the target, including any deviation due to planes, leaving you on essentially identical orbits.

[bainbridge]

Thanks for your reply Vanamonde, I'll give it a go now.

PS can you please explain the green orbit ring which appears once I'm locked on target? Instead of the Apoapsis and Periapsis there are ascending and descending nodes. What is this all about?

[Vanamonde]

Those nodes are the places where the orbits pass over each other. The descending node is where you will cross to south of the target orbit and the ascending node is where you will cross to the north of the other orbit. They are the places I was talking about: the most efficient time to match planes, because you ARE on the same plane at that moment. The green circle itself is just the target orbit highlighted to make it easier to see. And by the way, your peri- and apo- markers are still there when this display comes up.

[bainbridge]

Excellent thanks, 1km and closing!

[Nibb31]

I have got to within a few metres but due to the orbits not being exactly on the same plane I'm unable to dock.

Please can someone help? I've got a manned lander and unmanned interplanetary stage that needs to be docked in order to do my first long range return mission.

If you got to within a few meters, then you had pretty much achieved the rendezvous, which means that you must have pretty much aligned the planes already.

The next stage is to match your velocity with the velocity of your target. This mechanically puts you in the exact same orbit as the target, because you are flying at the same speed.

To match your velocity:

1) Make sure your target is selected in Map view.

2) Make sure the Navball is in Target mode.

3) Point your ship towards the retrograde marker and burn until the relative velocity is zero.

From there, switch to the target and switch on the ASAS. Then, switch back to the docking spacecraft, put it into the same orientation as the target, and switch on ASAS. Finally, proceed with the docking using only the RCS translate controls (IJKLHN)