Docking with ASAS/ Mechjeb/ ORDA?

[Wait- Was That Important?]

Hey KSP community,

Just throwing something out here that I've never understood. People always are complaining about how ASAS uses too much RCS, how the various docking assistant mods use too much as well, etc. etc. At the same time, others complain of the difficulties of unbalanced RCS while docking.

I've never understood any of these complaints. I learned to dock from only watching a couple of Scott Manley videos- and no tutorials at that. I'm not bragging: it was a stupid way for anyone to learn. It took me literally 4 hours and 41 launches to rendezvous and dock a single 2 ton station module.

Regardless of my learning troubles, however, I've never used ASAS or any of the mods. I gratuitously abuse timewarp's magic ability to violate the law of conservation of angular momentum, but that's really my only mechanized assistance. I don't find docking unbalanced modules particularly difficult- even the heaviest things I've docked which come in somewhere near 120 tons really don't pose an issue for me. If you just go slowly, it's just a question of adjusting for each translation and watching the navball closely.

I suppose my question is two part then. The first would be, why do people find docking with unbalanced RCS so difficult, and the second would be, after learning to dock this way, would using ORDA or even just ASAS be worth it?

I only ask because I'm designing a second- generation command vehicle and don't know whether I want it to have alot of RCS (in this case, 2.5 tons of it for a 15 ton craft) or just enough for a docking or two (.5 tons of it).

~WWTI?

[TheRabbit]

I don't find that ASAS uses all that much RCS. I'm able to use two tanks of 80 when docking and barly scratch them, but that's just me.

[Fel]

I've never understood any of these complaints. I learned to dock from only watching a couple of Scott Manley videos- and no tutorials at that. I'm not bragging: it was a stupid way for anyone to learn. It took me literally 4 hours and 41 launches to rendezvous and dock a single 2 ton station module.

Actually, tutorials are a "Stupid Way to Learn." I'd say watching orbital mechanics videos is a smart way of learning.

How safe would you feel if the DMV decided that reading a simple tutorial was enough to "get your driver's license." You can "do it" but you don't understand WHAT you're doing.

If "time to learn" is how we're measuring "stupid" then my way comes in first. ~8 hours; I had Kerbal Engineer Redux installed... and for several hours I literally just watched the numbers until I understood (somewhat) how to make the numbers go to the numbers I wanted them to be.

If you just go slowly, it's just a question of adjusting for each translation and watching the navball closely.

This is a VIDEOGAME, who has the patience to "Go Slowly?" "MY GOD, It'll take 5 min to dock at this rate! MORE SPEED! *GGGRRRR HAVE TO START OVER**** GGGGGGRRRRR Now I have to reposition.... Repositioning is too slow... go faster! *****EXPLOSION****

The thing about the Autopilot mods is that, really... it is just a matter of patience, and a matter of how much "gameplay" you want to remove due to "being tedious."

[Temstar]

Same, I just line up both spacecraft and switch ASAS on both, turn on RCS on the active craft and translate for the final approach. By the time I'm done I look at the gauge and see monopropellant went down by something like 20L. I use RCS tug and turn on RCS and ASAS for modules as "unbalanced" as this:

Where the CoM is completely outside the tug itself and is in fact inside the dead weight payload and I don't really have any problems translating while ASAS keeps it straight.

[mushroomman]

I learned how to rendezvous the same way

I've found that it's much too difficult to dock without ASAS. I think once I forgot to put it on my ship so I just got frustrated and let mechjeb dock for me. It worked well enough though.

[Blackstar]

I learned how to rendezvous the same way

I've found that it's much too difficult to dock without ASAS. I think once I forgot to put it on my ship so I just got frustrated and let mechjeb dock for me. It worked well enough though.

If you have the MechJeb part, Smart A.S.S. in "Kill Rot" mode is pretty much the same thing as ASAS. Target PAR- mode is even more useful for docking because it will keep you aligned parallel to your target (assuming you targeted the docking port itself).

IMO plain old SAS is more useful for docking than ASAS, because it will apply torque to help keep you from rotating, but not send control inputs that fire your RCS thrusters and use up propellant / introduce oscillations.

[leax256]

I like mech jeb docking because you can have several ships(withing the physics zone all docking at once.

[Superluminaut]

RCS translation is currently broken for all but the most meticulously planned crafts.

I think that kills a lot of learners.

[Blackstar]

MechJeb 2.x does have an RCS balancer mode that reduces the thrust on some of the ports in order to make translation work correctly. It's not an autopilot -- just a correction to fix the thrusters always firing at full power regardless of balance.

It doesn't balance rotation to prevent you from translating, and sometimes it gets confused and prevents you from moving at all until you change ships, but when it does work it can be helpful.

I really wish the game had an option to enable RCS for translation only while using pod torque for the rotation keys.

[wolfedg]

RCS translation is currently broken for all but the most meticulously planned crafts.

I think that kills a lot of learners.

I had a lot of trouble until I figured out how to put the rcs over the center of gravity. Now its easy, just time consuming. I don't use any mods either.

[Designer225]

More likely be docking, with ASAS as the stabilizer.