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hello and some noob questions =)


SkenteR

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greetings from germany,

I have been playing for a while now and i thought it is time to register. first of all i have to say this game is awesome. after i played the demo i bought it and i got into the orbit "horayyyyyy" =). but i have a problem.... everytime i get into the orbit and i add a maneuver the cycle looks like a egg... between the AP and the PE is adiffrents like 100.000-300.000m.... it is like impossible for me to get a stable round orbit...

what i do:

1.start

2.get into 10.000m

3.get in a 45° position

4.burn until i get a 100.000m AP

5.add a maneuver

and here comes the problem the orbit cycle looks like a egg ap 100.000 and pe is like 300.000 - 500.000m and i dont know why...

why i want it ? i want to create a space center in the orbit. btw sry for my poor english i hope you understand what i mean =)

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What you want to do is to circularize the orbit by performing burns at the opposite node. So, you raise and lower Ap at Pe and vice versa.

If you want to raise the opposite node, burn prograde. If you want to lower the opposite node, burn retrograde.

Does that make sense? I'll try to explain better if not. You burn at the opposite node because it is the most fuel efficient burn.

Also, when creating the maneuver know that you can also pull the circle on the other side to decrease the size of the orbit.

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

Edited by Scrogdog
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Hello skenteR. I learned how to play KSP mostly from two sources. Number 1 was

. I think his tutorials are excellent, but they are in English, that may or may not help you. Number 2 was mechjeb. I was able to figure out how to perform all kinds of maneuvers by watching mechjeb do it first. There are many KSP veterans who don't like mechjeb because it does make flying your rockets very easy. But, I think it is a good tool to learn from.:)
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Welcome to the forums! :)

I think the others have pretty much covered the specifics of your questions, but while you're here, there are a number of tutorials on the site you might want to check out. I'd highly advise starting at the Drawing Board (link in my sig) and looking there. Also, feel free to ask for help in the How To forums if you need it. You can also post in the International section if you think you'd understand an explanation better in your native tongue.

Happy landings!

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Hi there. steps 1-3 sound fine, but there's a bit more to it. As you get more velocity, you want to pitch over farther so that more of your thrust goes into orbital velocity, and less of it goes into pure altitude. It sounds like what is happening is that when you reach your apoapsis, you have to burn too much in order to raise your periapsis, which in turn raises your apoapsis farther. Basically, the longer you have to burn around your apoapsis, the longer you're burning while not at the apoapsis, which affects both the periapsis and apoapsis.

However, if you continue your gravity turn gradually, you'll find you don't reach your apoapsis as quickly, but you have to burn less in order to get your periapsis outside the atmosphere. Turn to 45 degrees, but then slowly continue to turn closer to horizontal as you gain speed and altitude. If you turn too fast, you lose a lot of your energy to air resistance, but as you get past 10km altitude, that diminishes rapidly. If you don't turn fast enough, you'll find yourself hitting your apoapsis before you've built up much orbital velocity. So watch for that and adjust your turn speed.

Doing this should get your initial orbit closer to circular, but you'll still need to learn how to tweak it, as the other posts have said.

It's also possible that your gravity turn is fine and you're burning too long at apoapsis, but given your description, a gravity turn that isn't aggressive enough is a much more likely culprit.

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Great point, Eric!

I just wanted to follow up with one more thing now that I have the time. Use map mode to make these node changes. What I usually do is to create a maneuver at the node that is opposite of the one I want to change but don't actually define the maneuver. That way, I can use my cursor to observe the changes on the opposite node rather than using it to look at how much time I have left before I reach the near one because now next to the gimbal is my "time to event" so to speak. So, with that set up, TAP shift to start the change and observe its effect with your mouse over on the opposite node.

Keep your finger on cut-off! :)

If Ap and Pe start to spin around the planet, cut power! You've done as much as you can do for now. If that means using time warp to come around again, so be it.

Edited by Scrogdog
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Welcome to the forums!

at 10 km, make sure you are pointing 45 degrees west.

make your appoapsis(or something) at 100, add a manauver, start burning at the maneuaver marker on your appoapsis, than stop when the yellow bar is empty.

I think this is more clear

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Since the OP says he's German and i'm too, I will write my new advices (and the ones I probably missed when skimming the thread :P) in German.

-----

  • Versuche während des Starts immer zuerst auf 75-80 km Ap zu gehen, das gibt dir mehr Spielraum wenn du die Triebwerke zu lange anlässt. Für's spätere Spiel ist eine niedrige Umlaufbahn auch bei interplanetaren Manövern effizienter (sagt zumindestens Scott Manley, und der sollte es als Astrophysiker ja wissen).
  • Wenn die Prograde-Markierung nach der 45°-Neigung über deine Ausrichtung hinausgeht, richte dich neu nach Prograde aus, das ist effizienter. Dazu schalte die Pro-/Retrograde-Anzeige auf 20-25 km Höhe von "Surface" auf "Orbital" um, einfach auf die Geschwindigkeitsanzeige über dem Navball klicken (sobald man im Weltraum ist geht das automatisch). Sonst berechnet KSP die Drehung des Planeten immer mit ein.
  • Es ist am effizientesten immer nur wenn du sehr nah an Ap/Pe dran bist die Größe der Umlaufbahn zu verändern (außer bei Neigungsänderungen). Wenn der Ap/Pe-Marker beim Manöver von deinem Schiff "wegrennt" unterbreche das Manöver und warpe zur Ap/Pe, sonst kann es die Umlaufbahn ziemlich verformen (das ist wahrscheinlich dein Problem mit der elliptischen Umlaufbahn).

Ist jetzt so das einzige was mir noch eingefallen ist oder was ich in den Vorherigen Posts übersehen habe. Ich hoffe es ist verständlich, die meisten Fachbegriffe konnte ich nicht so gut übersetzen.

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