How to manuver

[Gaziki]

Hi!

So I managed to circle te earth over and over but still dont know how to manover. while ship is moving i set an monouver on its path, but when ship pass over this point nothing happens and ship moves at old direction. What am i doing wrong?

[Grizzlol]

It does not perform the maneuver for you, it just shows you what it will look like and when and where you should burn. The blue reticule shows you which direction to burn in.

[Vanamonde]

The maneuver node system does not perform the maneuver for you. It only provides a method of planning the maneuver you want to make. Set the marker, then grab and tug the little handles around to see what the result will be. Once you've got it set the way you want, point your nose at the blue navball marker, and when the time comes, burn the engine as long as the timer says to. When done, you should be pretty close to the path you planned.

[stupid_chris]

Hi!

So I managed to circle te earth over and over but still dont know how to manover. while ship is moving i set an monouver on its path, but when ship pass over this point nothing happens and ship moves at old direction. What am i doing wrong?

The maneuver isn't an autopilot, it's just an indication. When you set a maneuver node, it will put a blue target on your navball and give you the amoun of delta V you need to expand to complete your maneuver, along with the amount of time you will have to burn. What you want to do is point towards the blue target on your navball and then warp to your node. When you reach your node, you want to throttle up, still facing that blue target. The yellow bar on the side should start draining down, meaning you are indeed accelerating on the right path. Be careful though, when the burn is almost complete, the maneuver node will start moving around the navball, so burn slowly and be sure to move your ship so it always points toward the target. And you can safely stop a maneuver when it has about 0.5m/s left. You can also fine tune it by using the translation controls with RCS.

Also, if the maneuver node tells you you are gonna burn for a minute, you want to start burning towards your target 30 seconds before you get to the maneuver node. You always divide it by two to do it half before half after.

If you want something that will do the maneuver nodes for you, I recommend installing MechJeb 2.0.8. It is an autopilot for KSP and it can set maneuver nodes for you and execute them or simply execute the maneuver nodes you set, along with many other tools.

Link to MechJeb 2.0.8

Good luck! ^^

[Gaziki]

I dont understand it:D. I just see green marker and new speedmeter while setting new coordinates. I find yellow bar quite useless atm, because blue bar changes after time while experimenting with direction ship is moving, but its not accurate. Made one of my ships circle earth at endless times simply because power died against gravity to make bigger circless

[stupid_chris]

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but if you're having a lot of trouble with maneuver nodes, you should really download MechJeb and see how he does it, I learned mostly from MechJeb honestly. After watching him go a few times you should understand how it works I guess.

[Superfish57]

Sorry, but you will have to explain better then this, you are not making much sense.

[Lumaro]

...you should really download MechJeb...

No, How about just watching tutorial videos on youtube...

[OtherDalfite]

No, How about just watching tutorial videos on youtube...

This, we should be showing our new users HOW to do transfers, rather than just sticking them with an autopilot and calling it a day.

[Khrissetti]

When you set a maneuver node you'll see a yellow bar to the right of your navball and two sets of the numbers, the top one is your predicted burn time, this means how long you'll have to leave the engines on or to complete the burn. The bottom number is your ETA which will show how long it will take to get there.

Also somewhere on the nav-ball will be a blue cross-hair, this is the direction your rocket needs to be pointed in when you reach the node in order to complete the maneuver.

The yellow bar shows you how much delta-v (or change in velocity) you need to complete the maneuver.

If you have multiple maneuver nodes you have to delete the last one before the next node's information will kick in.

~

Tutorial:

1) Get into a stable orbit.

2)Set a maneuver node about quarter of an orbit ahead of you.

3) spin your rocket around until you find the blue marker on the nav-ball

4)Wait until you're a few seconds away.

5) Burn (gently!) and watch the yellow bar slowly drain as you complete the maneuver. In the last few seconds the blue marker will start to zip around the nav-ball. If this happens you should be near enough to completing your maneuver to kill your engines.

6)Delete the maneuver node by clicking on it in map view and hitting the red 'x'

Do it a couple of times until it becomes second-nature.

[stupid_chris]

No, How about just watching tutorial videos on youtube...

This, we should be showing our new users HOW to do transfers, rather than just sticking them with an autopilot and calling it a day.

Sigh. I'm not telling him to use MechJeb and then job done. If you look at my post in its wholeness, you will see that I told him to watch how he does to learn how to do it after. I learned from MechJeb more than I learned from any tutorial. I learned the most efficient ways to do launches, takeoffs, rendez-vous and landings from MechJeb. Now I do them myself most of the time, excepted for 30 minute burns cause I have better to do honestly than sitting by my computer for 30 minutes correcting my orientation every 2 minutes or so for thirty minutes. But watching MechJeb go is much more educative than it could seem like at the first place. That's what I meant.

Edited June 4, 2013 by stupid_chris

[Cranium]

5) Burn (gently!) and watch the yellow bar slowly drain as you complete the maneuver.

Now you say gently, but does the thrust really matter when making a maneuver? I had thought that the more thrust, the faster you're going to get to your desired position? I'm very new to successful rocketry, but quite advanced at making things go boom.

[wasmic]

Well, more thrust IS better with maneuver nodes, it makes it more accurate. But I would advise you to slow down near the end of the burn, otherwise, you might burn for too long.

EDIT: And that's bad, as it wastes a lot of ÃŽâ€V.

Edited June 4, 2013 by wasmic

[Khrissetti]

Now you say gently, but does the thrust really matter when making a maneuver? I had thought that the more thrust, the faster you're going to get to your desired position? I'm very new to successful rocketry, but quite advanced at making things go boom.

Yeah, I say gently so you can see precisely what's happening and get used to it, you can get familiar with a system you don't know.

Once you've done a couple of slow burns and understand it there's nothing stopping you from upping the thrust