Maneuver question

[eastjc]

I haven't been able to find this on the forum site yet, but what exactly do the 6 markers do when trying to set up a maneuver for orbit. I keep ending up guessing till I get something close to what I want, however, I'd like to quit guessing and do it right the first time. Fuel is money!

[1001sd]

Welcome to the forums! Have fun.

There is a page on the wiki about maneuver nodes, I hope it'll help you: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Maneuver_node

[Vanamonde]

Which markers are you talking about? The ones on the node itself? Tugging on those allows you to see what the result would be of adding a velocity vector of that magnitude in that direction. They have formal names such as "prograde" and "anti-radial," but each one just points in the direction you'd need to burn to achieve the indicated effect.

[eastjc]

1001sd, that does help a bit for now. Now that I have that to look at I need to practice a bit. I appreciate it!

Vanamonde, I know tugging on them adjusts the orbit, I was just trying to figure out which did what and why so I can do it quickly on a low burn rocket to obtain a good close orbit.

[eastjc]

[oberlerchner123]

Yeah the wiki is pretty good, as it also has pictures to illustrate.

But let's say you're already in orbit. Looking straight along the way you're going with the planet below you.

Straight ahead is prograde (green circle with dot), burning that way will raise your speed and the height of your orbit along to the other side of the planet.

If you turn around looking the way you came from, that's retrograde (green circle with X), burning that way will slow you down and lower the height of your orbit along to the other side.

If you look right upwards away from the planet, that's radial out (cyan circle with dot). If you burn that way it will raise the orbit immediately ahead of you, but lower it behind you once you come around the next time.

If you look right down towards the planet, that's radial in (cyan with X). If you burn that away it will lower the orbit immediately ahead of you, but raise it behind you when you come back around.

It kinda looks as if the orbit were a hula hoop and your grab it at one point and rotate your wrist.

If you have the planet beneath you, burning left or right by 90°, is either normal (pink triangle) or anti-normal (pink triangle with 3 lines).

Doing this will change at which angle you go around the planet.

Let's say your orbiting around earth in a equatorial geosynchronous orbit. You end up going over Africa, Indonesia, South America.

If you burned anti-normal now you would go Africa, Australia, North America.

Edited July 2, 2013 by oberlerchner123

[SRV Ron]

Forward and backward handles increase the orbital radius or decrease it. Use this to expand the orbit to intersect a planet or moon.

The side handles alter the orbital circle. That is useful if your first intersect burn has aimed you into a collision course.

The up and down handles are used to change your orbital plane. Use them to get the desired alinement needed for intercept.

In addition, you can drag the circle containing the six direction handles around your orbit to fine tune when to start your burn.

Split the burn time presented and start the burn before the time given. Example, for a 30 second burn, start 15 seconds before the clock says to. Otherwise, you will be heading past what your orbital path was predicted.

You can also vary the thrust to fine tune getting the path desired.

Do plan on having to do correction burns on the way to your objective. Rather then trying to do an orbital capture to Mum, just do the burn to get a desired paragee, then do a second maneuver to get the orbit desired at the paragee point. You will save a lot of fuel doing the maneuvers that way.

The goal, setting up the intercept and orbit using the smallest delta V possible.

The more you play with this, the better you will get at it.

Edited July 1, 2013 by SRV Ron

[eastjc]

Ok, so the planet rotates at 90 degrees or thats only the mun?

[SRV Ron]

Ok, so the planet rotates at 90 degrees or thats only the mun?

Kerbal rotates at 90*. Mum's orbital plane is at 90*.

The other planets and moons vary which will make them more challenging for orbital insertion. You will have to look up their stats for more info.