Docking Port Strength

[Danger2007]

Hi Folks,

So I'm building a some kit to go to other planets and I've got a standard excursion vehicle that I want to with dock mission packs, to the capsule's nose using the clamp o tron. Thing is I'm sure I read somewhere that it could snap under load like if its being pushed by a rocket.

Has anyone tried this or seen a thread they can link me too?

Thanks,

Dave

[nhnifong]

It can snap but if you take it slow, and watch the oscillations you can easily avoid it. If your rocket is bending more than about 10 degrees at the docking port, throttle down. If your ship weighs about 10 tons, you can easily do full throttle. 25 tons, maybe about 2/3 throttle, and 100 tons, good luck.

[Danger2007]

Cool I'll give it a go, thanks!

[Sirrobert]

It's safer to pull ships like that, put the engine module at the tip, with several atomic motors radially.

That way it won't bend by the inertia of the rest of the craft

[capi3101]

The alternative is to build a design that utilizes multiple ports. Three is generally considered standard; I use four myself. Proper alignment becomes a pain in the backside; it's a tradeoff.

My own observation is that docking ports tend to break once you get much past two to three gees of acceleration, depending on how much mass they're pushing ahead of them. Plus you have the aforementioned wobble problem.

[AndreyATGB]

You can either use the senior port, triple normal ones or get quantum struts for excessively large ships. Without quantum, don't expect to stably dock 100+ ton ships.

[troyn123]

I've also found that throwing some mini struts that go passed the docking clamp can really help keeping it from breaking during the ascent stage out of Kerbin's gravity, but will still pop off when you decouple the node later. Once it's out of a heavy gravity well, the extra support shouldn't be all that necessary, unless your craft's center of mass is off the main axis or you're really pushing hard on the throttle.

This shot shows what I mean, used it when lifting the components of my space station. Picture here are the struts on either side of the jumbo docking clamp: