Pulse-modulated RCS

[MDBenson]

Something occurred to me during a sim I ran through in Space Shuttle Mission Simulator (SSM2007/SSMSTCE). There's no pulse modulated option for RCS thrusters.

The Space Shuttle used the pulse mode to give crew performing docking manoeuvres a finite amount of impulse in one pulse. The idea was to be able to gauge how much you are accelerating. For example one pulse up, followed by one pulse down would lead to a net gain of 0m/s in vertical velocity. This would dramatically improve docking and similar operations when carried out by hand as you would no longer have to gauge burn time of the RCS thrusters by ear and would have an accurate measure. IT's especially useful at low speed.

Just one of those things that crossed my mind.

[cloudx]

I have similar experiences on SSM2007. For KSP, putting RCS rockets into a pulse - jet mode would allow much more fine tuning for docking. Good suggestion

[Winter Man]

That's very true, it'd be nice to see.

[aNewHope]

Precision controls do the trick form me. But longer and exact pulses could get really useful if you have to move over longer distances.

[golegogo]

or a least a throttle to control how much power the rcs thrusters.