Rendevous with a booster stage left in orbit?

[tfabris]

I've made my first trip to Duna. My Kermen are on the surface with their rover having fun. But soon it will be time to send them home.

Their lander has probably enough fuel to launch back into Duna orbit, but probably not enough for a full burn back to Kerbin. Not to worry! I parked a booster rocket with some fuel left (really, it was more or less my third stage) in orbit around Duna. It has a docking ring and everything. Before making the Duna trip, I practiced docking with it in Kerbin orbit. (Detach from the booster, rotate my capsule around, then dock with the docking ring on the booster.)

Problem is, now that I'm on the Duna surface, I can't figure out how to locate it and rendezvous with it. I can see it using the Tracking station at the space center, it registers as a piece of debris. It's among a few pieces of debris currently drifting around Duna. A bit of trial-and-error and I can get the thing on my screen. Looks good, orbiting there, waiting for me to fly up and dock with it.

What I can't figure out how to do is, when piloting the lander, how to set that thing as a Target. If I could do that then I could use the map view to time my launch and burn to rendevous with it. Problem is that I can't figure out how to mark it as a target.

Is there any way to do this?

[MaverickSawyer]

Go to map view and click on it. It will offer you two choices: Set Target and Switch To. In this case, you want Set Target. click that button, and the orbit will turn green and allow you to start planning your rendezvous.

[pebble_garden]

Try going to your ship's map view, and move the mouse to the center top of your screen, then click on the debris filter (leftmost button on the bar which appears). Find the orbiting booster, and left-click on it, then choose Set Target. You should then be able to at least see a target designator in your external view (when close enough) and a target marker on your nav ball.

In the future, you should think about adding a remote guidance unit to your booster, so it'll register as a probe, not debris. Might also think about adding a battery pack and solar panels, just to keep the thing active.

[Starwaster]

In the future, you should think about adding a remote guidance unit to your booster, so it'll register as a probe, not debris. Might also think about adding a battery pack and solar panels, just to keep the thing active.

QFT. I flew just such a mission once. However my game was lagging a bit and I thought to go to settings and lower the maximum amount of debris.

when the time came to return home I started searching the skies for the Duna 1 service module. It was nowhere to be found. KSC had to fly a replacement out at great expense.

Errr actually that didn't really happen to me cause that would be dumb. It happened to a friend.

uhm actually it wasnt even my friend... errr it was uh a friend of a friend....

[tfabris]

Try going to your ship's map view, and move the mouse to the center top of your screen

WHAT? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!?!?!?!?

I had no idea you could do that, never knew you could get that bar to appear in the Map view. I only knew that the bar was there in the Space Center.

Being able to track the debris in the Map view will likely take care of my issue.

Thanks!