wrong direction: possible to fix?

[billycop32]

alright, so first off let me say this has not happened to me yet. i was watching pebbles's orbiting 101 video and a thought occuried to me: what if your target is spinning east of the body, and your spinning west? how do you fix it? i have 2 hypothesises: burn hard and mabye you won't fall out of sky while changing direction. the second, and more likely to work, is a series of burns northword that would flip your obit upside down.

any thoughts from kerbal vets?

[M5000]

I've arrived into Mun orbit multiple times going the wrong way (In fact, almost EVERY time I'm coming in the wrong way...)

Just burn retrograde until it becomes prograde and you're going the same speed you started out as. Will totally reverse your orbit.

The higher you are, the easier this will be, since there's less change in velocity, and there's more time to "fall"

[Dogface]

That happened to me on my first return from the Mun. I launched a new recovery vehicle on the same orbital direction. It hasnt happened again. This is easy to correct when you first enter SOI. The two methods you mention might work but would be prohibitively expensive in delta V.

[Superfluous J]

Yeah once you're in a low orbit turning your ship around is almost impossible. Plan ahead, and aim for the correct side of the planet you're coming at because that far away you can fix the problem with just a few dozen delta-v.

[MockKnizzle]

Well, ideally you'd plan ahead enough so that that wouldn't happen. But, in the case that it did, you'd probably want to boost your vehicle up into a highly elliptical orbit and make the retrograde burn at apoapsis where you're moving the slowest, and then re-circularize when you come back down. Reversing your orbit in LKO will take a huge amount of fuel, more than 4 km/s worth.

[Guest]

Burning "northward" or +normal will change your inclination. The best place to do this is at the ascending or descending node, whichever is farthest away from the target or orbited body. The thing about it is, "northward" or +normal will change as your inclination changes, so it can be difficult to tell exactly where to point your rocket without mechjeb, but it is doable in the stock game. You have to watch how the apoapsis and/or the periapsis change, or rather don't change if pointed +normal, as well as how the retrograde and prograde markers change. +Normal is exactly in between the prograde and retrograde markers on the horizon line (I think). There is a mod that enhances the navball that might help with this, if mechjeb is not your thing. : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50524-0-22-Enhanced-Navball-1-2?highlight=enhanced+navball

[RSwordsman]

So your target is retrograde and you are prograde, or vice-versa? Revert to Launch. :S The amount of fuel you'd use correcting your orbit would be pretty darn large.

[Guest]

So your target is retrograde and you are prograde, or vice-versa? Revert to Launch. :S The amount of fuel you'd use correcting your orbit would be pretty darn large.

Actually, changing inclination is quite cheap as long as it is a highly elliptical orbit, and the ascending or descending node is close to the apoapsis.

[AlamoVampire]

I sometimes intentionally enter a retrograde orbit for kicks. But, if you wish to be in the same direction as the body your in orbit of, just point pro-grade and burn. eventually you will stop all motion and then start to accelerate back into a 'normal' orbit. have fun!

[RSF77]

The most efficient way to do it is burn until you push your ap way out past the muns orbit somewhere (watch out for mun encounters though, plan accordingly), then burn retro at the distant ap and watch the map until your pe appears on out the other side. Now just adjust your pe and circularize accordingly, best way of changing any inclination but takes more time warping.

[The Destroyer]

I haven't had this problem happen except about 3 times in the Jool system. Very hard to land on a planet :-/

[Taki117]

I'm curious as to why you would need to be rotating one direction vs another around a given body. If you are trying to land on said body and you are rotating opposite it aim short of your LZ (Landing Zone) to account for rotation, if you are rotating with the body then you aim long for the same reason.

[Kerbart]

The simplest way is to raise your apoapsis so you have an extremely elliptical orbit. At this point your velocity at apoapsis will be a few 100 m/s at best so it may take 300-400 delta V to turn around.

For the same reason this is also the way to go for large inclination changes (and done in real life for large inclination changes as well)

I'm curious as to why you would need to be rotating one direction vs another around a given body. If you are trying to land on said body and you are rotating opposite it aim short of your LZ (Landing Zone) to account for rotation, if you are rotating with the body then you aim long for the same reason.

Try docking with a prograde moving space station when your craft is going retrograde and let me know how that works out for you. Most frequent occurance is when sending a lander to the surface and putting the lander in the "wrong" orbit after takeoff.