Pull or Push an Asteroid?

[chrisb2e9]

Subject says it all, when you attach to an asteroid. How do you have your engine's set up?

I tried pushing. Didn't work so well...

Pulling on it worked a lot better!

Just wondering how everyone else does it?

[mattyp2109]

I feel with this it is dependent on the ships setup. Like how much SAS,RCS, which engines use, etc. all will change the effectiveness of controlling the asteroid and your vehicle.

[LtHeckard]

I tried both, neither worked very well. Probably because my Retro rockets were facing the asteroid!

[Navy2k]

You can unlock the grabber and position the center of mass directly in front of your center of thrust and then lock it again.

Greetings

Ben

[diomedea]

I've considered building ships so to pull asteroids, but as I learnt how to be effective in pushing them, I have always done that way.

The important trick to know is how to center the CoM of the asteroid, aligned with your CoT, exactly as Navy2K said.

But, when the CoM is not centered, the asteroid will begin to spin while pushed. Knowing where it will spin comes handy to rotate the asteroid in the correct direction (and so achieve a desired direction much sooner than using RCS or other means).

If, e.g., your CoT is to the left of the asteroid CoM, the asteroid will rotate to the right when pushed. If you use angled pushes correctly, you can rotate your CoT around the CoM and apply spin so to keep the asteroid in a desired direction. It's a bit like pushing a trailer when going backwards with a lorry, it's not easy at first but after a bit of practice it can be done without effort.

[Raven.]

Depends on the design of the ship that is pushing/pulling the roid. In reality, it is a judgement on part of the ship designer. However which way it is done, like diomedea has stated, the CoT will need to align with the CoM of the asteroid.

[Evil Acrylic]

I Would agree with Raven. It depends on the type of ship you like to build,

First time i would say go for pushing as you can make a ship push with out any complex designs. Pulling can be more colourful

Edited April 3, 2014 by Evil Acrylic
Fixed the Vid

[700NitroXpress]

I think the best course is to do like they do in Planetary Annihilation. Build multiple engines and attach them to various points on the asteroid so that you have thrust pointed in one general direction. This way you can put multiple engines around the center of mass and you don't have to rely on just one. This will also give you greater control from the engine's thrust vectoring.

[zarakon]

Someone get those Planetary Annihilation engines modded into KSP, pronto!

[700NitroXpress]

I'm already building them with stock parts, this will be epic!

[Superfluous J]

I'd say push A B and C asteroids. D is iffy, and pull the E ones.