Thrust question - ARM Pack

[darkstrike]

Hey guys! I just repurposed one of my 'space-only' (well...until final landing back at Kerbin) motherships as an Asteroid-go-getter by fitting an Advanced Grabbing Device to it's lower docking clamp. All works fine, got to the asteroid, latched on, now ready to bring it back to Kerbin. It's a Class A, so not very big.

Now...the ship...it's mainly powered by 2 LV-N engines, so a thrust total of about 120kn. When I throttle them up....nothing happens...at all. My speed doesn't even budge. I realize it's probably due to low thrust, but the asteroid is only the smallest type and 120kn thrust isn't THAT low...hell, I'm pretty sure I've towed larger-total-mass things with that ship design than this!

If I don't even have the LV-Ns throttled up, by some magic I don't understand, the RCS thrusters WILL change my speed quite readily...(there are 14 of them, so theoretically 14kn of thrust, 1kn each)....you mean to tell me those 14 RCS thrusters' total output of 14kn somehow moves the ship AND asteroid while my 120kn total thrust LV-Ns can't...? Is this a huge bug?

I thought even a miniscule amount of thrust would move something big in space, it would just take a really long time....? (I know there's a point at which too small a thrust wouldn't move something, but I'm pretty sure I have more than enough thrust with my engines) The whole ship is currently 21 tonnes as it sits and the LV-Ns move it fine, WITH the asteroid, it's still only 28 tonnes...why can't I move them?

Can anybody explain to me what's up?

Edited April 8, 2014 by darkstrike

[Red Iron Crown]

Are you trying to push or pull the asteroid with the nukes? If you're pulling and the exhaust is hitting the asteroid, it won't move.

[biohazard15]

Can you show us a screenshot of the ship with asteroid? I'm pretty sure that your engines are too close to it and thus blocked.

[darkstrike]

Oooohhh, I bet that's it.....stupid that I never thought of that. I've been trying to pull it, yes. Luckily this ship class has two docking ports - one on either end - so I'll flip the Advanced Grabbing device probe to the other end and hopefully all should be well!

I'll let you know...

Edited April 8, 2014 by darkstrike

[Daze]

...or maybe you are in "Target Mode"?

[darkstrike]

Nope, I was in normal mode, but all is well now...it was that the asteroid was blocking my thrust.....note made for next time!

[RedDwarfIV]

Yeah, this is the same thing as what happens when a decoupler won't detach from an engine. It blocks the exhaust so you just waste fuel.

I rebuilt my E-class interceptor with an extra long grabbing tail to try and keep the exhaust off the asteroid. I've yet to see if it works, but I did get it into orbit with two insertion boosters still attached. Those might reach out around the asteroid enough to get thrust.

[darkstrike]

I flipped the ship around and re-docked it with my 'Remote Interface Grappling Probe' / the asteroid attached to that. All is well! I now have a Class A asteroid in a 389,000km, circular, 0° inclined orbit around Kerbin!

HOWEVER....another issue. I had right-clicked it while it was still attached to the grappler and gave it a name...however, after I disconnected the grappler, the name isn't there, it's back to being called it's letter-and-number designation again...? Why didn't my assigned name stay?

[Sirrobert]

When you name a ship, you actually give that name to the controlling part. Either probe or capsule. So when you detachted the grappler, that probe (or ship) kept the name you assigned it, and the thing you detatched from it got it's old name back.

Check the grappler, that should have your asteroid's name

[darkstrike]

Nope. The Grappler is still named what I named it. The asteroid, which WAS showing up as the name I gave it while connected to it ISN'T showing up as that name after it's not connected do anything. I'm guessing it's a bug because if the right-click-on-an-asteroid-to-get-th-"Rename-Asteroid" function doesn't ACTUALLY rename the asteroid permanently, something's wrong lol...

[Claw]

I flipped the ship around and re-docked it with my 'Remote Interface Grappling Probe' / the asteroid attached to that. All is well! I now have a Class A asteroid in a 389,000km, circular, 0° inclined orbit around Kerbin!

HOWEVER....another issue. I had right-clicked it while it was still attached to the grappler and gave it a name...however, after I disconnected the grappler, the name isn't there, it's back to being called it's letter-and-number designation again...? Why didn't my assigned name stay?

That might be worth a bug report if you're not using any mods. Try to replicate it and see if there's anything goofy that you did. (Like undocking, flipping around, and redocking to a different port...)

[Sirrobert]

Nope. The Grappler is still named what I named it. The asteroid, which WAS showing up as the name I gave it while connected to it ISN'T showing up as that name after it's not connected do anything. I'm guessing it's a bug because if the right-click-on-an-asteroid-to-get-th-"Rename-Asteroid" function doesn't ACTUALLY rename the asteroid permanently, something's wrong lol...

Well in that case I have no clue. I asumed it worked like other rockets

[darkstrike]

We've got a bug thread going on about it now in the Support section...other folks have reported this glitch too!