Class D= move a friggen mountain

[engraverwilliam]

I snagged one and I am bringing it in to a 100km orbit. I am almost there. So far I have used 3 orange tanks with 2 nervas attached with a total burn af about 1.5 hours so far. Now that it is closer I just sent up a new ship with tons of fuel and a big ass engine to try and bring it the rest of the way in. I am addicted!

Are there bigger rocks than D to grab?

[Zerois]

There is an E-Class which is insanely heavy.

[maccollo]

There is E class asteroids. They weigh up to 3600 tons I think. You'll get 100 meters per second or so out of 3 orange tanks I think.

[Alymon]

Are there bigger rocks than D to grab?

Yes, class E.

EDIT:

Apparently I'm too slow on the draw today.

Oh well.

[electronicfox]

My first capture was a 3000tonne E class. I redirected a small tug to check it out, and thats when I learnt that small tugs wont do anything to 3000 tonnes. Ive even hauled some massive tugs to it, this thing was a pain to move.

Edited April 12, 2014 by KasperVld

[jmiki8]

Yes, E-class asteroids are the largest. However, I was really unlucky with my first find: the E-class I captured was only 974 tons!

[Cydonian Monk]

I've got a 1,344t class-E I'm hoping to snare in the next couple of days. Big ole rock that dwarfs anything that gets nearby. It's already eaten one probe. (And that only managed to slow it by 3m/s.)

[troyn123]

I dragged a ~3100 ton class E into a 275x275 orbit (or was it 250?)... Yeah, I think it was something like 10 Kerbal years to get it there (real heavy plane change as well). I set up a large docking clamp with a grabber, as perfectly aligned with the CoM as I could get it, then via the KAS add-on, attached a bunch of struts between my docking port and the asteroid itself. That helped significantly with steering the thing! After that, I was just sending up one orange tank after another after another with a couple LVN's on there, burn burn burn. Took forever! One thing to note is that with the stronger joints in this .23.5 patch, you can get away with a little bit more time acceleration while burning. Not much, but enough to really help...

And then I finally got my asteroid where I wanted it, started building it into a space station... And stuff kept just blowing up any time the asteroid came into a render range. BOOM. Jump to it from the Tracking Station? BOOM! Reload from a quicksave? BOOM!

So painfully disappointing. Starting over with a much smaller asteroid now.

http://i.imgur.com/mI6A8qZ.png

[vger]

Yes, E-class asteroids are the largest. However, I was really unlucky with my first find: the E-class I captured was only 974 tons!

[Richy teh space man]

I'm currently dragging a 2,500t into orbit around Kerbin, or attempting to.

Aerobraking it should save on some time and fuel. What could possible go wrong?

[Pds314]

Aerocapture is basically required for asteroids like that if you don't want to spend an insane amount of fuel.

[engraverwilliam]

at least fuel is free for the moment....

[vger]

Aerobraking it should save on some time and fuel. What could possible go wrong?

[theend3r]

The first asteroid I captured and brought into LKO was an approx. 2800t class E, made it on my first try too and I'm currently building a base around it. Had to spend close to 100 000 units of fuel.

EDIT: Actually it was over 550 000 unit of fuel. 100 000 was just the upper stage.

Edited April 11, 2014 by theend3r

[Remkeau]

Aerobraking it should save on some time and fuel. What could possible go wrong?

First time I tried an 3000ton E my tug didn't have enough fuel to raise the apo out of the atmosphere (stuck at 50km), that's a recipe for a world extermination disaster if there ever was. Luckily it passed overhead of KSC and I could quickly launch a tug for the tug. I had to dock that one immediatly from launch, while it was dipping back into the atmosphere... Big pain, but a great feeling afterwards when it was in a 450x250 orbit after yet another tug.

[cantab]

My asteroid tug is already lagging my PC, and its mission is just to deflect a class C a bit so it gets the right gravity assist. I fear if I want to do anything to an E class with any control I'll need a faster computer.

[doggie015]

I think that even Whackjob is having a hard time making something big enough to move a Class E!

[Tery215]

If you AFK hard enough, you can shift an asteroid's orbit using an(millions of) ion engine(s) ~0.8 years before it encounters Kerbin.

Then it will probbs aerobrake easily or float near kerbin long enough such that you can do another burn to capture it.

[Kerano]

I dragged a ~3100 ton class E into a 275x275 orbit (or was it 250?)... Yeah, I think it was something like 10 Kerbal years to get it there (real heavy plane change as well). I set up a large docking clamp with a grabber, as perfectly aligned with the CoM as I could get it, then via the KAS add-on, attached a bunch of struts between my docking port and the asteroid itself. That helped significantly with steering the thing! After that, I was just sending up one orange tank after another after another with a couple LVN's on there, burn burn burn. Took forever! One thing to note is that with the stronger joints in this .23.5 patch, you can get away with a little bit more time acceleration while burning. Not much, but enough to really help...

And then I finally got my asteroid where I wanted it, started building it into a space station... And stuff kept just blowing up any time the asteroid came into a render range. BOOM. Jump to it from the Tracking Station? BOOM! Reload from a quicksave? BOOM!

So painfully disappointing. Starting over with a much smaller asteroid now.

http://i.imgur.com/mI6A8qZ.png

Sounds like you may have encountered a version of the NullReferenceException nonphysical timewarp bug. Once triggered, it will remain present in the game whether you switch crafts, reload from a quicksave, or even start a new save. However, exiting and restarting the game should remove the bug.

Some related threads, in case this is your issue:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/75689-Nonphysical-timewarp-causes-phantom-torque-on-ships-in-physics-range

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/74854-Asteroid-Nonphysical-Timewarp-Self-Destruct

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/75274-Frozen-orbit-null-reference-exception-%28REPRODUCIBLE-output-logs%29

[Lazro]

All you need is to meet it far out, then push it so it aerocaptures into a stable orbit. The second and third bits are hard. The first is nearly impossible

[Othuyeg]

The health and safety department must have been very fond of this "aerobraking a massive rock" -idea.

"Umm... so you want to redirect an asteroid... towards us?"

[Mazlem]

I told them it's ok cause I'm using OSHA-approved rockets.

[Xaiier]

Pah aerobraking is for noobs. Real men use an enormous 24 nerva super puller that weighs 1000t on orbit. This is a 3200t class E, which this ship single-handedly pulled into an almost circular orbit at ~600km.

[Levelord]

If I find a class E around my system I think it's high time I commission Whackjob to design a massive rocket for me :I

[Richy teh space man]

In the event, the aerobraking worked and the rock is now in orbit around Kerbin.