Class D= move a friggen mountain

[liweih]

I heard people talking about the weight of E class asteroid but the number varies a lot, from 800 ton to 2000 ton. I am preparing a more than thousand tons ship on orbit, but I am not sure whether it will work or not.

[Xaiier]

I heard people talking about the weight of E class asteroid but the number varies a lot, from 800 ton to 2000 ton.

I believe they can get over 4000 tons, perhaps 5000 is the max.

[liweih]

I believe they can get over 4000 tons, perhaps 5000 is the max.

Wah, that's quote heavy.

[Tommygun]

My biggest problem with the E type was lack of torque.

I can get the engines and fuel to it, but I can't turn it fast enough to make my burns properly.

I think I need to get some large SAS's and RCS from the NovaPunch pack.

On a side note, I did manage to crush a couple of my command pods when I throttled up too fast with big engines and a lot of heavy fuel next to them.

[bsalis]

For a big Class-E and mebe even smaller ones you can expect to use multiple vessels. One massive vessel will be hard to maneuver around them, since I have found you have to declaw then reclaw in a place to push in the direction you want. So far on my ~3300 E-class I have used 3 vessels, with one (the crew vehicle) docking back in LKO to re-fuel and sent back to the monster.

Note that planning for efficient burns help. I managed to get this monster into a retro-grad to pro-grade orbit by aerocapture with Ap at the SoI boundary. It was only doing 36m/s there. Had just enough dV to reverse direction!

[Alchemist]

My first catch was class E. Passed at 8 km above the Mun and got into retrogade orbit between Mun and Minmus. Spent less than 100 m/s of actual delta v for trajectory adjustments.

[Javster]

Kerbin has a new Mun which I noticed during a rendezvous mission. Very weird. I'll need to make sure it doesn't get thrown out of the Kerbin system, although I can't do much yet...

[BMBender]

I'm currently in the process of building a tug with the express purpose of being heavier than what it's towing. .....for reasons

each engine block weighs in at just under 500t dry there will be four blocks

EDIT:

4th block now in orbit

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=248055516

Edited April 11, 2014 by BMBender

[_Aramchek_]

I dunno, but I think this thing is going to move whatever I want, wherever I want. Quickly.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80346/screenshot144.png

[TYRT]

How can you rendezvous with an asteroid? It's impossible

[InterCity]

I've already captured my E-class pet rock, now it hovers in a stable orbit approx. 250 km above Kerbin.

Landing is intended by making a giant rig out of struts, beams and parachutes, and land it at KSC. And did i mention there's a command pod with Jeb inside?

Safety, building and kerbal resources departments must be proud of me

[TimePeriod]

I'm surprised nobody has tried to sling an asteroid away from Kerbin with KAS yet.

[electronicfox]

I'm surprised nobody has tried to sling an asteroid away from Kerbin with KAS yet.

I've tried this, in the end I barely nudged the orbit of the asteroid. I've also tried towing with KAS, it ended up in a spiralling dance.

[Gargamel]

I'm currently in the process of building a tug with the express purpose of being heavier than what it's towing. .....for reasons

each engine block weighs in at just under 500t dry there will be four blocks

EDIT:

4th block now in orbit

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=248055516

Had to double check this wasn't posted by whackjob.

[Jodo42]

I believe they can get over 4000 tons, perhaps 5000 is the max.

Could somebody confirm this? I've heard the max is 3600 tons; all the Es I've found so far have been right around 3200.

[BMBender]

@gargamel lol no, all four blocks only net 208 Nervas. If it was Wackjob there would be another 0 in there . But I'm happy with it, fueled it tips the scales just under 3k tons. (I think 30ish tons are pure SAS). Now all I need to do is add the core frame and command/control/missionpayload parts. Next weekend

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=248112008

Edited April 12, 2014 by BMBender

[Technical Ben]

I may be able to beat that... soon. though I'm possibly not going to bother with Nervas. I'd have FAR too many to be able to fly the thing. Actually, I've decided to do both Nervas and normal liquids, I can swap them out in transit.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Technical Ben

[Galacticruler]

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.

if all else fails, download and use my 2.5m engine and fuel to redirect D and higher relatively fast.

[Jodo42]

After wrasslin' a big 'ol 3.2 kiloton rock into Kerbin orbit, I thought my experiences might be useful to others dealing with big 'roids.

Firstly: you don't need big, complicated machines to move these buggers. Just big. Sadly I neglected to take any pics of my capturing adventure, but overall I'd say it took a couple hours to do it. If I hadn't been a knucklehead and forgotten how docking works for the first 30 minutes, I could've done it much more quickly. Here's the entire lifter on the pad:

Just a standard 'sparagus style launcher. Only 176 parts. Nothing that should choke too many computers.

And here's the payload:

Nearly 300 tons. There's 6 nuclear engines per big tank (a 7th central one that connects the ship to the lifter is intentionally overheated to the point of explosions), which gives a solid butt-ton of delta v to play around with. You'll probably want most of it. Note the RTGs, the solar panels, and the SAS/RCS. Don't forget electricity. Being able to finely maneuver is crucial, but know it's going to take a while. I considered using 38-7S engines radially mounted, but decided against it. I guess it depends on how much patience you have.

Know how to dock. Not just rendezvous, but dock. It proved immensely helpful during all of this. You're using the same basic principles. The 'roid I went for was a pretty normal E-class, 3200 tons as I said earlier. It dipped relatively far into Kerbin's SOI for these rocks, sub 8mil m.

I opted for solar rendezvous, thinking it would save me lots of time and fuel. Don't. The physics gets so fidgety when you're dealing with these things that it's really hard to tell what your periapsis really is, without going into the tracking station and checking. Just go for a rendezvous in high Kerbin orbit, beyond Minmus. It'll be easier. The rock will likely be coming in inclined, so match inclination as best you can during launch. Once you're in the right inclination (or close) at LKO, plop yourself down a maneuver node. Prograde towards incoming half of the trajectory. Keep your apoapsis inline with the thing's trajectory by moving it around your orbit. Eventually this gets too twitchy, so use radial/antiradial adjustments. Nukes let you make tiny, accurate maneuvers. Exploit that. Get an encounter within 10000KM, the closer the better. This part is just messing around with the node until it works. Do the burn, coast up significantly until you're more than halfway to apoapsis, near which your encounter should be. Make more adjustments with nodes. Get it within 1000KM, burn, again, the closer the better. Continue to make adjustments and slow down when you get close. Kill velocity when you're at a distance you feel comfortable at, and push your marbles until you've gotten a real close encounter. Get in close, kill velocity, rendezvous.

If you want, grab onto it somewhere and rename it, do science, whatever. Ungrab, right click the asteroid and target center of mass. This is key. Your asteroid's going to spin all willy nilly if you don't do this. Actually, even if you do do this, it's still gonna spin. But it'll spin less. That was my biggest problem; burns would invariably cause the rock and my ship to start rotating. My only advice is to line things up very carefully in the next bit.

Basically, treat the center of mass like it's a docking port. Going into chase mode is helpful. Use RCS to line up your ship, your prograde maker, and its prograde marker, and a maneuver node if you want. Making maneuvers to see where you need to burn is helpful, but don't feel like you need to follow them exactly. Much of this is guess work as you'll find out, as physics is glitchy with such big masses, and your periapsis tends to jump around as you wobble. Burning in the general direction of the maneuver node is usually good enough, and sometimes the best you'll get. I found freeing pivot had no noticeable benefits, but feel free to try it. Get yourself lined up as close to the center of mass as possible. Then, "dock" with the asteroid.

Here's where something you don't encounter with normal docking occurs. These asteroids aren't perfect spheres; they're oddly misshapen and often have steep, strangely angled sides. If you get into a situation where you need to grab onto one of these sides, grab on somewhere else and spin the asteroid (just burn off-center of mass). Remember that regular warp stops rotation; this is useful. So is physwarp. Don't move in at more than 2 m/s, just like normal docking.

With big rocks like these, aerobreaking is going to save you massive amounts of fuel. I found a good height to be 36km; don't go any lower or you risk putting the thing on a suborbital trajectory. Unless of course you want to land these things; then by all means go lower. You're likely going to need to un-and-re-grab multiple times. To get a good idea of what your (and the 'roid's) periapsis really is, ungrab and check map view. There's far less wibbly-wobbly going on here, and you can get a pretty good idea.

Redock with it for aerobreaking. I know this might seem like a bad idea, and if your ship is wobbly without being docked to the asteroid, you might not want to do this. Mine worked just fine however, and it'll save you from having to re-rendezvous afterwards. Warp down, break, repeat if not low enough, etc. Once you're captured, get up near apoapsis, get pointed prograde, and get your periapsis out of the atmosphere.

Boom. You've just given Kerbin a new gigantic hunk of mineral orbiting it. Once it's in a stable orbit you can send further missions to mess with its orbit, change inclination, height, circularize, do science, etc.

One thing that was actually kind of nice was the cupola that's under the grabber arm. It let me see the approach really nicely when I'd gotten the nodes lined up, and let me know if I was heading towards a "weird" side. Make sure there's a gap between the grabber and the rest of your ship, but make sure it's well secured. I should have probably strutted that girder to the ship better.

I've been rambling for too long. Hopefully that's helpful. If any of it's confusing say so and I'll try to provide pictures/better explanations. If there's sufficient interest I could make a video tutorial.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Jodo42

[vger]

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.

Is that ship actually using all of that solar power for anything?

And yeah, more OT, I've been wondering for a while if the rules have changed with regard to asteroids, since they weigh a heck of a lot more than anything any of us have ever needed to push before. With that much mass, is the most efficient engine still the right choice, or are we better off using engines that are more commonly used for the mid/upper atmosphere?

Edited April 12, 2014 by vger

[Xaiier]

Could somebody confirm this? I've heard the max is 3600 tons; all the Es I've found so far have been right around 3200.

My friend had observed asteroids just above 4000 on multiple occasions.

Is that ship actually using all of that solar power for anything?

With 48 SAS modules, yes.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Xaiier

[mellojoe]

I'm currently attached to a 750t D-class. I'm having some glitches at the moment, but it appears I'll just be nudging this one off course. Not gonna make a full capture with my small tug, sadly. It has handled A's and B's, but it looks like the jump to D is too much.

I have not yet encountered an E. I'm nervous and excited at the same time just thinking about one.

[Beeburgers]

I finally managed to get my 'ittle D class asteroid into an equatorial orbit. (One Rendezvous, three tugs, and a crap ton of fuel) I've decided to build a base there, only to discover that it's orbiting in the wrong firggen direction. That's okay though. I've begun work on a super tug. If six clusters of NERV engines don't do the trick, I'm reloading the quick save and leaving that thing in it's backwards orbit.

[Aragosnat]

Yeah. My first was a 2981.26 ton E-Class roid. Found out one claw attached makes it a pain in the rump to turn do to the ship wobbling so much. Then made a 4 claw one and found out I can then turn it even though the center of mass was off and only 3 of 4 claws attached.

[troyn123]

Sounds like you may have encountered a version of the NullReferenceException nonphysical timewarp bug.<snip>

Ahh, just saw this... Thank you!