Discovered some faults in the way I operate my rockets...

[Red Iron Crown]

Even if basic physics was taught earlier in life there is still a difference between "physics 101" and orbital mechanics. I was taught the real basic stuff when I was 14 at school but never was it mentioned how stuff in space worked. Is there really a need to teach orbital mechanics in highschool/preschool?

Agree. I did high school physics and some undergraduate stuff in university, never came across any orbital mechanics until I started playing KSP.

[Aphobius]

Definatley need new ingame tutorials asap

To align your orbits you will want to setup a maneuver node at the Ascending/descending node and play around until your inclinations match.

When i first started playing, i knew the very basics of getting to orbit but everything else I thought was a case of "point at it and burn!" oh How i've learned.

Even if basic physics was taught earlier in life there is still a difference between "physics 101" and orbital mechanics. I was taught the real basic stuff when I was 14 at school but never was it mentioned how stuff in space worked. Is there really a need to teach orbital mechanics in highschool/preschool?

How stuff in space worked? There are just bodies that move under the action of a force (gravity), these are no "orbital mechanics", these are simple physics. Even a 12 yo can do some simple numerical integration to observe some patterns in the motion of bodies that are in orbit.

[Red Iron Crown]

How stuff in space worked? There are just bodies that move under the action of a force (gravity), these are no "orbital mechanics", these are simple physics. Even a 12 yo can do some simple numerical integration to observe some patterns in the motion of bodies that are in orbit.

I really think you're overestimating the mathematical training and abilities of the average 12-year old.

[Aphobius]

I really think you're overestimating the mathematical training and abilities of the average 12-year old.

If you know the laws of motion (simple things like F=ma) and you know how to solve simple mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). You can easily calculate the motion of a body that is in orbit.

I don't say it's going to be accurate. It's not like I want a 12yo to do a Runge-Kutta numerical integration, but he could do a simple Euler integration and he could still observe the patterns in the motion of the bodies.

EDIT: Also, saying that NASA didn't knew simple things like this in 1965 is not very smart (some wikipedia link earlier), but whatever makes you feel better about yourself.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Aphobius

[michaelhester07]

My main problem is orbital alignment!

http://i.imgur.com/3YmiC9G.png

You see that little bug labled DN on the far right of your orbit? This is the "Descending Node". Theres also an Ascending node labled AN. These are where your orbit's plane intersects the orbit plane of your target.

the first thing you need to do in that image is burn a little bit right at the Apoapsis so you don't crash back into kerbin. Periapsis should be more than 70km for you to keep your orbit. Then plant a maneuver on either AN or DN and drag the purple direction until the AN switches places with the DN. Drag the purple the other way slightly so AN and DN are on perpendicular sides to where they were. Lead the burn for this maneuver by half of the burn duration and this will match your orbit plane with the target. Then you can thrust up to intercept it.

As a rule of thumb establish an orbit first before trying to intercept something. This gives you time enough to do the intercept.

[RW-1]

You see that little bug labled DN on the far right of your orbit? This is the "Descending Node". Theres also an Ascending node labled AN. These are where your orbit's plane intersects the orbit plane of your target.

the first thing you need to do in that image is burn a little bit right at the Apoapsis so you don't crash back into kerbin. Periapsis should be more than 70km for you to keep your orbit. Then plant a maneuver on either AN or DN and drag the purple direction until the AN switches places with the DN. Drag the purple the other way slightly so AN and DN are on perpendicular sides to where they were. Lead the burn for this maneuver by half of the burn duration and this will match your orbit plane with the target. Then you can thrust up to intercept it.

As a rule of thumb establish an orbit first before trying to intercept something. This gives you time enough to do the intercept.

Yes .. good advice. when you get really good, you can select the ship in orbit as the target before you launch, warp while looking at the map until it is over the island west of your launch site, launch and make small left/right corrections to your ascent to stay in the same plane (assuming 90 here), and if you are REALLY good (better than me at the moment) you time your aoapsis to the orbit and meet the ship right then. Larger burn to match orbits but it can and has been done. I'm sure that's a basic rundown of the 6 hour soyuz to ISS vice the two day orbital catchup ...

[Othuyeg]

As said before in this report, Scott Manley's videos are a great source of wisdom. Some say, he once killed two stones with one bird. It was a stuffed bird. And the rocks were class E asteroids. He killed them so dead, they stopped and instead of orbiting, are now fixed points in space and time.

[Claw]

In any case, the bickering should cease and we should return to the task of providing help. We aren't here to criticize each other, debate the public school system, or beat people with sticks. Please stay on task.

[Vanamonde]

In any case, the bickering should cease and we should return to the task of providing help.

Indeed.

And some characters.

[Tortoise]

Anyone here has skype? I need someone to teamviewer me and help me live, I'm still not getting properly aligned.

It's mainly because I'm having a lot of trouble setting my nodes. I'm trying to get in a really close or the same orbit as the thing i'm trying to dock on, but the everytime I pull one of the little strings, either goes too far out or comes too close to kerbin, that I'm no longer in orbit.

I'm going to pause right here until someone can assist me. Just pm me your skype or something.

And i've been watching the videos.

[Tortoise]

RandomJeb helped me! I completed my first dock.

[Claw]

RandomJeb helped me! I completed my first dock.

Congratulations!!

[psyper]

RandomJeb helped me! I completed my first dock.

note to self: I really need to setup skype and make myself ill from work for a couple of weeks and find myself a young padwan - dying to pass on everything I learned from ksp but my friends aren't really interested in it (although they are major geeks) and there are soooo many youtube channels out there that I don't think I'd get much interest in it

[Tortoise]

I tried docking again and realized that docking is harder than rendezvous lol.

[cantab]

Funnily enough, a fair few people find it the other way round. They're different skills, I think.

[StrandedonEarth]

A handy plugin to help with docking is NavBallDockingAlignmentIndicator. When you select a docking port as target, it puts a red circle on your navball. When you are pointed at the circle, your docking ports are facing each other. Then, with RCS translation (IJKL), you can move your yellow prograde marker around the navball. If you keep the purple target marker between the prograde marker and the center, you can 'herd' the target marker on top of the red circle. Then move your prograde marker on top of the other 2 markers and you're set.

Hope that made sense. The plugin is a big help.