How to steer an asteroid

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

So, searched and to my surprise, nobody is talking about how to steer an asteroid.

I have a C class that I would like to bring home (it's in solar orbit). But I'm having big troubles with the steering. More SAS, more RCS, perfectly aligned with the center of mass... nothing. The thing tumbles out of control soooo easily.

So what are you guys using to control them?

So far what I have tried is the "big ass single ship with tons of RCS and SAS" approach and the "single big ship and a lot of small probes approach" and the "single big ass ship with multiple equally big probes" approach. None of them worked. My maneuver probes swing around when they start to fight the roid and the thing just rolls and rolls from one side to the other.

Since it's in solar orbit, I have all the time in the world to experiment and send 100 ships to rendezvous with it if necessary... I just don't have engineering know-how apparently.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Rosco P. Coltrane

[Vanamonde]

As I said on another thread, low thrust and long burns prevent SAS from being overwhelmed.

[Monger]

I had the feeling that deactivating SAS actually makes rotating a little easier. Give it a little nudge, deactivate SAS, nudge a little more, and stop it early. SAS was made to stabilize the middle axis of your vehicle. Since your center of mass is FAR above your RCS thrusters, there is no way to rotate the whole asteroid without shifting the middle axis.

I haven't tried it yet, but attaching a second ship just opposite to the first one should dramatically improve your steering capabilities. Luckily, usually you don't have to move the asteroid very far.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Yeah, I don't expect it to rotate fast. I can live with that. Me problem is keep it straight while burning, I'll try low thrust and see what it does.

Also, so far I attach the maneuvering probes in whatever place I happen to come from... Maybe I should put a little more thought into that.

[Bearsh]

When i caught onto a class E, It was game over before it started i got it in a stable orbit in the end but gave up on re-entering it, Because i thrusted retrograde and it made the asteroid and the rocket start twirling and SAS wasen't doing a thing to help. So it was a very interesting expirience.

[Kasuha]

Put torque directly on the asteroid, the asteroid must turn your rocket, not the other way.

Have your pusher long enough so the SAS has easy job compensating for misalignments with gimbal.

[Monger]

Also, if you have the feeling that flying straight is unusally hard, try detaching, find another spot, attach again and see if anything changes. Centre of mass is apparently not the only criteria, the surface also seems to play a role.

[Bearsh]

Also, if you have the feeling that flying straight is unusally hard, try detaching, find another spot, attach again and see if anything changes. Centre of mass is apparently not the only criteria, the surface also seems to play a role.

I second on this.