What's all the buzz about docking?

[nohelmet]

I can dock just fine (and actually find it quite relaxing), but I'm using the docking indicator. Without it, I have a hard time making sure I am aligned with the port. Can the navball help with that? I hear people praise it, and it's great for zeroing relative velocity and making sure I'm headed at the target nice and slow, but unless I'm missing something, I don't think it shows the station's orientation. Does it?

[Rastaman]

Docking is easy if you are aware of these things:

1. How to put your RCS in the correct place (anticipate your approximate center of mass in this phase of your flight).

2. The Chase Camera accessed by pressing the button "v" a couple of times.

3. For spatial awareness during the docking process, you rotate your viewpoint with the mouse.

4. There is a docking mode button in the lower left of the screen. Once you're in it you can switch between linear and rotational modes by pressing the spacebar.

5. ASAS is very helpful to keep direction and keep you from rotating.

6. Take it slow.

7. There are also many mods that help with most of these points either by giving you information or by doing the docking automatically for you.

When people start out they are not yet aware of these and it becomes difficult for them.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Rastaman

[Kasuha]

Nowadays I can dock when I'm half asleep with little difficulty but I still remember how my first docking attempts took me hours because I was coming in so slow that the ship rotation caused by orbital mechanics was misaligning my target docking port in a way I was unable to compensate.

Docking is chain of skills, neither of them is difficult to learn, but you need to learn them all before you can dock

- far rendezvous

-- you need to know how to get a reasonable closest approach

-- you need to know how to match velocities so you don't just whizz by your target

- near rendezvous

-- you need to know how to follow navball indicators

-- you need means to controllably stop at close vicinity of your target

- docking

-- you need some degree of precision controlling your ship with RCS and torque

-- you need to know how to follow navball indicators (and have your docking port aligned with root part)

-- you need to be able to move your camera so you see important parts, and you need to be able to control your ship from all these different angles

If you fail at either of these points, there's no docking for you. So I can totally understand that many new players say docking is hard.

[Magnet_man16]

Its easy, but only if you have a consistent framerate as if you dont judging speed is, well, impossible.

[EvilotionCR2]

I docked for my first time in 0.18 in under 10 minutes

[O-Doc]

Just build a few decent size stations using long and asymmetrical parts and docking becomes meh...

Or,

Stop using RCS and SAS when docking. It's fun!

[Thomas988]

Docking was difficult for me at first, but I have gotten really good since.

[chrise6102]

I don't find it too bad once I got the hang of it. I think part of the problem might be over-reliance on mech-jeb and tutorials. So many things in this game work much better when you discover how to do it for yourself, the hard way.

[HafCoJoe]

I don't have problems docking either. Apollo style landers are actually quite easy in my opinion. Here's a pic of my Laythe Apollo style lander:

Although I'm testing my limits now that I'm building a plane around an asteroid.

[cantab]

I found it really hard until I found the option in the corner to switch to docking controls. I have no idea what I thought I was using my RCS on before that. It's just like flying a Kerbal though, which I'm pretty used to thanks to runaway ships. I suppose if you like to mess around a lot in EVA you might have an advantage when it comes to docking. Either that or some people maybe forget to switch targets, that makes the world of difference.

Indeed. I never had that much trouble with docking, but:

I'd already learnt how to rendezvous thanks to a decent tutorial (the Basic Manouevres page on the Wiki). That DID give me trouble the first time.

I'd already learnt how to EVA, by trial and error. And remembering what James May said when crossing the Channel in a pick-up truck: If something is on a constant bearing, ie it doesn't appear to move, then you're going to hit it. That taught me the fine control skills needed. Again, the first time I tried I went flying off and had no hope of getting back to the ship.

I did my first docking with two parts of a ship that I'd just UNdocked, so they were nicely lined up for me, before trying a docking of two different ships.

Even then I still managed to nearly clobber my station docking the crew bus to it one time, was coming in at quite a speed and overestimated the stopping power of the RCS. Managed to swerve sideways at the last minute.

I still wouldn't say I'm quick. I don't want to rush things and risk a muck-up, not after the mentioned near miss. And I still miss the target port and bump the ship sometimes, but hey, that'll buff out.

I might stop adding any monoprop tanks to my ships and just use the stuff that comes in the command pod!

I did this for my Moho ship. Two pods on the orbiter giving I think 20 units, and I emptied the lander can on the lander altogether to save the weight. The TDE and the post-landing rendezvous went fine on the shakedown Mun landing, though I'll have less main fuel spare on the actual Moho mission.

[Shadow86]

It's easy to dock small craft together. But it becomes more and more time-consuming the more complex they get, once performance issues and wobbling start complicating things.

I always play manually, of course.

[tutrakan4e]

I think it takes a little while before people even attempt to dock because of its infamy, so they might have less practice at it at a later experience level... I have another theory, but first, tutrakan4e, how adept are you at making spaceplanes, if you have tried to build one?

I've actually docked 2 SSTOs to a space station with relative ease (both times forgot to put RCS ports to move me left and right so I had to rotate the sspacecraft)(first one I forgot to transfer fuel to the front) and that number is so small because I don't play KSP all that often.

Also, my first attempt at docking was my first successful Mun mission. Yes, I did waste a lot of RCS and yes, I did nearly run out of it but I knew what I was doing and I just wasn't used to the controls. So don't be afraid of docking, people, it's not that hard and it's very useful!

Edited April 28, 2014 by tutrakan4e

[Boomerang]

Also, for docking in the dark, ASET Inline Lighting is an awesome aid. Anything of mine that gets a docking port also gets a ring of lights immediately below said port.

[RW-1]

I light up my docking ports as well, always seems to be in the dark, or get relative to 0 and await sunrise.

Also of note for those with wobbling, part of the issue may also be design as well.

I've been building my station, and now at the part where larger fuel tanks are being launched with a small unmanned remote RCS tug to place it, then de-orbit.

On the tug I incorporate a Large SAS commensurate with the tank, but of more importance - you need to look at that combined tug/tank (or for purposes of this thread anything you are launching to be docked to something else) center of mass by itself, and then place your RCS on the Tug and module accordingly.

You can either go with one set at center of combined mass, however this leaves you without RCS for the tug once it decouples.

I go with a set on the tug and another set on the module (right now large tanks, with smaller RCS tanks radially attached, looks nice) whereas I ensure the ones on the tanks are spaced approximately the same distance away from the center of mass as the ones on the tug if possible.

I'm going to also try having those on the tug, a set at the COM, and equidistant lower down to equal the tug's, and for the most part that should eliminate wobbling IMHO.

My last fuel pod launch and docking was hilaroius, I had used a large clamp-o-tron on one end and a standard on the other end, but reaching the station I realized I had my tug on the large end which I wanted to dock, and that was when I got to 100m in perfect alignment and low RCS!

Decoupled, and raced it to get docked to the standard c-o-t, but it nudged the station and started a sloooow tumble.

Terminate and begin again as referenced above, this one once near, shold be wobble free, and I set large c-o-t's on both ends, just adding the tug by a decoupler (it's going to remote de-orbit anyway after delivery and transfer of excess monopropellent)

Lastly, for rotational maneuvers, turn off SAS, SMALL RCS pulses to start your rate, then wait until just before target direction and nullify, then reengage SAS.

Same really when translating, and remember your orientation...

Edited April 28, 2014 by RW-1

[RW-1]

I can dock just fine (and actually find it quite relaxing), but I'm using the docking indicator. Without it, I have a hard time making sure I am aligned with the port. Can the navball help with that? I hear people praise it, and it's great for zeroing relative velocity and making sure I'm headed at the target nice and slow, but unless I'm missing something, I don't think it shows the station's orientation. Does it?

Once you have gotten within visual distance of your target, select the docking port as a target, the navball's pink target prograde symbol will now be to the port.

You can use the navball at that point to both align your ship with the port, but you do have to know how it is displaying your drift - the prograde and retrograde yellow symbols, in relation to the target prograde marker which is now the port.

I've only used the navball, might add a mod later to make it easier, but why?

[EdFred]

The way I dock is as follows:

Ship A is the one I'm docking with

Ship B is the one I'm docking to

Rendezvous ship A with ship B's orbit.

Get within 50m of ship B

Match velocities

Target docking port on B and control from docking port on A.

Switch to ship B

Target docking port on A and control from docking port on B.

Align Ship B with target indicator on navball using SAS (easier than trying to maneuver A to the correct side of

Switch to ship A

Align A with target indicator on navball.

Switch to ship B and Re-align if necessary.

Back to ship A

Add a little thrust and slide on in.

You don't even need RCS if done right.

Edited April 28, 2014 by EdFred

[cantab]

Once you're controlling from the active docking port and targeting the passive one, I know two easy ways to get the ports parallel. The first is to rotate the docking ship to line them up by eye, rotating the camera to help. On the navball the heading indicator will move away from the prograde (yellow/green) and target prograde (purple) markers, but you need to keep the prograde and target prograde markers on top of each other. This approach will usually give you an oblique docking, but that's usually no problem.

The other is to get heading, prograde, and target prograde lined up on the active ship, then switch to the passive ship, set the relevant docking ports as control from and target, and line heading, prograde, and target prograde up on the passive ship, before switching back to the active ship. This approach will give you a straight-on docking.

[The Destroyer]

OK, now docking just got real. I tried to dock my 200 ton rocket-parts ship to my space station. The magnetism would bend on the space station, moving the port away. After 30 minutes of frustration, I backed away 100 meters, used precision controls, and came in SLOWLY.

It didn't help that the RCS was unbalenced (I thought it was)

[flywlyx]

Practice make perfect, nothing about hard or something, there are always people not interested to learn it.

[Tortoise]

The way I dock is as follows:

Ship A is the one I'm docking with

Ship B is the one I'm docking to

Rendezvous ship A with ship B's orbit.

Get within 50m of ship B

Match velocities

Target docking port on B and control from docking port on A.

Switch to ship B

Target docking port on A and control from docking port on B.

Align Ship B with target indicator on navball using SAS (easier than trying to maneuver A to the correct side of

Switch to ship A

Align A with target indicator on navball.

Switch to ship B and Re-align if necessary.

Back to ship A

Add a little thrust and slide on in.

You don't even need RCS if done right.

I think you should learn how to do it without constantly switching between ships back and fourth, it isn't hard.

[EdFred]

I think you should learn how to do it without constantly switching between ships back and fourth, it isn't hard.

It's not that I don't know how. But when I end up 180 degrees from where I need to be it's easier to just spin the one around that I'm docking to. What's the point of going all the way around?

[Othuyeg]

Docking is not hard. For me the hard part is when docking with my large stations my computer says no and my FPS goes to zero.

[Randox]

Particularly with the docking camera, I find the intercepts harder, or at least more time consuming, than the docking. I have perpetualy bad timing, particularly around Kerbin, so I'm often stuck in orbit several times after circularizing waiting until I can plan out a good intercept.

Then there was the period of time where I forgot about circularizing after intercepting (I'd create an intercept orbit than try to dock without recircularization). I can dock like that, at least with smaller ships. It's a lot faster to circularize first, and a lot more relaxed.

[DrMonte]

I think I made a mistake by watching tutorials on "how to dock". This led me only to confusion. MechJeb also does not know how to dock so was not a good teacher. Tried few docking cameras, mods, etc.

Finally one day I just throwed all that away and did docking my own way. Now I dock an average ~30t ship within 1-2 minutes using ~10 monopropellant units.

[nekogod]

There is actually a scenario within the stock game which starts you in orbit around the mun I believe, the ship you're given is in 2 parts and is perfect to practice docking. I managed to undock, land on the mun, take off and redock on my first go. Granted though I had watched a video once on how to do it, which took most of the mystery out, the rest was a bit of trial and error. Took a little while to get the rendezvous and I probably used more RCS than I needed to, but was still relatively straight forward.

Trying to get to orbit from sea level on Eve however...