Wondering how you guys move your asteroids. I have my own approach.

[Talavar]

SInce I can never seem to hit the center of gravity just perfect, and the asteroid always seems to start to turn while I'm pushing it, I either

A) Make a really long nose, to provide more leverage to keep the ship from turning while pushing an asteroid, OR

I make a long tail, and pull the asteroid with free pivot turned on.

Anyone else have a different approach?

[dryer_lint]

I make a long tail, and pull the asteroid with free pivot turned on.

Did you just say... pulling an asteroid? For some reason this feels revolutionary

[Talavar]

Did you just say... pulling an asteroid? For some reason this feels revolutionary

Yes, I find it's MUCH easier to pull them then to push them! just remember, your tail has to be long enough to keep your thrust from hitting the asteroid.. otherwise youll just sit there, thrusting your butt off not going anywhere, looking stupid.. lol Edited July 16, 2014 by Talavar
added info

[7499275]

I have only captured 2 asteroids in my time so far. Both did not hit the CoM, I simply used hyper edit to get into LKO, then hyper edit again to loose about 100 m/s to drop it into the atmosphere and watch the fire works

[magnemoe]

Did you just say... pulling an asteroid? For some reason this feels revolutionary

How long does it have to be? This is only relevant for the D and E class as the C and smaller can be handled easier.

I found that putting the engines close to the front helps then pushing, it will make the error in angle smaller.

[Exclipse]

Oooooooooh!! Asteroid Space Flail time.....

/wrecking asteroid

[Renegrade]

Anyone else have a different approach?

Well, one thing I've tried for wrangling the big ones is sending up detachable probes with claws, RCS tanks and thrusters, and attaching them all over the asteroid (they go up with the main pusher) to get somewhat better turning.

It doesn't work as well as I'd like, but it feels a bit better than just the pusher.

One thing I don't do is aerobraking, as I'm always imagining that it's disrupting the material of the asteroid and contaminating any results you'd get from it afterwards (there's no in-game basis for this, just something I can't stop thinking about when considering aerobraking an asteroid).

[Xacktar]

This is the ship I've been using lately.

It has side pylons with parachutes for landing the rock and RCS tanks +jets for maneuvering at the very end of them. The pylons seem to help a lot with control.

It also carries 'parachute pods' that detach and clamp on separately with drogue chutes to further help with landing. Been a wonderful ship so far, can meet, retrieve and de-orbit your average asteroid. Haven't tried it on an E-class yet, but maybe I should.

[Cerberus738]

Moving an E class asteroid was such a pain in the but. I managed the capture and got it into kerbin orbit but it was a very slow and tedious process. Pulling it may have been a much better idea!

[biohazard15]

Did you just say... pulling an asteroid? For some reason this feels revolutionary

It's actually WAY easier to pull an asteroid than push it, especially E-class behemoth. Just be sure that asteroid will not block exhaust.

[Duke23]

I've only captured a Class A and B asteroid but I usually clamp onto it close to center as possible then unlock the pivot and use RCS to thrust away from it, with the idea that it will center itself. It kind of works, and on one of them I also had to manually adjust the ship before relocking the pivot. Also I try to keep the throttle down to a point that the ship's SAS systems can compensate for the difference, or burn in bursts. I imagine I'd need something a little more sophisticated for a larger 'roid.

[lammatt]

I push.

See.. the problem of lifting a long and heavy ship into orbit is actually harder than keeping the thrust lining with the center of mass imho.

At least that's how I pushed my last 1650t asteroid.

but I expect pulling would be great for smaller asteroids tho'

[CalculusWarrior]

To be honest, I've only captured a single asteroid since 0.23.5 came out! While I certainly wish to collect more, there are many other things to do in this game, and sadly I barely have the time to KSP right now. My method for collecting that rock was essentially NASA's planned ARM mission; using an ion-powered probe to head out and collect the asteroid, then bring it into orbit around the Mun where a crew can rendezvous with it.

[lammatt]

Ion doesn't actually work (or at least I cant make it to)

See... The asteroids stay in kerbin's soi for usually no more than a couple days, and weigh up to 2kt, you basically can't make it into a captured orbit with ion engines in a timely manner, you still want to use something with at least some meaningful thrust.

[Umlüx]

pulling! plus my newest technique: scattering small SAS drones all over the asteroid to give it more torque when turning the whole thing. thats faster than relocating the tug.

[Aragosnat]

Might have to try pushing a roid. Also one could always angle their thrusters too. While losing some of the thrust. One might get a better turning. I'm thinking 4, 6 or 8 thrusters might have better stability.

[Streetwind]

How far roughly do your engines need to be away from the asteroid in order for the exhaust not to be blocked in a pull configuration?

[Cirocco]

I went with the "scatter a couple SAS modules along the roid surface" method and a simple push ship with about 8 atomic engines when I pushed my E-class into kerbin orbit. It was hell getting that thing to go in the direction I wanted it to go.

I've very much been considering doing a pull mission, especially on the larger ones because a single claw wobbles like crazy when you're trying to push 100 tons of spacerock even super slightly off center. How long does the tail need to be (approximately) to avoid the exhaust hitting the rock? angling the engines slightly might also be a good idea: trade a little lost thrust for a lot of structural simplification.

[Superfluous J]

From A to E, I've never had trouble pushing any asteroid. However, I make sure I'm very close to the COM when I attach, and then pivot to put the COM right in the center before I ever start to move.

[Ringkeeper]

as i always get problems with "frozen ships" "exploding ships" "no more moving ships" and so on with the claw bug i stopped using the claw and therefor asteroids all together till it is fixed My save with 3 asteroids put together in Kerbin orbit for a space station waits for the bug fix

[pxi]

I pull them with free pivot. The only other trick I have is not flooring the thrust immediately. These two simple things keep the amount of faffing about with COM that I have to do at a minimum.

[Overfloater]

I use a tow bar.

[magnemoe]

I use a tow bar.

nice and ansver the question about minimum length from engine to asteroid as in 4 grinder segments is more than enough.

Liked the plane a lot too.

[Overfloater]

nice and ansver the question about minimum length from engine to asteroid as in 4 grinder segments is more than enough.

Liked the plane a lot too.

Can't really tell what's the limit, as that was my 1st experiment with an asteroid... I was hoping it would work, although i doubted the entire time. I put a docking port on the nose, as a secondary plan in case pulling won't work :-3

[Rune]

Yes, I find it's MUCH easier to pull them then to push them! just remember, your tail has to be long enough to keep your thrust from hitting the asteroid.. otherwise youll just sit there, thrusting your butt off not going anywhere, looking stupid.. lol

Yup, puller design are inherently stable, in the sense that oscillations tend to dampen when under thrust because the CoM likes to be behind the center of thrust. Pusher designs, only when the design is rigid and the thrust goes perfectly through the center of mass, which in this case is quite difficult to achieve. The bad part is engine gimball code is not really correctly implemented in KSP, so you will need to lock them and steer with other means such as RCS and reaction wheels.

Rune. Don't confuse with the Pendulum Rocket fallacy, that only applies to rigid objects.