fixing my orbit

[MrUberGr]

So, I dropped off my rover at the Mun, and wanted to take my lander back up to the space station. Two silly mistakes, (gravity turn north, and mixing up "Quicksave" with "Load last Quicksave") led to this:

When I make a maneuver mode on the ascending or descending node it just goes ot of control.

Any suggestions?

Edited August 3, 2014 by MrUberGr

[Voculus]

You'll also have to use the retrograde adjustment to maintain the orbit. You'll see that it also affects the inclination, so you'll need to change retrograde and normal in smaller segments. Hope that makes sense.

[MartGonzo]

It's kind of hard to explain, use the purple handle to pull the orbit to roughly 45°, then use the yellow to pull the orbit back to a circular orbit.

keep using the purple and yellow handles to turn and then pull your orbit back until it is 90° from your starting orbit.

hope that helps.

[Scarecrow88]

Because the inclination change is so big, the amount you need to burn is enough to take you out of orbit. As Voculus said, try tweaking the retrograde handle on the manoeuvre node as well.

[MrUberGr]

And it will probably need a refuel... damnit. I'll try it out, thanks guys.

[Kasuha]

The question is what are you trying to achieve.

To return to Kerbin, just eject in the right direction, your orbital inclination does not matter too much and the direction of your orbit is about right to eject.

To meet with that other ship in orbit, you need to make inclination change. Place a maneuver and pull normal/antinormal (purple) and retrograde (to compensate change in apoapsis) until you match the two orbits. Make sure you change it in the right direction. To save fuel (however counterintuitive that approach might seem to be), you may want to raise your apoapsis (standard prograde burn at one of inclination points) almost to the SOI boundary first, then perform the inclination change at that apoapsis.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Kasuha

[Sirrobert]

It might be cheaper if you burn out to the edge of the SOI and make the plane change there, than burn back

[LethalDose]

To meet with that other ship in orbit, you need to make inclination change. Place a maneuver and pull normal/antinormal (purple) and retrograde (to compensate change in apoapsis) until you match the two orbits. Make sure you change it in the right direction. To save fuel (however counterintuitive that approach might seem to be), you may want to raise your apoapsis (standard prograde burn at one of inclination points) almost to the SOI boundary first, then perform the inclination change at that apoapsis.

Kashua's right. The most efficient way to rendezvous with the station is to burn prograde at over the equator/inclination node to get your apoapsis as high as possible without leaving the SoI. Make your inclination change up at the apoapsis (it's much cheaper because your orbital velocity is lower). Then just fall back down to the altitude of your station and rendezvous.

Consider it a learning exercise Making big inclination changes are efficient at the apoapses of highly eccentric orbits is frequently done to save fuel.