Navball symbols

[expert_vision]

What do these symbols represent? They appear when I click "Activate navigation" on a location on Kerbin.

No mods are used.

Edited December 28, 2014 by expert_vision

[The_Rocketeer]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on any of these:

The yellow notepad symbol is a marker for a current contract. Check you contract list for a 'survey' mission - that's where it is (map) and which way is towards it (navball).

The purple markers are (I think) pro-normal and anti-normal, which is the direction to burn in if you want to change your orbit inclination (the angle between the ecliptic plane and your orbital plane) upward or downward. They are perpendicular to your orbital trajectory on the y (up-down or north/south) axis.

The blue markers are (I think) pro-radial and anti-radial, which is the direction to burn in if you want to steepen your trajectory upwards or downwards (that is, more straight up/away from the ground, or more straight down/towards the ground). They are perpendicular to your orbital trajectory on the z (near-far or high/low) axis.

Edited December 28, 2014 by The_Rocketeer

[The Yellow Dart]

The definitions of the 6 directional symbols can be found here: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Nav_ball

Simply put, there are 6 basic directions a spacecraft can burn in order to change its orbit:

Prograde and Retrograde you probably know is just forwards in the orbit and backwards in the orbit, those are the yellow markers that are always there.

Normal and Anti-Normal, the pink symbols, mean perpendicularly up and down in relation to your orbit (so in a polar orbit going from pole to pole, it will never be up and down, only sideways). This is to change the inclination of your orbit, best done at the ascending and descending nodes.

Radial In and Radial Out, the blue symbols, are directions perpendicular to your orbit, toward the inside of the orbit and toward the outside of the orbit. The effects of using these directions is harder to describe, it can be used while achieving orbit to prevent you from falling back down into the atmosphere and increase your apoapsis without adding to horizontal speed. In fulfilling contracts, you can use these to move your apoapsis and periapsis around your orbit to match up with the parameters of the contract. If you burn in radially at the 2 points right equidistant between your apoapsis and periapsis, radial in will twist your orbit around the planet to the left (assuming a prograde orbit), and out will twist it to the right. So if you have an elliptical orbit and want to circularize it, halfway to your periapsis, after passing your apoapsis (so you are essentially going "down hill"), you can burn radial out and it will take altitude from your apoapsis and add it to your periapsis, and circularize it. This is, however less efficient than circularization burns done at the apo- or periapsis.

[GoSlash27]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on any of these:

The yellow notepad symbol is a marker for a current contract. Check you contract list for a 'survey' mission - that's where it is (map) and which way is towards it (navball).

The purple markers are (I think) pro-normal and anti-normal, which is the direction to burn in if you want to change your orbit inclination (the angle between the ecliptic plane and your orbital plane) upward or downward. They are perpendicular to your orbital trajectory on the y (up-down or north/south) axis.

The blue markers are (I think) pro-radial and anti-radial, which is the direction to burn in if you want to steepen your trajectory upwards or downwards (that is, more straight up/away from the ground, or more straight down/towards the ground). They are perpendicular to your orbital trajectory on the z (near-far or high/low) axis.

The first purple marker is anti-normal, the second is normal.

The first blue marker is radial- out and the second blue marker is radial- in.

Good morning!

-Slashy