So, despite being a very early KSP adopter, I've never been what you might call "good" at this game. And certainly not dedicated. For instance, never successfully landed on the Mun. Oh I've landings the pilot could walk away from, but none they could get home with. Had a really promissing one with v18, but I spaced on time compression and didn't feel like doing it again.
Last night, I made my first and so far only docking attempt. Took nearly two hours of trial and error to get the craft within docking distance of each other instead of the controlled one flying past a million miles an hour. Then another two hours into the wee morning fucking with it over and over again to no avail. It seemed like every time I'd get close enough to do anything, my docking craft would over-correct out of control or the target would start rolling on its own or the flight commands would just up and shift 90 degrees on me. Eventually I got so pissed off that I just shut it down and went to sleep.
First thing in the morning, tried again and got it within fifteen minutes. I had basically given up too, just went back to square one, eyeballed the lineup, and said fuck it I'll make new and better craft if it crashes. And hey presto it worked.
The chunk with the umbrellas was the incoming portion, the one on the left the target. The addition doesn't have a pilot, and Astronaut Ronrim there deserves zero credit after all he did was slowly spin away from me while I did all the work.
You can see the repeated engine section, which was exactly the problem. The way the RCS nozzles are placed made them almost impossible to adjust. Translations would pendulum the nose off-axis, and steering corrects would laterally throw the back end. I had to shut off all the nozzles except the centerline, and even they weren't very cooperative. Let that be a lesson to check your RCS placement versus your center of mass. I think an ASAS unit might be a good addition too, to keep the station pointed at one heading while stuff docks with it.
It sure would be helpful if you could switch between craft without having to go to the Orbit map or the Tracking Station.
For an encore, I decided to tackle another Mun attempt. I'd already made it once with a good design, I just didn't pay attention. By luck, I got Bill back to do it with again. Thanks to the maneuver plotter, I had a really cool rendezvous with a yoyo around the Mun to land on the "forward" side with a low angle sun to help my landing bearings.
Problem was that I used half the lander's fuel and most of the RCS getting there, but once again thanks to the plotter for a really cool deep-space escape plot that got me back to Kerbin with a little fuel. That I then wasted trying to plan a landing zone, and wound up having to orbit twice to shed enough velocity in the atmosphere to splash down.
Also, an experiment with the lander capsule. If you have the pilot leave the cabin, then go to first person on the passenger, then hit 'V', you can get this:
I don't know if it works with other capsules.
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Topic: Kerbal Space Program: Now Hiring Optimistic Astronauts for Dangerous Munission (Read 1487544 times)