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[miauw62]

So, I got bored trying to dock and decided to go for a Mun landing.

I managed to crash an unmanned probe into the mun by virtue of not seeing that the terrain was 3000 m above sea level, but my probe survived, albeit without solar panels and basically everything.

I decided to switch to some debris a bit further away, and it was an RCS thruster. It started falling trough the Mun.
It's still falling, I can't go to the space center without reverting my first ever mun crash, I can't do anything.
It's still falling, despite being outside kerbin's SOI. There's a constant "kerbin escape" marker on it, but it still shows as landed. Orbital velocity ~47km/s.



E:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My orbit has stabilized.

[BigD145]

I dunno if playing in career mode was a mistake, coz i can't do the sputnik IV with my current tech.
I wonder if I can repeat some missions for science?

Only if they say repeatable. Like I said, more packages. There are at least 4, beyond stock.

[IronTomato]

This Scott Manley video taught me to rendezvous and dock.

A while of trial and error taught me how to dock. I killed some kermans trying to figure out what the nodes meant, but I figured it out.

Also, guess who finally made a spaceplane that can go places? I somehow managed to land one on Minmus, and return to Kerbin to land on the ice caps.

[Lightningfalcon]

This Scott Manley video taught me to rendezvous and dock.

A while of trial and error taught me how to dock. I killed some kermans trying to figure out what the nodes meant, but I figured it out.

Also, guess who finally made a spaceplane that can go places? I somehow managed to land one on Minmus, and return to Kerbin to land on the ice caps.

I've made an SSTO but it's only barely able to get to orbit and back.   I eventually plan on making one that can get to my space stations, so I can actually do stuff with it.

[BFEL]

WE MUST FASHION A PLANE THAT CAN GO TO EELOO!
What it will actually do there, who knows BUT IT NEEDS TO GET THERE.

[stabbymcstabstab]

WE MUST FASHION A PLANE THAT CAN GO TO EELOO!
What it will actually do there, who knows BUT IT NEEDS TO GET THERE.

Its possible but beware the Kraken.

[Nao]

I love you, Magma McFry. Bookmarked.

Great post from Magma MCFry indeed.

I would add one thing that could ease some frustrations while trying to dock slowly.

Your relative position to the target ship matters, especially in low orbit. (due to KSPhysics, any ship in orbit rotate one rotation per orbit which can make docking difficult).
If you start from pro/retrograde position (like the green maneuver markers), the ship you are trying to dock will rotate (as bad as 12deg per minute in LKO) which can make long docking approach hard since you have to correct the ship you are trying to dock constantly.
Starting radial in/out (like blue maneuver markers) will make not only the target rotate but will also drift you a little outward and to the side.
When starting from top or bottom of target ship (normal/anti-normal - violet markers) you get no relative rotation and slight drift will be only toward your target.

TL/DR: Approach your targets from above or below to counter your target ship intrinsic rotation due to orbital KSPhysics. Or do docking in high orbit (high orbital period).

[MagmaMcFry]

If the tidal forces are that strong, that could indeed be a problem; I never actually did an LKO docking before since I didn't know whether this would happen.

[LoSboccacc]

it is not tidal forces but more a case of the planet being so small you can never truly consider the orbit locally linear as an approximation

anyway just sticking the docking port to the north of the navball (where N line is at 0 deg elevation) should work for most low inclination orbits.

[Nao]

If the tidal forces are that strong, that could indeed be a problem; I never actually did an LKO docking before since I didn't know whether this would happen.

Haha, the lack of tidal forces is the biggest problem here. When crafts are put "on rails" (or stopped on SAS) they become fixed to global reference point. As they rotate around a body, they point in one direction, that's why if you start prograde and wait 1/2 orbit you will face retrograde.

If there are two crafts they will rotate the same way. Just like for example rotating hands. Placing them on top of each other is the only way to make them face the same side constantly.

[MagmaMcFry]

it is not tidal forces but more a case of the planet being so small you can never truly consider the orbit locally linear as an approximation

Technically that's because the gravitation accelerates the crafts by different vectors, which is exactly what tidal forces are.

[IronTomato]

I'm thinking about making an orbital missile battery using stock parts.

I will let y'all know how it goes.

[LoSboccacc]

it is not tidal forces but more a case of the planet being so small you can never truly consider the orbit locally linear as an approximation

Technically that's because the gravitation accelerates the crafts by different vectors, which is exactly what tidal forces are.

tidal force would make an asymmetrical craft to shift with the weightier part on the planet side, not what you see in ksp - it was this way before they abstracted that away, before you got all pieces affected by gravity independently but it was removed, now gravity is applied to the center of mass and thus the craft doesn't rotate anymore by gravity.

[MagmaMcFry]

I'm not referring to tidal forces on a single object, but to the tidal forces acting on the constellation of two separate crafts (which causes them to move relative to each other).

[LoSboccacc]

they move relative to each other because they have different orbits - effect enhanced by the orbits being so small.

but seems like you formed your opinion so meh.