Guide for Kerbal Space Program (2024)

This is probably this single hardest achievement and will require several adjustments to get close enough.

Head to the VAB and start building. I've provided a video as well as a text version.

Turn on angle snap (bottom left). Unless otherwise noted, each part goes directly below the previous one. I’ll include the category of the part after the name: (P)ods, (F)uel Tanks, (E)ngines, (C)ommand and control, (S)tructural, (A)erodynamics, (U)tility.

It’s important to be precise on the placement of pieces for this ship, as moving them will change the center of mass, and make the RCS thrusters misbehave.

Parts

1. Clamp-O-Tron Jr (U)
2. RC-001S (C)
3. FL-R25 (F)
4. RV-105 (C) – 4x radial symmetry, middle of FL-R25 vertically, lined up on the yellow lines
5. Illuminator Mk2 (U) - 4x radial symmetry, middle of FL-R25 vertically, between the RV-105s, rotate this with the D-Pad so it faces up
6. FLT-800 (F)
7. PB-Nuk (U) - 2x radial symmetry, middle of FLT-800 verically, where there are the small vertical lines
8. RV-105 (C) - 4x radial symmetry, bottom of FLT-800, these go a tiny bit above the bottom, lined up with the top set. The easiest way is to place a set so the white square base just touches the bottom black ring on tank. Place a second set right above it so the black nozzles just touch each other, then remove the bottom one.
9. LV-1R (E) - 2x radial symmetry, very bottom of FLT-800
10. Advanced inline stabilizer (C)
11. TR-18A (S) – click on this with B and enable crossfeed
12. LV-909 (E)
13. TR-18A (S)
14. Rockomax Jumbo-64 (F)
15. Struts (S) - 6x radial symmetry, from top outer edge of Jumbo-64 to bottom of FLT-800
16. RE-M3 Mainsail (E)
17. Rockomax Decoupler (S)
18. Kerbodyne S3-14400 (F)
19. Struts (S) - 6x radial symmetry, from top outer edge of S3-14400 to bottom of jumbo-64
20. S3 KS-25x4 "Mammoth" (E)

Staging

• 0 (lv-1r, decoupler)
• 1 (lv-909, decoupler)
• 2 (mainsail, decoupler)
• 3 (Mammoth)

Launch

Enable SAS and leave throttle at 50%. Turn right to about 60 degrees at 10km, gradually working towards 30 degrees at 20km. At about 25-30km you will need to start stage 2, then set your SAS to prograde and switch over to the map. Tag the AP, and wait till it hits 100km, then cut your throttle. Add a maneuver at the AP, burning PG until your PE is 100km (the AP/PE will start swinging around the orbit as they get close in value). Perform the maneuver, delete the node, set the SAS to anti-normal, and turn on the lights (near the top center).

Launch #2

Go back to space center and launch another one. The launch profile will be identical except for AP/PE. The initial AP should be about 10km less than the first ship’s. If ship #1 ended up with an AP/PE of 100km then the AP of ship 2 should be 90km. For the maneuver at AP, keep going past a circular orbit and the AP will swing around to the opposite side. Aim for the AP to end up about 50km greater than ship 1’s (150km in the example) then cut the power. One ship should be in an orbit with AP/PE of 100km and one with PE 90km & AP 150km. Clean up the maneuver node. (I won’t keep repeating it, but do it after each node so the map doesn’t get cluttered and confusing.)

Match inclination

(Depending on how clean the launches were this may not be needed). Go to map mode and click on ship 1 in cursor mode and set it as your target. Look for the DN/AN markers (use the one closest to your AP). It should be +/-0.1 degrees (or 0). If not, tag it, and execute a maneuver there, burning normal/anti-normal until it is low enough.

Waiting

Using high speed warp (use cursor in mission clock area in top left), pass time until #1 is nearly caught up to #2. #1 will orbit slightly faster than #2. Start around 1000x speed, then slow to 100x as they get closer. Ideally, wait until #2 is at PE and the two ships will be as close as possible at #2’s PE on the next orbit. Add a maneuver at the AP. Tag the orange/pink arrows that displays the closest approach distance (only one of the pair will show that information). Adjust PG/RG/RI/RO in small amounts trying to get a closer encounter (aim for under 40km). You will likely need to use VERY light throttle. Make another maneuver 1/4 orbit before the closest approach. Use this to fine tune the approach by adjusting PG/RG/RI/RO very slightly (holding LB to make small adjustments). Aim for 1-2km this time. Check the actual number after you maneuver and remember it for later. You’ll also see a relative speed indicator. Use that along with your ships maximum acceleration (info button on map) to estimate how long you will need to match speeds. If relative velocity is 2km/sec and max acceleration is 25m/sec, then you need 80 seconds to stop. Now warp to a few minutes before closest approach, leaving enough time to stop, plus another couple minutes to get pointed in the right direction (the ship is probably still on stage 2 and turns very, very slowly).

Match Speeds/Close with target

Put the navball is in target mode (click speed indicator) and set SAS to retrograde (in target mode this slows you down relative to the target). Slow down gradually, trying to reach the closest approach number before coming to a stop. If the target is too far to automatically show the distance, moving the cursor over it should display it. Try to get the relative velocity as close to 0 as possible.

Set SAS to target then burn until your speed is about 1-2% of your distance (e.g. at 2km distance aim for 20-40m/s). Switch your SAS to retrograde and gradually kill your speed again as it gets closer.

Continue this process of burning towards the target then retrograde to slow down. Once under 1km distance (and stopped relative to the target), I would stage to 0 even if you still have fuel in 2. The ship will be much lighter and have finer control (stage 0 has small engines to adjust speed slowly but accurately).

Final approach

Once you are under 100m, start aiming a bit ahead of where the target is pointing. Try to end up just ahead of it with room to turn towards it and line up. Save your game, set your SAS to normal and switch to docking mode (icon in bottom left), locked camera mode, and turn on RCS. SAS should keep you pointed the right way. Use up/down on LS to move towards/away from the ship. Aim for facing the docking port from 25-75m away. Start moving slowly toward the ship (about 0.1-0.2m/s) with a couple of quick taps. You’ll see both the target and prograde indicators on the navball. If you don’t, you’re probably too far to the side and need to get lined up better to see them both.

Once you do, moving / will move the prograde indicator left and right on the navball relative to the target indicator and / will move it up and down. Line them up on top of each other, then get your speed to 0.2m/sec or less (hitting to accelerate towards it and to accelerate away). This will move the prograde indicator, so adjust with l/// to line it up again. Once lined up and slower than 0.2m/sec, just wait and they should dock shortly. While in docking mode, your RCS may fire on its own to maintain your heading. This is wasteful, but you should have plenty of RCS fuel (if you run out, reload the save and try again).

• Look Ma! No Tractor Beams!

  Completed your first ship to ship dock! Congrats, lots of people don't make it this far.

  

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