Flight Question Newbie docking help please

[GreyArea]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me out. I'm having a terrible time docking to the point that I actually think something could be wrong. I've played Kerbal for several years and docked the SpaceX simulator with ease first time around which seemed easy when compared to the former.

I thought I'd try a simple experimanet - release from the ISS, back away and then re-dock. The best way I can describe the problem is that it feels like the RCS thrusters are not evenly pushing on the ship. Every time I touch a translate command the orientation gets wildly thrown out. And it does not seem possible to translate and rotate at the same time, switching RCS from ROT to LIN seems to kill the previous motion.

I was expecting a level of realism & difficulty, but watching the tutorials - the inputs and response seems to be way different that what I'm getting. Is there anything I can do? I tried turning off all realism & pertubations but it still seems whacky to me.

Thanks,

 

[Urwumpe]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me out. I'm having a terrible time docking to the point that I actually think something could be wrong. I've played Kerbal for several years and docked the SpaceX simulator with ease first time around which seemed easy when compared to the former.

I thought I'd try a simple experimanet - release from the ISS, back away and then re-dock. The best way I can describe the problem is that it feels like the RCS thrusters are not evenly pushing on the ship. Every time I touch a translate command the orientation gets wildly thrown out. And it does not seem possible to translate and rotate at the same time, switching RCS from ROT to LIN seems to kill the previous motion.

I was expecting a level of realism & difficulty, but watching the tutorials - the inputs and response seems to be way different that what I'm getting. Is there anything I can do? I tried turning off all realism & pertubations but it still seems whacky to me.

Which spacecraft do you use?


Your observation might be true - Orbiter is realistic to the point to include torques by non-spherical gravity and having no torque-free translational RCS is a possibility like in any real spacecraft.



The problems with switching between rotational and translational motion appear weird, but could be specific to the spacecraft.

 

[GreyArea]

Thanks for the reply, I'm using the Delta Glider > Docker at ISS as a starting point.

One of the things that I'm struggling with is that for whatever reason - the velocity vector HUD element does not seem to indicate the actual velocity vector. I've attached a couple of screenshots taken a few seconds apart where the VV seems to slide past it's indicated point without any control input.

It feels as if I'm missing a step - perhaps somehow linking the vessels frame of reference to the ISS. I could record a short video, as I said previously it feels like I'm fighting the rotation/translation much more than any tutorial video I've seen.

Thanks,

p.s. Is there a way to disable the hover and main engines? While battling the controls I've accidentally activated both of those which is quite frustrating!

 

[GreyArea]

For some reason my reply hasn't appeared, but it doesn't matter because I DID IT!!!! So happy

I did an takeoff & rendezvous and once I'd intercepted the ISS the docking procedure was WAY easier and controllable. I then went back and tried to undock & redock using the "Docked at ISS" Delta glider scenario and again it was crazy hard and I gave up.

I'm not sure quite what's up, the Ap & Pe seem close enough, as you'd expect when undocking but something doesn't feel right, or I'm just not understanding the problem redocking.

Anyway, thanks for the reply - I'm off to rinse & repeat until I can tackle the shuttle.