I've been having trouble trying to perform rendezvous in orbit. The biggest issue I'm facing is that once I get a stable orbit, the next launch, i'm off by a significant margin off the equator. Is this due to the planet's rotation? What's the best way to have your launch line up with the orbit of the satellite you're trying to dock with?
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1,176 YaMomzBox4202.1 years ago
Math. It's the only reliably repeatable method. It's also kinda hard so 🤷. Look up stuff about satellite rendezvous and launch guidance. It also helps to have a good understanding of orbital elements. The biggest challenge for you is gonna be accounting for the planets rotation. Launching into an equatorial (0° inclination) orbit doesn't make as much difference, but the higher the target inclination, the more the planets rotation effects your actual orbit. Using vizzy, you can calculate the future position of the target and account for the plabet's rotation to determine the ideal launch window
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@YaMomzBox420 So i was able to figure this out and can now pretty reliably rendezvous with a craft within a few hundred meters and no relative velocity, but i'm facing a new problem, as usual.
I originally docked two modules together, face to face. Each module has an extra docking port on the rear side. To put these, I had to rotate them upside down on the craft.
Now for some reason, I can't dock with either of those two with my next module to be installed. Should I get rid of those ports on the rear, and move them to the sides? It's really strange. Multiple times I got within a few meters of the port and no magnetic pull occurred, at all.