By taking the guesswork out of when and where you should burn you can save a ton of fuel.Provides a more precise widget for maneuver node editing. Another example is if you want to land right on top of some stranded Kerbalnauts on the moon you could use maneuver nodes to pre plan your approach so that you'll pass directly over them. I use them for inclination changes, like the orbital alignment example above. 15s would happen before the node and 15s after and then the green delta V bar would be drained and you'd know to stop. So if it estimates a 30s burn you would start it at T-15s from the maneuver node and keep it up for 30s. As others have said, you start your burn roughly half the burn time before you hit the maneuver. Now when your vessel approaches the maneuver node you burn towards the blue icon on your navball until the green delta V bar is drained and you'll be much closer to your equatorial orbit. Eyeball it until the predicted orbit looks like it's lined up with the station's orbit. Since you haven't made any changes it's the same as your current orbit.ĭrag one of the purple handles on the maneuver node and you'll see your predicted orbit (the dotted yellow one) either tilt worse or flatten out relative to the desired orbit. This is your predicted new orbit based on the maneuver. You'll notice a dotted yellow orbital path appear that coincides with your current light blue orbital path. So you click on your orbit (the light blue orbital path) at the node you will encounter next and create a maneuver node.
Let's say you also know that the proper position to align orbital inclinations is at the ascending or descending node (where the plane of one orbit intersects the plane of the other). Let's say that 2nd launch has a relative inclination of 2°. Now you launch up some unwieldy attachment and didn't manage to get it into a perfect equatorial orbit. Let's say you have a space station in a perfectly equatorial orbit around Kerbin.
#Kerbal space program maneuver how to#
Set the maneuver, fire engines, execute maneuver.Įveryone has explained what they are, but here's a practical example of how to use them. TLDR: Maneuvers let you see what you need to do to adjust your course in the future. once the green bar is emptied, the maneuver is complete, and depending on how accurately you were able to execute it, your new trajectory should match the predicted trajectory an the map view. If the est is 30 sec, fire engines while aimed at the blue node with t-15sec. Ideally, you want to time it so you are exactly halfway through your maneuver when the countdown to the node is complete. Let's say it estimates the time to make your maneuver at 30 sec.
time (if it shows an est) is a guess at how long your engines will spend producing that Δv. The number above the green meter indicates how much Δv (delta V, or change in velocity) your maneuver will require, the green meter indicates Δv progress, and est. Aim you ship directly at the blue marker. Also a green meter with a number at the top and an EST burn below it. You may (or may not) notice a blue marker on your nav ball now and a countdown timer. once the maneuver is set to put you where you want in Mun's SOI, return from map view. In maneuvers, the green circles adjust your speed, the blue ones your yaw, and the purple ones your pitch.
So just in front of you in map view you add a maneuver to adjust your course- For example speeding up and turning. Let's say you're in space on course to Mun, but your current trajectory doesn't put you in Mun's SOI.