How to capture asteroids?

[Lingluo]

I have difficulty capturing large asteroids.
When I try to rotate,the ship becomes extremely unstable and begins to shake.It shakes quite violently, but doesn't explode.

Also,I have heard that pulling is way easier than pushing. But, how do I pull? Where should I put the grabber and the decoupler?

[Astronaut]

wyp020610님이 먼저 게시:

RoofCat님이 먼저 게시:

yeah, rigid attachment is risky. You can use it closer to asteroid if reaction wheels are right there too. Or on parts like docking port and batteries which like to bend a lot even in 2.5m size.
But the only thing it does is avoids bending considerably. It doesn't stop breaking though. So it is more suited for just some particular pieces or during launch when wobbling may turn parasitic.

On asteroids auto struts are preferable for most parts. Also if you build it properly, you don't need either much. Send reaction wheel drones to different spots on asteroid so none is overloaded and don't put your ship between reaction wheel and asteroid. That way your ship has no reason to bend in the first place. Almost all forces are limited to grabber and reaction wheel next to him. Except for engines pulling around. Which are rather soft forces. Be careful to not use full thrust instantly as that may introduce wobbling forth and back eventually. Which will rather ease with time and persistent thrust, but there is no need to create one in the first place.

How does auto strut work then?

Better to do it manually than wonder what autostrut is.

[Lingluo]

By the way, is it possible to use multiple grabbers so that my craft no longer wobbles?

[Astronaut]

wyp020610님이 먼저 게시:

By the way, is it possible to use multiple grabbers so that my craft no longer wobbles?

yeah, but have fun trying to attach them all.

[RoofCat]

wyp020610님이 먼저 게시:

RoofCat님이 먼저 게시:

yeah, rigid attachment is risky. You can use it closer to asteroid if reaction wheels are right there too. Or on parts like docking port and batteries which like to bend a lot even in 2.5m size.
But the only thing it does is avoids bending considerably. It doesn't stop breaking though. So it is more suited for just some particular pieces or during launch when wobbling may turn parasitic.

On asteroids auto struts are preferable for most parts. Also if you build it properly, you don't need either much. Send reaction wheel drones to different spots on asteroid so none is overloaded and don't put your ship between reaction wheel and asteroid. That way your ship has no reason to bend in the first place. Almost all forces are limited to grabber and reaction wheel next to him. Except for engines pulling around. Which are rather soft forces. Be careful to not use full thrust instantly as that may introduce wobbling forth and back eventually. Which will rather ease with time and persistent thrust, but there is no need to create one in the first place.

How does auto strut work then?

just like regular strut between two parts. You can turn them on and off at any point. Rightclick any part and then autostrut. Advanced tweakables must be turned on in settings for that option to appear. Also be careful with heaviest part choice. It is know to cause a lot of trouble since that one changes dynamically. Use root or grandparent instead.

Multiple grabbers are really hard to attach. It is actually quite hard to attach even one occasionally. Asteroids have inaccurate surfaces. Sometimes you need perfect angle, sometimes the real (invisible) surface isn't that flat. So sometimes you get bounced off for quite some time even with just one grabber. Maybe using some robotics (mod part) it is somehow doable. But in stock rather just forget.
Finally you don't need stronger connection. It is not about connection. You won't pull that strong for it to break! If you build it right, your mining tugship will be like 30..70t. While the asteroid can be 3500t in E class. It's not about bending the game to your will. It's about playing smart. You can build larger tug ship, but that will only waste money. And better don't take reposition contracts for E class. It can take 6..12h burns to capture one in particular orbit. Which is 3h realtime even with 4x physical time warp (Alt+>) without stopping engines. While your ISRU produces fuel for your propulsion from that very asteroid. It's a slow process. That's why it makes no point to use more powerful ship. It won't have fuel for those big engines. Just add to the dry mass and thus make it worse. Tugship must be small and smart. That's also how you make that contract profitable.