pull asteroid?

[ronald.friedrich]

i got a question about pulling an asteroid. mayve some of you can help me out. If you design your ship in a way wich point the "flamy end" of the engine towards and relatively close to the Asteroid, does the exhaust actualy push the asteroid in the wrong direction?

[ronald.friedrich]

googled it myself.... the answer is yes. So you have to put the engines far away from the asteroid. the questtion now is how far^^ Move the engines sidesways is not on option because i am talking about class E.

[Harry_Robinson1]

Originally posted by ronald.friedrich:

googled it myself.... the answer is yes. So you have to put the engines far away from the asteroid. the questtion now is how far^^ Move the engines sidesways is not on option because i am talking about class E.

It depends on the engine, with a LV909 or Poodle a Rockomax 32 tank is enough distance if I remember correctly. For bigger engines you need more distance.

[כְּפִיר]

When I tried it the engines didnt even work, they bugged out by being too close to the asteroid. I am guessing a very big distance between the asteroid and engines are needed.

[Wobbly Av8r]

I always assumed that the asteroid acted in the same manner as 'part clipping' and so the thrusters would need to be visually clear (or nearly so) of the asteroid (when pulling it) to function as desired.

While I've not tried to move a class E 'roid, by putting the thrusters on the end of telescoping rods has helped not only with the problem you describe, but overall maneuverability as well (I throw a couple of RCS jets on the end of the telescoping rods too... leverage, ya know!)

[Empiro]

You could potentially offset the engines slightly so that none of them are pointing at the asteroid. It reduces the efficiency of the engine because of cosine losses, but it would work. If you put the engines a good distance away, and only point slightly offset, your cosine losses would be tiny.

[Redstone]

You don't have to pull an asteroid; you can push it. I have done this many times. The trick is to precisely align thrust with asteroid center of mass. In order to do this, switch view so that you are inside your command capsule, focus on the nav-ball/attitude indicator in the capsule instrument panel, magnify this image to almost full screen, align prograde indicator precisely with asteroid center of mass, and then move forward slowly with activated advanced grabbing unit armed to attach ship to asteroid. You may need to first right click on asteroid and make selection to display center of mass icon (its been a while since I did this).

BTW, I learned this tip from another player's post years ago.

Sorry not to respond earlier but have been away from game. Good luck!

[Addison1024]

Originally posted by Redstone:

You don't have to pull an asteroid; you can push it. I have done this many times. The trick is to precisely align thrust with asteroid center of mass. In order to do this, switch view so that you are inside your command capsule, focus on the nav-ball/attitude indicator in the capsule instrument panel, magnify this image to almost full screen, align prograde indicator precisely with asteroid center of mass, and then move forward slowly with activated advanced grabbing unit armed to attach ship to asteroid. You may need to first right click on asteroid and make selection to display center of mass icon (its been a while since I did this).

BTW, I learned this tip from another player's post years ago.

Sorry not to respond earlier but have been away from game. Good luck!

how do you work out the center of mass?

[Quizzical]

Select the asteroid as your target and use SAS to point protarget, just like you do when docking.

[Addison1024]

ah, okay
it targets the center of mass, then?

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by Redstone:

You don't have to pull an asteroid; you can push it. I have done this many times. The trick is to precisely align thrust with asteroid center of mass. In order to do this, switch view so that you are inside your command capsule, focus on the nav-ball/attitude indicator in the capsule instrument panel, magnify this image to almost full screen, align prograde indicator precisely with asteroid center of mass, and then move forward slowly with activated advanced grabbing unit armed to attach ship to asteroid. You may need to first right click on asteroid and make selection to display center of mass icon (its been a while since I did this).

BTW, I learned this tip from another player's post years ago.

Sorry not to respond earlier but have been away from game. Good luck!

You also want as many grapling hooks as possible to stabilize your grip. One single grapler can easily destabilize your rocket so you spin out of control... Even if you are aligned. Especially on the larger ones. This to avoid a bending around the point you "catch" on to the asteroid.

[Redstone]

Yes, if you right click on the asteroid and select "target center of mass". But you have to move forward the last few meters very slowly and maintain nearly perfect alignment.

[Addison1024]

One question on this: is it possible to build struts between a ship and an asteroid? if so, that would be quite useful

[koimeiji]

Originally posted by Addison1024:

One question on this: is it possible to build struts between a ship and an asteroid? if so, that would be quite useful

with the new engineering stuff? possibly

[ronald.friedrich]

Originally posted by Addison1024:

One question on this: is it possible to build struts between a ship and an asteroid? if so, that would be quite useful

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1787344683436960272/804900A8D92FDD7DF0943C35B59E9C948DF0554E/

yes

[Nitro]

Can you push instead of pull?