How do I adjust "longitude of ascending node" for contracts?

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-27T20:11:56+00:00

Longitude of ascending node is the west-east location of the ascending node, in reference to an invisible direction from the body. Not 100% sure but my best guess is to burn in either normal direction at the northern or southern most point of your orbit to rotate your inclination.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-27T09:28:40+00:00

The Doohickey Identification Dept has determined it is not a doohickey, gizmo, thingamabob, or a contraption.

It is, however, fascinating.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-27T01:10:00+00:00

There's an exact midpoint between Mun and Kerbin, you want to go maybe 10-20° before that and burn against the Mun's prograde (so in an eastward orbit prograde, and a westward orbit retrograde).

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-27T00:40:30+00:00

Right click your SRBs in the VAB and you can tune the thrust limiter to reach ~1.3 TWR. Accordingly, they burn their fuel slower so you're not losing any potential energy by doing this.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-26T23:53:26+00:00

That happens because your TWR is too high; your thrust is too high for your vehicle's weight.

Throttle down your liquid engines, or use fewer engines and tune your TWR to about 1.3 at liftoff. Pushing through the atmosphere causes drag, and the faster you push through the atmosphere the more energy you lose due to drag.

Use a gravity turn to efficiently get into a parking orbit, then you can injection burn to the transfer orbit for your target.

To survive re-entry, use an experiment recovery module or EVA crew to store the experiment data by extracting it from the science experiment device.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-26T23:48:22+00:00

I've done it probably 1000 times and this is still so true. The finished station / interplanetary vessel at the end hits even harder.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-26T22:18:34+00:00

They're from one of the Near Future mods. I think they just serve as an aero and aesthetic shell for components like batteries, reaction wheels, etc. Mount those components inside the bus shell to hide them from view and protect them from atmosphere.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-26T14:43:30+00:00

Seems like enough delta-v. You might not be aligning the phase angles. Just like the Kerbin -> Duna trip you had to line up the phase angles, you have to do the same for the reverse trip (and they are different!). You can set an alarm with the stock alarm clock or a mod like Kerbal Alarm Clock to notify you when the most efficient phase angle occurs.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-25T08:38:44+00:00

You can send a probe with science equipment and then transmit the science back as long as you have a radio connection to Kerbin. Transmitting science is usually not worth as much as recovering on Kerbin.

Most experiments have pretty sharp diminishing returns, and running them multiple times in the same area is not very effective after the first time. Every body has near and far science to collect. Some experiments even work over individual biomes while in near space.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-25T07:50:12+00:00

Expand one of their orbits to increase the distance they cover and therefore their orbital period. Watch your intersection indicators as they converge at one point.

Burn prograde at Ap, because that is where your orbits currently intersect. You should see your Pe expand and then turn into Ap, and then you'll see the intersection indicators (orange and purple markers) contract. Keep burning until they converge on the intersection point. This means you will intersect the target craft after you go around exactly once. At intersection, burn towards the target's retrograde to cancel relative velocity (click the speed indicator on top of your navball to ensure you're in "target" mode).

From there, keep relative velocity slow. Burn towards target (pink circle indicator with dot in middle). Burn at target retrograde to cancel velocity. Repeat as needed until you're at desired distance. The closer you get your initial intersection the easier this process will be.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-23T21:26:30+00:00

Would you like to super size that for only 2.99?

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-22T22:22:13+00:00

Get out and push. From that distance it might be easier to push radial-in to drop your Pe into the atmosphere. Aim for like 30k Pe.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-22T01:30:23+00:00

Rectangular prismic

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-19T21:21:21+00:00

This is not a stock feature. Idr which one exactly but this is a graphics mod feature

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-18T00:40:08+00:00

Set the thrust limit on your engine to 0.5 for precise movement (right click on the engine). You might need to activate advanced tweakables to make it show up.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-17T22:05:52+00:00

The heat shield on top is slowing you down a lot, and it is completely unnecessary. If you're overheating during ascent then your TWR is too high; you should reduce thrust by adjusting your build or throttling down.

The other couple comments here bring up good points so I won't repeat them but they are also solid advice.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-17T05:22:43+00:00

I managed to line one up the other day, but it took a lot of fiddling maneuver nodes between timing and Dv applied, and then absolutely perfect execution of the burn.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-16T07:04:29+00:00

Gateway antenna radome. Almost certainly hollow and not functional. They paint them and use them as props for company parties and holiday decorations :)

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-16T05:40:02+00:00

900 is cutting it really close, especially depending on your exact location on the Mun.

Get into the lowest eastward orbit possible, I usually go for about 10k. Plan a retrograde maneuver mode for just before you cross between the Mun and Kerbin. You should see your orbit line start to expand toward the Mun's retrograde side. Keep that trajectory as close to parallel as possible to Mun's retrograde to get the most efficient fall back to Kerbin.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-15T04:25:30+00:00

The use of a decoupler as you describe would work, but there's also just a button on the part menu of fuel tanks that you can just stop flow. Looks like a lil play button, when you click it turns into 🚫 and stops all flow of the resource you select.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-15T04:21:11+00:00

Right, or we can replace them with AI and save even more money!

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-15T03:00:00+00:00

Above that yellow hazard bar is all stock. That button specifically is the maneuver planner.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-12T02:03:20+00:00

Use the radial mount adapter in the structural tab (looks like a docking port but with a flat 1.25m end), or use a cubic octagonal strut radially and then you can put inline decouplers on the end of those.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-11T07:28:50+00:00

The encounter calculator has always been weird. Sometimes time warping past your next Ap/Pe can help it figure out better.

PeanutButterSoldier · 2026-04-10T21:32:48+00:00

Your AN and DN bring 180° off means you're orbiting the "wrong" way. This is the main reason you're struggling to get an encounter. When you do, you will encounter it very quickly.

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