When building, Shielded docking ports seem to attach very well on TOP of things, while regular ol' docking ports attach well UNDERNEATH things. (but not on purpose, I didn't know how Apollo worked until after I built my rocket! After a few refinements, mine just turned out like this :) This is very similar to the way the Apollo missions did it. Presto! Remember to turn the lander's engines off before trying a burn. After achieving a parking orbit, the way it works is you decouple the lander, flip it around 180°, (remember to open the shield!) and dock with your fuel tank. On top of the lander, we have a Shielded Clamp-o-tron Docking Port. (let's imagine they have explosive bolts in them like everything else in our rockets) Don't worry, they disappear when you decouple the node. Those are for payload stability during takeoff. You will notice many EAS-4 Strut connectors used here. There are 2 ways to use docking ports to build a spacecraft that can rendezvous with another in orbit Non-reattachable method:įirst we have a TR-18A Stack Decoupler flipped upside down (you can tell by the red arrow which side will detach), with a Docking Port attached underneath it. This setup will allow you to take it back to Kerbin (if you have enough fuel remaining), and leave it in orbit for future use. Pictures of this will be forthcoming shortly. Anywhere else will require you to dock on your side, which will make controlling it more difficult. A docking port somewhere on your lander.A decoupler on top of the other one, right side up, under your engine, that will fire both decouplers off of your lander, and into space somewhere.A decoupler on it, upside-down, so your lander detaches from your extra fuel.A docking port on top of your fuel tanks.
#Ksp docking port crossfeed free
That doesn't work so well when you want the decoupler to detach from BOTH stages, leaving the docking port free for later use. It's a bit more complicated to replace decouplers with docking ports decouplers just fire off of your current stage, and stick to the stage you might want to return to. But besides these minor inconveniences, it works.Docking clamps have very little shear strength, so I suspect if we just changed the decoupler into two docking clamps, your cockpit would fall off during the ascent. Also, this craft has some issues flying straight due to the asymmetrically attached mass of its new tank. Unfortunately the fuel in the tank won't be used automatically because the AGU doesn't provide automatic fuel crossfeed, but you can pump the fuel from the new tank to the existing one manually. The tank keeps being attached to the target: Supply ship decouples the fuel tank with the AGU. Supply ship exchanging fuel with target through claw: Supply-ship approaching target with armed claw: You now have the tank attached to the ship with the AGU in between. Attach the AGU to the target ship by tenderly pushing it onto a surface.Build a new ship with a detachable fuel tank and add an AGU to the tank.
#Ksp docking port crossfeed how to
Here are instructions for how to attach a new fuel tank to an existing ship: You can also use this to add new parts to an existing ship, as long as you are OK with having the AGU as an adapter.
You can use this to transfer resources or gain control of an uncontrolled vessel. This gadget can grab onto any part of other vessels and then works just like a docking connection. When you want to dock with a vessel which hasn't got docking ports, you can use the Advanced Grabbing Unit.