Kerbal Space Program

You think you guys have got it bad, I can't get to the Mun without building stupidly oversized, over powered rockets and that's in sandbox mode.

Career mode, I completely suck at :(

This is one of those times to remember that bigger is not always better. If you can get into the upper atmosphere in two (preferably one) stages, then you should be to get to the Mun relatively easy if you know how to do the correct transfers to achieve an orbit and raise the altitude to intercept.
 
This is one of those times to remember that bigger is not always better. If you can get into the upper atmosphere in two (preferably one) stages, then you should be to get to the Mun relatively easy if you know how to do the correct transfers to achieve an orbit and raise the altitude to intercept.

I can just about get into orbit in two stages. I have to be careful though, as I sometimes run out of fuel and I can't deorbit. It will click eventually, I just have to keep trying.
 
If you can get up in two then you're doing fine :) A third stage should see you nicely into orbit and, depending on the size of this stage, get you to the moon in a transfer - practice these as when you get them right they will save a lot of fuel!
 
Good advice there, I generally end up having massive addon pack boosters provindg my thrust, but I know with stock parts once you break 14k altitude and keep at it you should be fine, practice makes, well, not so bad :D

I can never seem to get a Minimum encounter for some reason, not sure why or if I am missing something? Also I have zero idea on how to get to other planets! :D
 
I've got an ongoing emergency at the minute,
I'm a kerbal nub having only previously gone to the Mun and minmus, so my first Duna mission was very scary :)

I got a rocket with plenty of spare juice available (from what i could calc) and set off, put myself into a nice 200k orbit around Kerbin, set up my burn for Duna and started, had 45secs of burn left when catastrophe struck!!!!!!

Mr Jack (my cat) decided he wanted feeding so jumped onto the keyboard to make his presence known, jettisoning my next two stages and leaving my 3 kerbal in there pod with rcs only! hurtling toward Duna.
Now, the burn wasn't finished so they will miss Duna and come back around in about 170days o.O, the fun bit is have approx 174 days of oxygen supply (ioncross) thank goodness for solar panels and scrubbers :)

So this nub who's never been away from Kerbin before now has to try to scrabble a rescue mission together, time a launch and meet the kerbals in space!!!

Fun :)
 
For getting big rockets into orbit I find 2 things are import:

The ratio of first - second - third stage should be approx 20:2:1

Secodnly use crossfeed in your first stage. For example I usually build my first stage around 2 big orange tanks with a mainsail. Around that I add 4 sets of the same again, so in total my first stage consists of 10 orange tanks and 5 mainsails.

I attach fuel lines going inwards from the outer tanks to the inner tanks. This means the inner mainsail will use the fuel from the outer tanks before the fuel in the inner tanks. Once the outer tanks are empty you dispose of them (this is a rudimentry form of asparagus staging), so the remaining mainsail still has 2 full tanks. At this stage you hope your rocket has enough altitude and velocity to get just about into orbit with a single mainsail.

It's also very easy to overestimate how much fuel you need for a lander. I still get back to kerbin from missions to the surface of the mun with more than a whole tank of fuel left and think 'why on earth did I think my lander needed 2 tanks of fuel?'.
 
Loving career mode (Yeah science, bitch!) and the recent improvements.

Gonna start fresh tonight, looking forward to the challenge of minmus with only basic equipment :)
 
Had a play about, liking the new engine although it seems to lack any sound for me? :( Although I've not tested to see if it is just all engines missing sound for me....!
 
I'm not sure what they're planning re having to budget for your space programme, but as it stands career mode is too easy for someone who is experienced. I've almost maxed out the tech tree after 8 missions.
 
I approve of the way getting samples and equipment back to kerbin is worth more than simply transmitting data, and also that duplicate research is no worthless. But I think they will really have to scale back the rewards. 125 points for doing some research on the surface on minmas seems like an awful lot of points for such a basic task.
 
I remember those days of being baffled, however with the chonics and manoeuvre nodes, you shouldn't have any issues getting to minmus or rendezvousing. Docking still reasonable hard unless you get one of the many indicators to show if you are lined up.

Have you guys watched any of the tutorials on youtube. Plenty to choose from, try scott manley to begin with.
 
I've got an ongoing emergency at the minute,
I'm a kerbal nub having only previously gone to the Mun and minmus, so my first Duna mission was very scary :)

I got a rocket with plenty of spare juice available (from what i could calc) and set off, put myself into a nice 200k orbit around Kerbin, set up my burn for Duna and started, had 45secs of burn left when catastrophe struck!!!!!!

Mr Jack (my cat) decided he wanted feeding so jumped onto the keyboard to make his presence known, jettisoning my next two stages and leaving my 3 kerbal in there pod with rcs only! hurtling toward Duna.
Now, the burn wasn't finished so they will miss Duna and come back around in about 170days o.O, the fun bit is have approx 174 days of oxygen supply (ioncross) thank goodness for solar panels and scrubbers :)

So this nub who's never been away from Kerbin before now has to try to scrabble a rescue mission together, time a launch and meet the kerbals in space!!!

Fun :)

Well the kerbal rescue mission blasted off :)
Got to within 100m of each other, then realised the first ship had run out of power (forgot to open the panels again) and couldnt open its docking port :/.

So the poor Kerbals asphyxiated in the cold harshness of space
 
You could have got the Kerbal to get out and manually open the docking ports and solar panels whilst EVA'ing over to them :)
Get near them, right click, open!
 
You learn a new thing every day!

Tonight I'm going to try to get my boys to Minimus & touched down, might not sound like much, but got to progress somewhere...
 
Made myself something nice and fun to fly....

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Yeah I exploited with placing the intakes, but there are only 2 of them, which I could have bodged elsewhere - but this looked better. It's all about the aesthetics :D

Flies really well, with full fuel it's a bit sluggish for acrobatics and when nearly empty it pulls nearly 15G! Nice and stable too by some fluke. Being able to disable some bits of aero from working on roll have helped massively, this would have been very twitchy in the last build. Has a full science kit, including transmitter poking out the engine :p
The Rapier engine is so OP, can fly this into Kerbin orbit with barely any effort at all and if I lined it up right transfer to a fair few other planets. I did a full burn of fuel when in a 150km orbit and it had no problem going beyond what would have been a Duna intercept, no idea how optimal a burn I did either, will have another try some time :) Don't think it will be enough to get to Jool and land on Laythe though!
 
I'm not sure what was going on last night, even symmetrical rockets were pulling of the side on takeoff and really unable to recover, must have tried so many time :(

Might stick to sandbox until I've "done more" then go back to career! I want to visit other planets & get docking!!
 
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