Kerbal Space Program

[hobbsyoyo]

Oh geeze. Good luck.


FYI, the atmosphere goes up to 70km (70000m), so if you get the apex (also referred to as an apoapsis) above 70km, you can turn off the engines and coast to that altitude. Keep in mind, however, than until you get to 70km, your apoapsis is going to fall a bit as you coast as drag will keep slowing you down until you are above the atmosphere. So maybe shoot for ~75km and coast when you have a trajectory that clears that altitude.

Also, it's helpful to start turning *gradually* towards 90 degrees above about 10km as you are boosting. It differs with different rockets and flight profiles, but turning over at about 10km is pretty efficient and by the time you're at about 50km you need to be turned over to 90 degrees (burning sideways). This helps you build up horizontal (orbital) velocity as you boost - when you burn straight up you are basically burning fuel to go straight up (against gravity) without gaining any velocity in the horizontal direction that you need to get an orbit. So basically turn over a few degrees at 10km and gradually turn over until you are around 50km, at which point you should be horizontal. Of course, if when you hit 50km, if you don't have a trajectory that goes above 70km, you need to keep burning a bit in the vertical direction in order to get your apoapsis above the atmosphere. With small rockets this shouldn't be too much of an issue though.

 

[Fr8monkey]

After 2 weeks of trying, I finally got the hang of docking. Can't wait until a career mode comes out!

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Managed to get into orbit successfully around the Mun using Scott Manley's excellent tutorial. But unfortunately I crashed attempting to land on the surface. Tomorrow I'll try again using a rocket of my own design and see if I have any better luck.

 

[Antilogic]

Landing on the Mun isn't as forgiving as some of the other bodies--they either have lower gravity so your lander can adjust its velocity more quickly, or the other bigger bodies have atmospheres and you can use air-braking and parachutes to help yourself out.

I recommend land-darting into the Mun--once you get in orbit, use your engines to kill all horizontal movement so you are falling straight down towards the Mun. Then, burn heavily around 5-7km above the surface to slow yourself down to around 25 m/s. At that point, let yourself drop again, slightly reducing that velocity until you can see your shadow on the surface. That's when you are close. You don't want to land at a speed greater than 7-8 m/s or you will risk severe damage.

I recommend strapping some extra fuel tanks on and run lines into your lander, and ditching them when they run empty on the approach. Watch the distance on the tanks after you drop them and use it as a rangefinder to see where the ground is to time your landing.

 

[J-man]

Landing on the Mun isn't as forgiving as some of the other bodies--they either have lower gravity so your lander can adjust its velocity more quickly, or the other bigger bodies have atmospheres and you can use air-braking and parachutes to help yourself out.

True but the Mun is tidally locked to Kerbin so it's rotates slowly around itself, which makes it easier to kill horizontal velocity than on moons or planets rotate fast (except when they have atmosphere of course).

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

And now the tale of Muncury 6. Designed with wreckless disregard for the safety of its occupants, its basically a really big pile of fuel tanks and rockets strapped together. You may have noticed that this is in fact Muncury 6...

Spoiler :

But it manages to accomplish orbit with Newbles Kerman on board.

Spoiler :

Away it goes, leaving Kerbin behind as it attempts to reach the Mun.

Spoiler :

After a long journey, it arrives at its destination, and achieves orbit around the Mun. Newbles is still quite pleased.

Spoiler :

After a somewhat bumpy landing, Muncury 6 manages to land. Newbles does not look quite as pleased.

Spoiler :

But he seems to enjoy jetting around on the Mun's surface.

Spoiler :

Takeoff is successful and a course is plotted back to Kerbin, arriving with plenty of fuel left. A fact that Newbles seems to find hilarious.

Spoiler :

Muncury 6 finally arrives back in Kerbin's atmosphere and parachutes to safety in the middle of the big continent.

Spoiler :

 

[cardgame]

Muncury 6 finally arrives back in Kerbin's atmosphere and parachutes to safety in the middle of the big continent.

 

[Civ'ed]

And that map is based on what exactly?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Good job, SuperBeaverInc.

You took some really good pictures.

Scott Manley videos are always helpful but I end up hating the guy for making it look so damn easy.

Oh and I meant to tell you that using maneuver nodes for getting to orbit is not usually needed or even helpful. They don't take into account the effects of atmospheric drag which can mislead you and cause you do to bad things like stopping a burn to short or misaligning your burn. Also, they aren't really needed to get to orbit, you just use the navball to navigate and burn like a boss.

 

[cardgame]

And that map is based on what exactly?

What are the Earth's continuous continents based on?

 

[SouthernKing]

News from the SKSRA (Southern Kingdom Space Research Agency): Kerplunk 3, the first manned, er, Kerballed spacecraft to go into orbit and re-enter Earth's atmosphere, has successfully landed in the ocean.

Work has already begun on a Mun landing program. (Can anyone give tips on how to do this?)

 

[Civ'ed]

What are the Earth's continuous continents based on?

Geographical borders?
that said, I was actually trying to find out why the continents were named as such...

 

[hobbsyoyo]

What are the Earth's continuous continents based on?

I'm lost. What's the map of?

News from the SKSRA (Southern Kingdom Space Research Agency): Kerplunk 3, the first manned, er, Kerballed spacecraft to go into orbit and re-enter Earth's atmosphere, has successfully landed in the ocean.

Work has already begun on a Mun landing program. (Can anyone give tips on how to do this?)

You need a big rocket, but not actually that big. Scott Manley has great videos on it. If you have any specific questions on it, ask and I'll answer when I get home. I'm supposed to be studying or I would've already thrown up a wall of text for you.

 

[Antilogic]

True but the Mun is tidally locked to Kerbin so it's rotates slowly around itself, which makes it easier to kill horizontal velocity than on moons or planets rotate fast (except when they have atmosphere of course).

True dat, you won't need as much fuel for the orbit-killing maneuver. It is nice that each body in KSP is unique and provides a slightly different challenge for approach and landing.

News from the SKSRA (Southern Kingdom Space Research Agency): Kerplunk 3, the first manned, er, Kerballed spacecraft to go into orbit and re-enter Earth's atmosphere, has successfully landed in the ocean.

Work has already begun on a Mun landing program. (Can anyone give tips on how to do this?)

I posted some hints on lawn-darting earlier, I think it's the easiest way to land on the Mun. I dug up my early 3-man landers (pictured craft are Muny Shot IV and Dunabomber II, if I recall correctly) from wayyy back in this thread, but my engineering has progressed significantly since then. I would recommend cutting down on the RCS fuel to save weight, and switching out to a more efficient engine (they have done significant rebalancing on the main engines, poodles used to be the worst and I was a newbie but now they are tolerable).

What is not pictured are the extra fuel tanks (although you can see the attachment points) that I jettison while landing. I use them as one-shot range-finders and to make sure I had enough gas to get my kerbonauts home.

Spoiler :

 

[cardgame]

Geographical borders?
that said, I was actually trying to find out why the continents were named as such...

The map is a bit outdated to be sure, but it is based geographically for the most part.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I started an attempt to land 3 kerbonauts on the Mun in a single capsule. Upon attempting to land I realized that the landing gear was shorter than the engine. So it looks like Newbles and company will be enjoying some quality time on the Mun. Otherwise, Kerblantis 8 was an astounding success compared to explosion prone Kerblantis 1 through 7.

 

[Antilogic]

He looks lonely. At least he still has his capsule to take shelter in while waiting for a rescue.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

He looks lonely. At least he still has his capsule to take shelter in while waiting for a rescue.

He also has Danbas and Almy! I just didn't know if it was possible to get all three outside of the capsule at the same time.

 

[Antilogic]

Oops, I misread your post. You can pop them all out if you like, and have them walk around together (use the square bracket keys to switch between them and the ship). Or go kerbal-bowling, that's a lot of fun but requires a couple pods full of kerbals to play.

I regularly pop a guy out while on a transfer orbit to have fun with an EVA. Or Jeb goes on a few km spacewalk out of his Skylab station and then goes back in after a hard day of jetpacking.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I think the [ and ] buttons switch between your ships/kerbals and lets you control different ones. You definitely get them all out at once.

'd by the master