Kerbal Space Program

[DIW35]

It turned out to be over engineered to go to the Mun. As stated in my OP, it had so much unused fuel left, I discovered it was capable of getting to Minmus and back. Didn't add fins, because it seemed to fly reasonably well without them.

[DIW35]

See they've just released version 0.20.

Means I will have to go back to Mun so I can plant a flag, though I'd like to design my own first.

[Mattt]

Anyone else found it's a lot harder since the update?

I used to have no troubles previously doing whatever, but now it seems a struggle even to get into orbit.

[IanMorewood]

I've had major issues with 19 to be fair, at most 3 flight before a software crash and Physics that keep breaking perfectly reliable launch vessels.

Whats new on v20?

[DIW35]

Haven't had a problem yet with either .19 or .20. Are you running a lot of mods?

[8bit]

Just bought this on Steam last night. Looks like great fun. Where does one start? Had a go at the ship building tutorial last night, did the basic stuff it gave me to do, added some other bits and pieces, couldn't get the damn thing to take off...

[Oakey]

Not played this since the early Alpha, bough tit last night and it's changed. A lot.

How do I reach a stable orbit? Do I have to manually adjust the roll, pitch, yaw, etc or are there parts that take care of all that? I thought I just had to line up the little -v- with the -o- and keep it on that track but I'm not sure that's right. Or maybe my rockets just aren't powerful enough to get me far enough out resulting in my crappy trajectory.

[The Black Flash]

8bit said:

Just bought this on Steam last night. Looks like great fun. Where does one start? Had a go at the ship building tutorial last night, did the basic stuff it gave me to do, added some other bits and pieces, couldn't get the damn thing to take off...

Did you throttle the engines up (Left shift) ? That caught me out on the first launch. Otherwise you need to get the hang of the staging and make sure that your main engines are actually set to start up first.

Really enjoying this - made my first (crash) landing on the mun last night after a few day's playing. Top stuff. I used to be an orbiter player a few years ago which is a bit more of a hard-core sim, KSP has all the orbital mechanics but makes things like re-entry somewhat easier, and the manouver planner is brilliant. Plus I like the "failure is an option" vibe of it.

[wst]

Better is to go vertical up to about 10,000m while keeping below 150m/s (or you start wasting energy on drag), and then bank right (90 degrees bearing) gradually so that you're horizontal at just over 75,000m (turning later than 10,000m starts wasting fuel against gravity!), but you can go as fast as you like. Often your Ap will go above 75,000 while you're still at, say, 50km. Just cut the power and coast up to Ap, then do a horizontal burn to bring the Pe up. An orbit will be stable about 75,000m so burn until Ap and Pe are above that height, and you're sorted! The closer to 75,000m you are, the more efficient your burns to other planets will be, but the less room you have for manoeuvre if you get it slightly wrong. 100-150km is ideal!

[DIW35]

Actually managed to land a craft on the Mun carrying a rover yesterday. Only a simple affair, but this is PistonHeads so had to have a go with a wheeled vehicle somewhere.




This is the lander and command module shortly after seperation after achieving a stable Mun orbit. You can just see the rover tucked between the lander's engines.

[RobGT81]

Good work!! We need a PH flag.

[DIW35]

RobGT81 said:

Good work!! We need a PH flag.

Here you go.

[DIW35]

Bloody hell, that was quick.

[davepoth]

DIW35 said:

Bloody hell, that was quick.

He faked it - the launch complex is just behind the camera position. Look really closely and you'll see a reflection in Jeb's helmet.

[Oakey]

Got my first capsule into orbit without using the cheats. Not been able to do it again without using inf fuel since though. it's the getting horizontal bit. I get that fine but then I like to switch to the orbit map to see how it's progressing, meanwhile my ship is spinning out of control as I'm not paying attention.

[Oakey]

That's good to know!

[8bit]

The Black Flash said:

Did you throttle the engines up (Left shift) ? That caught me out on the first launch. Otherwise you need to get the hang of the staging and make sure that your main engines are actually set to start up first.

Really enjoying this - made my first (crash) landing on the mun last night after a few day's playing. Top stuff. I used to be an orbiter player a few years ago which is a bit more of a hard-core sim, KSP has all the orbital mechanics but makes things like re-entry somewhat easier, and the manouver planner is brilliant. Plus I like the "failure is an option" vibe of it.

Aha, thanks - think I understand the staging now. Managed to do a couple of the training things now. Had to have a few goes at the transit orbit thing to intercept Mun, is there a better way to calculate where you're supposed to do your burn to push the apoapsis (I think?) out towards Mun so that you'll hit an intercept?

Need to have another go at that mission this evening, did what the training mission said to burn prograde to achieve a stable orbit around the Mun but nothing happened...

[wst]

8bit said:

intercept Mun, is there a better way to calculate where you're supposed to do your burn to push the apoapsis (I think?) out towards Mun so that you'll hit an intercept

I know there is, I think it relates to something called the phase angle. More than that, I'm afraid I can't help. I'm stuck on the "seat of my pants" type of rocketry at the moment, but I'd love to be able to do the maths on a sheet of paper and then fly the ship to the maths and have it work perfectly. Hell, I'd even like to just do the maths and tell someone with co-ordinated fingers what to do and when!

[DIW35]

I designed a really simple craft purely for getting 1 Kerbal in to orbit and safely back again. It has very stable flight characteristics, so if anyone would like to use it to practise getting in to orbit, they can download the craft file here:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/uqz6o1j6rjo1yd5/Orbi...

[DIW35]

8bit said:

intercept Mun, is there a better way to calculate where you're supposed to do your burn to push the apoapsis (I think?) out towards Mun so that you'll hit an intercept

Get yourself in to a stable orbit around Kerbin.
Switch to map mode, and move the picture until you are looking down on Kerbin, and can see your orbit path as a full circle.
Rotate the picture until Mun is about 45 degrees clockwise from the 12 o'clock position, i.e. sitting between where 1 and 2 would be on a clock face.
Your prograde thrust will need to take place at the 6 o'clock position of your orbit.

If you are used to using the manoeuvre nodes, set one at the 6 o'clock position and drag out the prograde handle until you get an intercept, usually at about 840 m/s dV. This has the bonus of giving you a blue target to aim for on your navball as well as a countdown timer as to when you will be in position.

If that doesn't make any sense, shout out and I'll post up some pictures which will hopefully explain it better.

8bit said:

Need to have another go at that mission this evening, did what the training mission said to burn prograde to achieve a stable orbit around the Mun but nothing happened...

You need to burn prograde at Kerbin to push your Apo out to intercept Mun. This should give you a Mun encounter point and a Mun escape point. It's between these two points that you are within the sphere of influence (SOI) of Mun. Once within the SOI you need to burn retrograde to get 'captured' and to prevent you from just flying by. If you start your retrograde burn at Mun Periapsis, you will see your predicted flight path curving around Mun until it achieves orbit by making a circle.

Edited by DIW35 on Friday 31st May 14:41