Kerbal Space Program

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by HunterICX

"That's why I told you "touch nothing". But you're bunch of cowboys!"

[Betonov]

Interesting how the go-to nation for playing Russians are the Finns


I just discovered maneouver nodes
OMG, I was stumbling like an idiot trying to guess trajectories in myhead and now I see I have a tool that not it only makes it easier to go at it, but also ads immersion

Originally Posted by Betonov

Interesting how the go-to nation for playing Russians are the Finns


I just discovered maneouver nodes
OMG, I was stumbling like an idiot trying to guess trajectories in myhead and now I see I have a tool that not it only makes it easier to go at it, but also ads immersion

Just now?
Some learn the hard way I guess. But if you play career, it might not even be our fault, because you need to unlock them by upgrading, I think, the observatory thingie... uh...the antenna dish...uhm...wth is it called again?

Yeah that.

[Betonov]

tracking station

[ikalugin]

I was docking before I found about SAS.

[Oberon]

Me too...

[Betonov]

this screen looks interesting

[NeonSamurai]

I think you meant throttle Oberon

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by NeonSamurai

I think you meant throttle Oberon

I always get those two mixed up...

[Red October1984]

I've started to play this just lately....A LOT...



Never had time when I bought it but oh my. I can't put it down. I'm struggling trying to design a rocket that will return from orbit. I can get one into orbit...but it got stuck up there.

Anybody have any advice? I've played a couple of the training scenarios and I THINK i know how the maneuver nodes work.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

I've started to play this just lately....A LOT...



Never had time when I bought it but oh my. I can't put it down. I'm struggling trying to design a rocket that will return from orbit. I can get one into orbit...but it got stuck up there.

Anybody have any advice? I've played a couple of the training scenarios and I THINK i know how the maneuver nodes work.

Returning from orbit is pretty simple. Just keep enough fuel in supply to lower your periapsis to a point within the atmosphere and drag should do the rest. If you have trouble with re-entry, try using shallower angles or SAS to keep the heat shield in place. You can also use drogue and normal chutes to slow you down pretty effectively before the rocket burns up.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

Returning from orbit is pretty simple. Just keep enough fuel in supply to lower your periapsis to a point within the atmosphere and drag should do the rest. If you have trouble with re-entry, try using shallower angles or SAS to keep the heat shield in place. You can also use drogue and normal chutes to slow you down pretty effectively before the rocket burns up.

The problem is that I never have quite enough fuel to get into a proper orbit that I can return from. A few missions back, I managed to get one into a circular orbit only to run out of fuel. I had to terminate that one.

I'm going to test out a new design after work today. We'll see how it goes.

[ikalugin]

You could always reduce yourself to mechjeb.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

The problem is that I never have quite enough fuel to get into a proper orbit that I can return from. A few missions back, I managed to get one into a circular orbit only to run out of fuel. I had to terminate that one.

I'm going to test out a new design after work today. We'll see how it goes.

Well, that's easy. Just add more boosters.

[NeonSamurai]

I would look at two things (though slapping on some SRB's can't hurt either). How you are getting into orbit (your flight path), and your rocket's design.

Your flight path should follow what is called a gravity turn.
http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Gravity_turn

Basically what you want to be doing is flying almost straight up for about the first 5,000-10,000 meters, then start to pitch over and gain horizontal speed. by about 25,000 meter you should be flying almost horizontally (make sure your flightpath marker stays at least 5-10 degrees above the horizon). The reason why you fly up first before turning is you want to get through the thickest part of the atmosphere as directly as possible. Flying too fast is also not a good thing (well design rockets have a starting thrust to weight ratio of about 1.2-1.4) as the faster you go the more air resistance becomes a problem. Getting that perfect launch takes a lot of practice.


Now for rocket designs, I would suggest sticking to conventional designs. Be sure to use nose caps on the main section+any boosters. Also having multiple stages makes a huge difference. You do not want one big rocket going all the way to orbit as you will be wasting a lot of fuel hauling up empty tanks. If you want to see what i mean, try building two small rockets. one using 2 of the same fuel tank with one engine, launch it straight up, see how high it gets. then take the rocket you built and put a secondary stage in between the two tanks and fly the mission again. Even though the second rocket is much heavier because of the decouple and 2nd engine, it is capable of going a lot higher than the first rocket.

This is what i mean by multiple stages
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...79&postcount=6

They really do make a huge difference.


Scott Manley also has some great video tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...-O2ak6mBYXWPAL


As for the suggestion to use mechjeb... I wouldn't, at least not yet. Learn how to fly first before using mechjeb to automate things. Though in theory mechjeb can teach you how to do some things, it also can teach you a lot of bad habits (there are a number of things that mechjeb does poorly or needs a lot of tweaking to do properly) and it can become a crutch where one can become dependent on it. Plus I think it really detracts from the early fun of first learning how to do things.