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[Lightning4]

Do you guys have a calculator or something to tell you how to rendezvous with the Moon?  I can get a rocket into an orbit that would reach it, but I have no damn clue how to purposefully intercept it.  Heck, I'd be happy with crashing into it.

If you're feeling lucky you can also gun it at a spot below Mun relative to the Kerbin horizon. That's the direction it travels relative to Kerbin. If your trajectory ends up in just the right spot, you will have a perfect intercept with Mun.
That's what happened with my Mun mission.

Though even if it's not a perfect intercept, you can make some adjustments on the fly to correct it.

Using a mod (silisko's or something like that) I managed to make a ship do an orbit around the Sun. But I was aiming for the moon. D:

That's pretty much what happened every time I missed Mun. A few times I did it on purpose.
I wonder if it's possible to entirely leave the solar system. My best attempt ended up being a pretty pathetic orbit, barely going beyond Kerbin orbit at its maximum.

[Tarran]

Hmmm... I seem to have had the Mun fling me further out into space.

What's strange about that is SOMEHOW, I am still in a very thin orbit of Kerbin, with an Apoapsis of 13,000,000,000m (and lowering rapidly as I'm typing, it used to be 15 billion). That is about the distance Kerbin is from the sun (or whatever it's named). In addition, the Periapsis lies between Kerbin and Mun.

Anyone else get anything silly like that?

Edit: Ooop, I'm in orbit of the sun now. The orbital calculations must have just been screwy.

[Rex_Nex]

You can leave the solar system. The Sun pulled me inside of itself, boosting my speed up very high, then I just flew out the other side and out of the solar system. 10000x speed and a hour later, I was still going.

[Rakonas]

You can leave the solar system. The Sun pulled me inside of itself, boosting my speed up very high, then I just flew out the other side and out of the solar system. 10000x speed and a hour later, I was still going.

Needs comic with Jebediah wearing sunglasses.

[Aklyon]

0.13 has been released, and had an interesting thing in the changelog.
"We've also added a new part, called a Fuel Line, which allows you to set up external liquid fuel tanks, Shuttle-style (Fuel tanks can now also beside-mounted)."

[sluissa]

Also likely the last "free" update as well. Might be a good time to get those pre-orders in if you're interested in further development.

[Peewee]

0.13 has been released, and had an interesting thing in the changelog.
"We've also added a new part, called a Fuel Line, which allows you to set up external liquid fuel tanks, Shuttle-style (Fuel tanks can now also beside-mounted)."

Oh good, and someone's already shown that the pendulum rocket fallacy is still a fallacy in KSP.

Also likely the last "free" update as well. Might be a good time to get those pre-orders in if you're interested in further development.

Yep.

As we've already announced earlier, this update marks the end of the free demo period. That is, we will continue to update KSP, but future updates will only be available for those who have ordered the game at our Store (and those who have already pre-ordered, of course).

The 0.13 version will remain available for free at the download page, as a demo version.

source

[LoSboccacc]

Hmmm... I seem to have had the Mun fling me further out into space.

What's strange about that is SOMEHOW, I am still in a very thin orbit of Kerbin, with an Apoapsis of 13,000,000,000m (and lowering rapidly as I'm typing, it used to be 15 billion). That is about the distance Kerbin is from the sun (or whatever it's named). In addition, the Periapsis lies between Kerbin and Mun.

Anyone else get anything silly like that?

Edit: Ooop, I'm in orbit of the sun now. The orbital calculations must have just been screwy.

it's because only one body affects your path. get far enough from kerbin, and you'll be orbiting around sun. (around 15Mkm I believe)

you still have the same momentum as you had when leaving kerbin gravity, so that your speed will be the speed you were moving relative to kerbin+the speed that kerbin has relative to the sun (hence your orbit will be similar)

it's important to notice that your flight path will maintain momentum, but the orbiting drawing code will draw your path relative to the governing body, so it may seem that your craft had a huge change of direction, but it is just because your velocity now is no longer relative to the previous body and the body velocity you've left is now calculated as yours.

[Sean Mirrsen]

It's more than just that. By going out of Kerbin's SoI (Sphere of Influence), you completely lose its gravitational pull. It's very easy to get stuck in a Sun orbit, because Kerbin will not pull you back like it would otherwise have, and the momentum you had will carry you too far from its SoI to get back without exorbitant fuel expenditure.

[LoSboccacc]

it's not an undefined quantity. the dV should be around trice the absolute speed you had when you lost the kerbin influence for a full stop and return path or about the dV you had when you left kerbin if you wait to come out to the other side of the orbit.

the only important thing is not panicking because it's very easy at that point to burn too much and overshoot. first time I've tried that kind of catch up I reentered the kerbin influence too fast and I was shot off the other side because I couldn't slow quickly enough.

[Trapezohedron]

Just recently started taking notice of this game, can someone give me a description of the game in a nutshell?

[LoSboccacc]

build silly contraptions having wings and rocket engine, fly them to the Mun and back for amusement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJM-j8PLW-c


note: the future complete version aim to have have a structured campaign mode, developers says. Until then, it's a space simulation sandbox. (arcade-y, but fun)

[dogstile]

Just recently started taking notice of this game, can someone give me a description of the game in a nutshell?

Ahem

"I see no way this could go wron- OH GOD IT BURNS"

[Peewee]

Do I win a prize for reaching .0027C (821,128 m/s) with stock parts, or do I have to top a million for that?
http://imageshack.us/g/694/gravityk.png/

Note the altitude near the periapsis, nearly -52 million meters.

Apparently there is er, "air" resistance at the sun, because the apoapsis went from just above Kerth orbit to less than halfway between Kerth orbit and the star.

[Sheb]

Okay, new challenge:  go around Kerbal without leaving the athmosphere (Cannot go over 20 km). Only stock part allowed.