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[Girlinhat]

What'll you do for power?

I'll admit this part slipped my mind on this first try...for now just hoping the Mechjeb unit uses little power.

Lining up the boosters properly is also going to be a pain.

Um....MECHJEB. I'm pretty sure it has autodocking.

Mechjeb can be sustained on one of the small non-solar generators.  The radio-whatever.  A single battery pack would probably keep it working enough for a mere docking maneuver.

[Siquo]

I managed to get an early sputnik-science-probe (with goo and materials lab) in Minmus' orbit using Mun as a slingshot, that netted me quite some Sciencepoints early on. These slingshot maneuvers are very powerful.

Also note how he did the Juno-mission type maneuver by using Kerbin several times as a slingshot to get out to Jool, and the use of the Oberth-effect (which I just read about now, but already noticed myself while playing ). Energy-efficiency is key in this game, and I'm getting the hang of planning maneuvers with the least amounts of dV. Now to try interplanetary travel.

[Girlinhat]

Also notice how the mission took about 28 years.  Fuel efficiency is all about patience.

[Aqizzar]

And here I am having to push my Mun lander to a stop with a jetpack just to get back to Kerbin.


One deficiency of the science system is that it doesn't take into account engineering challenges that don't take you to new places.  I'd say building a space station is as major an undertaking as a moon landing, maybe more of one in this game, but science system doesn't have a way of gauging that, since there isn't any kind of "Skylab" functionality for long term science gain.

[Siquo]

Also notice how the mission took about 28 years.  Fuel efficiency is all about patience.

Yeah, hence my 3 AM Minmus-and-Mun landing-and-return. I really need some sleep...

[Anvilfolk]

Alright, I guess I gots to read up on a ton of stuff. I had somewhat of a hard time understanding sluissa's explanation. I'll read up on Oberth and Hohman stuff.

[Siquo]

Oberth as I understand it is pretty simple: burn hard at periapsis gives you SIGNIFICANTLY more bang for your buck than anywhere else in your orbit, depending on the difference between apoapsis and periapsis, and the distance between periapsis and object (large difference and small periapsis = more bang).

[Girlinhat]

Oberth is simple, and you probably already use it.  If you start at your periapsis (low point) and burn prograde (the direction you're moving) you increase your speed and your apoapsis (high point) MUCH more easily than if you tried to burn at any other point.  It's Space-Explosions-101, always change your orbit at apo and peri.

Homman Transfer I'm less sure on.  But the most basic idea is to not just burn towards the intercept you want.  You need to glide into it, following the target's orbit to match your apoapsis.  It's best to start from a very circular orbit.

[LordSlowpoke]

Homman Transfer I'm less sure on.  But the most basic idea is to not just burn towards the intercept you want.  You need to glide into it, following the target's orbit to match your apoapsis.  It's best to start from a very circular orbit.

hohmann transfers are serious business

there's a reason i barely ever do them manually

[Sean Mirrsen]

A Hohmann transfer is basically any semi-elliptic transfer between orbits, without course corrections between leaving one orbit and entering another. I.e. low orbit -> accelerate at low periapsis, get higher apoapsis, accelerate at higher apoapsis, ger equal periapsis -> new orbit. The only difficulty is in doing them efficiently - eyeballing them is peanuts with the maneuver node system.

[ank]

A Hohmann transfer is basically any semi-elliptic transfer between orbits, without course corrections between leaving one orbit and entering another. I.e. low orbit -> accelerate at low periapsis, get higher apoapsis, accelerate at higher apoapsis, ger equal periapsis -> new orbit. The only difficulty is in doing them efficiently - eyeballing them is peanuts with the maneuver node system.

A Hohman transfer is basically, the normal way we do transfer...
Let's say you want a higher orbit, so you burn at periapsis to raise your apoapsis, then burn again at apoapsis to circularise: that's the essence of a Hohman transfer.

Now this seems fairly obvious to anybody having played KSP for more than an hour, but remember: Hohman proposed this in 1925, waaay before any space flight was possible.

[Girlinhat]

That's just an orbital transfer.  A Homman Transfer is going to a specific orbit at a specific time to intercept another body.  It's an exercise in timing and very mathy to get right, but somewhat possible to eyeball it when you've been playing a few... weeks...

[timferius]

The in game tutorial is actually really helpful for anyone just getting in to the game to learn basic orbital maneuvers. They're really easy once you've had them explained and used them.

[da_nang]

Homman Transfer I'm less sure on.  But the most basic idea is to not just burn towards the intercept you want.  You need to glide into it, following the target's orbit to match your apoapsis.  It's best to start from a very circular orbit.

hohmann transfers are serious business

there's a reason i barely ever do them manually

Well, there are sheets for phase angles out there.

[BigD145]

What'll you do for power?

I'll admit this part slipped my mind on this first try...for now just hoping the Mechjeb unit uses little power.

Lining up the boosters properly is also going to be a pain.

Um....MECHJEB. I'm pretty sure it has autodocking.

Mechjeb does not do any alignment when docking. Default values will have it slamming vehicle against vehicle. Things will bounce around a bit. It'll dock but it's a wild ride and things will be askew.