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[BigD145]

I got an asteroid in a stable orbit around Kerbin. Now what?

Um. Uh. ... Attach more things to it? Get science from it?

I have four in various orbits. Not sure what to do with them. I'm not certain I actually want to chain them together. Maybe....

[Sheb]

Land it? A nice design I've seen is to use a mothership to bring 6 or so probes with nothing but a Klaw, RCS and 4-6 chutes. Then you just need a shove to bring it down. Bonus points for landing at the KSC, all the internet for putting it on top of the VAB.

[tahujdt]

Page 666, watch out for the hell kraken.

[Aseaheru]

Page 200, no kracken will come to the land of... What is it, 80 posts per page or something?

[RedKing]

Okay, first probe into orbit! Doesn't do me a lot of good, but it feels good.

Now....to learn how the hell the maneuver point thing works in orbit map mode. That certainly made getting into orbit easier.

[rabidgam3r]

I said land an asteroid, not land on an asteroid.

satans ass
page 666

japa confirm for devil

[RedKing]

Ergh....is there not a way to pre-plan the flight path prior to launch? It's not easy to be clicking in and planning all these manuever burns while simultaneously trying to fly the ship.

Also, is there a rule of thumb of how far out of the atmosphere each stage should get you?

I built a probe with a small liquid tank and tiny engine, on top of a two-tank liquid rocket with big engine, surrounded by four big solid boosters. The solids don't even get me out of the first 1/4 of the atmosphere, and then I burn through the two-tank liquid rocket getting up to orbital height. Then I have scant fuel left to make my manuever burns to try and get on anything approaching a Mun-intercept path (which I should really be calculating out to determine the exact launch window, but like I started with....can't pre-plan the flight path). 


This game is making me feel stupid. And this is from someone that actually understands orbital mechanics.

[Putnam]

MechJeb.

You should probably be doing a gravity turn, if you're not. That will reduce delta-V by a crazy amount.

[BigD145]

Targeting the Mun should give you some more info, although I think it's best if you are already in space. Overall it's not going to hurt you to get into orbit and then plan a Mun burn sometime in the future.

[Graknorke]

Ergh....is there not a way to pre-plan the flight path prior to launch? It's not easy to be clicking in and planning all these manuever burns while simultaneously trying to fly the ship.

Also, is there a rule of thumb of how far out of the atmosphere each stage should get you?

I built a probe with a small liquid tank and tiny engine, on top of a two-tank liquid rocket with big engine, surrounded by four big solid boosters. The solids don't even get me out of the first 1/4 of the atmosphere, and then I burn through the two-tank liquid rocket getting up to orbital height. Then I have scant fuel left to make my manuever burns to try and get on anything approaching a Mun-intercept path (which I should really be calculating out to determine the exact launch window, but like I started with....can't pre-plan the flight path). 


This game is making me feel stupid. And this is from someone that actually understands orbital mechanics.

Out of curiosity, what's the highest speed you tend to reach in atmosphere?

[Chiefwaffles]

I tend to build my rocket with four "main" stages. The first one is a set of solid boosters to increase altitude for a bit, then the second is the atmospheric liquid rockets, forgetting into orbit. The third stage is for transfers, orbital maneuvering, etc., while the fourth one usually remains with the payload and is used for minor adjustments to the orbit.

[RedKing]

Yeah, I think I realized that terminal velocity was the root of my problems. No matter how many boosters I stick on, it's not going to make it go faster, just hotter. *doh*


Progress! Made my first Mun flyby with a probe. Close enough to do some science and beam back the results. And then it's off into uncharted space...

Now that I'm figuring out how to use the manuever points, it's going far better. I just need to redesign with more fuel for orbital manuevering and less wasted fuel getting out of atmosphere.

[Leonon]

Stock KSP doesn't really limit air speed very well. You can add as many solid boosters as you want if you have something (like a strut, girder, or nose cone) attached to them to dissipate the heat they produce.

When in the atmosphere try to keep your G force between 1 and two, towards the top of the green bar on the right side of the navball. This should keep the losses from drag and the losses from gravity about the same.

My liquid engine launch path for stock KSP is to go straight up until 8KM and VERY slowly turn to the east, you want to hit 45 degrees at 20KM and 5 degrees at 40KM. when you hit 5 degrees keep pointed there until your apoapsis is 80 to 100KM. Then coast to your apoapsis and circularize.

The Engineer mod is great for showing your apoapsis, periapsis, and other orbital stats at a glance.

Mechjeb can automate most of your piloting if you want, it can't really handle wobbly rockets though.

Both of those mods will calculate your delta-V stats in the vehicle assembly building for you, so you know more or less how far your rocket can go.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Can you play this at all without a joystick?

You can use a joystick?

[Graknorke]

Can you play this at all without a joystick?

You can use a joystick?

Who left the flux capacitor turned on?