How to get to the Mun (or Minmus) in 1.0 demo?

[SiriusRocketry]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forums, and as of now I only have the 1.0 demo. Could anyone tell me how to get to Mun or Minmus (rocket build, maneuvers etc.) 

[weissel]

Well, half of the fun is to try yourself.  But in the interest of not carrying needless coal to Newcastle:

• What have you managed to do already?
• Have you managed to launch, fly and recover any rocket, even if you only got a couple 100m up?
• Have you managed leaving the atmosphere?
• Have you managed to orbit Kerbin?  And to return?  Safely?
• Do you struggle getting enough dV to get to Mun?
• Do you struggle to arrive at the moon, even though you have the dV?
• Have you managed Munar flybys?  Have you managed Munar orbits?
• Have you managed crashing into the Mun (unkerballed, obviously)?  Have you managed a soft landing?
• Have you managed to return to Kerbin's surface from a Munar flyby or orbit?
• Have you found a free return trajectory?
• Have you managed intercepting and docking 2 spacecrafts or spacecraft-station to each other?

And now --- can you ask more specific questions, focussing on the bit you have problems with right now, detailing what your overall goal is (e.g. getting to orbit), how you try to get there (I strap lots and lots boosters onto my vessel), what happens (My boosters go all twisting every way and all goes BOOM) and *not* just asking "My boosters go ever which way and BOOM, how can I make my boosters to be stable" --- "fewer boosters" may be the correct answer, not "make them stable", because of even if you get them stable, other problems will rear their heads (like overspeeding).

So ... where did you get stuck, trying what, resulting in ... ?  Pics can be really helpful, too.

[Vanamonde]

Thread moved to Gameplay Questions, since it's seeking help rather than offering it. 

[klesh]

Watch a youtube video, theres oddles of them.  

[weissel]

On 04/06/2017 at 7:00 PM, klesh said:

Watch a youtube video, theres oddles of them.  

And they may spoiler a lot of things. Often it's more fun to find out yourself than just aping someone. And maybe a pointer in the right direction is all that is needed. 

As an example, in Children of a Dead Earth, a space combat sim much closer to reality than KSP, you can design and edit ship modules. Like the reactor that gives you power. So one guy opened a (copy of a) stock reactor template for editing … and pretty soon decided he really needed to know (roughly, I guess) how a real reactor works (since that is what is modelled) to be effective with tweaking everything. It's noted in his review. 

[klesh]

There is no story, so other than the potential location of some anomalies or easter eggs, there's nothing to spoil.  His question was not "teach me to appreciate half of the fun of the game" it was "tell me how to get to the mun/minmus." 

Thats been asked and answered so many millions of times, the easiest thing to do is search the forums for a tutorial or watch one of the thousands of youtube videos which explain exactly what he's looking for.  It'd be faster than one of us typing out all the instructions for this guy.

[Wanderfound]

However, for the sake of being helpful:

1) Build a rocket.

2) Launch into a 100km x 100km equatorial orbit.

3) Wait until you see the Munrise.

4) Burn prograde until your apoapsis reaches the height of the Mun's orbit.

5) You should now encounter the Mun's SOI once you get close to it.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Wanderfound

[Streetwind]

Does the demo include the tutorial scenarios? Those might help, too.

[Freshmeat]

The demo hampers your part inventory severely. I tried to do it, and found that I could only make a flyby, not a landing. The trick is to side attach more fuel tanks and engines so you can drop the entire bottom as a single spent stage. Get to Kerbal orbit by turning slowly sideways shortly after you start, keeping more or less within the prograde circle. After that, follow what @Wanderfound said. Mind that it will take some practice, I can get to the Mun in my sleep in stock, but the lack of parts in the demo make it a real engineering challenge.

[The Flying Kerbal]

Hey, a question I can actually answer!!!

First welcome to the wonderful world of KSP, and I hope you have as much fun (and frustration) playing this amazing game as I have!

The basic problem in the Demo is the lack of parts, but a little bit of careful planning and you can do round trips to both Kerbin's moons and even put our little green heroes into solar orbit and get them back home safely.

My problem when I was where you now find yourself, was that I was thinking too much along the lines of Apollo Saturn V type rockets with stages built on top of stages.  That works if you have increasingly more powerful engines to use on the lower stages, just adding more of the same type of engines can take you so far, but finally the weight overwhelms the amount of available thrust and you won't get off the pad.  It was a genuine flash of inspiration when it suddenly dawned on me that rather than heaping stages up on top of each other, I could add extra liquid boosters to the sides!  Now instead of carrying a large number of engines that couldn't be used until lower stages were jettisoned, I could use a much greater number to get the rocket off the ground and into space.  There was still one engine tucked away in an upper stage (to be used for TMI) and one in the actual spacecraft which I'm not including here, but with nine blasting away at full power on lift off, that wasn't an issue.  Once this proved to be a really successful design, the whole of the Kerbin system was opened up to me.

Since then I've started playing the full game more than the Demo, but I still play it, usually on a Sunday night when I want to fly/blow things up without getting into a serious session in KSP 1.2 as I have to get up for work the next morning.  However my absolutely favourite mission to date is STILL one carried out in the Demo.  A kinda similar to the Soviet plan to land man on the moon, I sent Jeb, Val and Bob out in a three Kerballed spacecraft, with a separate lander attached, to put the first footsteps on the surface of Minmus.  It worked because I could get away with using only RCS to propel the lander, so I saved a lot of weight by not needing engines and their associated fuel tanks.  I never got a similar mission to work for Mun (although I do still try), because an engine is needed to land on it, and I can't make LKO with sufficient Delta V to perform a TMI burn.  If you click on my profile you'll be able to say Val at the bottom of the ladder on the RCS powered lander, as she became the first Kerbal to set foot on Minmus!

So you really can do this, and once you pull it off once, you'll have no problems repeating the missions in more innovative and imaginative ways.

Above all else though... HAVE FUN (and wear a crash helmet)!!

Edited June 6, 2017 by The Flying Kerbal

[The Flying Kerbal]

3 hours ago, Freshmeat said:

The trick is to side attach more fuel tanks and engines so you can drop the entire bottom as a single spent stage.

Isn't it funny how different people tackle the same problem in so many different ways.

There's you for example, hammering away with one big stage which you drop when the entire thing is drained, whereas I have a load of boosters connected up in an asparagus arrangement with bits showering down on the poor sods below like confetti!

Still, as long as they all work, that's all that matters!

[Freshmeat]

IIRC you don't have radial decouplers in the demo. That is what my advice is based on.

[The Flying Kerbal]

I think they are there, under the construction tab alongside the stack decouplers.

[weissel]

22 hours ago, klesh said:

There is no story, so other than the potential location of some anomalies or easter eggs, there's nothing to spoil.

I see. A walkthrough for an adventure or puzzle game cannot spoil anything if you just don't mention the story. 

And yes, KSP has a puzzle aspect. A large one …

[Spricigo]

2 hours ago, weissel said:

I see. A walkthrough for an adventure or puzzle game cannot spoil anything if you just don't mention the story. 

And yes, KSP has a puzzle aspect. A large one …

I suppose the OP asked for help after getting enough fun not figuring out alone how to accomplish his goals.

Either way, he is the one to decide what is fun in his game.

 

@SiriusRocketry The manoeuvring part is pretty standard: launch to space, burn prograde at moonrise until you AP reach Moon Orbit (should get a encounter at this point) refine it for a low Mun Pe, ....

The problem its the limitations in parts available in demo, launchpad restrictions and VAB restrictions. so you need to try to take any opportunity to make it more efficient. Everything is a luxury you should try to avoid. Winglets? Luxury! Decouplers? Luxury! Getting into LKO before burning to the mun? Luxury! Multiple tries? Luxury , mandatory.

 

[SiriusRocketry]

Sorry if I haven't made myself clear, most tutorials either don't tell me what to build. My problem is delta-V, I just can't get to Mun injection orbit and land without losing all of my dV. Thanks for the tips on side-mounted boosters Freshmeat and The Flying Kerbal- will defo use that!

[Reactordrone]

Don't feel too bad about not getting to the Mun in the demo. It is much, much harder to do in the demo than it is in the full game. Lack of control parts and only having the reliant liquid fuel engine and 1 tonne fuel tanks really hampers efficiency and the awful 1.0.0 drag model will try to kill you when you reenter.

 

Having said that, it is possible. It took a few attempts but I managed to land on the Mun and return safely this afternoon. single pod, 1 reliant engine and 7x 1 tonne fuel tanks on the lander and a 2 stage rocket to get it almost into Kerbin orbit. Lots of RCS and reaction wheels to try to keep it pointing in the right direction on the way up.

[The Flying Kerbal]

It took me several months of trying to get to Mun, but once you pull it off, your friends will be laughing at the stupid grin you'll be wearing all over your face! 

Edited June 7, 2017 by The Flying Kerbal

[Alshain]

This tutorial will get you started toward Minmus. The rest is the same as getting to the Mun.

 

[weissel]

On 07/06/2017 at 11:05 PM, The Flying Kerbal said:

It took me several months of trying to get to Mun, but once you pull it off, your friends will be laughing at the stupid grin you'll be wearing all over your face! 

 

On 06/06/2017 at 11:34 PM, Spricigo said:

I suppose the OP asked for help after getting enough fun not figuring out alone how to accomplish his goals.

 

See, now telling him how to get one step further towards his goal (so he gets that grin) is unlike "watch YouTube tutorials".

I'll be posting a "how to design" (using the demo to go to the Mun as material) later today. 

[Pecan]

Let's break the tradition of the thread and actually help, shall we?

Landing on Mun with only demo parts is a fair challenge.  Despite the opinions here there aren't many people I know of that have published designs that can do it.

In this old thread: 

Most of the 'solutions' don't work and/or don't use just demo components.
See my post almost at the end of the thread.
Unlike the OP in that one I hope you read the "I wouldn't bother if I were you" comment on the first launch vehicle - my preference would probably be for the third variant.
If you have any questions please don't wait 5 months to ask them (as he did).

PS: I think I'll have another go as well :-)

Edited June 10, 2017 by Pecan

[PrathamK]

I had lots of time with Demo 1.0 before Full Version, Its very hard to get in Kerbin Orbit, Mun is quite easy.

In tutorials, Launching, is a Rocket with 6 tank core with 2 tank upper stage, with 2 stages of Radial Solid Boosters, build the same rocket shown in Demo, but you will be required to launch a probe only, pack plenty of EC with panels and RW. Get in (with smooth hands) to Kerbin Orbit its hardiest in all the way up, Get the core (Once I did so) into Orbit or Upper one. Place a maneuver and execute it, set limiter to 10 or even 2 for finest burns. 

My many tries to Mun failed as I didn't knew anything about Maneuvers.

My first probe accidentally crashed the mun, so check and wrap,

2nd probe, with fine burns, reached 500×500, later 100×100 and last 50×50 KM orbit later I got it in a Polar Orbit. 

3rd probe, I Forgot to deploy Panels and lost control, had a Flyby.

4th, 5th, 6th probe failed while launching, it was wobbling Violently.

7th, no I got the Full Version, and had Demo Deleted, Only 1 impacted (better, reached surface) 1orbited.

 

[weissel]

later

Edited July 9, 2017 by weissel

[Chel]

Just to let you know, if you haven't known this already, only Kerbin, the Mun, and the Sun (Kerbol), are in the Demo version.