mrclucks

I'd say that you should burn into the inclination needed from the surface. You might also want to use Eve and/or kerbin for a gravity assist to save even more DV.

Try Duna/Eve/Laythe space program. They are actually mods 771 make the atmosphere weaker. Last time I stopped my rocket on orbit It got burnt up

While I haven't played much and have reverted back to 1.0.5, I would rate it a little less than good. Alot of the reworking that they have done shows very good promise and I look forward to more mods and more stable frame rate. On the flip side. There are a few bugs/glitches that kind of ruined all the hype of what 1.1 seemed like it would be. I am perfectly happy to wait another month or two for 1.1 to get its bugs fixed and for mods to update. 1.0.5 is a pretty good release IMO and the main problem is mostly lag on high part count, with me being used to most of the Minor bugs

Stock, I love the Skipper. Once it's 20km, it doesn't matter if it's roughly .80 twr, the ISP make it worth it to have to go a bit more straight up to keep it from falling down. I also usually use it for civilization burns for kerbin/burn to go interplanetary or to minmus/mun. Modded, I love the single nozzle vacuum engine in spacey. Combined with tweakscale, it almost always beats the terrier and poodle for DV if I scale it appropriately. I know it's cheating, but 1500m/s DV vs 4000m/s DV is hands down no choice, regardless of the extra weight.

I use quick save and quick reload(as well as named save and named reload) religiously. I have used cheats to either; Put a large/unweildy craft into orbit because I was too lazy to build a stage or two to get it into orbit and/or too lazy to have my fps go way down and have to babysit it getting into orbit in half an hour real time, cheat my way through a few hundred DV to safely return a rocket. I use mechjeb to plot simple manuvers that would take me less than 15 seconds . I use mech jeb to execute manuvers (both plotted by MJ and hand plotted) so I can be lazy and muck about on my phone. I use tweakscale and parts mods to get the most efficient engine for any stage, regardless if it's /3.75m stage that I tweak to .675m.

Slightly off topic... After seeing posts on the forum that 1.1 was officially released, I immediately downloaded it as well as mods that were offered on CKAN. After playing around with it for about half an hour, I decided that I did not like how it was operating(even though I was enjoying the new features) and immediately reverted back to my 1.05 save with all the mods(I always save the whole copy of the previous KSP with its mods and save file if I feel like continuing an older version for any reason). I had not tested re-entry, nor have I tested out high part count for its non drop in FPS, however I am familiar with 1.0.5's bugs and how to get around it. I will be waiting a few weeks to officially start playing 1.1 untill more of the bugs have been fixed and more mods have been added. BTW, I have always thought that RV was short for recreation vehicle and used in this forum to designate a craft which had very bad aerodynamics and therefore high drag. It was not untill Bwing's post that I realized it was just short for return vehicle.

I haven't played 1.1 yet but for 1.0.5 your airbrakes give the same drag regardless of where it is. There is no decreased effectiveness untill they're literally not there anymore

They do, which is why I'll have them on when I enter the atmosphere and then turn them off when they start getting hot and back on when they cool down enough. I also use KER which tells me critical temperature of parts which is highly useful. You can typically use airbrakes with minimal heating from 70km to atleast 50km if you're not coming in too hot. You can also try and position them so even when they're deployed, they are still behind the heat shield which will still create drag but keep them safe from most of the heating

When I use them I always use alt click to add another one, even tho I dont like how they look clipping into each other. Try using holding alt and slowly moving the part to get it to green up

This isn't related to your OP but since it was answered, this relates to your other question/comment. After 2nd level radar, can and launch pad, I'll usually upgrade the facility that gives contracts(unsure what the name is right now) so I can accept as many satellite contracts as they will give me. Then I build a rocket with as much DV as I can pack on and go complete them all as efficiently as I can. I find it's the best way to get alot of munies for a small investment.

In 1.0.x there's a bug where sometimes if you're below 1000km from jool then the game thinks your accelerating, and you can only physical time warp. Hopefully it will be fixed for 1.1

For some reason the pictures arent loading, but based upon the posts I will assume you are returning from interplanetary space. As long as your periapsis is below 70km and your have an apoapsis inside kerbins soi you will eventually return to kerbins surface. Keep your periapsis above 50km if your apoapsis is around minmus's orbit. For every entry into the atmosphere your AP will lower considerably and your PE will lower a bit, which will create more drag and lower your AP and PE even more. Even for reentries from minmus, I keep my PE above 30km since 40km or so is when atmosphere starts to thicken considerably and I find that 35km and lower will practically guarantee rentry with that pass(assuming your craft can survive the heat and all the forces. To help your craft slow down, I'd try using airbrakes to help slow down your craft and orient it retrograde.

Have you been accepting reasonable contracts? A good way to make money is to accept lots of satellite contracts and then make small rocket with lots of DV (small rockets are usually cheaper and light, which is cheaper and easier to launch). Make sure that you plan out how you will achieve each orbit and in which order. Always try to make your transactions as efficient as possible

When I was an avid user of remote tech, ID just circulize to roughly the KEO altitude in the wiki( I think it's 2867km) and then use RCS to adjust my orbital to 6hours within a second or two. It didn't matter to me if there was one satellite over KSC at all times, as long as I had the coverage and they stayed roughly 90 degrees from each other. Technically as long as the antennas can communicate, satellites arent in too much of an elliptical orbit, are equidistant apart, and have basically the same period, you will have a solid network for kerbun

It's mostly KSP but I do have a few idle games that I check into and edit as needed. I also play endless sky(was free on steam) when I need a little break from my Kerbals or if I only have half an hour or less to play something

The most profitable way to get cash for ore would be to mine it on kerbins surface, but you still get pennies for your investment and it takes a lot of time

You might want to swap out the mail sail for the slightly weaker 2.5 m engine(name escapes me) for more DV and such. If your twr is 1 or a bit below, then add boosters for an initial kick. If you still need more thrust after that then try adding liquid fuel boosters with reliants on the end. Once you're at 20km or so, a .8 twr is fine.

I typically will use RCS for the final stage. I get pretty good final control and the thrusters are relatively light. I've never thought of using ion engines for probes but they do make alot of sense and the only problem would be power generation/battery life

I discovered KSP December 2014 and I probably have all my gaming time since then dedicated to it, minus about 50 or so hours since then for idle games. I also play games on my phone, but I don't count them since I'll play them for several minutes at a time here or there when I'm not at my computer. Sure sometimes I'll get bored/frustrated with it, but I've never been away from my kerbals for more than a week.

Sometimes I'll just pack on DV and will in fact launch directly away from the planet just to see how my orbit ends up looking. I've gotten a periapsis inside the sun and a kerbol escape more than once and it is pretty satisfying that I can build these absurd rockets which are still aerodynamic and still quite simple

I believe it's 10m by default but I use tweakable everything which allows me to adjust the distance it 'resets' even though I don't actually use it for that. You can also adjust the magnetic pull of the docking ports as well as the force used to decouple and what not BTW with that mod

First of all, welcome to KSP!! Second of all, you should know that all of us were once noobs and couldn't even launch a rocket even remotely straight, so you are encouraged to ask questions about even the most minor things(as long as you try to use the search function to see if your question has been answered before). Delta v, or DV as many people shorten it to, stands for difference in velocity. If you're in a stationary car with 10 miles per gallon and you have 10 gallons of fuel, then you basically have 100 miles of DV if you ignore gravity and friction and all. To translate it to rockets, if you're in orbit around an object going 100 meters per second(m/s) and you have 50 m/s dv, then you can burn all your fuel prograde(the direction you are going in) and go 150 m/s, or burn your fuel retrograde(the opposite direction you're going in) and go 50m/s. The speed you're going changes if you go normal or antinornal(basically North or South) or radial and anti radial( basically rotate the orbit anticlockwise around the point of the burn, or clockwise around the point of burn), but it gets easier to understand and alot more intuitive once you do more burns in space. I highly suggest you go with regex's link to learn more about orbital mechanics. KSP is a hard game with a high learning curve and the fun and satisfaction is from trying this and that to learn what works and what doesn't work. I suggest you install kerbal engineer redux(KER for short) which will give you the total burn time and DV of each stage you build, as well as mechjeb.l that only gives you alot of information, while mechjeb is a mod which will plot and execute burns for you. You can learn alot from mechjeb on how to do many things, however it is not very efficient and by doing manuvers and such by your self will show you different ways to do the manuvers and how to do them more efficiently.

1. Pulling a long rocket is much more stable than pushing a rocket. Don't forget that engines can overheat and burn off parts behind them so watch where they thrust. 2. Testing is under rated. Try and test your crafts to see if they would work in similar conditions. Don't be afraid of using cheats in order to test the crafts easier(IE: infinite fuel plus hack gravity to see how transfer craft will operate, using hyperedit to test) 3. Testing is over rated. Sometimes the best way to learn is by your failures. You learn what works and what doesn't work by trying different things in different conditions. 4. Bigger is not always better. If you can build something that's smaller and has the same functionality and dv, then you can build a smaller rocket to get it to orbit, which is usually easier to get into orbit and can have fewer parts. 5. Try something new. Install a new mod to change how you plan, build, and fly your crafts. Mods like remote tech, TAC LS, FAR and RSS will make you think differently and broaden your view on how the game is played, plus you may like the particular mods and insist on playing with them. 6. If you mod, try going stock and if you play stock, trying modding. You never know if playing a different way will be more fun or make you appreciate KSP more.

As an expirenced player who usually forgoes the math, Starts semi randomly adding tanks and engines untill KER(yes I'm a filthy cheater) starts giving me the DV that looks to be in the right ballpark, and then over engineers each of my stages untill I have ALL OF THE DV!!!!?1!, this is a relatively easy tutorial and I look forward to the rest of it

For minmus re entry I'll usually set PE to 45-50km which brings my AP down below 25Mm and then will pass once more to bring it down to roughly 10Mm or so. At that altitude its less than mun height and I'll lower PE to 30-35km which garentees re-entry in that half orbit or at the very most one or two passes. This is also only when I have minimal fuel, since I'll usually just start burning retro grade when I'm a few degrees away from PE which will greatly lower AP and still lower PE enough that I don't even need to make a pass to safely reenter. I'm also a big fan of airbrakes which turn a 40km PE and 70km AP to a rentry after a pass or two