[Minimum and maximum altitude for Earth orbit]

Hi KSP colleagues,

I have these two questions, please:

• What is the minimum altitude necessary to enter orbit around Earth?
• What is the maximum altitude possible to remain in orbit around Earth?

Thank you.

Stanley

[Number of fins for a rocket]

Hi KSP colleagues,

I thank all of you for your instructive answers.

Stanley

[Number of fins for a rocket]

Hi KSP colleagues,

All other things being equal, how many fins should a rocket have -- two, three, four, or how many?

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

[Once I get more acquainted with Kerbal Space Program, I will turn my attention to KerbalEDU]

Hi @Klapaucius,

Thank you for this information.

Stanley

[How to determine the orbital period]

Thank you so much, @Zhetaan.  I will go through your post line by line.

Hi @Zhetaan,

Nice algebra work.  That helped me a lot.

One thing I didn't know was whether the Universal Gravitational Constant applied to Kerbol -- but why shouldn't it after all.

Thanks again.

Stanley

[From the specifications, how do you determine a powerful rocket?]

Thank you, @GoSlash27.  Very helpful.

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Hi @Zhetaan,

Wow!  Let me look at this fascinating site in detail.

Thank you.

Stanley

[How to determine the orbital period]

Hi KSP colleagues,

Perhaps I should be able to figure this out, but I cannot.  I would please like to determine the orbital period for a spacecraft orbiting a celestial body given a certain altitude.

For example, if I were orbiting Mun at 100 km given a certain eccentricity, how long would that orbit take?  From the formula used to determine that, I suppose it would be quite straightforward to determine the orbital period if the orbit were circular instead of elliptical.  I also suppose I could then go backwards and find out the altitude needed to achieve an orbital period of, say, three hours.

I went to Wikipedia under "orbital period," but I don't know how to translate the information for the Kerbol system.  Here is the link for the Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_period

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Hi @Rhomphaia,

Excellent information!  Thank you so much.

Stanley

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Hi @AlpacaMallor anyone else,

OK.  I just loaded a Probodobodyne OKTO2 inside of an Orbital Mammoth MK5, which I downloaded a few days ago from KerbalX.com.  I guess I installed the OKTO2 correctly -- right below the command module, but inside the rocket body.

I have now lifted off from the Kerbin Space Center, and I am in orbit around Kerbin.  I have a good, strong signal to the Communications Network.  At this point, therefore, I should be able to use KerbNet, right?

I would appreciate it very much if some knowledgeable KSP colleague could please tell me what I should do to use KerbNet.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Hi @AlpacaMall.

Thank you for the answer.

Stanley

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Hi KSP colleagues,

I would please like to follow up with information in the post above by @OrdinaryKerman.  That post mentions other Kerbin-based tracking stations like Baikerbanur, Crater Rim, North Station One, Mesa South, and Nye Island.

I would like to see the location of those places on Kerbin.  I am sure that you could fly over them in a rover or some kind of aircraft.  Just to get the lay of the land, however, is there some way to view at least their location -- and perhaps zoom in closer -- by some mechanism like Google Earth.  What I am asking, I guess, is this:  Does the stock KSP game have a built-in feature that offers the functionality of Google Earth?

Thank you.

Stanley

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Thank you, @Blaarkies.  I see it.

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

11 hours ago, OrdinaryKerman said:

When directly connected to a DSN station, you can see what station you're connected to in Map View's info tab

Hi @OrdinaryKerman,

I am trying to find the information about the station to which I am connected.

First, when you say the Map View's info tab, that means the letter 'I' that I see on the right side of the Map View, is that correct?

So I clicked that, and here is the information that I see:

• Spacecraft's name
• Its classification with some additional information
• Sphere of influence under which I am flying
• Situation
• Flight time
• Velocity
• Altitude
• Craft stats

But I don't see anything pertaining to the station to which I am connected.

Could you please be so kind as to explain what I am doing wrong.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Thanks again, @OrdinaryKerman.

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Thank you, @OrdinaryKerman.  That explains it nicely.  However, I need to ask, what does "DSN" mean?  I cannot find that in the KSP wiki.  It must be something like Direct Satellite [then what]?

["First hop" in a Communications Network]

Hi KSP colleagues,

I have three spacecraft in a Munar orbit.  I am in the Tracking Station, and at this moment, all three satellites can communicate with Kerbin.  When I cycle through the CommNet Visualization options, I see the following:

• None (obvious meaning)
• First Hop (one line)
• Path (the same one line, as near as I can tell)
• Vessel Links (and here I see several lines going from Kerbin to any particular spacecraft -- so I guess that each one of those lines on Kerbin indicates a tracking post to a craft)
• Network (where I see several lines going to all craft)

If I may, could someone kindly answer these two questions:  What does First Hop mean, and how does it differ from Path?

I looked at the KSP wiki, but I cannot find the answer to my questions.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

[How do I move a spacecraft on an orbit about 70 ° counterclockwise?]

Hi @The Azizand anyone else,

Thank you.  I did what you said, and that worked beautifully.

Stanley

[How do I move a spacecraft on an orbit about 70 ° counterclockwise?]

Thank you, @The Aziz.  I will work on what you say.

[How do I move a spacecraft on an orbit about 70 ° counterclockwise?]

Hi KSP colleagues,

Please look at the screenshot below, if you would be so kind:

You can see the icons for three spacecraft along three different Munar orbits.  All three orbits have more or less the same characteristics -- they are fairly circular with very small inclination with respect to each other as they go around Mun.

That's good.  The problem is that I would like the three craft to be equally spaced around Mun -- in other words, each one spaced about 120 ° apart from the other.  The two spacecraft on the bottom of the picture more or less meet that criterion.  However, the third one -- the one on the right side at about position 80 ° -- does not.  It should be at 0 ° (that is, right on top).

Please, could someone tell me how to accomplish that without changing the shape or the inclination of its orbit.  All I want to accomplish is change the location of the spacecraft on the very same orbit.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

[As liftoff proceeds, the desired inclination of your rocket equals the lattitude from which you are lifting off.]

Thank you, @K^2.  This is impressively involved, but I'll see if I can work my way through it.

[As liftoff proceeds, the desired inclination of your rocket equals the lattitude from which you are lifting off.]

Thank you again, @cubinator.  Very helpful.

[As liftoff proceeds, the desired inclination of your rocket equals the lattitude from which you are lifting off.]

Thank you, @RCgothic.

Thank you, @Rhomphaia.

[As liftoff proceeds, the desired inclination of your rocket equals the lattitude from which you are lifting off.]

Hi @cubinator,

Thank you so very much!  That picture was so helpful, you have no idea.

If you don't mind, I am going to press my luck and hope that I don't overtax your good will.  Would you kindly produce one more picture, this time of a rocket's orbital trajectory as it lifts off from somewhere well south of the equator -- let's say in South America, or Cape Town, or Australia.  (I assume that it will head towards the northeast.)

Incidentally, the following  paragraph and its representation on your picture was additionally helpful

43 minutes ago, cubinator said:

The spaceship launches from the Cape and heads due east. It enters orbit where the red curve finishes.... You can see that this plane is inclined relative to the equator.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

[As liftoff proceeds, the desired inclination of your rocket equals the lattitude from which you are lifting off.]

Hi @K^2 or anyone else,

Wow!  I am getting overwhelmed.  I didn't realize how much I didn't know.

May I please ask you this?  Let's say that a rocket were lifting off from Kennedy Space Center, which is at roughly 28 degrees North latitude.  Could you kindly show on a map or on Google Earth or on something what one complete orbit around Earth would look like?

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley