Hi, newbie from Scotland

[jarhaaje]

Hi,   I'm a pretty new player from Scotland.  I've been playing on my own for about a month now and love the game but still manage to scream at my screen at least twice a night, which is a vast improvement from when i started.  Got a couple of, i think, simple questions and one i suspect will need me to get a degree in astrophysics to understand which at 49 worries me :-)

1. how do i keep my satellites pointed at the ground?

2. How do i get a synchronos orbit and.........

3. How do i get to other planets as, lovely as the Mun, Iontopia and Minmus are i yearn to explore wider?

I did cheat a little and download mecjeb via ckan as a youtube tutorial suggested but can't seem to activate it, do you need something specific on your spacecraft?

Sorry that's four questions from the million or so i want/need to ask

Thanks in advance

[Vanamonde]

I have been playing for 5 years and scream at my screen daily. 

1. There is no way to do this in the stock game, though unlike real life, orientation doesn't matter for communications. 

2. There is an altitude for each body. Simply orbit at that height. They are listed on the wiki, but keep in mind that some KSP bodies are so small that their synchronous orbits would be outside the SOI, and so that is not possible in the game. 

3. There are several guides in the Gameplay and Tutorials section, such as this oldie-but-goodie. 

Don't use Mechjeb and so can't help you with that one. 

Anyway, welcome to the forum.

[James Kerman]

Greetings @jarhaaje and welcome to the forums.  3 years of screaming for me.

I don't use mechjeb either but have you read the mechjeb manual?

Good luck on your interplanetary voyage and don't worry about asking questions - "There is no such thing as a stupid question.  There are only stupid people who don't ask them."

[nobodyhasthis2]

2 hours ago, jarhaaje said:

1. how do i keep my satellites pointed at the ground?

It does not matter as communications will automatically link up if in range. Exception is when playing with the remote tech mod. More on that if you are.

2 hours ago, jarhaaje said:

I did cheat a little and download mecjeb via ckan as a youtube tutorial suggested but can't seem to activate it, do you need something specific on your spacecraft?

At default settings in career mode. Mech jeb functions are unlocked as part of tech tree progression so you will not see everying at the start of a career game. You will also need to have the mechjeb part attached to your rocket in order to use the interface during flight.

In sandbox games. Just add the the mech jeb part as eveything works from the start.

 

[Delay]

13 hours ago, jarhaaje said:

how do i keep my satellites pointed at the ground?

You don't need to do that. They will work regardless of orientation. But if you want to do that: Probe cores more advanced than the OCTO or Stayputnik can hold prograde and retrograde, but it will stop turning as soon as you leave the vessel.

13 hours ago, jarhaaje said:

How do i get a synchronos orbit and.........

Synchronous need a apoapsis and a periapsis that have a semi major axis of 2,863,394m. So if you know one of them, you can calculate the other as 2SMA=Ap+Pe, therefore Ap/Pe= 2SMA-Pe/Ap.

13 hours ago, jarhaaje said:

How do i get to other planets as, lovely as the Mun, Iontopia and Minmus are i yearn to explore wider?

I assume you talk about transfer/launch windows? For the Mun, you can start burning 45-90° ahead of the Mun's current position. For Minmus, I simple keep burning until I get my encounter, to be honest.

And if you want to get to a different planet: There are online calculators that give you angles.

For Kerbin-Duna, wait until Duna is slightly behind Kerbin's tangent. For Kerbin-Eve, wait until Eve's tangent points at  Kerbin.

 

Oh, and of course, Welcome to the forums.

[jarhaaje]

Thanks everyone for the replies and the welcome, hopefully you'll keep that attitude after my millionth question :-). Handy to know about comms not being effected by orientation, it was more for the SCAN missions, i put a satellite in orbit to scan Kerbin, 75% is required but half the time it is pointing into space rather than at the planet! Thanks for the links to the help, i'm going in now to check them out.  Perhaps that will cut my questions down a couple.

BTW love the game, i scream at the screen then normally burst out laughing as it's something incredibly stupid i've done.  Truly great game when you can fly to the Mun, get all the science, get back to Kerbin, slow your descent and then forget to switch off the engine before separating and burn up, then "happily" start again!

[Delay]

Here's another tip: When doing long burns with probes in LKO, like burning to the Mun, make sure that you'll have connection until the end of your burn!

There's nothing more frustrating than losing the ability to shut down your engines and slowly seeing the fuel decrease all the way to 0.

Edited November 11, 2017 by Delay

[Mrcarrot]

On 11/9/2017 at 3:39 PM, jarhaaje said:

do you need something specific on your spacecraft?

Yes. Go to the command and Control section, find "MechJeb2(AR202)" or something like that.

Welcome!

[SamBelanger]

Welcome! @jarhaaje 

[NSEP]

Welcome!

1. There is a mod called Presistent Rotation, that allows spacecraft to spin during timewarp.

3. You can try playing around with manouvre nodes. While in orbit around Kerbin, go to the map view, and add a manouvre node. Pull the prograde icon forwards untill the apoapsis is on the orbit of the Mun (make sure its 90 degrees ahead of its current position). And kabwam! You have an encounter with the Mun! Thats a first step, im not going to explain orbit and landing since it might take up alot of my time.