How do you progress your Space Program?

[Kerbal007]

Hi all, I am looking for some feedback/insight/Ideas to steal regarding how you progress through your space program?

I personally stick with Science mode as Career is just too PITA hard for me. Usually I start by exploring Kerbin a little but let's face it, its about launching rockets  

I started with a few unmanned probes around Kerbin, the Mun & Minmus. Next I sent manned missions to orbit, landed some probes and followed that up with manned landings. As of last night I deployed a space station and now I am at writers block.. where to take my space program? Probes to duna ? Keep developing my station and harvesting science from the moons ?.. Who's creative enough to share some scenarios with me  It is a real shame that mission planning is not available in science mode. 

[overkill13]

If you've never been to any of the other planets before, then going to them is key.  They all offer a different challenge.  Duna has a thin atmosphere which allows easy aerocapture/braking, but try the same technique on Eve and you are gonna have a bad time, so tweaking the design/entry procedure is a must.  Eve, on the other hand, is extremely difficult to return from.  The Jool system allows for my favorite technique, gravity capture with Tylo, plus jet engines on Laythe and the much loved Jool 5, planning one mission to visit all the bodies in Jool orbit.  Dres doesn't exist, Moho has the Mohole and Eeloo is way far out with a problematic inclination and none have atmosphere so you need to plan capture burns and the required fuel.  Playing with gravity assists is on my plate at the moment since I've never bothered before.  For me it's all about planning the missions and designing the craft and how each is a different monster to tackle.

I'm not much for creativity, and not a big fan of the science lab functionality, so in career or science mode once I've done a few landings on Mun and Minmus, it's time to head to Duna and Eve with probes.  I tend to be well ahead of the transfer window for Duna, so I like to overbuild my probe (by a lot, 6000+ Delta-v from LKO vs normal 2500ish) and send it early, launch into an orbit closer to the sun and then pop back out to Duna.  

Finally, just for practice's sake, try transferring a ship/probe from Mun directly to Minmus.  Useful for my fuel mining program and good practice for interplanetary transfer as the moons act like planets and Kerbin acts like the sun on a smaller scale.

[Geonovast]

10 hours ago, Kerbal007 said:

It is a real shame that mission planning is not available in science mode. 

You could always start a career mode, cheat yourself enough money to upgrade the facilities and to never worry about having enough cash for your rockets, then just use the contracts as mission ideas with no care as to payout.

[Tonka Crash]

10 hours ago, Kerbal007 said:

... now I am at writers block.. where to take my space program?

This is why I dropped the science mode and switched to a career. It will at least keep throwing tasks at you to keep you busy. You can also look at mods to expand the tech tree if you use a lot of mods. It will at least force you to gather more science to unlock parts.

I bought KSP at the end of May, played sandbox until I could get to orbit but didn't really know what to do from there. I tried science mode to add some goals and lost interest when I finished off the stock tech tree without ever leaving Kerbin SOI and barely exploring Minmus (3 weeks). My first career (4 weeks) I was a learning experience to figure out what I did and didn't like about career and to experiment with mods. When I had settled on a list of mods I liked I started the career game I'm on now.

[Mahnarch]

Failing all the above; have you tried going 'Full Danny'?

[Kerbal007]

6 hours ago, Mahnarch said:

Failing all the above; have you tried going 'Full Danny'?

Full Danny?

9 hours ago, Geonovast said:

You could always start a career mode, cheat yourself enough money to upgrade the facilities and to never worry about having enough cash for your rockets, then just use the contracts as mission ideas with no care as to payout.

This could be a good idea to work with 

11 hours ago, overkill13 said:

If you've never been to any of the other planets before, then going to them is key.  They all offer a different challenge.  Duna has a thin atmosphere which allows easy aerocapture/braking, but try the same technique on Eve and you are gonna have a bad time, so tweaking the design/entry procedure is a must.  Eve, on the other hand, is extremely difficult to return from.  The Jool system allows for my favorite technique, gravity capture with Tylo, plus jet engines on Laythe and the much loved Jool 5, planning one mission to visit all the bodies in Jool orbit.  Dres doesn't exist, Moho has the Mohole and Eeloo is way far out with a problematic inclination and none have atmosphere so you need to plan capture burns and the required fuel.  Playing with gravity assists is on my plate at the moment since I've never bothered before.  For me it's all about planning the missions and designing the craft and how each is a different monster to tackle.

I'm not much for creativity, and not a big fan of the science lab functionality, so in career or science mode once I've done a few landings on Mun and Minmus, it's time to head to Duna and Eve with probes.  I tend to be well ahead of the transfer window for Duna, so I like to overbuild my probe (by a lot, 6000+ Delta-v from LKO vs normal 2500ish) and send it early, launch into an orbit closer to the sun and then pop back out to Duna.  

Finally, just for practice's sake, try transferring a ship/probe from Mun directly to Minmus.  Useful for my fuel mining program and good practice for interplanetary transfer as the moons act like planets and Kerbin acts like the sun on a smaller scale.

Thanks for this feed back, I will digest it all and get back to you

[Kerbal007]

After some thought I have come up with a plan of attack based loosely on the real time lines.

Kerbals achieve atmospheric flight
Sounding Rockets (Sub-orbital Flights) Begin returning data
Early Satellites
    - 1st Kerbin Scientific data
    - 2nd Orbit of Kerbin
    - 3rd Photo of Kerbin
    - 4th Probe to hit the Mun and survive
    - 5th Photo of the far-side of Mun
    - 6th Interplanetary Probe
    - 7th Communication Satellite
    - 8th Deep Space photographs & Flyby of Duna
    - 9th Soft-landing on the Mun and the transmission of photographs
    - 10th Recon for potential manned Mun landing locations
    - 11th 1st Flyby of Moho

The Space Age
    - Orbit of Minmus and basic science
    - Photo of Minmus
    - 1st Successful Manned Landing on the Mun
    - 1st Rover on Mun/Minmus???
    - Kerbins First Space Station
    - 1st Successful Probe landing on another Planet

I don't see myself as a creative person which is funny considering I love this game

[Xd the great]

9 hours ago, Kerbal007 said:

Full Danny?

Danny 2462. He is a legend who trolls ksp so hard and exploits every bug.

[Zhetaan]

On ‎9‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 2:16 AM, Kerbal007 said:

After some thought I have come up with a plan of attack based loosely on the real time lines.

[snip]

    - 11th 1st Flyby of Moho

Did you mean Moho or Minmus?

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 9:55 AM, overkill13 said:

Dres doesn't exist

Then visiting it anyway is the pinnacle achievement of the game.

 

Anyway, in the interests of sincere advice, @Kerbal007, I will offer that your main concern is that you're not thinking about a big enough goal.  You've decided to follow something that approximates actual history:  I invite you to consider how, historically, these sorts of missions were planned.

As a case in point, consider that President Kennedy committed the United States to landing a man on the Moon (and returning him safely to Earth) before the end of the decade.  At the time he made the announcement, the only manned space mission that the country had completed was Alan Shepard's suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7.  From that point on, everything--especially everything Gemini and Apollo--was directed to achieve that goal.

There were unmanned test rockets.  They learned how to rendezvous and dock in space.  They figured out how EVAs work.  They tested the manned modules in Earth orbit.  They tested them again in lunar orbit.  Then they finally landed on the Moon, and the landed missions grew more complex, as well.  Take a look if you're interested in some of the different mission types.

My point is to say that you can do things like this quite readily in KSP; you have an entire solar system to play with.  Let's imagine, for example, that you want to fly a circumnavigating aeroplane around Duna.  Call it a D-Prize if it strikes your fancy.  Flight on Duna is possible but it's not at all like flight on Kerbin.  To make that happen, you'll need to run an entire battery of tests, get the science needed to unlock the right plane parts, figure out your engines, fuel, and general mission parameters, design something that can fly in Duna's atmosphere--which may involve taking unmanned test gliders just to see which ones work--and let's not forget to provide means for those doing the piloting to return to Kerbin.

And, of course, that's just from the one planet, and includes neither the design of the surface-to-orbit delivery rockets and interplanetary transfer rockets that you'll need, nor the skills to fly them correctly.

Have fun.

Edited September 15, 2018 by Zhetaan