Looking for help with children's mission

[Gunmetal Casserole]

Any parents / teachers that can recommend a mission for two children 11 and 9 years old? I'm going to teach them the basics of building and launching and orbiting/navigation, and I'll show them how to do a Mun landing.  After that, I want to give them a more challenging mission ...  I told them that if they succeed on the more challenging mission, as a reward I'll take them over to the east coast of Florida to watch a rocket launch. 

The goal is for them to have fun while learning about rocketry.  The mission has to be challenging, but age appropriate and not too difficult.  I'm a friend of the family, and have more of an honorary uncle role than a parent, so I'm not familiar with the learning capabilities of that age group.  I'm hoping that some parents here can give me some good ideas.  Should it be landing on a more challenging planet like Eve?  Simple rendezvous in Kerbal orbit?  Please feel free to include any thoughts on using cheats like unlimited fuel. 

Thanks in advance for any help!

[DoctorDavinci]

Just sit them at the game after you have shown them the basics and let them go to town

I introduced my nephew to KSP (10 yrs old) a couple years ago and after showing him the basics it didn't take him long to figure out how to get to the mun and back

Good luck

[putnamto]

Would say that after teaching them the mun duna is the next logical step. 

But the skill gap is so big it's like teaching someone to ride a bike,  then expecting them to ride a harley

[HvP]

I think the next step after landing on the Mun would be to see if they can land a second ship right next to the first one.

A mission like that has a couple of advantages.

1) If you can land on the Mun once, you can do it twice. So you know that the main thrust (haha) of the challenge isn't something that's too hard for them.

2) They are building incrementally upon established skills. It allows them to refine a skill that they already know; and further adds a new layer of complexity - making sure that they can do it deliberately at a target chosen in advance.

3) It is a skill that is required for future missions: i.e. rescue missions, building surface bases, completing survey contracts, etc...

4) It forces a person to learn how to read the navball to maneuver towards a target, and really understand what effect on your trajectory each of those directional inputs has (even in reverse.)

5) It takes practice. While you might get somewhere in the ballpark the first time, there's always room for improvement. And sticking a pin-point landing is nearly as rewarding as landing for the first time.

Edited December 28, 2019 by HvP

[noname_hero]

I really like HvP's idea of landing a ship next to another one.

However, something inside me feels they should first learn to come back home, so maybe you could challange them to return to Kerbin and land within a viewing distance of KSC.

Or, if you feel they'd rather try something else, create a mission to rescue a Kerbal on a retrograde orbit, maybe from a bit eccentric one to boot if you think they could manage that too.

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Make an SSTO. Then land it on the Ksc runway. If you play Ksp then yknow how hard it is. Am I being a bit mean

[Fierce Wolf]

1) Land on Minmus poles

2) Land on Ike (with some explaining on launch windows)

3) Land on Gilly

[QF9E]

Maybe you can use your example as a setup for their mission? E.g., you land on the Mun as an example, but it is their job to bring the crew back home. And you have given the lander sufficient fuel to get back into Munar orbit but no more than that. So now they will either have to figure out how to land a second ship next to your lander, or how to do a rendez-vous and docking. 

 

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Why not the ready made scenarios in the game? Seems feasible for me

[kspnerd122]

i got into ksp when i was 10 the next step i feel should be eve(easier to land stuff on)