Sir_Robert

This is my first mission away from Kerbin. I don't have a base yet. It was supposed to be apollo style touch down and go home Man, I am going to have to completely rethink this from the ground up aren't I? Maybe I'll delay the whole mission and send some probes ahead to setup a habitat on Ike

Actually you don't even need a decoupler. Just attach the nose cone directly to the docking port. You can right click the port and decouple the nose cone when in space

Don't know what you miss till it's gone I guess

Yea I might just have to go full MKS anyway. My initial goal was to send 3 Kerbals. At the very least I need a scientists and a pilot (well I 'could' just send a scientist and a probe body, but I don't want to just leave Bob with noone to talk to for 2,5 years)

So I have a few questions regarding how long supplies last. (using MKS lite) I am currently planning my first mission to Duna with Life support installed, and besides the 'holy crap I am going to need a lot', I found that the Life Support Status window in the VAB doesn't account for recyclers or supplies production (nom-o-matic in my case. Would it be possible to include something like this, to help with planning how much supplies you need. Unless of course I'm missing something again, but I haven't been able to find some guides about this life support like there is on the MKS. PS: Holy crap I need a lot of Hitchhiker cans for the habitat requirements. Does that get better? Like is there something more efficient later down the line?

We send a probe to Pluto, and that one spent 10 years en route. A few more years to get out to planet 9 won't be much extra

You are also ignoring the amount of fuel it costs to get those Nuke engines out to Duna in the first place. That would have been significantly less with Terriers

Well there's your problem. Turning like that not only means you can't get to orbit because you can't finalize your orbit fast enough, but turning to sharply like that is a guaranteed way to flip your rocket. You need a sideways speed of 2 kilometres per second to be in orbit. If you don't get started on that early on, you'll never get it A gravity turn starts turning very early, and turns very slowly. Go watch Scott Manley's tutorial (from the very first reply to your question) to explain how to do it

Please describe your process of getting to orbit, and we will tell you what to improve, because if that is a thing that's happening, something is VERY wrong with what you are doing

It's a small engine. Your upper stage is small. It doesn't NEED that much thrust. And he never said anything about it being a high thrust engine. He said it's a very efficient engine. Which it is. Which is way more important

ONLY for ships that are heavy. If your engine makes up 50% of your ships mass, you are doing it wrong. Contrary to popular belief, nukes are definitely not always the best

You really should. It's super easy

On short term jobs, Terrier all the way. On very long term jobs where you aim to refuel a ship multiple times, go LV Nerv. If you want more thrust, a cluster of these engines

No, you can't transmit data to different stations. You can only use those stations/satellites as relays. But the data will always end up in Kerbin. The only way to get experiment data to a mobile processing lab is to physically deliver it The yellow line is not a question to ask here. Go to the mod thread for that

Possible, yes. Easy, no Way easier to launch it through the game. Once you did that, it is a ship listed as existing in the safe file. At this point, you can swap it with any other ship (by editing the safe file. Find the data for the 2 ships, and swap the orbit info), or just use HyperEdit to put it where you want it Still easier to just put the craft in your VAB, and launch it in game. And use Alt+F12 (cheat menu) to give yourself the funds needed to launch it

That happens automatically with AR. Unless you have a Communotron 88 on your rover for some reason of course, instead of the more sensible short range whip antenna. No reason to send it to the satellite when you are in range of Kerbin yourself

Sounds very feasible. The addition of the mining operations is going to save some effort. For example, you could probably refuel your transfer stage to go home (if you have the means to transport fuel to orbit). You also won't have to worry about having enough fuel on your lander for a side excursion if you are going to mine new fuel. Of course, you'll need to ship the mining equipment, but once it has arrived, it will be very useful. As for the pod returning to Kerbin, that is indeed the easiest solution. Just remember to bring a big heatshield

First of all: Check a DeltaV map As you can see, getting to Duna is actually surprisingly cheap. The gravity is .3G. Mun gravity is .16, so half that of Duna. As a lander, I would advise a 2 stage lander, in the likes of the Apollo program (also, don't land the entire rocket like you can on the Mun). Build your rocket in steps. First the ascent stage of the lander. Note how heavy this is, now build a lander capable of landing this. Note how heavy this contraption is, now build a stage capable of getting all that back to Kerbin. Note how heavy that is, now build a stage capable of getting all that to Duna (don't forget something that can come back home with Kerbin Reentry. So put a heatshield on your command pod.) Note that the transfer numbers are based on optimal numbers. So transfer windows. There are several helpful tools to help you with this. MJ can automatically plot a transfer for you, but there are also web based calculators that do the same thing, but leave you to plot the actual manouver (they just tell you when and in what direction). And don't forget Ike. If you're there, you might as well visit Ike (this can be a really tiny lander)

Yes, don't be afraid to make big jumps in timewarp. Otherwise you'll be forever stuck in the Kerbin system. You could do a lifetime of spacetravel in the Kerbin system before you get a single rocket to another planet if you don't timewarp (and that's a good way to get bored)

Actually Sparks are less efficient than Terriers

Yes, currently the only way for you to get fuel is to bring it from Kerbin. Eventually you will be able to mine it on the Mun and ship from there, but that's late game stuff. As for the pictures: Both are massively overbuild. Get rid of the Solid boosters, they aren't needed (especially the upper stage ones. A good rule of thumb is to only use SRBs in the first stage), and only make it harder to steer. That is probably the reason you are flipping, to much thrust while you can't steer For your early attempts at getting to orbit: Do NOT bring heavy science. It adds weight that makes it harder to get to orbit. Try getting comfortable with a small rocket before you add payload. Cut the upper stage fuel tank in half, and add that fuel to the lower stage. This alone will improve your deltaV, since you don't have to carry the mass from that extra fueltank with you (ditching useless mass as early as possible is a good tip for optimizing your rockets. Each kg you add costs you deltaV). I see your upper stage engine is a Swivel or a Reliant. Ditch it and replace it with the lighter Terrier. It is powerfull enough for such an upper stage, and again, less mass (thus more deltaV). So in short, a few easy tips: Keep your upper stage small, add the fuel to the lower stages instead. Try to minimize weight: Use the smallest engine that is still powerful enough

You are not the only space agency out there. You just happen to be the only capable one

It used to be possible to just tell Steam to stop updating a game. Now they just force updates on you.

My contract descriptions include a list of 'acceptable parts' whenever there is a demand for specific parts. That uses the real name. Though I have several mods that mess with contracts, so it's possible that those are responsible? I haven't actually seen the incoherent mess that is stock contract descriptions in a long time

The thing is that 'to much torque' is surprisingly little. A simple early game orbiter (MK1 pod, fuel tank, engine) has WAY to much torque for directional SAS, and goes completely nuts when I ask it to hold retrograde during re-entry. Only the other hand, it's rock steady during normal SAS. Same problem with an early game Mun lander, which is the one thing it'd actually be useful for (pod, science, tank, engine, legs)