CkGordon

So I just had my first successful interplanetary journey. I got in an orbit around Eve, mapped it with ISA MapSat, then dropped from orbit and parachuted my 3 Kerbal lander to the surface. My first excited Kerbal that I chose to be the lucky first ever Kerbal steps on another planet climbed out of the lander, down the ladder, steps off... and explodes. WTF? That must have been a glitch or something. Ok. Second Kerbal climbs out, jumps towards the purple ground, POOF! I now have one Kerbal alone in his 3 Kerbal pod afraid to leave. Is this a bug or something? Has this happened to anybody else? My lander doesn't have engines it's just a pod with legs and an extended ladder (wasn't planning a return trip since it's Eve) so I can't move it. Is there something wrong with the ground on Eve? Like is it made of purple lava or something? WTF is going on?

Do you only need parachutes for Eve to slow down enough to land a lander on it? Or a combination of a parachute and some small engine? If all I had was a parachute would it break into pieces, explode, or tip over once I touched the ground? Also you're probably right I should make a quick mission to Minmus and back just for the practice and knowledge that I can. Wow that's WAY smaller than the beast I was designing lol! I was trying to bring as much fuel as possible without making myself too heavy to take off because otherwise I just KNOW I'll manage to run out of gas and crash into the sun or something... Isn't that the autopilot mod? I like the challenge of flying myself and want to practice so I can get good at it.

And it still flies better than some of my legitimate rocket attempts!

Wow 6m? How'd you pull that off with the PE and AP moving all over the place? I usually call it good enough once im within a few hundred meters. Call me lazy! Congrats!

So I have the next couple days off from work and wanted to do something amazing. I've landed on the Mun a few times and was thinking about Minmus but not only does it look intimidating with all of its hills but I think I'm ready to take it to the next level and place feet on the surface of another world, not just a moon. I'm at a toss up between Duna and Eve at the moment. Duna looks kind of fun but everytime I look at Eve I'm memorized by its beauty. I guess it comes down to which one is easiest to reach and land on without complex math or mods (currently playing vanilla except for ISA MapSat)? Which one takes the least amount of fuel to just "wing it" and is the easiest to intercept and land on? Also can anybody offer up any helpful tips and suggestions that a noob like me should know before exploding out of my atmosphere and rocketing towards my first interplanetary voyage? I have no problems with making it a 1 way trip atleast until my skills have advanced enough to rescue them at a future date and my kerbalnauts know the risk. Plus, only the crazies will still climb on my rockets after all the explosions...

Quick Question: Will this work without a command pod? Like what I mean is say I build a rocket where the first stage gets it to orbit, the 2nd stage is the orbit adjustment stage, and the 3rd stage is the capsule with an engine to de-orbit and return to kerbin. If I attach the map sat to the 2nd stage and discard it from the capsule and leave it in an orbit as "debris" will it continue to map? Or do I need to leave some Kerbals orbiting with it?

I just wanted to take the time to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to pebble_garden for getting a noob like me on the right track. I had no idea how the ball thing worked when I started playing (the in game tutorial was very brief) and as such my Mun attempts were "point rocket at moon, full speed ahead. Looks kinda close. Point away. Full speed away. Out of fuel... shi-- *EXPLODE*". I watched all of your videos and followed along step by step and even took notes (they're still sitting on my desk for reference) and now after actually making a couple successful Mun landings and getting some junk into orbit I feel much more accomplished and am now enjoying the game immensely with ambitious plans to establish a Mun base, map the moons and planets, land on Duna and more! And it's all thanks to your amazing tutorials that put these technical concepts into idiot speak that the average non rocket scientist casual player can easily absorb and utilize. You deserve a medal! Take pride in the fact that if plaques were added to the game I would put a big shiny one with your name on it on my Mun!

I'm a little devestated. I got this game this morning and spent my entire day off fascinated. My first rocket attempts were hilarious failures full of huge explosions. Eventually i managed a successful flight and landing. Shortly after, my first taste of space as I finally send an astronaut to orbit and safely return him. Not long after that I had perfected a rocket that could actually leave Kerbins influence! That brave soul still floats in deep space but will always be remembered as a hero for science! Tonight I took it to the next level. I built a landing capsule, fitted it to a rocket, timed my launch to intersect the moon, and blasted off into space. As I approached I kept fine tuning my trajectory over and over and finally the blue line went right through the Mun on my map. I spent the last of my second stage fuel perfecting the meeting and decoupled. I then spun my lander around and started slowing down as I approached the lunar surface. I managed to get 2 screenshots of this momentous event as I prepared to touch down hoping to exit my space capsule victorious but then the unthinkable happened. I ran out of fuel and was still going too fast. At about 900m/s I smashed into the lunar surface and watched in horror as all that hard work went up in a huge explosion. Has anyone else had failure after coming so close to success? What could I do different next time? I cant really pack more fuel on my lander or the ladder wont reach the ground. Also what is the max speed you can touch down and survive?