Lesarthois

I landed on Mun, Minmus and got in orbit around Duna with a 1 man capsule; but I still can't put a 3men capsule into orbit. But with a good lauch stage, you can make it to Mun and to Minmus with a single man capsule and a large tank of fuel and get back. But you have to use your lander at the very last seconds when landing on Mun/Minmus to save the most fuel.

Artist LongBlueClaw made this picture : A poor Kerbonaute made a desperate escape from his failing rocket, and watches it crashing on the Mun ground. I post here because he said he wouldn't post it on the forum, but I can. So enjoy!

As were the first French rockets, derivated from German missiles; EOLE, Berenice; Veronique, Vesta the "precious gems" (Agathe, Topaze, Emeraude, Rubis, Saphir, and Diamand). All were part of a military program part of the "strike force"; though they never officially carried any weapon, but scientific experiences. Notable success were the first French/European lauch of living beings in 1961 (Hector the rat being the first one), and the first French satellite, Asterix, in 1965 (making France the third country able to put satellites in orbit). The programs were halted in the 70's when the Europa project became the Ariane project.

For your chutes, you have to get ride of all the stuff under your capsule crew, and wait until the atmosphere slows you down under 200m/s. Then you'll be safe to open your chute

For a Munar and Mimunar mission, your lander is way too big. Tips for the mission is to have a stage with fuel for slowing down on Mun/Minmus, so you use your lander fuel only to slow down and land on the very last meters. For that stage, use the NERVA (nuclear) engines, they have low thrust, but high efficiency. When you start to land on Mun/Minmum, slow down as you get closer; the Mun ground may come to you faster than you expect, and faster than you can slown down. Edit : here are picture of my rocket design : third stage to move into space. Overpowered for Muns travel (I waste a full fuel tank on the munar soil) but good for interplanetary travels. My lander on Mun : 1 large tank fuel, it's enough to get back on Kerbin, even from Minmus (but you might not succeed the first time trying it)

"floating rock of Eve, floating rock of Eve, you are so magickal"

I agree. I do all the taking off/landing stuff manually; orbiting around celestial bodies, etc... But I don't feel like doing the calculation to get to another planet, so, I prefer to let MechJeb doing this (once I'll understand how it works) but, as soon as I'll get in a planet's SOI, I'll go manual again

I left all the pump saying because they don't make much sense if you haven't seen the cartoon

I just though about an old French cartoon, the Shadocks, where the Shadocks, a kind of weird, very stupid birds, try to make a rocket to get to Earth, because their planet is crumbling and falling apart. So I've got some sayings from the Shadocks. Not mines, then, but they sound like KSP.

I meant that for me, until I looked up on Wikipedia, there was only Charon being a Pluto Moon. And so I learned it have 4 more moons orbiting around

So, I was reading some Wikipedia articles about planets (hey, there is new things about them quite often; and the last time I learned about the Solar System in school, Pluto was still the 9th and last planet ) and so I learned that Pluto have 4 more moons! So I imagined, and would like to see in KSP, twin dwarves planets, like Pluto and Charon... With both having their own little moon I'm not sure it's physically possible, but the idea sounds silly enough to me.

Some of mine (very generic, but stick totally to Kerbals) And a little pun : What is the best way to get a successfull Kerbal rocket mission? Putting Jeb in another mission.

Well you can fly a 3man capsule with one men aboard. You just have to send two of your kerbonauts on EVA while you're on the lauchpad. And actually, on Mun, on this particulair case, the legs clipped through the ground; this is why I lost my engine, because it made contact with the Mun ground. I didn't get this bug with latter missions, so.. I dunno what happened really. This design is successful to me, it's just that you really have to learn how to land properly My firs trys were like "bam, smashed Kerbal guys on Mun soil" I know people find it harder, but I found that landing on Minmus was way easier, because you have more chances to react if you go down too fast, or have too much horizontal velocity. And thanks for the link, I'm gonna read that.

Depends on how you like landing your ship. I don't care about taking some time to turn a ship in space, but when I land, my philosophy is "if I'm under 9m/s, it's all good" so if I have some horizontal speed, RCS prevent my rocket to flip down and fail. Especially helpfull because my lander are tall.

Yeah I see what you mean. What you gotta do is to get down as straigth as possible. For Mun and Minmus, around 2000m, you should have the navball centered perfectly. If not, move your rocket and burn retrograde to slow you down and get your rocket centered. Then at this time, you burn so slow you down; depending on if you still have a stage to spend or your lander stage, burn before to slow down. At around 1000 meters, slow down under 50m/s, and keep the gas very low. If you still have a rocket stage, jettison it and watch the distance it'll explode, in case you're over a large mountain or something high. I can't remember if the altimeter count from ground distance or sea level, so especially on Mun, watch the terrain carefully. From there, slow down by either keeping your engine on the lowest burn possible (the ideal would be to get a speed of 5 to 9m/S and keep it stable) or doing little blasts of gas, whatever you fel more comfotable with. If you have RCS gas, turn it on and turn on your ASAS system as well. Unless you're a good pilot or lucky, you'll still have some horizontal velocity, around 2 to 5 m/s. You'll never really land pinpoint. So let your rocket bump on the ground at a speed of less than 10m/s. That's the most important thing. If you're on the side of a hill, try to get some horizontal speed to "climb it up" or you can try to kill any horizontal speed you have and land on the side. It's hard, especailly if you have a tall lander, but it's possible, to a point. And once you're close to the ground, you can see your shadow or you've seen your legs touching the ground, hit X to cut your engine, and if your speed is under 9m/s and the ground flat, you should succeed.

RCS man, RCS. They'll save your day.

Let's hope they'll include a navigation system like MechJeb or the Protractor.

That should be your first step : being able to do a 99% successfull mission to and back from Mun and Minmus. If you can't even set foot on Minmus, I don't think you're able to get to another planet (if you don't use MechJeb or any other mod). I tried to get to other planets, and can't get on any one. I have to learn how to use MechJeb now And also, I'm currectly building 3 men crew rockets. Well my goal is to get to Mun and Minmus then back, before trying to launch one of those in outer space. It's frustrating as hell, but, who said it should be easy?

I you have still some working engines when you go down to Kerbin, try to burn and slow you down before opening the chute. And in any case, do'nt open them at 5000m, it's useless. I open my chutes when I'm around 2000 meters, and my velocity is under 200m/s. It seems that opening chutes at a higher velocity may rip them off, especially if you have an heavy pod.

I know this, but thanks for the tip I just launched another mission to another planet after I did this. I don't have any 3-man pod rocket working at the moment

*note : I'm not an English native speaker, so there is probably a lot of mistakes in this text.* In the early times of the Kerbal Space Program, three brave, and a little stupid, kerbonauts made their way outside the planet's atmosphere. Bill, Bob and Jebediah. Testing various designs, until finally Jebediah landed on Mun. But, as the rocket landed, a Landing Strut sank into Munar sand, making the rocket falling, and breaking the engine. Soon after Bill would land on Minmus and return successfully from it, and Bob get orbiting around the sun and going back as well. Time passed, Jebediah still stranded. In the capsule, he would remain sleeping, for years; as Kerbal physiology allow them to hibernate quite easily. Until a radio signal wake him up; the radio announcing him that a recevery mission was on the way. Kelbus is a little worried. The rocket shake and wobble around him; plus something is wrong with the recovery mission, but he can't tell what. Minmus received many expeditions, but none to the Mun. As if nobody wanted to get on it. Except him. The travel was easy and quite fast. Kelbus never fly a rocket before, but he was doing great. Hours later, he come around the Mun, getting in orbit to spot where Jebediah was stranded. Slowing down, jettisoning the lower stage. The landing almost get catastrophic again, but learning from Jebediah's failure, Kelbus put the RCS on, and everything ended fine. Jebediah get ready to leave his capsule. Once outside, he can rely only on his spacesuit to survive. The recovery mission landed far away, meaning he got to walk a long long way. He walks for hours. He isn't sure of the direction, and his spacesuit radio doesn't work. Despair and exhaustion make him fall many times. But he's not a simple Kerbal. He is Jebediah, the first Kerbal on Mun, and he can't give up. He refuses to give up. And finally, after a long climb on the side of a hill... His savior is next to the rocket, waiting for him. This is when Kelbus realise what is wrong with this recovery mission : there is now, on Mun, two people... for a one-seat rocket. They look at themselves; Kelbus doesn't want to be stranded on Mun, and Jeb refuse to stay any longer on Mun. Jebediah uses his space lights, blinding Kelbus. Before he can react, Jebediah pushes Kelbus as hard as he can, making him bouncing against the ladder, falling on the landing strut then on the ground. Jebediah climb on the ladder. He don't want to think about Kelbus, knocked out on the Mun soil. He want to fly a rocket, in space, going back at home. He sit on the pilot seat, happy as hell. He retract the ladder and pushes the start engine button. The rocket vibrate and slowly take off, Kelbus still on the ground. Jeb pushes the throttle up and get into space, to Kerbin. He's happier than when he first took off Kerbin. His joy rise up as he come closer to Kerbin, the beauty of this little planet revealed to him again after years on a dull grey Munar world. Landing is easy, as he doesn't have to care about landing the rocket again. After being recovered, and a month of rest and walk in Kerbal City, he get back to the Space center. Space call him back; he can't resist it. Plus, he can't let Kelbus stranded on the Mun. So Jebediah take place in the seat again, and pushes that good old "launch" button again. I hope you enjoyed this lil story

I found landing on Minmus easier than on the Mun, thanks to lower gravity. But yeah, you can't do much good when landing on the dark side. I personally have a 6 legged lander. When I land I keep the ASAS on, and I bounce on the ground until it stops me. landing on the side of a collin/small mountain helps a little if you come on the right side.

I use early French rocket design names for my rockets. My test design rockets are named Veronique 1, 2, 3, etc... Once I have working designs, they change names to "precious gems" program, with names like Topaze, Diamand (diamond) Agathe, Rubis, etc... And now that there is planets, names would serves to different objectives. I haven't decided yet, but that would make something like Agathe and Diamand rockets are interplanetary 3 crew rockets, and Rubis and Topaze would be 1 crew rockets.

I left Jeb for 25 years

I would like NOT to rely on mods. I know KSP is in early alpha stage, but seeing how, after not even after two weeks since 0.17 is out, most people have tons of mods make it sounding like "yeah, great game you have, but, there isn't enough for me in." Also, developers MAY behave in the same way and delay many little but interesting things "just because mods add them". I might install rovers and probes mods soon, but before that, I want to know the game anough to get on another planet with a 1 man and 3 men capsules. Stock. No MechJeb, nothing. So, well, I'm not the only one to ask, but I'll like to see probes and rovers. I feel like docking and IVA should happen when the game will be developed enough. I mean, what's the point in docking if you can just, well, dock? IMO docking would become interesting when there will be at least a better way to get on a precise orbit and return to it, and Kerbonauts will be able to interact a little, doing things like conducting experiences, driving a satellite from space station, etc... Of course, everyone would like to see what he's most interesting into ASAP. We have 14 celestial bodies. Let's explore