Xiphos

I would like to humbly request for the default throttle to be reset to 0%. Jet engines and other small VTOL craft need to roll the throttle on from 0% smoothly. My point is the optimum throttle position for all craft is not 50% at start. I also believe the basis that new players get stuck with figuring out the throttle is largely unfounded. Unless there is a large thread somewhere about it that I haven't seen then I apologize. When I started playing this game in v0.18 I had no problem with the throttle.

I would send a probe to the mun with some science equipment to find out what the gravity is relative to kerbin. Then design your lander accordingly. I believe the 'hack gravity' option sets the gravity to null.

This is why all my rovers still use the 'landing gear' wheels. I have the front ones set to raise, allowing standard rover wheels to make contact when sharp turns need to be made. Also no wheels currently can haul as much a$$ as these can. heh.

When you first enter the SOI of Eve, do all of your inclination/aerobrake there. With just your eyeball you can get pretty close to horizontal. Also, at this point it should cost very little Dv to do so....

Be careful setting up an encounter 'behind' the orbit of the mun, because the gravity of the mun can slingshot you into solar orbit very easily. Especially if you accidentally time warp through the encounter....*cough* I speak from experience.

haha! I was trying to find that one to add to the post! Glad you did!

Well, that *could* work, but it would be very tiresome. Here's a link to a webpage someone made and posted to the forums a while ago. http://ksp.olex.biz/ Get a protractor and put it up to the screen. I have a clear one so it works pretty well. Good luck!

Here's how I made my first duna return craft. First I built a craft that can lift off kerbin and make low kerbin orbit. (Since I knew duna was similar to kerbin, but didn't have as dense of an atmosphere, I knew(hoped) I would have fuel left over for the transfer burn back to kerbin) This craft should have small fuel tanks and small engines, use asparagus staging, and have a one man capsule. If you create a craft that can do that, you will have plenty of fuel to take off from duna and return to kerbin. That is your landing and return stage. Second, you must build your transfer stage. This stage can be smaller than expected, maybe 4 small engines and a medium tank. Thirdly, you must build a lift-off stage to get the entire thing into LKO. This will require some experimentation, but I'm sure you'll get it. Also, you should know how to aerobrake when you arrive at duna and use F5 to quicksave to get the perfect maneuver. Even when you enter the landing sequence of your mission, it's easy to hit the wrong parachute or the structure of your craft could fail, etc, so use F5 and F9 to reload. Another trick I learned is when you first enter the SOI of another planet, put a node down and drag the blue circle so your Pe drops to the desired altitude above the planet. At this point in time, it should cost you VERY little Dv to do this. Your Pe now should be at your desired aerobraking altitude.

Just don't use timewarp or the part will 'ghost' right through your ship!

I still think the average user pc isn't powerful enough to run the game smoothly as it is. Adding a game engine that supports a much much higher level of detail and physics will just hurt current users more than help. I hope in the future people will realize consoles are terrible and invest their hard earned money into a machine that can do more than just run a disk. (sadly more people just want to buy something 'out of the box' than build it themselves) I like your thought process here but it will never happen for KSP.

If you need a video example, click the link in my sig. I show you how to fly a ship to orbit and where to turn, what to do, etc.

I know how you feel, In my career mode, jeb is in solar orbit from accidental mun slingshot when I warped past it by accident. Ooops. Anyway, to answer your original question, make sure you are canceling your relative velocity to your OWN retrograde marker, not the targets retrograde marker. (The green one with the X inside) If you try and cancel relative velocity by burning to the target retrograde, you'll never reach the target. I have made a docking tutorial back in .19, link in my sig if you're interested. Even though it's a earlier version of the game, the basic principles apply. I wish you luck in your missions!

Launch to the east (because you get a free speed boost from the rotation of kerbin). Do your rendezvous with the mun as normal. When you first enter the SOI of the mun, set a maneuver node down and change your inclination there. At this point it should be very cheap (Low DeltaV maneuver.) Hope this helps.

Does anyone use the skipper engine for interplanetary transfers? Since it came out, I haven't used a NERVA since. I made a ship that went to jool, and used a skipper to transfer. (Skipper used equivalent of an orange tank, +- a few hundred L I don't remember 100%) lander and return portion of the ship equaled an orange tank.

I think a station in high kerbin orbit will be the most useful. That way, your ships going there won't always have to make an inclination change. Especially if their destination is to a planet that is on the same inclination as kerbin. Since you will be visiting it a lot, the simpler you can make the rendezvous, the easer you make it on yourself, and the mission as a whole. (All my stations are usually 300km above the surface or whichever altitude allows 1000x warp) EDIT: Ooops, I didn't see the above post from the OP. Gratz on your decision, and be sure to post up some pics of your station when completed!