Travisfv

137 Hours until my first docking. Up until then anything had to be a mission all its own and I was perfectly happy with that. Then I decided I need to learn this. I have to be able to dock or my game will become a needless mess of challenges. So I put a Apollo style CSM up there with tons of everything needed, orbiting at 150KM. Then took my laptop out and loaded up a Scott Manley tutorial, rolled up my sleeves, and got to work. About two hours later (after learning how to fiddle with the nodes correctly), I was within 500 meters of the ship. Not even 5 minutes later I was docked. I literally jumped up with excitement. I haven't played a game that made me jump up in excitement in years. Within two weeks I added another 50 hours to KSP. Built a space station and built an Apollo style mission (which was totally successful, whoduhthunk having plenty of spare fuel would be a good thing?). Now, docking is my favorite part of the game. Can't live without it. (Should note that it took only 5 minutes because of time warp and me allowing the ship to move very slowly, was very lucky I didn't smash into the station. And Scott Manley is a damn good instructor.)

I too am finding that a small rocket can do just as much as a big rocket, perhaps more. All my rockets have been big ungainly things, that either spin out of control or tear themselves apart without the addition of a superstructure holding the whole thing together. Literally, all my big rockets have gains beams coming out of the them with a ton of struts to stabilize. You know what I find really helpful with big rockets? Flight engineer of some type. Something that tells you TWR and D-V. Sometimes adding more rockets slows the whole thing to the point where you lose Delta-V and TWR. And you'll find engine you used to put in upper stages were no good, so you switch to something more compatible. And you may not need 6 Mainsails around the center rocket. You could get away with skippers, conserving fuel and not putting so much stress on a joint and twice their thrust will.

This is going to be great for me. I took a lot of time since the last update to learn so much. My first interplanetary successful mission, learning how to travel interplanetary, piecing together a Mun Station and Mun Base (previously only attempted a station around Kerbin). I've learned more in the last update than I ever had since I bought the game.

"Failure is one of many options!"- Gene Kerman

Did anyone think to bring snacks down to the surface?

The Mun is still my all time favorite destination. Always fills me with desire to see us go back there, and I want to know what it felt like for people sitting there in 1969, watching Neil Armstrong step off the LEM. God I love this game

Oh, you've got me all wrong. I line the school children up outside the vegetable farms. All Kerbal's know that destroying precious snacks (such as bacon) is a punishable offense with a heavy sentence... becoming a Kerbonaut.

I do what any self respecting Kerbal would do. Aim and launch them at school-children.

Whenever an update comes out I uninstall and remove all mods and go back to stock for a while. I used to create a new save just about every other day. This current save I have now I've had for a couple weeks now. It's got real satellites everywhere with Kethane refining at the Mun. I've learned the most from this save, but when the time comes, I'll be able to put it all to practice again when .21 comes out.

So if I include what you're saying, here is a new outline. 1. Launch to Orbit. 2.Transfer Crew and move to Mun Orbit. 3. Refuel at Mun Station. 4. Move to Interplanetary. 5. Return, circularize around Kerbin. 6. Refuel and change out crews. 7. Move to Mun orbit. 8. Top off at Mun with Kethane. Repeat 4-8. So how is this for a general setup?

This is going to take a long time to set-up all the operations, but once I get going I will let you guys know if it works. This is will be my first interplanetary mission, so I'm hoping that it goes right.

Well, what I want to do is for the ship to operate solely from Mun orbit. When it returns it will aerobrake around Kerbin and return to the Mun station. This ship is never meant to land ever again, and it will be reused for multiple missions. That way I never have to launch it from the ground again. And if what you say is true for using it at as logistics hub with harvesting Kethane from the Mun, then it seems like it would be even better for this task because it will be easier to refuel the station and the ship without travelling to Kerbin's orbit and docking with that station. The only launch from Kerbin will be for crew changes and for a payload changed, which could be done in one launch.

Now this may seem like a dumb idea, but I'd really like to know from the people who truly understand this game. I want to build a space station as a launch platform for interplanetary missions, but I want it to orbit the Mun. What I'm looking for is if there are any advantages or disadvantages as compared to using Kerbin as the launching place. I know the Mun's SOI is smaller, and it takes much less Delta V to break orbit, but could I use that combined with a slingshot around Kerbin as a fuel efficient way of traveling to another planet? Also, what is a good amount of Delta V to carry with me to another planet? And the right TWR? I've been very much inspired by another post to build a ship that will make multiple trips, and I'm really looking to make it as easy as possible on myself. Up until now my interplanetary missions have been....non existent? I've put probes on other planets, but I'm still waiting to achieve my biggest goal. Put a Kerbal on another planet, then bring him home.

This is quite an interesting idea Boris. I've never considered building a ship that was entirely reusable. I have the station in orbit with a huge fuel tank for refueling. Reliable launch vehicles to change out crews and top off the tanks. Now I feel I should attempt to build a ship capable of being reused for multiple interplanetary missions. Thank you. haha

Well I don't think you're using the word clutch correctly, but here goes. My most umm... "clutch"... moment was my last takeoff from Minmus. I forgot to move the ascent stage below the descent stage on my lander. Loaded up Jeb and Bill, pressed space, and was quite shocked. The poodle engine was rocketing me off to interplanetary space. I managed through some quick maneuvering to keep flipping from prograde to retrograde. It eventually fell off and I regained control. Luckly Minmus doesn't have much gravity to fight off, so I circularized, switched to the command module, and got home easy.

Made my first truly successful interplanetary probe. All previous attempts had kinda failed in some way like relying on RCS to kill the last bit of orbit. Also, Landed my first ever rover on the Mun, and it's delivery vehicle then took off and made a polar orbit, keeping a direct LOS to Kerbin at all times, and once every thirty minutes it does a direct fly-over of the rovers location. And the itself is exploring the Mun's north pole. Does anyone know if it can maintain constant power from that location? Or if there is anywhere it could remain in sunlight?

Well I'm not entirely skilled enough to go to other planets, and I love missions to the Mun so much and building space stations that I focus on that entirely aside from probes that I launch to other planets every once and a while. I tried one manned mission to Jool and they blew up because I aerobroke too low. And I landed a doomed mission on Duna just to do it. My next mission will be a series of missions, with which I will try to get coverage of all major areas with satellites and maintain a constant line of site to the KSC. Then rebuild my space station (got rid of mods again). Then build a colony on the Mun and probably a space station in orbit of the Mun for refueling and have a specific lander that ferries Kerbals to and from the surface. I figure that saves weight on subsequent flights who will only need to bring enough fuel to rendezvous with the station and then return to Kerbin. Does anybody know an easy way to get close to a specific LZ? I know I can get one down there, I'm just afraid my follow up missions won't make it close enough. Also, my current strategy for landings on the Mun is to just kill all horizontal movement when I'm high above the surface and let gravity center me. ASAS with a few burns to slow the landing and thats it.