SRV Ron

If you do your first two missions by placing a pod on the launch pad and runway and doing an EVA, you will collect more then enough science to unlock the tech for a proper Mun or Minmus flyby, even landing and return, while carrying Goo Pods.

Build this rocket with thrust tweaked to 45% and fuel to 35% and fulfill the first launch and 5000 meter contract. Be sure to land in the water to get full recovery of parts. Next, add more fuel and do the 11,000 meter contract. This simple design will even do the 33,000 contract. Add a second stage, add Goo canasters and do the suborbital one. Even at the Hard level, work a step at a time, be careful what you spend research on when unlocking parts, and you will have more then enough funds to progress in your space program.

I am not only using sepatrons to keep SRBs from bumping into the core of the ship, I tweak the fuel in them so they only provide just enough thrust to do the job required.

Sounds like the realm of the Krackin, where everything goes haywire. In this example, the probe exploded upon reloading and resulted in this.

Getting a transfer window at launch and using a Hoffman Transfer burn from Kerbal orbit will take slightly more Delta v then doing an escape from Kerbal orbit, not much more then getting a Minmus encounter. It will take about as much delta v to get the Duna encounter from a Kerbal escape parking orbit as it does to escape Kerbal itself. It make take a Kerbal year or two for that intercept window to show up. Otherwise, with massive amounts of delta V, you can try a direct approach. Doing an aerobraking on Duna will aid getting you into orbit or direct to a landing using very little additional delta v. Go in at a shallow angle so you don't smash into the surface or end up with an unplanned landing. Aerobraking is very critical as to what altitude you aim for so save using F5 before executing the maneuver.

As you figure out how the navball works, you will find that it is an essential aid to use for landing on airless worlds. With it, you will be able to see just what your ship is doing as it comes in for landing. You use the WSAD keys to tilt the ship in response to what shows on the retrograde marker in order to cancel drift. That is far easier then trying to cancel drift by observing what the ship is doing in exterior view which will result in you tipping over just about every time. With using the Navball and the radar altimeter in the interior view, you can safely land at night on any fairly level surface. In the example below, if you can get the drift that low while almost hovering, you will land safely even on a fairly steep slope. While Mun is harder to land on due to its uneven surface, the same method for landing applies. Get the drift as low as possible and touch down gently.

It appears to be a function of total mass that hits it. This test design does nothing if I stage the SRBs to shower down on the complex like a cluster of individual bombs. However, If I allow it to crash without staging the cluster of SRBs, the results are mass destruction.

Some ways to make a wider ship. This one uses radical decouplers. This one has three side mounted fuel cans; Some use radical mounted girders. Whatever method used, keep in mind that Mun is far from level and that any sideway drift, unless in the direction of the slope, is likely to tip you over.

Certainly, you can land with some very big and expensive ships and return. This three stage mod using SRBs landed six Kerbals on Minmus; Or, Build a simple design using the single pod and the mission will be a lot cheaper and easier.

Ox Stat panels, Stayputnik, battery, and a Too Hot thermometer are a must for the Mun Minmus contract since transmitting science will fulfill the contract requirements. Learn how to fly that, land on Mun and Minmus, and place back into orbit for additional free money in future contracts. Then, build a manned lander and send Jeb for surface samples. With careful flying, you can send Jeb to Mun and Minmus with Goo canisters for a flyby and return to get the science points needed to unlock the required parts. Doing testing contracts will give you more Science and money as well. The pod will give you plenty of power for that mission so long as you don't transmit anything. Example career lander.

For now, build simple. Start out with simple sub orbital SRB rockets keeping in mind that you can right click on them in the VAB, tweak their output, and test fly to see what they will do. Build on the success of those early flights to expand your experience, science points and money if playing career. Learn what the stock stuff does for now. When you are ready to play with mods, create a separate copy of KSP and play with the mods there. Some simple designs that will get you well started in career. (Note SRB tewaked to 45% thrust. It becomes the upper stage of the two stage design where the lower one is tweaked to 80% thrust. This will fly to 200,000+ meters without the Goo containers.) This will go to 35,000 meters when properly tweaked. Up to 200,000 meters; Land both in the water if you wish to recover the SRB under the pod. Here are two orbiter designs capable of a Mun flyby. I suggest that you build the one on the left in early career as it is the cheapest of the two designs. The design on the right can be modified later in Career for manned Mun landing and return.

It is a bug that has popped up in 025 that is driving all of us crazy especially when playing Career where those EVAs are needed to accumulate a lot of science points early on. Even more so when you maneuver Jeb back to the ladder and he goes flying away when you hit the F key for him to grab the ladder. Try and get him in front of the hatch so he can go inside.

Tested a Career Manned Mun lander design. Prior missions and contract testing has unlocked a set of parts needed to make a highly efficient lander for both Mun and Minmus. Testing indicated that the third stage could be reduced in size which made the second stage efficient enough to complete the Mun intercept burn. Third stage will easily have enough fuel left to take care of landing until it is staged at the last second to land on the lander legs of stage four. The SRBs are tweaked to 90% power. Separtrons were added and tweaked to stop a bumping issue that while not damaging, is annoying. The rocket At booster burnout. The tweaked separatrons rotate the SRBs away just enough to clear. In Orbit Mun insertion complete. If I use all the second stage fuel, I got the figure eight return.

Most definitely an annoying bug especially if you are doing a suborbital flight. Even more annoying is when he gets flung away when you hit the F key to grab. The bug has already been reported.

Testing contracts are best handled by 100% recoverable test ships that you have control over the rocket to reach the test requirements. If not, combine the test with a specific mission to get the most bang for the bucks invested. If you accept escape testing, combine several of those contracts together or be sure that you have fuel left to reverse course for recovery. Only accept contracts that offer returns that will offset the investment such as unlocking a useful part early to give you an edge on performing an exploration contract, lots of science, etc...

Sometimes the GUI gets confused as to where to place the node. It either can't find the path, or may get the wrong one. I have even had maneuver modes that vanish but register as already being in place. Both are a pain to resolve and may involve reverting to a save to fix the issue.

Both versions are downloaded but only the 32 bit version is enabled by Steam. To enable the 64 bit version, just create a shortcut for the KSP_x64.exe and move it to your desktop. Either version will use the same data and save folders KSP does not require Steam to run. It is highly recommend that you copy the entire game to another location and use it for modding and other experiments and keep the Steam copy stock for future automatic updates. Just create shortcuts to the KSP.exe from the new location for the program to run from there.

A picture of the rocket would help. Also, some designs will swap ends if going fast in the lower atmosphere, or if they are turned too fast in the lower atmosphere. Example, the one on the left flies stable. The one on the right will swap ends after being staged without the fins. Note the payload that causes this issue.

With even less, you can do an orbit of Mun and Minmus and gather enough science in order to unlock the tech for a lander.

Sure, I could have done the moon contracts far sooner with a less capable and much more expensive manned mission before unlocking the Stayputnik, OxStat panels and the Too Hot thermometer. The orbital mission was done as soon as I had the LV-909. But the examples posted are the most cost efficient way to go when every Kerbalbuck counts. The Mun and Minmus landers are then placed back into orbit to fulfill future data in orbit contracts for no additional cost.

One problem on hard mode, is in the bug report, Jeb keeps falling off the pod on EVA which causes issues with getting science from EVA reports. It is nearly impossible for him to get back inside as every time you maneuver him back to the pod door, he flies away when you hit the F key to grab. Anyhow, I have finally advanced far enough the tech tree only unlocking those parts necessary for the contract mission to the moons and planets. Did only one manned orbit of Mun to get a bunch of science with the rest on testing contracts. The low cost orbiters and landers in use. (could remove one SRB and use a smaller fuel can on the third stage to cut cost further.) Cheap orbiter Mun, Minmus Lander. From 24.4 Career. Modified designs will go to Duna, Ike, and Eve. A slightly beefier design will land Jeb to gather surface samples for return.

Likewise and even more annoying when you have Jeb grab the ladder and he gets flung away. Makes EVA reports nearly impossible. Thought that maybe this was a product of hard mode but given the problems others are having maybe not. Wonder if the lander cans and three man pod also have this problem.

Current hard mode Career cheap contract rocket. Contract orbiter; Contract to Mun or Minmus On its way; Unlocked tech for the ideal lander; Just an addition of two more SRBs and a larger third stage tank, parachutes, and this will do the Duna, Ike, and Eve contract. Take advantage of direct intercept and aerobraking to have plenty of fuel left for orbital insertion.

Steam updates automatically. From there I will copy the folder to a new location and rename it to the version updated and run that. The Steam copy remains untouched since older game saves can end up broken in newer versions. A second copy is used for modded game play. Those using the store version may have a delay updating for several days due to heavy server usage. Just be patient. The Steam version is on the desktop with the store version on the laptop. Both are identical. Steam is not required to run the copy.

Just to add an note, the update reset my graphic settings to default. I had to reset the screen display back to native 1680x1050 full screen and turn up the details.