SRV Ron

From the Kerbal school of hard knocks. another post on a similar subject; Two stage stock part rocket to determine the most efficient way to reach Duna orbit with this design. 1. Straight up dawn launch to Duna orbit 2. Launch to 100+k orbit, do an escape burn, do the Duna intercept burn. (Most people use this method to achieve interplanetary intercept.) 3. Launch to 100+k orbit, then do an escape to direct Duna intercept. The rocket used has a stock capsule, parachute, decoupler, FL-T800 fuel can, LV-N engine, decoupler. Booster stage is a single Orange fuel can and Skipper engine. Ox Stat solar panels were added to keep the capsule battery charged. The results. 1. A straight up burn at dawn to Duna intercept left 162 units of fuel left in the FL-T800 fuel can. 2. From the 100+K orbit, it took about 913 delta V to Kerbal escape, then another 892 delta V to reach Duna intercept for a total of 1,805 delta V. That left 154 units of fuel in the FL-T800 fuel can. 3. From the 100+K orbit to direct Duna intercept only took 1165 delta V leaving 215 units of fuel in the FL-T800 fuel can, a savings of 640 delta V or 61 units of fuel for this design. And, a bit of a surprise that a straight up launch happened to be slightly more efficient then the three step orbit, escape, Duna burn. The most efficient, the one from orbit to Duna intercept.

The following experiment was conducted using the Kerbal Science school of hard knocks with this two stage stock part rocket to determine the most efficient way to reach Duna orbit. 1. Straight up dawn launch to Duna orbit 2. Launch to 100+k orbit, do an escape burn, do the Duna intercept burn. (Most people use this method to achieve interplanetary intercept.) 3. Launch to 100+k orbit, then do an escape to direct Duna intercept. The rocket used has a stock capsule, parachute, decoupler, FL-T800 fuel can, LV-N engine, decoupler. Booster stage is a single Orange fuel can and Skipper engine. Ox Stat solar panels were added to keep the capsule battery charged. The results. 1. A straight up burn to Duna intercept left 162 units of fuel left in the FL-T800 fuel can. 2. From the 100+K orbit, it took about 913 delta V to Kerbal escape, then another 892 delta V to reach Duna intercept for a total of 1,805 delta V. That left 154 units of fuel in the FL-T800 fuel can. 3. From the 100+K orbit to direct Duna intercept only took 1165 delta V leaving 215 units of fuel in the FL-T800 fuel can, a savings of 640 delta V or 61 units of fuel for this design. And, a bit of a surprise that a straight up launch happened to be slightly more efficient then the three step orbit, escape, Duna burn. Most efficient launch to the other planets, go to orbit, wait for an intercept, and launch in a single burn to intercept from orbit.

Five stacked 6 meter tanks, no braces. Kid built no braces. Stack of SRBs, the ones that overheat and blow up easily.

A combination depending on the mission and distance to travel. Heavy payload

The 48-7S is 3/5 the power of the LV-909 with far less weight and better efficiency. It is the best alternative to the far more massive, 2.25 ton, low power but twice as efficient LV-N. Which is beat depends on how much fuel mass is taken along.

Design a ship that can land probes while doing a flyby. That way you can get science from the probes and a ton of it when you return. Take advantage of aerobraking and slingshot maneuvers to get your ship to a flyby and drop probes as needed. This updated player designed payload has eight probes and did a direct flight to Jool aerobraking to orbital capture.

You need not build big, just build efficiency. Example, a 10 part challenge using a rocket with a Skipper engine, orange fuel can, decoupler, LV-N engine, FL-T800 fuel can, decoupler, capsule, parachute, made a one way trip to Eve, Duna, Laythe, and several of the smaller moons around Jool as well as a Voyager escape.

With every maneuver resulting in a curve to the destination due to gravity, you may find that holding prograde on a long burn while in orbit is more efficient then burning the Maneuver Mode marker. Let us know the results of that testing.

Small, inexpensive, can carry scientific instruments, and even land on distant moons. Even real cheap stock SSTO

Are you doing the long burn time with your ship pointed at the Maneuver Mode marker? Point the ship at the prograde marker, start the burn, and keep adjusting your ship as the prograde marker changes with the burn. That will allow you to take full advantage of the Oberth effect. It may take some trial and error to pinpoint the exact time to start the maneuver on the ever changing orbit during a long burn. If you are doing the long burn from solar orbit, the prograde and maneuver mode marker will usually be the same.

The first two stages are the module I saved in sub assemblies. The three pics represent payloads on that orbiter and how their weight affected performance to orbit.

Posting is only showing the build in the VAB. Sounds like you don't have the liquid engines throttled up when you are activating them. Your Nav Ball will show if that is the case or not. SRBs fire regardless of the state of the throttle setting. Otherwise, nothing wrong with your design other then you could replace the LV-30 on the upper stage with an LV-909 once you have it. The design can reach Mun or Minmus and return easily.

Got it down to 23 seconds stock

With a cluster of seven stock short SRBs with Jeb being crushed by G forces; Just a probe core with the same design. Mainsail; I played with a 3.75m Griffin engine from a mod to only shave off one second. Can't shave any more off with single stage to goal.

I can confirm that happening to a ship that was suppose to get a slingshot boost from Mun. It crashed back to Kerbal when the slingshot didn't take place under high warp. You have to watch when sending fleets of ships starting with the first arrival. The others will make the encounter in map mode if you are not using high warp on the one you are controlling. Even then, you will need to set capture maneuvers on each one as they arrive.

Some experiments that actually flew well. And, a kid design that also flew well with a little tweaking.

As far as I know, yes. They have to be matching cards both in model and ram on board. I have two graphic cards on my three year old system. They are tied together with a jumper between cards. They behave as a single card having twice the on board ram. In the case of adding a graphic card when you have one built in the motherboard, the lower performing motherboard card is disabled.

Look for opportunities to use slingshot maneuvers using Jool's moons for getting into higher and lower orbits. That can save you a lot of delta v

Try a rapid right click. It is a programming bug that is allowing close to be detected after opening.

A photo would help us figure what is going on with your ship. Save a screenshot with F1, locate it in the KSP Save folder, convert to jpg, and post on a free account on imgur photo sharing service. Build simple, Smaller efficient designs will go a long way in Career.

Ran into a roadblock with the Oscar B tanks, too much weight. Adding the two extra tanks resulted in no improvement at all. I suspect that the same over weight problem is going to plague the donut tank design not to mention the atmosphere drag factor during early flight. Went back to the FL-T200 design and split them to a pair of FL-T100, about the height of the Oscar B on the side and maintained the launch weight that worked. Success, orbit achieved with fuel to spare.

That's half of the fun with KSP. Designing something by trial and error without the benefits of Kerbal Engineering Mod. Of course, that and Mechjeb makes mundane tasks such as assembling ships and stations in orbit, or bases on other worlds, a lot easier.

Six years old with Vista? Time to replace with a new one. Find an independent shop that can guide you into building a computer customized to your needs. That way, you avoid the big box store pre packaged systems made to a price point and preloaded with tons of CPU and memory wasting crapware.

Career ship, before Skippers, that will reach Eve and Duna easily. With the booster ring, Jool and its moons when taking advantage of aerobraking to achieve capture to orbit. There is still room to add more Delta V with an eight ring booster with four part asparagus. With LV-N unlocked, even more range.

Bob's Craft has stock parts and the probe payload is all stock. The Novapunch upper stage engine has a generator that the LV-909 lacks. Jeb Two is all Novapunch except for the capsule and Goo containers. Have your rocket going straight prior to burnout. The staging ring will slide straight back off. The bracing design results in a very stable launch as it prevents twisting on the radical decouplers that can cause unwanted rotation, pitching, and premature disassembly.