SRV Ron

Using maneuver mode with a manned capsule, set up an encounter that will bring your Kerbal back into an aerobraking return just in case you miss the orbital insertion burn. That maneuver should look something like this; When returning from the Mun orbit, set up the maneuver to take you directly into a aerobraking maneuver for landing. Anything else will take much more fuel to achieve a safe return. This is the rocket I used for the orbital insertion to Mun and eventual return in Career Mode; For a lander, I would suggest building a probe and practice landing on Minmus in its flat sea before attempting to land on Mun. When good at both, design something to land and return. These are two example of simple returnable landers. There are many other good designs that have been tested and posted. Manned lander; Probe lander. Start learning in the school of Kerbal Hard knocks. Good old trial and error. Test to see what works and what doesn't. Then go for a more efficient design to get the job done. Above all, Have fun and let us know about your success or failures.

They work great for small probe rockets matched with the small Nova Punch fuel tank. This tiny two stage made Mun orbit with fuel to spare.

Start out simple. Build a sub orbital and learn how to fly it. If in career mode, before you have obtained decouplers and the LV-909, build this to get some science points, launch suborbital have Jeb do an EVA but hang on at the edge of space, land in the ocean and recover him and his rocket. Note, you will have to rearrange the staging so the parachute doesn't deploy when you launch. Once you get the needed parts, build two or three stage and do an orbital insertion. Be mindful of power usages. This design will not only reach orbit, with careful maneuvering planning, it can go to Mun and return. From there on and with more parts to work with, go exploring.

It only shows up when writing a post. Once posted, it will not be there unless you go back to edit the post. Of course, one can always disable the spell checking.

Send a probe, not Jeb into the sun. It takes a lot of delta V to get the intercept. At present, the probe will survive until it gets closer then 1,500 meters. Then, Poof!

The ultimate goal of Kerbal space exploration,that can currently be done with mods, will eventually be the ability to establish self sustaining colonies on other worlds and moons. That would give the Kerbals the ability to survive a Kerban extinction event. Those are Ketane mining of fuel, greenhouse pods for food, and eventually mining of other resources to build rockets and expand those colonies on the other worlds.

While in Sandbox, start out simple to build up your experience. The experience will make things easier when you go back to career mode.

Soon as you have the parts, land a probe on Minmus. Then design a rocket that can land and return from Minmus. Once done, go for Mun which is much harder to land on. With experience from landing and return of the probes, adopt the ship for the MK-1 Pod and take Jeb for the ride of his life and a ton of science points. This design will get you to a one way landing on Mun or Minmus. Use the last stage to bring the probe down to under 1000 meters vertical, then finish using thrusters. If you are mindful of drift, which will be indicated by the movement of the retrograde marker on the navball when you slow way down, and counteract it by tilting the probe to match the retro marker, you will not need to use lateral thrusters to stop that drift which can tumble your lander and break off legs.

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Fixed panels will generate no power if parallel to the sunlight. If that is the case, you will have to wait until the ship gets orientated to the sun as it goes around its orbit. Otherwise, distance is figures in as to how much power a panel generates. While turning off SAS helps, probes always draw power. Expect dead batteries until your solar panels can generate enough power to wake up your ship

Most of the time, the staging will remain in the proper order. If it doesn't because of hos it was saved, be sure to rearrange the order in the VAB before launching. The entire rocket below the probe saves properly.

A somewhat simple three stage design that can be sent to orbit Mun and return. Note staging is bottom to top; 6. the three SRBs ignite 5. the three SRBs, first stage, are staged 4. the LV-45 is ignited 3. the LV-45 booster, second stage, is staged 2. the LV-909 is ignited 1. the LV-909 booster, third stage, is staged 0. the parachute is deployed No reaction wheel is needed. The built in the capsule one is sufficient for this flight.

Landed the new probe of Career Mode on Minmus. One needs to keep the SAS on or the probe will start dancing on the lander legs. Note, I used the booster to bring the probe down to under 1000 meters. By watching the retro grade marker, lateral thrusters were not needed. Touched probe down with plenty of RCS fuel left at under 1m / sec. The dual design made controlling the landing far easier then ever.

Landing on Minmus; Note, booster in background. Off to the Sun

When you break out of Mun orbit, try for a direct Kerbal aerobraking. It will save needing a lot of fuel. While not a lander, this is the orbital design used from early career mode for the mission.

Not only easy to encounter, it is large enough with no atmosphere that you can get close enough to make major changes in orbital plane and speed using very little delta V. The burn times and setting up the maneuver mode is very critical. The use of thrusters will greatly aid in fine tuning the critical burns. See post 7 for the screen shots examples.

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They can be as simple as this;

Still, the tech tree makes it more challenging as you are forced to do the program through Kerbal space exploration history. (History of the alpha development and availability of parts.)

No, this works well. If you take Goo canisters and a science bay, both good for extra points, you will need a little more rocket. (without the probe.)

Until you get solar panels, don't do any transmissions. Turn off SAS when not needed for stability. Your Manned capsule will have ample power left for return flight when needed. For probes, you will need solar panels and extra batteries for transmitting data.

For the first Mun mission, just get into orbit and return. Only when you unlock additional tech should you build a lander with the full intent of returning Jeb back to Kerbal alive. Decouplers sever all strut connections automatically. So having struts between stages can greatly affect stability with no ill effects to separation. You have to build the asparagus in pairs. Just use the Alt left click to select a sub assembly from a section of the ship and set it aside. In my design, it was the core first stage. Next, place a pair of radical decouplers using symmetry mode for two parts. Then, select the set aside core stage and place on the decoupler. Replace the existing LV-45 engine with LV-30 since the center engine is all that is needed for steering. Now place a fuel line and braces while still using 2X symmetry. Add launch stablizers. Check the staging at this time and arrange in order. Next, select a radical decoupler with Alt left click. That will make a copy of everything attached to it. Place it next to the existing radical decoupler, then move the fuel line to go into the first pair of radical mounted boosters. Arrange staging to the proper order. Do the selection again a third and fourth time if desired. Just make sure staging is in the correct order. Refer to the posted screenshot to the order of this three asparagus pair staged probe rocket. Note, the same design will work as well for the manned capsule as well

Look for the ideal intercept while adjusting the handles and moving the node along your existing orbit. Such an intercept should slingshot you back to Kerban reentry if you miss the orbital insertion burn.

This is one design that worked well. The ring of braces on the eight SRBs support it well. The LV-N is not used in launch as it overheats badly.

I will be testing this tonight in Career Mode for Jool. Similar design in Sandbox has landed on Duna and Eve. Efficiently Ratio, 5.5 tons of launcher for every 1 ton into orbit. If not, this similar design from Sandbox with Nova Punch mods with LV-N made orbit with this much fuel to spare.