Synapse

I know that it depends on the mass of the thing landing. I was trying to land small probes on the North and South Pole of Kerbin and they kept getting blown too far away. Turned out that detaching the rocket early meant my tiny probe wasn't dragged that far off course. The rest is down to guess work. I guess you could use an engine to exactly counteract the effects of drag by thrusting forward.

I don't use a mouse

For the fuel usage involved, this is amazing efficiency. I had loads of jet fuel left, as well.

I prefer rockets too, however I am pointing out that in KSP physics, jet engines are better in every way for your 0-20,000m stage.

The downside is that they weigh a lot more?

Try using jets... I can easily get 1000m/s and then push my velocity up to 3500m/s using a single rocket and 4 jets on the vehicle link I posted. Using the structural fuselage for 2 of the jets means that I can run 4 jets from 2 jet fuel cannisters, still giving me insane amounts of fuel left over at 20,000 meters. In fact you could probably run 6 or 8 jet engines from 2 fuel cannisters. Intakes weigh absolutely next to nothing. I really don't see a case for using rockets, as the system stands.

Is it just me or are rockets redundant for a first stage? One canister of jet fuel can fuel 4 jet engines using fuel lines, so they are much more weight-efficient for getting up to 20,000m. Plus there isn’t as much of a penalty for gravity turning earlier, especially if you add wings. See an example: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/43909-Stock-Hermes-Jet-Delivery-System-Duna-on-80-tonnes Am I missing something? Why use rockets over jet engines?

Presenting the "Hermes" Jet Delivery System Capable of delivering a capsule to Eve or Duna at a mere 38 parts. Begin your gravity turn immediately! Using the power of jets to conquer 20,000m of pesky atmosphere: Beginning a rocket burn directly on apoapsis, the HJDS can reach escape velocity of 3500m/s: Enough to get you on a intercept with Eve, Duna, or maybe even Dres (calculations needed): Craft file (may need some alterations for new ASAS, I'm using an older version of KSP) https://www.dropbox.com/s/5eamfs7cogsmq88/Hermes.craft Launch Instructions Activate all four jet engines and enable ASAS. You can begin a 45 degree ascent profile after about 100 meters. At 10,000m, press 1 to deactivate jet engines, and jettison them. At 20,000m, press 2 to deactivate turbojets, then jettison. Turn to apoapsis and burn at full throttle. Put on a atomic engine, ion satellite, the possibilities are endless!

The fuel tank in this case represents food supplies, providing you're playing stock. Yes, you can replace your intake but again this is to simulate additional weight of ventilation/oxygen supplies. To people waiting to be judged please be patient I'm sorry

My conclusions from the graph are that I should aim for about 100m/s up to 5000m, 200m/s by the time I hit 10,000m and begin the gravity turn. By 20,000m should have reached 800-1000m/s and then just flat out accelerate at the apoapsis (for interplanetary missions)

What factors?

Do you know the name of the mod? I've never used mods before..

No they're not. They weight nothing, for a start. Kerbals shouldn't have RCS strapped to them, anyway. It should be a weaker version for navigating around a ship in space, nothing else.

Nothing to add, implement this

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/43734-Optimal-Ascent-Path Just posted this

Which means the deltaV requirements are: 0-10000m - 200m/s 10-20,000m - 300m/s 20-30,000m - 1800m/2 30-50,000m - ? 50,000m-orbit - ?

I'm sure this has been done many times before (maybe Mechjeb has it) but heres my attempt at graphing efficient ascent velocities using the wiki info. I use stock only so this should come in handy with my launches:

I agree with OP.

To put this into perspective the first liquid fuel engine was fired in 1926, Neptune was discovered in 1846.

Yes but it wouldn't make for very interesting gameplay - it took thousands of years to develop telescopes and discover the planets. Also it's a space program game, not a Johannes Kepler simulator. By the time anything called a "space program" was in operation all of the major nearby celestial bodies were discovered, sized and their orbits mapped.

How do you discover planets lol? Scan the skies?

Apply for volunteers for a one-way trip to Mars.

Could this be moved to suggestions please? I for one can't believe there isn't a 1-man hitchhiker container (with a flat shape not the command module)

Bigger wings!

How the hell do you do this? It would take ages and physics warp destroys all my aircraft...