WafflesofMassDeliciousnes

One of the problems with the interplanetary transfers is that your initial escape burn towards the destination typically doesn't put you close enough to be captured by it's gravity. You will have to course correct once you're about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way there (possibly even both). It isn't a lot, but it is the difference between having a closest approach of 500km and 50km. Your main focus will be the periapsis of your craft as that "should" be the approximate closest approach with your destination. You want that to practically smack into the other planet's surface. If done well you should end up with a slingshot effect that you can burn into an orbit or a landing. Useful sites I can point you to would be these: Basic explanation and some pictures http://ksp.olex.biz/ More detailed explanation and pictures using Jool as the destination. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/33547-Tutorial-Non-Hohmann-Interplanetary-Transfers Launch window planner. http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ A Reddit chain about this exact problem from other KSP members. http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1ebce0/how_do_you_do_precise_planetary_transfers/

Don't forget RTG's, I lost a ship enroute to Duna because it ran out of power mid-way and I had no power to jump start the engines with. Thankfully no Kerbals were on board.

I don't believe there is a best spot. Transmitting results always results in a fairly steep penalty, unless it is a crew report. I believe this is to heavily encourage either multiple transmissions, multiple repeat tests, or returning the unit itself back to Kerbin safely.

Good advice. Turning off the outboard gimbals and transferring fuel from the top orange tank into my bottom center orange tank during flight was enough to get it into orbit where the atomic engines could take over and finish out. Granted it's now out of fuel but no big deal, I can send a tanker up easily. The vessel mass was 55.32 tons once it dropped all of its stages. Here's a picture of it finally in orbit. He's one of the last pieces in my 12 ship convoy that is heading to Duna to explore and establish a permanent outpost. About 17 days until the window opens.

I hate having to admit defeat, but this time I'm left scratching my head. I've got a heavy payload, more or less the core structure of a space station that I'm trying to get into orbit. The lifter tends to break apart in odd ways each time and despite my best efforts I can't alter it enough to prevent it from randomly happening during ascent. Here's the contraption, with gratuitous use of struts to keep it from wobbling. I use a set of 2x2 panels as a pusher plate to keep the engines from causing any problems with the top half (the station itself). It's got a total of 5750 Delta-V and it uses asparagus staging to drop the orange tanks in sets of 4 as it lifts. I'm normally not a fan of asparagus staging but to get something this heavy into orbit I don't seem to have much of a choice. Any idea why this thing breaks apart seemingly at random, and what might I do to get this beast into orbit safely? I've attempted a total of 25 launches now of which only 2 succeeded, but then ran into design problems that caused me to abandon them and launch another.

Well, I did manage to get them into my newly added PPD-10 Hitchhiker Storage Container. Never did figure out why I couldn't get them inside the Mk1-2 Command Pod.

So I've only been at this a few days and I'm slowly constructing my space station in orbit. I've got 2 Kerbanauts currently EVA. I don't seem to get an option to put them back into the command pod they exited from. To keep them from coasting too far I have had to dock a new module with some external command chairs that they can lock in to. My question, is there a problem with getting them back inside the command pods? If not, which ones can they get back into, and which ones are a one time exit only?