grumphie

also, if all else fails, you can just shoot an probe into space(assuming you have basic batteries and solar panels), do some goo and science junior experminets, transmit them back, and get some free science. very helpfull if youre stuck, but requires some base tech itself.

my munar VII is now adrift in the solar system, goodbye halfal kerman. i was just an bit of fuel short of getting back into kerbin orbit. in better news, due to having some solar panels from my VI mission halfal kerman has greatly contributed to science, sending in tons of research. as an reuslt, i was able to research an bunch of new techs, most importantly, somewhat proper solar panels you dont have to manouvre your ship too much for, and fuel lines and the like. im now planning my munar mission to land jeb on the moon(no return guaranteed, sorry jeb), and im gonna take the advice on multiple stages and launch an monster rocket(made possible by the skipper engine) with basic onion staging, with 3 main stages: 1. the lander, having the 909(i think, its the small engine) for making an soft landing and taking off again, hopefully with enough fuel to get jeb out alive. 2. the orbital stage having the t45 and 2 t30's, with fuel lines from the t30's and a decoupler in between so the t30's can be dumped once depleted 3. the launch stage, consisting of an skipper engine and 8 t30's, with the t30 tanks also feeding the skipper tank and being dropped off once depleted. so far, the first test flights have gone decent(the skipper broke my ship becausei accidently hitted spacebar while it still ahd some fuel left with my other engines not starting yet=crash), with the launch stage alone being able to propel my craft into semi-orbit, and i actually think it might be better to remove the t30's fromt he orbital stage and maybe add in an lighter booster for it, and add an little help for the lander stage considering i already ran out of fuel trying to return from orbit(i think im doing something horribly wrong there). still in heavy test phase though.

these are not relaly all my tries, i think ive had about a dozen other tries before i changed the name on about each munar(and about half a dozen times i reverted flight or changed it until it fixed some eroors liek wobbling and the like) so far, only the munar VII(or better, VI with me changing this now for the VII model) actually made it to the mun. at one try i just put an bunch of rockomax 16 tanks and the poodle under it with some boostes next to it, and while it made it to 68km, it couldnt push itself into orbit, with my initial plan to dump those tanks once i reached the mun. the sepratons on one of them was meant to give me an boost to leave the mun. every time i think i will make it, things look good in the initial stages, i reach a few hundred m/s while trying to reach orbit(heck, my rockomax try reached 576m/s), but falls just short of fuel or thrust at the end. and when i DO reach space, i either lack the thrust to push my ship into stable orbit, or end up with so little fuel left that im lucky if i can make it back to the planet edit: my bit more succesfull munar VII that almost made stable orbit using only the first stage, allowing me too have an shot at reaching minmus or stable mun orbit.

not at my home pc atm so no screenshots, but this morning i was able to shoot my science into an 10 second SOI of the moon, allowing me to do some science. however, my rockets are still quite bad - i dont see how im ever gonna shoot something to the mun with these parts. same with this rocket. onoy just hit orbit with my final stage, leaving only an tiny bit of fuel just enough to launch myself to the mun and lower my periapsis to earobreak at 50km, even though i designed it with the idea to reach orbit with my first 2 stages, and only use my upper stage fornreaching the mun and maybe visiting minmus.

it isnt really clear to me, but it lists the parts it unlocks and i bet thats enough if you want to mod it. http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tech_tree

im not really panicking(im well beyond that point:P), just mad at myself to suddenly forget about everything i know about spacecraft design. in my head, things should work, while in reality they dont. i've gotting every third tier(the 45 science levels) research, everything under that, and heavier rockets. i'd like to take: jeb kerman an goo container an science junior to lunar orbit, and back to kerbin without everything falling apart once i land. im very certain that once i get an lightbulb moment once i get an rocket capable of doing that i can shoot heavier things and devise an way to land there and get back again. however, im rather terrible at making very effiecient takeoffs or orbital teansfers, so i always take an overkill of electriccharge with me to make sure i dont run out of it halfway through and get an uncontrollable ship, can transmit anything i need and also make surei have PLENTY of fuel, as im unable to get into orbit and the like with an small margin.

so, ive been playing career mode. fun and all, but now im hitting a wall: im barely getting any science from my experiments because i've done them too often(fair enough). so, i need to go to deeper space: the mun. so, i borrowed my normal payload from my orbital rockets. its an rather basic thing, with room for one brave kerbonaut, 4 parachutes, 12 batteries, 4 mystery goo, and an science junior. while my other rockets were decently capable of shooting the thing into low(80-100km) orbit, i'd always end up with like 4-36 feul and the like left, allowing me to do an few experiments, transmit everything back to the space center, and lower my orbit enough for rentry. so, i set out to design an new rocket. big deal, i thought, i made it to the moon and back like an dozen times already. designing an rocket to get there should be easy enough. o god, i was wrong. im not even trying to get to the mun anymore, im just trying to shoot an rocket into space that has enough fuel to make an larger orbit. right now, im just failing miserably. my average atempt ends either with an wobbely rocket that explodes at 3000M or an rocket that falls back to kerbin just shy of space or an orbit because of lack of fuel and/or thrust. thile my attempts get better and better, an highly eppeliptical orbit(80km -> 300-ish km) is still the best i can manage - not even close to even getting in the gravity well of the mun, let alone get into orbit, do some experiments, maybe land, and get back again. so, now im asking here: what should i do? i cant upload screens of my botched attempts until later, but are there any general tips anyone can give me or any examples might be showed of an simple career rocket that can reach the mun? im still fairly new to the game(dune is the furthest i've savely reached, landed and came back from again, not counting my probes) so im fairly certain im missing some things. thanks in advance grumphie