Boonestorm

Try the wiki: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Gravity_Assist Cheers, Boone.

Great answer. 2 things to add: 1. The SOI change actually works because the program automatically throttles back the timewarp to 50x before the change, so its more of a workaround than a fix, the underlying problem persists (and can't really be fixed). 2. If you are waiting for a transfer window at low orbit, you can always go back to the space center, where you can always have maximum timewarp. Just warp to the correct time for the transfer (you can e.g. use Kerbal Alarm Clock for that http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24786-1-0-Kerbal-Alarm-Clock-v3-3-0-1-(Apr-28)) and resume steering the capsule. Cheers, Boone.

One should probably also note that, due to physics (), gas giants have some very strange phases when you proceed to the middle, all of them not really resembling gas at all. So its not that unrealistic that you crash at some point (thats long before the ice/rock core that our gas giants probably have). Jupiter internal structure at wikipedia

Thanks for all the good suggestions. I'll be going with FAR and DRE for now; after looking through all the mods I found out what I really want at the moment is a little higher difficulty (and aerodynamics !), and not realism. I have still land and return missions on most of the kerbol system on my agenda, so delta-v is still a problem for me (but I'm learning). Edit: I just had a closer look at KW Rocketry, it looks very nice. Is it balanced with stock or will it make things easier?

Hi there, after reading the forums and watching some streams, I decided to have some more realism in my KSP experience. At the moment, I'm thinking about the following mods: FAR DRE TACLS RemoteTech Hopefully this will not make things too hard. I don't want to use RSS (yet) because I think that would make stuff really hard. Do I need any other mods for heat shields/fairings for DRE and FAR? I'm currently also using KER, MJ (only for course plotting) and FinePrint and playing career on hard mode. Thanks for the help!

What Horseman said. Apart from that: Left and right are highly misleading here because they depend on where you are coming from. Pass behind a planet on its orbit to accelerate, and in front of it to decelerate. Lower periapsis=more effect (except there is an atmosphere ) I'm quite sure that burning at periapsis will give you the greatest return for your delta v (as always, because of the Orbeth effect). However, as you can not apply all the thrust at one single moment, I suggest timing your burn in such a way that you burn equally before and after periapsis. The direction of the burn would be prograde for acceleration, and retrograde for deceleration. Good luck! Boonestorm.

Hi everyone, after playing some time and lurking around the forums, I have finally decided to say hello, and give a big thumbs up to the devs. I really love the game. Cheers, Boonestorm

From Floules numbers, 310 m/s to get from Munar Orbit to Kerbin intercept + 600 m/s to get into Munar Orbit. Totals 910 m/s. You can also get that from the map; the way back is the same as the way to the mun: 640+210=850 m/s (the numbers differ a bit because it also depends on your flying skills and Floules added some safety margins) Usually you would need to add the 860 and 4550 m/s from Kerbin as well; however, the atmosphere will do that braking for you. (Sorry for my posts taking a while to show up, but I still need to be verified by a mod ) Cheers, Boonestorm.

Look at the map, you can also read it the other way round. Going back needs roughly 640 for low orbit and another 210 for escape. The rest of the path can be neglected as long as your periapsis is low enough in kerbins atmosphere to aerobrake sufficiently (e.g. you can drop the 860 and 4550 you spend on the return). Hope that helps.

You do not have to necessarily wait for the perfect alignment; this is mostly for saving fuel. The easiest way (though not the most cost-efficient) is to get into an orbit around kerbol: 1. do a 90 deg. launch, then burn prograde at the dark side of Kerbin (in the direction Kerbin is moving). This should bring you into an orbit around Kerbol with an apoapsis that is slightly higher than Kerbins Orbit. 2. Correct your inclination (mark Duna as target and burn at the ascending or descending node). 3. Experiment with navigation nodes at different points of your orbit, and try to get an encounter (does not have to be very near, just make sure you get the intercept). 4. Correct your course when you have covered approx. half the distance to aim for a lower periapsis (experiment with all 6 markers on the nav node here, you can learn a lot). Klicking on that appears when you bring up the navigation node will keep it from disappearing, this is great for fine-tuning your approach. 5. If you are going to land, aim for a very low periapsis, and bring some chutes. The atmosphere is not very thick, but chutes can help you save fuel. If you want to read some more / launch directly from Kerbin orbit to be more fuel efficient, try this tutorial: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:How_to_get_to_Duna