Pecan

You're welcome. Sensible questions deserve sensible answers and the only stupid question is the one you didn't bother to ask. Really - we all remember trouble with the most basic situations and the community here is one of the best. Next up; "now you're an addict, how to help everyone else".

By the way - if you have the Stayputnik unlocked the cheapest/lowest tech vehicle for this mission that I have found is: Stayputnik <- probe core Small inline reaction wheel <- without this it has no steering and just tumbles z-100 battery <- or the vehicle dies before it reaches the required altitude, so you can't do the test FL-T200 fuel tank <- T100 isn't enough but see note below Terrier engine <- which is what you have to test, of course! TD-12 decoupler Hammer <- thrust-limited to 40% otherwise it accelerates too fast too early 3x basic fins <- for stability Cost 2,520 funds. Note: This actually reaches over 600km so you don't need all the fuel in the T200 tank.

Welcome, congratulations and well done. You have taken the advice here, including posting pictures, really well and the willingness and sense to learn will make everything else in KSP a lot easier than for a lot of people :-) As Harry Rhodan said above, however, the contract needs you to be sub-orbital so getting into 270+km orbit was actually a much harder task than you need. To complete this contract you just need a much smaller/cheaper/easier vehicle that can go straight up to a maximum of 280km. Then do the engine test somewhere between 270km and 280km, either on the way up or the way down. Also note that you don't need the vehicle to be crewed so you could make it even cheaper and lighter by using a disposable probe core, if you have any unlocked. ("Gravity Turn" - this is gradually turning to a more horizontal flightpath as you ascend. Much more efficient way to achieve orbit than 'getting height then trying to get horizontal speed. Normally the No.1 thing to learn about getting into orbit but irrelevant in this case, which is only about getting to space not to orbit. "MOAR boosters" is an in-joke that "more boosters" is the brute-force solution usually suggested by those who don't really know what they're doing, or how to spell it. Don't worry, there's no secret boosters by MOAR that you've missed *grin*. In general more boosters will work but we all like to find a more elegant solution if we can.)

Redecorate? The whole pool-ball thing is good but I've always thought it would be funnier if it was a spot instead of a stripe, especially with a number painted on it.

Apart from the ship design remember there is a specific transfer window for the return, just as there is for the outward trip. There's generally quite a while before it's efficient/easier to come back, rather than trying to do it immediately.

Everything not logically impossible is possible. Models of randomly-generated planets and solar systems are not logically impossible, therefore they are possible. It's called No Man's Sky. Thing is, "randomly generated planets" doesn't go very far to say what you really want - interstellar would take centuries to reach or destroy the physics KSP has, random would mean no common sharing of designs/dV information, etc. Lots to think about before anything is actually introduced to a game or mod.

Turning round and coming back is a pretty odd thing to do, so it's just not in the MJ repertoire. The best MJ will do is try to make a whole orbit in order to get 'back' to the barge - which it can't, so it fails. However, that also tells you what you can do ... get the thing heading in the right direction then tell MJ to land it. That is, get your trajectory heading back towards the barge manually and then hand-off to 'land at target'. Edit: That said, I haven't had much luck with MJ's landing autopilot since KSP's aerodynmics were improved. KSC landings within 20km probably don't cut it compared to a barge!

The gravity on Minmus is so low there's no need to make special landing arrangements. Just land tail-first then, once you're comfortably down, tip the ship forward so it falls onto the axis you want. Of course, you might want some legs for that bit but that's simple. Unless your whole thing is huge and ungainly it shouldn't be necessary but if you need it SAS or a touch of RCS should be able to make the fall as gentle as you wish. Of course, it's all just a lot simpler if you can orient things in tail-sitter position anyway but that may be harder for you.

Powered landings, rendezvous and docking are some of the hardest maneuvres to learn but well worth it - as you've already found with lunar landings :-) The trick to docking, as sjwt said, is slow slow slow. The navball (target mode) will show you nearly everything you need but it takes a few (3-to-300 !) attempts to get your head around what's going on. Patience and persistence pay off but you might want to take a break and do something else a few times.

Incidentally, everyone, I'm going to claim longest real-life mission. Based on absolutely no knowledge of all your particular situations and purely on the grounds that I've been stuck for a month at a time sailing across the Atlantic in small (30-40ft) boats, twice single-handed and once with one other. (It's boring, not much else to say).

You misunderstand - I have a particular bugbear about misuse of the abbreviation/expression 'SSTO'. If you really mean you're going to try a Mun SSTO, that would be a vehicle that launches from Mun surface to Mun orbit in a single stage. Ascent profile would be as for any other vacuum-body rocket launch. (Feel free to ignore this or just reply 'shut up' if you wish. I don't take my mission to be pedantic too seriously).

Anyone who provide life-support but expects Kerbals to sit in the same chair for years without moving is playing it wrongly ^^. That is - for any significant timeframe circulation, relaxation and exercise space would be as important as food & water. A trip to Mun's only a normal work-shift but Minmus, a week each way, would already require additional faciiities even if only on the scale of a real world truck's sleeping berth. Interplanetary stuff would require at least an additional cabin, such as the hitchiker.

Odd. If it works on Kerbin, it should work on Laythe. *Shrug*

"Mun SSTO" spaceplane? You're funny.

You're so right. On the rare occassions where I feel I must have a surface base I will still make it a ship. I'd rather re-orbit, dock in space and land the whole thing again than fart around perfectly-aligning ports on the ground only to find that because of uneven terrain they won't lock anyway.

My first (several dozen) docking attempts didn't go nearly that smoothly, even when they worked.

I was a year later than the vid, end of 2013.

Wow, 2012, that really is a long time ago in KSP history! Applause.

You have a nuke engine? From using a separate tug I assumed you hadn't. In that case disable the rapiers once you reach orbit and you'll effectively double your dV because of how much more efficient the nuke is. Plus, you can benefit from all that LF-only you have on Kerbin but won't need at Laythe, so that's at least another 500m/s :-) Downside is long burn times but at least you get home. Anyway, you seem to have the dV & map idea now so good luck, hope my figures at least helped you think about what's possible.

Oops, my figure is from orbit and uses old figures. Using the standard dV map ... ... just add all the numbers from where you are (Laythe surface) to Kerbin orbit - plus a couple of 100m/s depending on what you want/need for landing. Laythe is top-right, in green. It's 2,900 m/s to get to orbit there, plus another 1,070 + 930 m/s to escape Laythe to Jool's greater SOI. Another 160 + 980 gets you into sun-orbit, with a final 950 capturing at Kerbin. 2900 + 1070 + 930 + 160 + 980 + 950 = 6,990m/s from Laythe surface to Kerbin orbit. That's complicated, however, by the fact that you'll be using jets for the launch-to-orbit at Laythe, so that part at least won't use oxidiser. Simpler to compare to vacuum-Minmus if you assume orbit-to-orbit instead and forget the launch (so 6,990 - 2900 = 4,090m/s). Now, to find out what your vehicle is capable of we need the similar orbit-to-orbit figures for Kerbin/Minmus (bottom-right of the map) which is 930 + 160 = 1,090m/s + 180m/s if you're landing; 1,270m/s. Since you can do a return trip simply double that, to show you have between 2,180m/s - 2,540m/s. That's without plane-change (another possible 2 x 340m/s <= 3,220m/s) and "quite a bit of fuel left over when returning from Minmus" which, for the sake of generous round numbers I'll take to mean an upper-end of around 4,000m/s. From that it's easy to see that the plane should easily do the launch-to-orbit, LF-only part (2,900m/s required for Laythe, 3,400m/s capable on Kerbin) but is going to be very tight on the space-transfer using LF+O: 4,090m/s required Laythe-orbit to Kerbin-orbit, 3,220m/s and "quite a bit of fuel left over when returning from Minmus" demonstrated. If you've got ~800m/s there you should be good. It all comes down to that last, left-over fuel whether you can do it comfortably. Since you can aerobrake at Kerbin though chances are you can squeek through, even if your residual fuel isn't quite enough.

You have a spaceplane for reaching orbit from the surface of a moon without an atmosphere? ... Riiiight. 180m/s dV for SSTO from Minmus then. Laythe launch and Kerbin transfer requires approx 4,360m/s, with capture burn. Looks like you're a long way short.

That's the way it goes. Play something else - or real life (TM) - for a while and come back to KSP when the bug bites again. Over 1,000 hours means you deserve a break!

You base this statement on which real-world SSTOs, exactly?

Must be - the Hitchhiker storage container even has cupboards for them ^^.

Past polls/discussions have tended to show that very few people (10% or so, if I remember correctly) make many, if any, interplanetary trips. There's the transfer-window and time issues plus it can be pretty scary with nothing in the sky but the sun. Kerbin SOI is a lot of fun even when you do go further :-)