Pecan

MJ does it for me.

NASA have a few things to say about rockets. Quite a few of their employees (and ex-employees) have got fairly good at KSP so you can probably trust them on some things. From the look of their ships they aren't using just stock parts though. Seriously - their 'guided tours' are pretty useful => https://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/guided.htm, Especially have a look at Forces On A Rocket, Rocket Systems and Rocket Flight. After that find a KSP dV map (how much veloicty-change is required to go to different places). Then you're ready for six impossible things to do in KSP: Get into stable orbit Fly-by Mun Land on Minmus Get back from those without killing any Kerbals Dock Interplanetary At the moment you don't think they're impossible because you haven't tried them. We don't think they're impossible because we've got used to them. There's a big gap between those states. It's the same for everyone and you will start thinking they are impossible ... until they aren't any more. Have fun. (My own particular bete noire was rendezvous but it's different for everyone).

Forgot the indoor plumbing again?

Someone's missing an opportunity for a land train. The recovery equipment consists of 5 miles of 'Area 51' tape, welding equipment and (initially) 15 truck-loads of snacks. The actual crew consists of three Kerbals - one welder to dismantle the vehicle, one driver/stacker to load the components onto the return transport and a heavily armed snack-guard.

Currently only using a couple of 'must have's - KAC and MJ. Why - because they take the tedium out of routine operations. Why not more - because it's a pain keeping them all up to date when I'm not spending all my time in KSP at the moment.

Yes, you are overcomplicating things. No, you should only launch without any testing if you want your launch to be the test. No, maneuver nodes are not required for going anywhere but how will you know when to burn without one? Why would you not want one? You can 'just' aim for Duna and go straight from launch to landing but ... good luck with that ^^. So let's start at the beginning. There are three basic steps to going anywhere - i) launching to orbit, ii) transferrring between (origin) orbit and (destination) orbit, iii) landing. You say you need a 'launcher' but from your descripion I think you're intending to launch and transfer in one go. Don't, if you can help it. First; Duna's a lot further away than Mun so setting-up your transfer burn once you're already in a stable Kerbin orbit is a lot easier. Second; maneuvering in space (ie; your transfer burn at each end, plus any corrections) requires completely different engines from launching through an atmosphere to get into orbit in the first place. Your current launcher is big. Maybe that's because your lander is but probably it's because you're asking it to do both those different jobs. Instead, make it just launch the lander plus a (new) transfer stage. So, let's start at the end (sometimes it works better that way). You have your lander so that's the final step covered. You know it's mass and you can look-up the dV needed to get from LKO to LDO. Design and build a space-only transfer vehicle that can push your lander between the two planets and establish a stable orbit from which to prepare for landing. NB: Go for efficient engines; TWR doesn't matter in space (much. Give yourself at least 0.2-0.4 though or burns will take ages). Finally, you have a complete space-vehicle (lander+transfer) that you need to launch into LKO. You know their combined mass and the dV/TWR required to get to orbit. Now you can design your launch vehicle. With a set-up like this you need to do a lot more burns than launch-to-land but each is easier, you get much longer to plan them and more time to adjust them. 1. Launch ascent/orbit insertion: do it as soon as you're ready. No need to wait for the transfer window as you're only going to LKO. You've practiced going to LKO. Should be easy ^^. (1a, b, c ... correction burns, probably not needed) 2. Transfer 1, Kerbin escape: set up that maneuver node whenever you like. 14 days is quite a few orbits (depending on altitude) but you can set and adjust it as much as you like, several days ahead. Alternatively, leave it to just a few hours before you're intending to go and you still have a couple of real hours to tweak it 'just so'. (2a, b, c, ... correction burns, almost certainly needed) 3. Transfer 2, Duna capture: It's a lot easier to land from a stable orbit, rather than just screaming in from interplanetary space. Do yourself a favour - capture into orbit, think about where you want to land, then do it. (3a, b, c, ... correction burns, depends where you want to land) 4. Land deorbit/braking: well you've already practised this using hyperedit, so you know better than anyone else how it'll go. (Parts have changed but to give you ballpark figures my old tutorial return Mun lander (1 kerbal) could do one-way Duna trips. The lander + transfer stage was 4.72t and it's launch vehicle was 39.2t - one orange tube and one FL-T800)

I can recommend the film 'Hidden Figures' for anyone interested. It's mostly about the sexism and, especially, racism 3 pioneering black women faced in early-60s America while working at NASA but there's a fair bit of 'how the hell do we space?' in there too. Plus, it's just a really inspiring feel-good film :-)

... is beautiful :-)

Let's break the tradition of the thread and actually help, shall we? Landing on Mun with only demo parts is a fair challenge. Despite the opinions here there aren't many people I know of that have published designs that can do it. In this old thread: Most of the 'solutions' don't work and/or don't use just demo components. See my post almost at the end of the thread. Unlike the OP in that one I hope you read the "I wouldn't bother if I were you" comment on the first launch vehicle - my preference would probably be for the third variant. If you have any questions please don't wait 5 months to ask them (as he did). PS: I think I'll have another go as well :-)

It can be used as a lifebelt following splashdowns.

Recovery rate is distance from runway or launchpad. On either you get 100%, around KSC you get 98% (IIRC) and then it tails off from there.

Single Stage To Orbit. So, you launch from Eeloo into orbit and ... I don't understand what Mun has to do with anything.

+1. This is still a community where most of us are happy to congratulate "I made it to the moon" posts because we remember how special it is.

Addictive? 3,000+ hours in KSP (and a smoker). Please don't go there ^^. See that price for fuel ... what if it became real?

I got it in December 2013 (and voted No, obviously). I USED to think I loved this game. But you've definitely beaten me by marrying buying it on St. Valentine's day!

1. Which version of directx are you currently using? 2. Do you have directx 12 installed?

Single Stage TO ORBIT goes to orbit ^^. (No, I haven't missed this a bit).

You're doing something 'big'. A relevent 'small' situation has been a topic of conversation for the pub tonight: In a guide I wrote a couple of years ago you launch satellites to LKO, then first-manned, then move out to satellites around Mun. Fot that you use a transfer stage to get the satellites from LKO to Mun and put them in place (roughly). Then you de-orbit it to get rid of the debris. Despite the disposed launch stages and satellites left to do 'whatever' it's the first time people conciously decide to destroy a vehicle and I've had lots (well, several) reports of how bad they feel about it. I understand that; I felt the same way too. At least you're not aiming to destroy. Go for it :-)

The question is - does it have a rocket engine? No. It's a jet.

That's what I'm working on - or would be, if I wasn't trying to reduce my Steam backlog ^^.

Mount & Blade: Warband I don't think that and KSP have a single thing in common, so I can't imagine a merged game.

The cake is a lie!

Exactly the same as all the other LFO engines, 9:11

1. It is an option in settings, which is now off by default. 2. It can be toggled in game flight mode. 3. Tex_NL

This; which is why the rocket equation is: dV = (Isp * G) * LN(Mf/Me)