Good Goals After Reaching Orbit?

[CaptainApollo]

Hello everyone! Thanks to some very helpful forum members, I made it to orbit (and back!) safely. It was a great achievement, and I want to do even more KSP! I wanted to ask, what would be another good step after this? I ask this because I am still very new to the game, and would like some advice. I am doing some contracts, and that is it for now. Of course, I want to do a Munar landing, but I believe I should unlock some more things. Is it worth it to do other orbital missions? What is the next logical step? The funny thing is that I have the far future figured out, (Trips to Mun, Minmus, Duna, etc.) but I do not have the near future figured out! If anyone could give me some advice, it would be very appreciated!

Edited May 30, 2015 by CaptainApollo

[Thomassino]

Try unmanned Mun flyby, then Mun orbiter, then lander and then you can do the same with kerballed crafts

[GoSlash27]

Try unmanned Mun flyby, then Mun orbiter, then lander and then you can do the same with kerballed crafts

^ This. Kerbal rescues and satellite contracts are also good experience and they pay well. Just be careful about which ones you accept.

Best,

-Slashy

[CaptainApollo]

I will try, and hopefully I'll succeed! It won't be simple though; I'll try out the tutorial.

It does seem good, and I'm not sure if I'm very good at rescue.. I'll still try!

Thanks, everyone! Still open to suggestions!

[Thomassino]

Good luck

[Grumman]

Try unmanned Mun flyby, then Mun orbiter, then lander and then you can do the same with kerballed crafts

You should do a trip to Minmus before you try a Mun landing - it's further away, but the gravity's a lot lower, so it's actually easier to land on Minmus than on the Mun.

[Thomassino]

Or you can do outer space (high above Sun) unmanned mission... it gives much much science

[samwiseiam25]

You could also try doing flyby, orbiter, and lander missions to Minmus as well for the extra science for unlocks. It takes a little bit more delta-v to get your spacecraft there, and you'll have to practice matching inclinations to get a good intercept, but once you're there it's low gravity will give you a much easier time than the Mun. I'd actually recommend landing there first since the low gravity makes it much more forgiving to landing attempts.

[CaptainApollo]

Thanks Thomas, and also, I may want to do that, I'll see, still gotta unlock Stayputnik..

Minmus, are you sure? To me, the Mun seems a little more symbolic, I'll try a unmanned mission to Minmus, but I want the first Kerbal to step foot on another celestial surface, which will be the Mun!

[Snark]

+1 to doing Kerbal rescue contracts, for several reasons:

- They require minimal investment. You can build a very cheap craft that will get to LKO to pick up a kerbal.

- They're excellent practice. They require you to develop skillz for performing a rendezvous in orbit, which is something you'll need throughout your KSP career.

- They give you additional Kerbal staff (which you'll want later on when you start sending multiple missions all over the system) without having to pay a bunch of money at the astronaut complex to hire them, with the added bonus that they're already level-1 for free (since they've been in orbit).

- And you get some cash along the way. :-)

Other than that, +1 to Grumman's suggestion of doing Minmus before the Mun. It's easier in every way: less dV needed (so easier to build the rocket), and the surface gravity is much lower, so it's much easier to control your lander during the last bit before touchdown. Also, Minmus has lots of perfectly flat, level ground to land on-- that can be a big plus in your early career, when you have limited part selection and your landers tend to be tall and top-heavy. The flat ground makes it easier to land without tipping over.

[jarmund]

Here's my TODO-list of new saves:

- Orbit

- Mun and minimus flyby

- Mun and minimus unmanned landing

- Mun and minimus manned landing and return

- Probes to EVE and Duna

- Manned landing on Duna, Ike and Gilly (NOT eve!)

- Set up infrastructure such as Mining operations (This is back on the ticket now that KSP has this stock. Way back I used Kethane), stations, bases, and comm sats (the latter if you play with that antenna mod that I can't remember the name of) around kerbin and its moons

- Colonization, recreation and procreation on other planets.

[MiniMatt]

Last screenshot I saw from you suggested that your career save hadn't yet unlocked "patched conics" in the tracking station. I'd aim to build up some money to get the first level of upgrades to the tracking station and mission control - this allows for maneuver node planning and predicting where those maneuvers will take you - whilst a trip to the Mun is not impossible without these upgrades it becomes much easier with them in place and having that functionality makes some of the tutorials make more sense.

As for suggestions, you've already got some good ones. Rescue ones are perhaps a bit tricky at first - but they're essentially docking missions, and docking is a very useful skill that seems impossible at first but, like riding a bike is easy once you've done it a couple of times. Would suggest the docking tutorial first before approaching these though (there is a docking tutorial now right? I'm assuming there must be). Satellite missions introduce some key positioning concepts and are a good source of income early on in career saves.

Mun flybys and orbits are good. I'd possibly suggest Minmus as your first landing attempt rather than the Mun, the lake beds are perfectly flat, at "sea" level, and with very low gravity it's often an easier landing than the Mun. Trickier intercept though - but once you've put a couple of satellites up you'll have gotten the hang of altering inclination to achieve the intercept.

[Snark]

...and comm sats (the latter if you play with that antenna mod that I can't remember the name of)...

You're thinking of RemoteTech: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/83305

[jarmund]

You're thinking of RemoteTech: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/83305

Yes, that's correct

[mrklaw]

If you don't yet have the stayputnik, let alone the probodobodyne probe with SAS, or patched conics, I'd spend some time doing kerbin science to unlock more of those earlier tiers.

- build a little science buggy in the spaceplane hangar and go around the space centre collecting science

- build a small plane and fly slightly away from the space centre to get science on and over the shores and deserts.

- go into polar orbit with a two man crew (two mk1 pods stacked will be fine) and take a pilot for SAS and a scientist to reset experiments. Take off to the north instead of the East. Then do lots of science over kerbin biomes from space.

[CaptainApollo]

Wow, thank you everyone! I now have plenty to keep me busy and do, and hopefully I will achieve all this soon! Again, I have to say, KSP has an amazing community. Thank you all. ))

[Alshain]

Alternatively you could do things in the same order NASA did in Gemini to get ready for Apollo (minus stuff that really doesn't apply to KSP like EVA, though you could if you want to).

Kerbin

1. Orbit

2. Rendezvous

3. Dock

Mun

4. Fly By/Orbit

5. Land

[CaptainApollo]

This does sound fun, I've always loved the Gemini missions!

[Alshain]

It does depend on your tech tree level if you are in career. I think they moved the Jr docking port up earlier in the tree now so you should have it just about the time you are getting ready for the Mun.

[CaptainApollo]

Awesome, I will check out the tech tree as I will do some KSP in a few minutes!

[arq]

Do satellite and rescue missions until you unlock patched conics in the tracking station (not strictly necessary but much easier this way), then do a mission to Minmus. Even though it *looks* 3x further away than Mun, because of how orbits work it is actually just a tiny bit further away form LKO (roughly 900m/s versus 850m/s). The dramatically lower gravity makes orbiting, landing, and returning from there much easier than Mun.

[CaptainApollo]

I upgraded my tracking station and mission control, is this enough?

[haltux]

I upgraded my tracking station and mission control, is this enough?

You should upgrade Astronaut Complex, it will unlock EVAs. EVAs are fun, and brings a lot of science points (try EVA reports at different altitude and over different biomes).

You really don't want to land on Mun or Minmus without EVA. That would be insanely frustrating.

[Windspren]

Get MechJeb, and watch how it can rendezvous with other craft in orbit. Then try doing it yourself. It is Soooo rewarding after you have just docked by hand.

[CaptainApollo]

Haltux, I unlocked EVA a long time ago, and yes, they are very fun. MechJeb, I guss that's a mod. Hm.. I may get it, but for now I want to play stock, I think.