Cant control SpaceCraft while launching at earth

[trainsis]

All in the title, So everytime im making spacecrafts i cant control them to get into a 90 degrees to get into space they just go straight up and i can only control them while im way way way above earth, please help

Here a pic of a spacecraft i just made and i have the same problem

[Snark]

By "control" I assume you mean "steer", yes?

For a ship to be steerable, it needs torque. Here are the ways to get it:

1. parts that can generate torque internally (e.g. command pods, reaction wheels)

2. engines that have gimbaling ability (they can "point" their exhaust slightly to one way or the other)

3. aerodynamic control surfaces (e.g. steerable fins)

The problem is that your ship has very little of #1, and none of #2 and #3. You have a great big ship that would need lots of torque to rotate it, but no reaction wheels at all-- the only torque you have is from the Mk1 command pod, and that's so tiny compared to the ship that it's like trying to use a mouse to steer an elephant. And while you're rising through the lower atmosphere, aero forces are going to tend to align your rocket in the prograde direction, which makes it hard to steer.

Then there's engine gimbaling. SRBs have no gimbaling at all, nor does the Reliant engine. So you get no help there at all.

Things you can do to help:

1. Add reaction wheels to your ship (particularly on the lower stages; once you discard them, you don't need so much torque).

2. Replace the Reliant with a Swivel engine; it has gimbaling.

3. Add some steerable fins to the bottom of the rocket, to help with orientation in the first 20 km of altitude.

...Hey, wait a minute. This is a side note from your steering issues, but... from looking a little more closely at your screenshot (and your staging): it looks like you've got a Reliant liquid-fuel engine mounted directly beneath an SRB, and you're trying to activate both of them at once? Does that work? I would think that you'd end up with neither the Reliant nor the central SRB working there at the start (the Reliant because it has no fuel, and the SRB because it's got the Reliant plugging it up).

Edited August 26, 2015 by Snark

[Alshain]

One other potential problem you will have is your craft is hugely overbuilt and those 5 SRB's are going to have you going real fast. Air resistance is greater at higher speeds, so if you are going too fast it will be harder to turn, even with gimbal and fins.

Also, what is going on with that center stack? You have an LFO engine attached to an SRB and no fuel?

[trainsis]

By "control" I assume you mean "steer", yes?

For a ship to be steerable, it needs torque. Here are the ways to get it:

1. parts that can generate torque internally (e.g. command pods, reaction wheels)

2. engines that have gimbaling ability (they can "point" their exhaust slightly to one way or the other)

3. aerodynamic control surfaces (e.g. steerable fins)

The problem is that your ship has very little of #1, and none of #2 and #3. You have a great big ship that would need lots of torque to rotate it, but no reaction wheels at all-- the only torque you have is from the Mk1 command pod, and that's so tiny compared to the ship that it's like trying to use a mouse to steer an elephant. And while you're rising through the lower atmosphere, aero forces are going to tend to align your rocket in the prograde direction, which makes it hard to steer.

Then there's engine gimbaling. SRBs have no gimbaling at all, nor does the Reliant engine. So you get no help there at all.

Things you can do to help:

1. Add reaction wheels to your ship (particularly on the lower stages; once you discard them, you don't need so much torque).

2. Replace the Reliant with a Swivel engine; it has gimbaling.

3. Add some steerable fins to the bottom of the rocket, to help with orientation in the first 20 km of altitude.

...Hey, wait a minute. This is a side note from your steering issues, but... from looking a little more closely at your screenshot (and your staging): it looks like you've got a Reliant liquid-fuel engine mounted directly beneath an SRB, and you're trying to activate both of them at once? Does that work? I would think that you'd end up with neither the Reliant nor the central SRB working there at the start (the Reliant because it has no fuel, and the SRB because it's got the Reliant plugging it up).

Well im in science mode so i dont have access to those things :/ and i cant get enough science unless i go to the moon get experience ._.

[trainsis]

Im in science mode so i do not have access to those things ._.

[Zephram Kerman]

Some sharp-eyed folks in this thread! I had assumed that center stack had a Swivel engine. But I didn't notice that central solid booster was not more fuel tanks. Even if that bottom motor is a Swivel, it can't help with the steering issue for lack of fuel flow.

So, my suggestion is:

• reduce the boosters to only two,

• move them higher up the stack,

• delete the central booster,

• connect a Swivel to the bottom of those fuel tanks.

Oh! And, welcome to the KSP forum!

[Snark]

Im in science mode so i do not have access to those things ._.

So if you're low in the tech tree, there are a few things you can do.

First, milk near-Kerbin space for science. You can climb the tree a fair distance just by getting things from Kerbin, even before you go to the Mun. Make sure you've made the rounds of the various KSC buildings, they all count as their own biomes and you can pick up quite a bit of science there. When you're in low Kerbin orbit, get an EVA report from space over a bunch of different biomes. Make sure you've gotten science "while flying at Kerbin" (and some experiments are per-biome while flying). And "from Kerbin's upper atmosphere". And "in space high over Kerbin" (not just near Kerbin, you only need to get a few hundred km up). This should at least get you to the point where you get some reaction wheels.

Next, make sure you're not over-thrusting too low. Aero drag goes way up once you pass Mach 1, which means if you go too fast too soon, you end up wasting lots of fuel just fighting drag. Keep your speed under 300 m/s until you get up around 10 km, then floor it. You're using SRBs. You can't control their throttle... but you can choose their thrust at design time in the VAB (right click on them, you can set the thrust to less than 100%). By picking the right amount of thrust, you can make it so that the SRBs don't burn so hard, which means that they last longer and you also don't pass Mach 1 too soon. (The benefit of doing this is, first, your rocket is easier to steer when it's not going too fast, and, second, it means you're making more efficient use of the rocket, which means you can build a smaller rocket for the job, which makes it easier to steer, too.)

How to calculate the right thrust for your SRBs:

1. Take the total mass of your ship, in tons

2. Multiply by 9.8 (this is Kerbin surface gravity)

3. Multiply by 1.5 (a reasonable TWR, you could go a little lower if you like). This is how much total thrust you want.

4. Add up all the thrust for all the SRBs that fire when you launch. This is how much total thrust they give at 100%.

5. Divide the answer from #3 by the answer from #4. This gives you the answer of "what fraction (i.e. percentage) should I set my SRBs at".

Also: if you're milking for science, consider sending a munar orbiter first (i.e. just get there and orbit around it and then go home) before trying a landing. Not having to land and take off will save you well over 1 km/sec of dV, which means you could build a much smaller rocket for the mission, which in turn means you'd have an easier time controlling it. You can get a lot of science just from orbit (in particular, take your kerbal on EVA over the various munar biomes). Doing that (and also getting science instrument readings from "high over the Mun" and "space near the Mun") will give quite a bit of science, which should easily take you high enough in the tech tree to get some good reaction wheels and steerable fins. Then you can use that to build a bigger, fancier crewed mission to do a landing.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Snark

[trainsis]

how do i add up the thrust ?? where do i get the thrust value??

- - - Updated - - -

Humm?

[Snark]

how do i add up the thrust ?? where do i get the thrust value??

In-game, you can get the info in the VAB. When you right-click on an engine part (such as an SRB) in the menu over on the left side, it shows info there, and you can right-click for more info. It will typically show two thrust values, one for vacuum and one for sea-level pressure. Use the sea-level pressure number. (For a "Thumper", such as the ones you're using, it's 250 kN for each one.) Just look up the values for the various engines you have, and add them all up.

Alternatively, you can get this info from the KSP wiki:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Parts#Engines

Edited August 26, 2015 by Snark

[Pecan]

With the 'start' technology counted as tier 0, tier 2 lets you get to Mun and land/return from Minmus really easily.

Think about what it's possible to do with much, much, less of a ship than you have there - such as a demo-version Mun-return lander, which has even fewer parts than you do.

Fun, isn't it :-)

(PS: Seriously, science mode is probably the best way to learn KSP if you don't want all the sandbox parts from the start, but really, really, concentrate on getting the most from what you have, and thinking what you need to do more; ig anything)