Hello Fellow Kerbonauts

[the_pazter]

Hi I've been playing for a few months now and have recently sent an unmanned lander to Minmus. But I don't think I'll be able to have enough fuel to get back, if I add more tanks the space craft will be to heavy to get off the pad and BOOM!

More boosters I hear you ask, but there's no room, any tips?

[Xannari Ferrows]

Really can't make much assessment without visuals, but before you get off the pad in the first place, be sure to know your Delta-V to figure out if you have enough.

[Dman979]

Yeah. You don't need a huge craft to get to Minmus, even manned. For a maned lander, I'd try (from top to bottom)

1 small chute

Mk. 1 Pod

TR-18A Decoupler

FL-T400

4 RCS blocks- 4-way

2 RCS tubes

4 radially attached toothpicks

Terrier

TR-18A Decoupler

2xFL-T800

Swivel

Attach to the FL-T800's radial decouplers in 2X symmetry.

To each decoupler, add two FL-T800's, a Swivel, and a nosecone.

Add a fuel line from the boosters to the center.

Fly- when the boosters burn out, decouple them- the main tank should be full. You can get this to Minmus pretty easily.

Let us know if it works!

[grouchybastid]

Could you do it with SRBs instead of liquid fuel and tanks? For the radially attached boosters, that is.

[Dman979]

Well, you could, but it might take some more work.

The reason that the boosters have fuel lines to the center is to increase the efficiency of the rocket- you have 3 engines burning 2 tanks, and then 1 engine burning 1 tank. This is better than 3 engines burning three tanks, and will give you more fuel.

The reason I am hesitant to recommend SRBs is because they do not feed the center booster, affecting your efficiency.

But this is KSP; try it and see what works!

[zekes]

Can't ever go wrong with the old saying:

Moar Boosters

[Dman979]

Oh yeah?

Think smarter, not harder.

[adsii1970]

Hi I've been playing for a few months now and have recently sent an unmanned lander to Minmus. But I don't think I'll be able to have enough fuel to get back, if I add more tanks the space craft will be to heavy to get off the pad and BOOM!

More boosters I hear you ask, but there's no room, any tips?

Remember that Minimus has, to excuse the pun, minimus gravity. This means that it takes less thrust to get off the surface and less dV to change your trajectory once in orbit. All you need to make sure is that you have enough fuel to get off the surface (and the small radially attached small separator solid rocket motors can achieve this), fuel to break orbit and head towards Kerbin. Don't get in a hurry. Once you are out of Minimus' orbit and heading back to Kerbin, you can use RCS or monopropellant thrusters to nudge your craft into the trajectory you need to achieve a low Kerbin orbit or to reenter Kerbin's atmosphere, whichever you decide to do. Simply use your remaining fuel to do a deceleration burn in either case to slow your velocity down so you can do whichever you seek to do.

I usually will park my unmanned probes returning to Kerbin into an 80k orbit, then retrieve them with a shuttle. To me, it makes the missions more fun and keeps my shuttle fleet active.

[the_pazter]

Yeah. You don't need a huge craft to get to Minmus, even manned. For a maned lander, I'd try (from top to bottom)

1 small chute

Mk. 1 Pod

TR-18A Decoupler

FL-T400

4 RCS blocks- 4-way

2 RCS tubes

4 radially attached toothpicks

Terrier

TR-18A Decoupler

2xFL-T800

Swivel

Attach to the FL-T800's radial decouplers in 2X symmetry.

To each decoupler, add two FL-T800's, a Swivel, and a nosecone.

Add a fuel line from the boosters to the center.

Fly- when the boosters burn out, decouple them- the main tank should be full. You can get this to Minmus pretty easily.

Let us know if it works!

Well it barely got into orbit of kerbin but ill try testing with what's left in the lander.

tell you guys how it goes!

[Dman979]

Well it barely got into orbit of kerbin but ill try testing with what's left in the lander.

tell you guys how it goes!

Really? When did you start your gravity turn? If it doesn't work, add one FL-T800 to each of the boosters, and one to the central core.

[the_pazter]

Well it didn't go so well I ran out of fuel

- - - Updated - - -

Really? When did you start your gravity turn? If it doesn't work, add one FL-T800 to each of the boosters, and one to the central core.

the grav tern started at about 7.5 km

[Dman979]

That's a bit too late. Try adding the tanks, and start it at around 100 m/s. Follow the prograde vector down. Also, are you flying to the 90 degrees or the 270 degrees? you should try and launch to the 90 degrees marker all the time.

[the_pazter]

Ill just try the S-V or the S-V Nova from the Fasa mod to save the trouble.

[Dman979]

Ill just try the S-V or the S-V Nova from the Fasa mod to save the trouble.

Hmmm- that may be a bit more than you need. The S-V Nova was designed to go to Mars/Duna, so that's more than enough for a Munshot and back. BTW, it costs less ∆V to go to Minmus than to the Mun.

Anyway, go for it. Shoot for the stars, and all that.