How To Rocket Science?

[Cryova]

Alrighty. First off, I am not a total noob to the science of rocketry,

 

I will say, that I am rather bad it deep space flights, and rocket design. I typically just have the classic taper rockets, with a lander inside a fairing at the top. Some of these suckers get MASSIVE. But as a result of my inability to design rockets, I actually have yet to send a manned spacecraft (or any for that matter) to do anything in far out planets, such as Jool. The closest I have gotten is Jool orbit. Does anybody have some suggestions on how I could improve my rocket design skills?

 

Thanks!

[GoSlash27]

Cryova,

 2 threads:

Once you "smell what the Rock is cookin'" in these two threads, you should be able to design highly- efficient missions with no problem.

Best,
-Slashy

[Norcalplanner]

Photos and/or craft files would help. :-)

[katateochi]

Time spent on the forum looking at other people's designs and tutorials ^^ is always good, watching youtubes can help too.

Not sure what your views on mods are, but having something like MechJeb or Kerbal Engineer to crunch the numbers and then compare them to the deltaV map is a good way of making sure that (at least on paper) your craft has enough oomph (technical term) to make the transfer and the lander has enough to land/return to orbit etc.
For the interplanetary transfers these two tools; http://ksp.olex.biz/ and http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ are great for helping you get the right transfer window so you don't need an absolute monster to get places.  It's also strangely rewarding, and good transfer practice, to experiment with just how far you can go with very small light-weight craft.

[Hodari]

1.  Watch Scott Manley or some of the other people on Youtube and see how they design theirs.  Don't need to copy them exactly, but at least see how they approach the different problems and get some ideas from that.

2.  Start from the end of your mission and figure out what you need for that, then work your way backwards through each stage from there.

3.  If you haven't already done so, learn to dock.  There's only so much you can carry up in one launch, but being able to dock or refuel will let you do a lot more.

4.  There's two ways you can make your rockets bigger, building up or building out.  Experiment with both.

5.  If your first attempt doesn't work, at least figure out WHY and learn from that.  Use what you learned to make your next one better.

As for more specific suggestions, post what you've tried so far and whatever specific problems you're running into.

[GoSlash27]

Oh, in addition...

 The above tutorials teach you how to design efficient rockets and the stages that comprise them, but there is another technique that helps you even more than that: Orbital assembly.

 Nobody says that you *have* to launch your entire Jool mission in one go. You can easily launch a series of modules, connect them in orbit, and bring up the fuel and crew with subsequent launches.

 This is the way that I do most of my missions. If you work out the details, you can set up an entire space transportation infrastructure that allows you to explore the entire system for cheap.

Best,
-Slashy