Getting to the Mun?

[Daniel1324]

Hello,

I have been playing kerbal space program for almost a week now, but I have still not been able to line my ship up in Kerbin\'s orbit! I have watched videos, and hoped that the 0.16 update would make things a bit easier, but my challenges only increased...

Here is my current rocket

It is a simple three stage rocket, made almost completely out of stock parts with the exception of a decoupler which I used to hide the engine of the second stage.

My main issue is movement in space, once I get into space I can\'t move my ship into Kerbin\'s orbit, what am I doing wrong?

[Trebuchet-Launch]

Well, this rocket is a bit klunky... but, eh, fiddling around with rockets is half the fun of the game.

Basic plan for flying to the Mun:

(1) - Boost straight up.

(2) - Around 10,000 m or so, start tilting over towards the 90 degree marker

(3) - Once you get to the point where you\'re showing an apoapsis of 90-110 km or so, turn the engines off, coast until you\'re out of the atmosphere, and then punch the engines directly on a course of 90 (right on the border between the blue and brown on the navball)

(4) - Your orbit should circularize once you pick up enough speed. Then wait until...

(5) - Watch the horizon. Once the Mun rises above it, burn prograde (yellow circle) and watch on the map screen. Yout apoapsis will climb until, eventually, it shows Munar Encounter.

(6) - Warp to the Mun

(7) - Once you\'re in the Mun\'s sphere of influence, burn retrograde (yellow circle with X on navball) until you\'re in orbit

(8) - Burn retrograde some more until you\'re on a collision course. Then more retrograde until you\'re falling straight down. Do yourself a favor and make sure not to land on the dark side.

(9) - The rest is all about falling straight down and punching the engines from time to time to maintain a controlled descent. Try to land at no more than 2 m/s.

[bsalis]

My tips....

1. Grab a few proven rocket designs from The Spacecraft Exchange section of this forum. Practice your flying on them before using your own built rocket. I think your rocket looks good... but i\'d say that is way too much weight for only 3 engines on the first stage. Need more engines, or downsize, which will be easier and still orbital capable.

2. Watch some tutorial videos on YouTube. I\'m finding for this game, video is much more useful than anything that is written (at least as a starting point).

3. Finally, on any serious craft design, I recommend using an ASAS module, and have some or all engines on each stage be able to gimbal (ie. direct thrust to help steer). Also, apologies if you already know this - but you need to have SAS off to steer.

[Vanamonde]

What kind of 'movement in space' trouble are you having? Figuring out where to go? Or making your ship go where you want? It might help if you posted a screenshot of your orbital trajectory from the map screen.

A suggestion: If you\'ve burned through 2 stages and you\'re only at 30,000m/600m/s, you\'re climbing too slowly. Instead of 3 stacks of 4tanks-1engine in that third stage, maybe split that stage laterally and try 6 stacks of 2tanks-1engine. Almost the same benefit for fuel used, a bit more weight, but you\'d be converting the weight into speed faster and not lugging it along with you for as long.

[TheKerbinator]

Also note that, in order to move in space, you either need gimballing engines (whhich only work when generating thrust!), RCS or additional SAS modules. Relying only on the gyros in your command module to turn a large ship with no thrust is exceptionally difficult.

[amore555]

I just brute force it. Not too much into maths and the like.

1) Fly straight up until you\'re most of the way out of the atmosphere

2)turn to 90 degrees, flat between the orange and blue halves on the navball.

3)blast it.

Then just hit m and wait till an orbit appears

[TheDarkOne]

I get my apoapsis up high enough, then get my periapsis out of the atmosphere once at apoapsis. Next, I go to periapsis and get my apoapsis at about Mun orbit. I set time warp at 10000 or so and wait.

For landing, I just wait until about 500m/s or 60-100km above the surface to slow. By the time I hit 10km or so, I am slow enough to do a gradual descent.

[Themohawkninja]

Here\'s how I get to the Mun.

1. Fly straight up until your apoapsis is a bit passed the Muns Orbit.

2. Turn your ship until you are at a heading of 270 and you are still between the blue and orange halves.

3. Once you reach apoapsis, burn until you get into the Muns SOI.

[TheDarkOne]

Here\'s how I get to the Mun.

1. Fly straight up until your apoapsis is a bit passed the Muns Orbit.

2. Turn your ship until you are at a heading of 270 and you are still between the blue and orange halves.

3. Once you reach apoapsis, burn until you get into the Muns SOI.

Although that\'s simple, it\'s not as furl efficient as it could be. It\'s better to tilt your spacecraft once you leave the lower atmosphere if you are more limited in fuel.

[Themohawkninja]

Although that\'s simple, it\'s not as furl efficient as it could be. It\'s better to tilt your spacecraft once you leave the lower atmosphere if you are more limited in fuel.

The air resistance has made it hard for me to maintain create a heading, hence why I made my own way of doing it.

[TheDarkOne]

The air resistance has made it hard for me to maintain create a heading, hence why I made my own way of doing it.

Unless you use very large rockets, an ASAS will keep you going where you want to go (unless you aren\'t using thrust vectoring thrusters) most of the time. Also, going straight up is good for the first 11km or so, but after that it\'s more efficient to just turn a bit at a time.

[Themohawkninja]

Unless you use very large rockets, an ASAS will keep you going where you want to go (unless you aren\'t using thrust vectoring thrusters) most of the time. Also, going straight up is good for the first 11km or so, but after that it\'s more efficient to just turn a bit at a time.

My rockets first stage consists of 30 (6 columns of 5) of the largest fuel tanks, the second stage is 5 of those same tanks, and the landing stage has the half-sized version of those large tanks. It\'s a big rocket.