How to get an orbit with little fuel

[Spricigo]

2 minutes ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

Suborbital tours are fast easy money that goes on and on 

It may seems so, but have you considered how much that money real value? The opportunity cost?

The flaw I see in your logic is to suggest  grinding  for funds without the consideration for how much that is necessary. My perception is that delaying the orbit mission to explore suborbital tourism contract is unnecessary, you already get more than enough money to sustain the development of the space program going to orbit in the first chance.

 

 

[Starman4308]

10 hours ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

Perhaps you misunderstand. Suborbital tourism is dirt cheap and has a much higher profit margin than orbital or lunar.

Relative profit is high. Absolute profit is low.

Let's say you can get 5000f for suborbital missions that cost 1000f and 10 minutes, or orbital missions for 50000 funds that cost 30000f and 20 minutes.

In an hour of gameplay, you can make 24000f, barely more than a single orbital mission.

What's limiting and needs to be most heavily optimized for is player time, something that favors absolute profit and low time to completion.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

7 hours ago, Starman4308 said:

Relative profit is high. Absolute profit is low.

Let's say you can get 5000f for suborbital missions that cost 1000f and 10 minutes, or orbital missions for 50000 funds that cost 30000f and 20 minutes.

In an hour of gameplay, you can make 24000f, barely more than a single orbital mission.

But I put five or six of those contracts on one flight. (my rockets have so many windows they look like airplaines) So that's 30,000 for ONE 1000 flight in 5 minutes! (You make 20,000 in half an hour.)  You really aren't getting this. And BTW there's is no such thing as "absolute profit" all profit is relative (to cost). 

In a thread where everyone was taking about how to make orbit on your first flight, I was saying there are reasons not to do that. 

Edited February 7, 2018 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

16 hours ago, Spricigo said:

It may seems so, but have you considered how much that money real value? The opportunity cost?

The flaw I see in your logic is to suggest  grinding  for funds without the consideration for how much that is necessary. My perception is that delaying the orbit mission to explore suborbital tourism contract is unnecessary, you already get more than enough money to sustain the development of the space program going to orbit in the first chance.

"Everyone needs money, that's why they call it money"

The more money you have in the bank the more fun you can have building your own ships for your own reasons instead of just chasing down contracts later in the game. 

My understanding of the game engine is that opportunities wait for you. We're not in a space race with other players (although that would be fun). And b/c suborbital flights are so fast, I'm not talking about a lot of time,  just a day or two to bank a huge amount of money.

I was just saying there are (good) reasons not to race to orbit on your first flight.

Edited February 7, 2018 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[Spricigo]

1 hour ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

I was just saying there are (good) reasons not to race to orbit on your first flight.

And my point is that such reasons might exist and still be a good idea to go for the orbit relatively soon.

 

1 hour ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

But I put five or six of those contracts on one flight. (my rockets have so many windows they look like airplaines) So that's 30,000 for ONE 1000 flight in 5 minutes! 

Meanwhile a orbital tourist bus makes about twice that value in about twice the time. Off course, you need to select the more lucrative contracts (e.g. tourist want both suborbital and orbital flight, instead of only suborbital or only orbital.) 

But 30k is already enough to pay for a flyby mission or a constellation of satellites. 

[swjr-swis]

Late to this party, but my suggestions to saving fuel on the way to orbit would be simple:

• Build small. Seriously, as minimal as you can get away with while still meeting your goals for the craft.
• Consider using jets for the first part of the ascent. They can get you out of the thick draggy part of the atmosphere for a fraction of the fuel a pure rocket would need, and some jets can even get you up to a significant fraction of orbital speed.
• Look in the Challenge subforum for ideas - minimizing cost and/or size to orbit often also results in low fuel use, so search for those as well.

A few examples can be found in the below challenge thread about getting to orbit with as little fuel as possible (but a bit of searching will no doubt turn up more):

Being a challenge the craft are not exactly the most practical for a career, but they provide ideas that can be built upon.