how to win this contract

[Kodiax]

ok so i have been trying various configurations to complete this contract.. hauling this booster as payload to this alt at this speed has been a real pain in the keister!!!!  its either juuuuust not quite enough fuel to get me there, or, its too much, too fast.  this is one of my later configs. 

i give it some tilt after 100m/s and monitor speed and alt. . one liq fuel engine and 4 tanks runs dry. adding boosters is always too much.. i know im missing something here..

 

[Pand5461]

If you have too much final velocity, you can try throttling down the engines (or setting thrust limiter to a lower value, if it's possible at your current career level).

Overall, try not to take contracts that involve crazy Part+Alt+Speed combinations. They usually pay less than you spend trying to complete them.

[Geonovast]

Empty the payload booster, should get you quite a bit extra dV.

I would also ditch the middle engine and merge those two stages.

Oh, and welcome aboard!

[Kodiax]

LOL ok i am torn here,  Im thinking Panda has the right of it.  if not for revert flight, id have gone broke just trying to achieve this.

on the other hand, I want to give Geonovast's suggestion a try too. its v similar to one ive tried but didnt empty the booster of lift weight.

the adventure continues!

oh and ty for the welcome   

[IncongruousGoat]

The solid booster you've got on top of there isn't an RT-5 Flea. It's an RT-10 Hammer. So even if you do reach the target altitude and speed, you won't be able to complete the contract because you don't have the necessary part on your ship.

The Flea is something like half the weight of the Hammer, so that should make things substantially easier.

[Kodiax]

On 5/14/2018 at 8:09 PM, Vanamonde said:

it just takes some getting used to.

it does indeed.. so much to learn. quite the learning curve.. thank the gods for youtube vids LOL

13 minutes ago, IncongruousGoat said:

The solid booster you've got on top of there isn't an RT-5 Flea. It's an RT-10 Hammer. So even if you do reach the target altitude and speed, you won't be able to complete the contract because you don't have the necessary part on your ship.

The Flea is something like half the weight of the Hammer, so that should make things substantially easier.

DOH.. so many diff attempts . not sure how i managed to put that one there.  but in any event. i failed three more times at trying to get that payload to that alt at that speed.. i finally gave up and moved on.

now im working on achieving orbit.. im so close but mostly having probs getting a proper gravity curve . i keep ending up with a steep parabola that is a PAIN to try and correct into a round orbit . the adventure continues!

[Kodiax]

so, Contract says.. test the Spark Liquid Fueled Engine.  test conditions are.. be on Kerbal,,    green check at launch pad for that. i launch the rocket, get it out over the water for the second condition which is Splashdown...  ok no prob... er.. ok, problem.  Contract clearly states "activate the motor when conditions are met"   you dont get the green check for splashdown until you actually splash down. landing in water with both conditions checked green does NOT complete the contract.  I have tried activating the Spark after the booster used to launch burns out.. doesnt change things. but the bottom line seems to be i have to activate the motor after splashdown and that aint happening...

[Geonovast]

If you right click on the Spark, is there a button that says "Run Test"?  Try using that instead of activating it with staging.

With your staging set the way it is, the engine will activate before the parachute... which isn't what you need, as it needs to be activated after you're in the water.  The flea should be able to get you over water by itself.

If it's not making it.... ditch the head shield and LFO tank.... you don't need them, they're just extra weight.

[Kodiax]

doh, did not know about the run test function. I will try that today tyvm for the advice

the Adventure continues!

[Kodiax]

9 hours ago, Geonovast said:

If you right click on the Spark, is there a button that says "Run Test"?  Try using that instead of activating it with staging.

With your staging set the way it is, the engine will activate before the parachute... which isn't what you need, as it needs to be activated after you're in the water.  The flea should be able to get you over water by itself.

If it's not making it.... ditch the head shield and LFO tank.... you don't need them, they're just extra weight.

i followed your advice and it worked perfectly.  ty  no matter what everyone else says, you are a scholar, a gentleman and a fine fellow   

 these contract instructions are sometimes painful interpret!

[Geonovast]

1 minute ago, Kodiax said:

ty  no matter what everyone else says, you are a scholar, a gentleman and a fine fellow   

Cats gotta stick together, man.

[Kodiax]

NEXT! lol  upgrading my buildings..   do they mean orig max science =max u can earn on one mission?  and im bit fuzzy on Resource Transfer being available..   what resources and transfer between where and where?

ive done all the "easy" contracts. outside of a couple haul to alt at m/sec contracts (which i already dont like lol)  my choices are several flyover exploration of place X on Kerbin  OR,  rendezvous two craft in orbit and do EVA.. with second related contract to rescue Gilrod from low orbit...

either route i take, its back to the tutorials and youtubes to A: learn how to change orbit path over Kerbin and B: the whole two ships and rescue...adventure.....

Yoiks and Away

any advice cheerfully accepted   

[Pand5461]

30 minutes ago, Kodiax said:

NEXT! lol  upgrading my buildings..   do they mean orig max science =max u can earn on one mission?

No, they mean you can't unlock science nodes that cost more than your building allows.

30 minutes ago, Kodiax said:

and im bit fuzzy on Resource Transfer being available..   what resources and transfer between where and where?

With resource transfer unlocked, you can transfer liquid fuel/oxidizer/monoprop/ore/xenon/electricity between tanks (or batteries, in the case of EC). Maybe not critically needed right now for you, but will be required when you start building bases and get contracts for resource delivery.

34 minutes ago, Kodiax said:

my choices are several flyover exploration of place X on Kerbin  OR,  rendezvous two craft in orbit and do EVA.. with second related contract to rescue Gilrod from low orbit... 

I suggest taking rescue, rendezvous and EVA. They will be accomplished in the same mission.

Overall, taking several contracts that can be done in one launch is a good idea, especially with expendable rockets (I know, they are not trendy these days but reusable rockets are not readily available in the early game and even in a late game require more attention than expendable stuff).

Oh, and don't forget solar panels and monoprop for the rescue mission. Before you get proficient with rendezvous, you're going to spend lots of EC and RCS fuel.

[ARS]

Tourist contract always offer funds, and usually the most profitable contract compared to others, making them useful in racking large amount of cash (make a  long range large capacity craft and accept several tourist contract before sending them all in one go for huge sum of cash)

Exploration/ survey contract always rewards science, so if you're doing it, make sure you carry science instruments and do science in addition of finishing contract, since they usually involves a far-off biomes that's previously unexplored

Don't forget to use strategies in administration building! One of the strategies convert a portion of gained cash into science (fully upgraded building allows 100% conversion of cash income into science), and since tourist contract usually offer large amount of cash, converting them into science can give you a tremendous boost in unlocking tech tree

You can abuse contract to get parts that you haven't unlocked yet. The parts will be marked blue on your part list (prototype part). As long as you didn't finish the contract, you can use the part as you like (well, until the contract expired of course, but a more powerful engine in early game is always helpful)