A little help for a beginner...

[brooksy125]

Hey guys,

I have just completed my first ship capable of reaching the Mun but I am having a little trouble with the Orbit/mun burn stage not putting me into a full orbit.

Could someone who knows what their doing better than me do a quick test flight and suggest some inprovements?

Regards

Brooksy

[Vanamonde]

You need to copy your ship's .craft file from your KSP folder/saves/your game's name/ships/VAB to someplace like Mediafire, then post the link here so people can try it out. But as long as you've got fuel and an engine, the ship should be capable of reaching orbit. What trouble are you having?

Edited October 8, 2012 by Vanamonde

[CkGordon]

Either post the .craft and I'll test it out for you and see if I can help or take screenshots of it sitting on the launchpad. How heavy is the lander you're trying to launch?

[brooksy125]

Oh *Face palm* thanks,

Im not certain really, I have followed a basic orbiting tutorial and begin my burn as I approach my apoptosis ( about 30 seconds out ) but my craft either runs short of fuel before it comes into orbit and I have to use my lander stage to finish leaving me short of fuel for landing/ the return journey but I can't add more without the upper stage becoming too long and inconvenient what should I do?

[cardgame]

Add it radially.

[ElJugador]

Orbit burn.. 30 seconds early? I think that's your problem. Begin your burn right before Ap

[Kosmo-not]

How does he know his ship is capable of reaching the Mun when he can't get it there?

[EndlessWaves]

Orbit burn.. 30 seconds early? I think that's your problem. Begin your burn right before Ap

That depends on how much thrust he has, 30 seconds is reasonable if it's low.

It's hard to say how to change your rocket without having the faintest idea how it's put together or what parts it uses but if you're using the smaller tanks then you can replace four of them (4x400L) with a 1600L tank which is the same height as one but wider.

[-Gamah]

If your ship is overdesigned (and it should be, for a beginner.) Launch and go straight up until you hit about 25,000 meters, then turn your ship 45 degrees (half way to the horizion) towards 90 on the compass. Keep thrusting till you hit 45KM (45,000 meters) and then turn your ship completely at the horizon (where the blue/brown meet) at 90 on the compass. Keep burning till your apoapsis is about 150-200KM. **A lot of the older videos/people suggest using a 100KM parking orbit but it's so close to the atmosphere and time accel is really lame below 120KM...**

Once your AP is above 150KM shut down your engines and time accel till you are about 50 or so seconds away from your AP (you may need more time if your ship is really clunky.) With your ship pointed at the horizon, fire full blast about 10-15 sec before AP. You should see the PE begin to rise from the opposite side of the planet. Hover your finger over the X button ready to press it when you see the PE begin to move circually around your orbit. You want to hit X as the AP and PE are both 90 degrees away from you in your orbit. This happens as your ship accelerates and your current location becomes the lower side of your orbit, due to you exceeding the speed required to maintain a circular orbit.

This technique may leave you off by a few KM on either side of the orbit, don't worry about that for now, it's circular enough to burn for the mun. Now in the map view, use the camera angle to keep the mun exactly on the 90 degrees right side of your monitor. You will have to actively move the camera with time warp to keep the mun there. Warp until your ships place in it's orbit places it towards the bottom most part of your screen.

Now is the time to light up your engines, as you see the AP rise towards munar orbit, throttle back, you will notice that the further out it gets, the quicker it climbs. You don't want to overshoot. Tap "x" when you see your munar encounter and then dial in the thrust (or retro thrust) to brink the PE of the mun encounter to where you like.

From there on out, you're on your own. Landing is something that is best learned hands on. Best of luck sir.

Edited October 7, 2012 by -Gamah

[spikeyhat09]

if you really want to be efficient, don't just go straight up. start turning as your burning by (at least) 10,000m, so that by the time your apoapsis is ~60K, your going fully horizontal.

[EndlessWaves]

**A lot of the older videos/people suggest using a 100KM parking orbit but it's so close to the atmosphere and time accel is really lame below 120KM...**

You get slightly more out of your fuel from lower orbits though and the time acceleration is easily sufficient for waiting for a munshot, plus you can burn when the mun rises above the horizon and have a good chance of hitting it.

Hover your finger over the X button ready to press it when you see the PE begin to move circually around your orbit.

You'll need to have brought the navball up in map mode first for this to work

[brooksy125]

How does he know his ship is capable of reaching the Mun when he can't get it there?

I can get it there just not with enough fuel to land :L

Thanks for all the help guys