Single Crew Capsule and Fuel Tank

[therealcrow999]

Has anyone made it to the Mun, landed and came back to Kerbal using 0.17 with single crew capsule? The reason I am asking, I could do it all the time in older versions of the game, like 0.14 and some later ones.

It seems like the fuel tanks now don't hold as much fuel as before. I think before they held 500 and now they hold 400. Did they do this to make the single crew capsule more of a orbiter space vehicle like the Mercury mission and the 3 crew space vehicle the main Mun type missions?

I can't remember the last version of the game I played 0.15 maybe, but it has been a while since I played. Any info or thoughts would be nice.

[sal_vager]

Things have been altered now, and it's harder/needs more fuel to do what we took for granted before, it's a new challenge

[ferram4]

You're correct, the old fuel tanks did hold 500 L and now they hold only 400 L. The other problem is that the efficiency of the engines has been nerfed quite a bit to make them more realistic. The Isp (specific impulse, if you don't know what it means, search around the forums a bit. I believe there's a thread in the Science Labs dealing with it) of the engines used to be ~500s, but is now droped to ~390s in vacuum and it's lower in atmosphere. In short, your rockets need to be larger or use more efficient staging than they did prior to 0.17 to do the same thing. That said, there are far more tools to work with (including the nuclear engine with an Isp of 800s) to make the job easier.

Also, I have landed on the Mun with the 1-man pod, it is very possible and is easier to get there than the 3-man pod.

Edit: Ninja'd by sal_vager. He's also right.

[Lesarthois]

I landed on Mun, Minmus and got in orbit around Duna with a 1 man capsule; but I still can't put a 3men capsule into orbit.

But with a good lauch stage, you can make it to Mun and to Minmus with a single man capsule and a large tank of fuel and get back.

But you have to use your lander at the very last seconds when landing on Mun/Minmus to save the most fuel.

[therealcrow999]

I really like the idea of them going down the more realistic path.

I have to agree its more a challenge now, which is what I like about this game. I don't really use any mods, I have mechjeb install, hidraparacute and the crew tank mod. I have a seperate KSP for my novapunch pack mod, but I always prefer to do things using vanilla then moving on to more things.

I may have to go back to the drawing board with my single man capsule and redesign something bigger and better than before to make it to the Mun.

[AmpsterMan]

Did they do this to make the single crew capsule more of a orbiter space vehicle like the Mercury mission and the 3 crew space vehicle the main Mun type missions?

I don't know if that is the why for those things, but I certainly treat it as such. I only use the three seater to land on other bodies; one seaters are reserved for orbital passes. Things in general have been made a little harder on some parts of the game, but easier on others. Example, most engines have lower ISP since 0.16, but now we have the LV-N engine which has 800 ISP. All engines also have slightly better TWR on the whole as well.

Also I can guarantee that the return stage from Mun doesn't need to be too large. If you have the correct exit trajectory, a single seat pod with parachute, decoupler, landing legs, LV-909, and FL-200 can get to Kerbin with fuel to spare on half a tank.

[Temstar]

Well once career mode is in it makes sense that the first capsule you get access to is the 1 man capsule. I mean if you're going to shoot people/Kerbal into space you'll probably want to do it one at a time at first, and you might consider starting off with dogs and chimps before doing it for real.

Only later when you've mastered orbiting maneuvers in LKO would the space program gives you the go ahead to develope 3 men cismunar spacecrafts

[doggie015]

I've been using an apollo-style 1 stage off launchpad, second stage for final orbit insertion and Trans-Munar Injection burn (TMI) which is able to get a 3-man capsule and lander to the mun... but not back! (Although it can pull off a minmus return trip and even overshoot minmus by several days and return to kerbal with fuel to spare after being flung into solar orbit!)