hello! i have questions!

[ethank793]

hi my name is ethan and being new to kerbal space program and the forums, I have questions. mostly im asking for tips but Id appreciate a full answer if you give one.

1. any good way to make a rocket that will get into space depending on its weight?

2.how do you dock things?

3. besides the ap / pe thing how do you get a good orbit?

4. any good mods besides mechjeb?

thanks for any answers you give!

[Mr Shifty]

Hi Ethan, welcome!

Here are some answers:

1) The [thread=28352]Drawing Board[/thread] has an extensive list of tutorials that should help you get started with rocket building. Another thing you can do is visit the Spacecraft Exchange section of the forum and download some of the excellent crafts made by other users to study and fly.

2) Again, check the Drawing Board for tutorials. Rendezvous and docking are advanced KSP piloting skills. Practice getting into space, using the NavBall, flying to the Mun, etc. Get comfortable with orbital mechanics, then tackle rendezvous and docking.

3) Depends on what you mean by a good orbit. Any orbit that has a periapsis that is higher than the atmosphere (70 km for Kerbin) is perfectly stable forever.

4) There are many many many good mods for KSP. Which might appeal to you depends on how you want to play the game. There are mods that add realism (e.g. Ioncross Life Support, which adds the necessity for food, air, and water for your kerbalnauts and RemoteTech, which requires you to set up communication satellite relays to control unmanned probes and simulates light-speed delay for comms.) There are mods that add parts (popular ones are KW Rocketry, KSPX, and b9 Aerospace, but there are many many more excellent ones.) There are mods that add features like crew management, mission control, autopilot, alarms, etc. And there are mods that add utilities like VAB editor part sorters, maneuver node editors, extra gauges, etc.

[Tw1]

1. any good way to make a rocket that will get into space depending on its weight?

Moar bosters! Imitate modern rockets, which tend to use large boosters side by side.

A skipper typically is good for boosters beneath one orange tank, a mainsail can go under two, and still have lots of thrust to spare.

This is my technique, there are other ways.

Asparagus staging is another way, if you're happy to let your rockets look less rocket like.

3. besides the ap / pe thing how do you get a good orbit?

Practice! That's the main thing IMHO.

4. any good mods besides mechjeb?

Kerbal engineer redux is another way to get mostly accurate data about a ship. Kerbal Attachment system gives you cables, with which you can do many things.

Infernal robotics, replacing damned robotics, gives you moving parts like hinges an a piston, for making stuff.

Protractor and Kerbal alarmclock are useful tools, one is used for identifying launch windows and ejection angles, the other lets you set alarms for things like maneuver nodes and SOI changes, so you don't go warping past them.

I also recommend Hooligan lab's airships, and Touhou Torpedo's cargo bays.

That ought to be more than enough to get you started.

[ethank793]

sorry guys! I reposted this because I couldn't find the original. i did now but ill be taking answers from both! thanks for commenting

[Bioman222]

A suggestion of mine would be to start without mechjeb, mainly because you should know how to fly before you use it.

[SRV Ron]

Just start out with stock parts and simple designs. Get something simple into orbit, then, learn how to get it into orbit using less fuel and how to bring it back. In theory, it takes five tons of rocket to place one ton in low orbit. In practice, it will depend on what you have design and tweaked for the best performance.

I have a simple two stage design that can place probes into orbit with sufficient fuel left to do munar fly bys. With solid boosters that drop off at 5,000 meters, those probes on the same two stage rocket can be landed on Mun and Minmus. The tweaked four stage interplanetary one, containing the same basic two stage design, has placed probes on Laythe, Eve, and in orbit around other locations. The first stage Onion design reaches 50,000 meters before burnout with the second stage hitting Kerban escape velocity with 1/4 of its fuel left.

Get the basics down first, then move on to the docking, stations, mods, and other bigger projects.