KSP Tutorial Issue: Orbiting 101

[to_infinity_and_beyond]

Hi everyone,

I just started playing KSP and I'm having an issue with the training missions. I started the third training mission, "Oribiting 101", and I'm able to reorient the craft after it goes into a spin, however when I hit throttle on the periapsis the apoapsis doesn't seem to change (I'm facing prograde and I go full throttle, SAS is on). Is this an error in the training module or am I missing something? I've looked at YouTube videos and that's what everyone seems to do in order to increase their apoapsis, however I haven't had time to make my own craft and try this out outside of the tutorial yet.

Thanks!

[SRV Ron]

Did you run out of fuel? Are you still in time acceleration? (You can't do any maneuver burns under time acceleration.)

Actually, the tutorials may be out of date having been created before version 0.21.

Do practice getting into orbit. Then practice doing it using less and less fuel with the same designed rocket. That will teach you the mechanics of the gravity turn for orbital insertion. Once you get good at that, planning Mun encounters, then trips to the other planets will become much easier.

[stupid_chris]

Moved this over to the gameplay questions forum

[to_infinity_and_beyond]

Hi SRV Ron,

Thanks for your reply. I think the training module is messed up - there wasn't any fuel, however I could orient the spacecraft (I guess that uses monopropellant?), and no I wasn't in time acceleration while attempting to thrust. I decided to go to the next tutorial ("Going to the Mun, Part 1"), where I could control the spacecraft and change my orbit, however the camera started freaking out and I couldn't establish an orbit around the Mun (I suppose that's an issue with outdated tutorials, then). Anyway I'm trying to build my first spacecraft and launching that into space. Thanks for your help!

[Scorpi15]

Orienting the spacecraft only uses monopropellant if you press the 'r' key. Otherwise it uses battery charge in .21. And to get a orbit around the mun you need to burn retrograde at mun periapse, just if you didn't know already.

[Scarecrow88]

The tutorials are up to date. I've just tried the two the OP mentioned to see if I could recreate his problem, and the craft are using parts that were introduced in the latest update. They worked fine for me. The only thing I could think of were you trying to change your orbit height whilst in map mode and if you were, did you have the nav ball on view, as you can't control your ship in map mode if the nav ball is hidden.

[SRV Ron]

Figure on a probe three stage design for a Mun mission. You can do this with the LV fuel tanks, LV -45 engines and LV-909 for the third stage. Do an onion stage design for the first stage or use 4 solid boosters. You should make orbit with a small burn of the third stage. Plan your maneuver using the maneuvering mode tool. Try to get a encounter with your apogee below Mun orbit. Do plan on a small correction burn midway there to fine tune the capture. Then, retro burn at the mun paragee once you get capture until you get an orbit.

And, as Scarecrow88 mentioned, you fly using the Navball as your guide. (The blue marker is used to set your orientation prior to a maneuver burn.) Throttle down as you near the end of the burn and be ready to hit X the second you get capture.

Edited August 3, 2013 by SRV Ron

[to_infinity_and_beyond]

Hi all,

Thank you for your replies. I actually ended up installing the previous version (0.20) and that worked perfectly - I finished the Orbiting 101 and Going to the Mun, Part 1 without any problems - so perhaps there is something wrong with the version installed on my computer. I'll try reinstalling the latest version tomorrow. On a side note, there was also a problem with the camera - it seems to stop following the space craft and stays in one place (this happened in 0.21), has anyone else experienced this problem? I haven't downloaded any ad-ons. Thanks!

This game is quite fun once you get the hang of it

[Scarecrow88]

Are you in map mode when the camera stops following you? If so, the centre of focus defaults to Kerbin. To get it too focus on your craft, just double click it. You can also cycle through different objects to focus on by pressing the TAB key.

[Kerbonautical]

Hi all,

Thank you for your replies. I actually ended up installing the previous version (0.20) and that worked perfectly - I finished the Orbiting 101 and Going to the Mun, Part 1 without any problems - so perhaps there is something wrong with the version installed on my computer. I'll try reinstalling the latest version tomorrow. On a side note, there was also a problem with the camera - it seems to stop following the space craft and stays in one place (this happened in 0.21), has anyone else experienced this problem? I haven't downloaded any ad-ons. Thanks!

This game is quite fun once you get the hang of it

Never had the camera problem but the tutorials never actually worked for me even in .20, I had tried them all when I first bought the game but after briefly glancing at each tutorial and slightly botching them it saved this and the new status of the tutorial leaving them in a limbo like status. I gave up and went to sandbox mode. By the way many of the tutorials on Youtube do a much better job of explaining the mechanics than the in-game tutorials anyway, so that's probably going to be a good place to continue learning even after beating them