Hi there. Sorry for breaking the forums.

[ohlenec]

I tried to submit my first post at 3 AM this morning and broke the forums. Or maybe it was a coincidence, and there was some planned outage.

Anyway, HI. My name is Ohlen. I've been playing KSP since I got it in the Steam sale. From the Steam videos, I thought it was going to be a casual game, boy was I ever so wrong. I have been forced to learn rocket terminology, and am loving it. It took me a week before I gave in and sought the wiki on how to achieve successive orbits. I have since placed a satellite in synchronous orbit, and have built a rocket that can take a kerbal to a Mun orbit and back. My lander is under-powered and can't land safely, much less take off again. I am working on getting Jed safely to the surface and back.

What power plant did you use for Mun and Minimus Landings?

I took a break and completed the Apollo 11 tutorial from the Wiki. That rocket was very hard to get into orbit, and I had to add solar panels because I kept running out of battery after I got to the Mun. I was having difficulty having to maneuver with my main engines, and not running out of fuel. After I added the panels, though, I was able to complete the mission, and get all the pieces home.

I have been trying to run a clean program. So far I have only 2 pieces of debris in orbit. One is left over from the satellite launch, and is in a decaying orbit. The other is the decoupler left over from the Apollo 11 mission.

I'm just a typical forum lurker, crawling back into the shadows.

[Tw1]

Hi. I highly recommend adding an RTG to every ship when you're not pushed for weight requirements.

They are heavier than solar panels, but produce reliable power constantly.

The real Moon landing used them, I believe.

[Scorpi15]

If you mean which engine you should use, a single -909 should be enough.

Try adding RCS to move your craft, because now in .21 your ship uses battery charge to turn. Or, add solar panels that can track the sun-the ones that aren't the single static one. You might want to add more batteries as well.

[Jackd44]

Don't worry about breaking the forums, I think my post did that to, although it didn't actually post until after the forum downtime.

I'm new too! So uh, is it right to say welcome?

[SRV Ron]

Actually, a dozen of the fixed panels spread around the ship, are sufficient to power the built in ACS of probes and command modules. Simple designs will easily reach Mun or Minmus and return once you learn how to fly them.

Example munar orbiter;

Command Module

1. Command Pod MK-1

2. Parachute MK-16

3. Stack coupler TA-18A

4. FL-R25 thruster fuel tank

5. Eight OX-Stat solar panels

6. Set of four quad thrusters mounted on the upper part of the thruster fuel tank.

Second Stage

1. Stack coupler TA-18A

2. T-400 Fuel Tank

3. T-200 Fuel Tank

4. LV-909 engine.

First Stage;

1. Stack coupler TA-18A

2. Two stacked T-800 fuel tanks

3. LV-T45 engine

This setup alone, minus the T-200 fuel tank on the second stage, will reach 100K orbit

Boosters for Mun or Minmus encounter

1. Four TT-38K radical couplers mounted on the upper T-800 fuel tank

2. Four Rocomax BACC Solid Fuel Boosters

3. A set of four struts to connect each booster together near their base, for stability.

4. Four launch stabilizers

Launch this rocket on boosters only. Soon as they burn out, stage them, fire up the LV-T45, and immediately start your gravity turn. A small burn of the second stage should be sufficient to reach 100,000 meter orbit. From there, you can play with Mun or Minmus encounter using the Maneuver Mode. There should be plenty of fuel in the second stage for encounter, close orbit, and return to Kerban.

You could probably land this on Mun using thrusters at the last minute or on Minmus but you will not be able to return once you land there.

RCS thrusters can be used for fine tuning maneuvers or return should you run out of fuel on the second stage. Actually, you will have plenty of fuel left for a return burn aiming for a paragee some 25,000 meters in the atmospheres to aero brake to land.

If you use a Kerputnik probe package in place of the Kerbal command module, you can certainly land that on Mun or Minmus.

That is an RCS ring in place of the TA-18 stack coupler used for command modules.

Edited August 12, 2013 by SRV Ron

[ohlenec]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try to get a picture of my current rocket on later so you can see my progress. I was trying to use multiple small engines (6 x LV-1R) and it just wasn't enough. I'll switch to a LV-909 next time and see what happens. How well would the Rocketmax 48-7S work in this situation? It has a better Thrust to Weight ratio, but the Isp isn't as high. Also, Why does no one use the Toroidal Aerospike Rocket? The numbers look ok. Is it a mass issue?

[FenrirWolf]

I think it's because aerospikes are more efficient in atmosphere vs in space. And if you're just going to Mun or Minmus the only time you're in an atmosphere is when you're taking off from Kerbin, in which case you're probably going to be using heavy lifting engines in your early stages. I've never actually used an aerospike but I can see it being handy for a Duna or Laythe lander or something.

[ohlenec]

According to the parts page in the wiki it has 388 Isp in atmosphere and 390 in vacuum. I thought that maybe it was that you can't stage with it, but landers can be attached upside-down.

[rentaspoon]

Personally I use the aerospikes as an emergency burn if I've badly misjudged the landing. I use them with the nuclear engine and get about 8 minutes of delta-v in vacuum that way.

IMHO most people don't use the engine as it has no thrust vectoring which isn't much help on a smaller lander.

[Capt'n Skunky]

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager