Kerbonaut fresh from the academy... Let's go to the Mün! (Warning: pics)

[whistlehead]

Hello, all! First time on the forum. I downloaded the KSP 0.13.3 demo about a year ago and built a few rockets, though nothing really worked out.

Well, yesterday I suddenly decided that what I really wanted to do was build a Mün rocket that could actually reach the Mün. So after a few hours of intensive testing, I ended up with this partially onion-skinned creation, which I named o he Moon (a combination of one of my favourite games To the Moon and a dodgy keyboard):

And I got within 60km of the surface before... I ran out of fuel during the retroburn.

Problems? Unnecessary weight of a second SAS unit and extra vertical struts, poor RCS positioning and NOT ENOUGH FUEL. The struts around the solid boosters did, surprisingly, work. However, with the increased weight of the second iteration these had to be bulked up.

But not to worry - Kerbalkind shall not be deterred! I spent the rest of the evening and some of this morning (oops) developing o he Moon v2! Already in its seventh iteration! Now slightly less likely to explode! Probably.

Complete with, *ahem* "landing legs"... Tried and tested and slightly less likely to blow up than landing on the engine - which I didn't quite think of in the first iteration. I thought this was genius until I found out that about 2000000 other people using 0.13.3 have also thought of it...

A comparison of the two... Bigger is always better.

The plan is that this evening I will launch, start to rotate at around 10000m and continue to do so until I have a stable orbit at ~100000m. I'm hoping to orbit the Mün before landing so as to be able to choose my cra... *ahem*, landing site - preferably on the light side of the Mün. After I've landed I'm hoping to take off, leaving the legs behind, enter an orbit around the Mün before burning for Kerbin, enter an orbit around Kerbin, retroburn, separate the final stage and have the capsule splashdown somewhere off the coast of the space centre.

What I don't know is when it is appropriate to burn for Kerbin, as I've never exactly made it to that stage yet... 0.13.3 so no fancy nodes to play with! I think I'll stick with this version until I choose to buy the full version - I quite like the simplicity of it.

I'd also be very interested to know if you think I have enough fuel or not. The last rocket, which did get me to the Mün, had three tanks fewer and a whole SAS module of extra weight, so I'm hoping this will be enough...

The specs:

Stage 1: 12 solid boosters

Stage 2: 6 large engines with 2 tanks each. 6 winglets.

Stage 3: 1 large engine with 3 tanks. 1 RCS tank, 6 RCS motors.

Stage 4: 1 thrust vectoring engine with 2 tanks.

Stage 5: 1 thrust vectoring engine with 1 tank, 1 RCS tank, 6 RCS motors (3 top, 3 bottom), 1 advanced SAS module.

Stage 6: 1 capsule, 1 parachute.

Anyway, this is an introduction section of the forum!

I'm Chris, I'm 17 and from the UK. I'm currently studying Physics, Maths and Product Design at A2 level.

Hi!

(Sorry if the Mün rocket stuff is out of place in this section of the forum)

Regards,

Chris

[SRV Ron]

Try this for a Mun orbit. (Or land on a no return mission.) This was built in version 0.202. It can also be built in the demo. If you build it in 0.2101, don't forget to add solar panels and remove the SAS controller that will not be needed. Note, it is onion stage. You should have plenty of fuel for munor orbit and return.

Note, use LV-30 on the onion booster, LV-45 on the center, and LV-909 for the third stage engine.

Edited August 22, 2013 by SRV Ron

[SRV Ron]

Just to test it out I just flew this on the demo to a Mun flyby. It has just enough fuel for the trip;

Launch on boosters, then stage, fire the LV-45, and start the gravity turn.

Orbit at first stage burnout. Second stage is fired to complete a 100k orbit.

A course correction made to get proper capture.

Final orbit capture.

Jeb orbiting the Mun

Direct return maneuver to aerobraking capture by Kerban.

Leaving Mun. Note, all fuel was used up but a short thruster burn completed the maneuver.

The aerobraking return Apollo style.

Landing.

Flight results.

As you can see, a simple design made it to Mun and back. It could probably land using thrusters for the last part but will fall over and leave Jeb stranded.

[whistlehead]

Update: After extensive redesign (15 MOAR engines) I'm in a stable orbit around Kerbin with three and a half tanks of fuel left. I kind of landed the last one - if your definition of 'land' is "All the components of the lander arrived on the Mun"...

@SRV Ron - Thanks for the advice, and I'm sure I'll give a design such as that a shot when I update to the later demo (or the full game) - but for now, in 0.13.3, I'm going to wing it and see what happens

Regards,

Chris

[Capt'n Skunky]

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager