Post the errors you have made when you started playing at KSP!

[goldenpeach]

We have to face it.

When we started to play KSP we all have made mistakes leading to big and inefficient rocket design(or failure).

This thread is a place where you can post all of those mistake,point out what your LKO rocket could do after you have corrected one of those mistake(for me,I have been able to go to the mun very little design changes).

PS:Right now,I don't have access to my first rocket that achieved orbit,I will post screenshot when I will be able to get them.

One of my error,was to do (very) inefficient stage:they were composed of one(yes,one) fuel tank and an engine.

I once decided to take some risk and put two fuel tanks on the stage,I didn't went further.

Also,my launch ascent wasn't optimal:straight up(full throttle) until 70km and horizontal burn after the atmosphere(wich mean I was starting the "circularization burn before reaching the apoasis).

thank to that,my "small" orbital rocket was used to get to the mun after some minor adjustment.

Edited September 30, 2013 by goldenpeach

[KAO]

at first I didn't realize you had to click on the text box at the top to name your craft. I was expecting that part to pop up when I saved it. In other words, all my crafts were called "untitled craft" until I realized.

[antiquark]

Forgot the ladders!

[ouion]

1. I dont know orbital mechanics and i can't get to orbit

2. I mistaking Solid rocket boosters for liquid engines;.;

[NoMrBond]

Overbuilding instead of goal orientated building

Crashing rescue mission vehicles into the vehicles that needed rescuing

[loknar]

Adding 8x solid boosters instead of proper staging to "save time". FAIL

After a satisfying aerobraking, saving the game and then realise you're in a 270º orbit (instead of 90º). FAIL

[goldenpeach]

Not knowing that shutting down the engine and waiting for apoasis can bring more circular orbit.

I was going at full throttle for until they run out of fuel(which mean that I was forced to designate a whole stage to deorbit the capsule,while I could have used whatever fuel is left in the previous stage)

Also:burning directly at the mun to go there(in fact,I was aiming a few degrees before(something like 5 degrees(or after,I didn't knew which way the mun was going))).

Edited September 30, 2013 by goldenpeach

[Captain Sierra]

Trying to burn radially to reach the Mun.

totally messed the gravity turn trying to go to space.

Tried to go to space with one burn, creating massive elipticals.

EDIT:

A 'refined' version of a craft, which never made it out of the demo, that was the second rocket I built that could achieve orbit.

[Penguinhero]

Back in 0.16 I

Forgot RCS

Forgot SAS and ASAS

And Forgot winglets

[loknar]

Just yesterday I got to orbit then forgot adding an RCS tank.

PS: I would really like a rockomax slim RCS tank.. right now there is the choice between 4.3 (ish) tons and.. nothing. I use less than 30 units of monopropellant usually (even large craft). So RCS is often an afterthought in my designs.

[Zaryulenko]

2 things that for now make me feel stupid

1-Monopropellant? WTF is that?! Uh... maybe its extra SRB fuel!

2-Im gonna land on the Mun whit these effective Parachutes!

[Sapphire]

"You get into space by going straight up, right?"

Edited September 30, 2013 by Sapphire

[rocket11]

Putting fuel tank under the engine...

[Slur]

Worst mistake ever.

- Not knowing how to throttle liquid engines.

- Mistaking liquid engines for only working out of atmosphere.

[arq]

Findings for planes:

-Too many intakes in the front will cause your craft to spin uncontrollably in some cases, or make them try to fly backwards, due to CoD issues.

-Taildraggers are much less prone to tail-strikes on takeoff.

-Although all the stock parts seem to prefer 'canard'-style planes (main wing in the back), conventional planes tend to be more stable (they are less prone to spins and more likely to point prograde). Also, vertical stabilizers mounted far aft can greatly help with this.

-Arranging your fuel tanks so that they drain back-to-front will help to keep your craft stable at all fuel levels because...

- CoL in front of CoM is almost always death. It shouldn't be as bad as it is, but I find that the game really handles this case poorly and that my planes tend to backflip and explode right off the runway.

[Flixxbeatz]

Oh - and don't forget about forgetting to put RTGs/batteries/solar panels (or deploying them, in case) in unmanned interplanetary spacecrafts

[fatfluffycat]

*Points at the Mun*

*Burns for 6 minutes*

*Crash into the mun at 6000m/s*

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Going to the Mun for New Folks

Step 1 - go

Step 2 - Go into a Solar orbit.

Step 3 - rethink

[Baenki]

The first time i played this game was before the moon was released. No markers or orbit indication. I didn't know anything about orbital mechanics or what a gravity turn was. So i always lauched my rocket straight up until no fuel was left. Two possible outcomes:

1. Fall back and crash

2. Escape the SOI of Kerbin and float into nothing...

There were no "big" solid boosters back then, only the small yellow ones.

But luckily there were those tiny yellow solid fuel tanks to add on top...

It was not after at least 20 builds until i realised that the parts have descriptions and those solid fuel addons actually were RCS tanks. Duh...

After that it took at least as much builds again to realise what RCS even is. (By accidently hitting R, SAS not discovered)

Yeah i was stupid back then.

Same mistake.

Oh and after orbital markers and the mun were introduced I thought to get there this AP thingy had to point directly on the mun... It took some time again until I saw my first PE-marker. Why? Well; Full throttle until the AP reached the mun.

Stable Orbit? I have never heard of such a thing. What are you talking about?

Edited March 26, 2018 by Baenki

[SunJumper]

First time I played, I didn't know how to:

Stage

Move

Enable SAS

It is surprising that I managed to get nearly into orbit like that...

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I kept forgetting about decouplers and parachutes. It was a rough lesson taught

[Ledenko]

What do you mean gravity turn? Space is up!

[RocketPilot573]

I tried to land on the Mun, but I thought 30 m/s was a "safe" landing speed.

[Spyritdragon]

Even now, i consistently design my rockets, put them on the launchpad, go back into the VAB for Launch Stability enhancers, put it back on the launchpad, put it back in the VAB for winglets, then launch it. My asparagus staging will then consistently nick off parts of my remaining asparagus stages, so i go back into the VAB to put sepratrons on them after trying three times.

[Monkeh]

My first Mun landing rocket had legs attached that were too short for the nuke engine, it had tonnes of RCS fuel and thrusters yet not a single docking port, (I thought RCS helped with stability on the way up), batteries, lights...just sooooo much stuff. I think steam has some screenies, hang on.

Just looking at those makes me cringe. So many batteries and so much RCS fuel and so much bad...

I even tried to take off again from that position...it didn't end well :/