I love this game but...

[asurob]

... I admit I am about to give up. I am beyond frustration with it. Had it about a month and I cannot successfully sustained a mission past the mun. I started landing on the mun fairly routinely about two weeks ago. My first shot at minmus was so easy it was mindless. Now I can't get a rocket into orbit of minmus. Suddenly, I feel like the Soviet space program and can't get to minmus, never mind anything beyond that.

I admittedly am a causal player, but only recently did I resort to mechjeb and I have been using that mostly to get into orbit.

I have tried everything to get past the mun, slingshots, refueling in orbit with tankers, etc etc.

How are you guys making this look so easily...I admit I'm no rocket scientist, but it shouldn't be this hard. And it's driving me nuts (I have spent way way too much time with Kerbal since I got it).

Any tips for getting past the mun would be greatly appreciated.

[sickboy]

well, use the launch window planner ( don't have the url at the moment but a quick google for "ksp launch window planner" should get it quick enough)

-Nuclear engines are awesome for interplanetary transfers

-start with mechjeb, look at how it does it, then repeat yourself

-First, try Duna, you shouldn't need to build a ship in orbit or do any fueling in orbit to get a one-way probe on there

[Whackjob]

Just remember rule #078:

"Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing."

[Moar Boosters]

Need more information really. What's going wrong? Are you having problems setting up the maneuvers or are you just running out of fuel?

[FITorion]

More Power!

Seriously though... over build things to be better than what's strictly needed. Maybe you could use some mods which tell you what your thrust to weight ratio is during construction.

Maybe you could post some pictures of the crafts you are having problems with and what you were trying to do with it. Then we can try to correct things you may be doing wrong.

[Whackjob]

I can throw in an actual suggestion. Docking in space is something you should master. Because then you can get to building actual transplanetary spaceships. Here's how you start. Launch a Rockomax 32 into space with six atomic engines bolted on. Add a wide battery and a CPU. Fat senior docking port on the front. Next, launch and dock an RCS / power module on there. Now you got power generation and attitude control. Then, add in a couple of stowaway cans as another module, and bingo. You gots a starship. Maybe put another port or two on the side for parasite landers.

[Gailardia]

Just remember rule #078:

-snip-

That's rule #001 for you.

[SRV Ron]

Being inclined, Minmus can be hard to intercept at times. It often requires guessing where the intercept will be then making a mid course maneuver to catch the change in orbital plane.

[Odo]

Remember, nuclear engines!

[adinfinitum]

If you want to practice the skills needed for an interplanetary mission, without waiting forever for a launch window and having to build a ship with enough deltaV to go interplanetary, you could practice transferring from the Mun to Minmus and back again.

Doing that uses the same concepts as traveling from Kerbin to another planet in the system, in that you have to account for changes in inclination, and you are transferring between two bodies that orbit the same parent object.

[Whackjob]

Here's an old interplanetary I was setting up before I lost interest:

[SRV Ron]

Practice with simple small designs, then work up to bigger more complex ones.

This easily gets to Mum or Minmus orbit with no Mechjeb.

With added boosters, thruster pack, parachutes and landing legs, it made Duna.

[fatfluffycat]

I remember how I hated the game the first day I had it, I couldn't even get into orbit.

Watch some videos on how to do stuff.

[SkyRender]

My tips would be thus...

1. Use decouplers and shed unneeded mass as you go up! Anything not contributing to pushing you forward is holding you back.

2. Get used to maneuver nodes and targeting! It saves loads of delta-V if you can plan your intercepts so that you arrive where you need to be when what you're trying to intercept is also there.

3. When in doubt, add more fuel! The only time your thrust is really critical is when you're trying to get on to or off of the surface of a celestial body.

4. Learn how to dock! It's much easier to get where you're going if you can refuel in orbit. Docking is very tricky for a lot of newcomers, however, so don't push this suggestion too far if it proves to be too frustrating to handle.

[katateochi]

As some have already said, if you're struggling try downsizing. I know the end goal for many of us is to build hulking great monsters, but the bigger you go the harder the challenge. If you double your rocket's size you don't double it's capability (law of diminishing returns and all that).

Do something like SRV Ron suggests. Small things have other advantages aside from being much more efficient; the game runs much better and you're not fighting against laggy performance as well. Don't get me wrong, I love the stupidly big things, but I started small.

(@SRV Ron, what mod are those red and white tanks from?)

I'd also recommend using MechJeb, NOT for piloting, just for info read outs during design (you could use Kerbal Engineer, I'm just not familiar with it). With that you can see what your crafts dV is and combine that with one of the deltaV maps you will be able to judge if you have enough chutzpah (dV) to get somewhere which cuts down a lot of trail and error.

Protractor is also very useful as it will tell you when the planets are in optimal positions to transfer to. I think Minmus is there to teach an important lesson; either burn a shed load of fuel adjusting your orbit's inclination to match Minmus or transfer and the right moment (so you arrive at it as it's orbit crosses Kerbins) which will require a lot less fuel.

Also, do post some pics of the craft you're building so we can (politely) dissect them for you and suggest improvements.

But don't give up and don't loose heart, some of us have spent worrying amounts of time playing this!

[Vanamonde]

There's no secret to it. If we are making interplanetary missions look easy, it's because we've been practicing flying and working on our designs for more than a month. (I made a thread for my 6-month learning process: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/37952-Round-trip-ships) Failing over and over again is part of this game, and that's a big part of why KSP gives one such a sense of accomplishment when you finally succeed. My advice would be to not focus on the goal and have more fun with the process.

[spikeyhat09]

I'm not going to tell you to keep playing or give up. all im going to say is that if you give up, you are missing out on a lot the game has to offer, and possibly one of the best games out there.

Rome was not built in a day (or a month for that matter).

it isn't fair for you to play for 2 months and give up because you can't get past the mun. the people you see making it look "easy" have been playing far more than a month or two. hell, 2 months after i started playing, i don't know if i had even reached the mun. yet now, more than a year later, ive mastered nearly if not all the concepts used in the game, and have reached every body at least once.

[spikeyhat09]

Here's an old interplanetary I was setting up before I lost interest:

~snip~

I find it interesting that the legendary builder Whackjob has purportedly only reached Duna, at least according to his signature

[Odo]

Asurob, you arent giving us anything to go by. All you said is you cant do it.

How can you expect us to help if we dont even know the problem?

[Lojik]

Before I started playing I watched all of Scott Manleys videos on youtube about the game and mechanics, first mission I did in game was landing on minmus and returning to Kerbin all in one trip, my advise if watch his vids if your stuck, and also learn to manually control your craft before using an auto system like Mechjeb, it imo gives you a greater understanding of the game and how space flight in it works.

[FlamedSteak]

double post

Edited October 9, 2013 by FlamedSteak

[FlamedSteak]

If you can't rendezvous and dock you're going to have a lot harder time getting anywhere beyond Kerbins moons.

Almost every interplanetary mission I've done has involved building my vessel in low kerbin orbit before heading out.

Whether that means docking a lander and a fuel/engine array, or simply just topping up the tanks. You can get mech jeb to do it, but it's so much more satisfying manually docking.

[Whackjob]

I find it interesting that the legendary builder Whackjob has purportedly only reached Duna, at least according to his signature

Correct! I've landed on Duna and Ike. I have not yet visited elsewhere in the system. I keep finding myself sidetracked with vessels. As soon as I get one big one in orbit, I immediately see twelve different ways I can improve it. And then I have to stop and redo it. And again. And again. The pictures I've posted are an infinitesimal small minority of the things I have done. Most never get the luxury of being screenshotted. I just go through too many too quick. My big, impressive victories are merely the few grains of sand scattered in between entire dunes of failure.

I do not fear failure. Failure is data. I fear not learning from failure. Failure to learn from failure is stupidity.

[Dingbat1967]

I've been playing the game from two months. Landing on minmus & the mun has become pretty easy at this point, so has docking and building large-ish ships. I've decided that if I'm going into the solar system, I'm going to be very methodical about it and started a "Massive Space Program" with 43 ships in Kerbin orbit, sending flotillas instead of individual ships to target worlds. Right now my first flotilla is mid way to Eeloo, another one to Jool, two are ready for moho & eve. If you're going to do it, do it the way it should be done

Very much inspired by Scott Manley's Reusable Space Program. I don't do any of his fancy stuff (like the spinning Habitat) but right now, with the Kethane mod, it adds a whole dimension to the game.

My whole plan is simply to send preliminary survey groups to each world, landing some permanent stuff, but every "flotilla" has at least two kethane miners, rovers ... kethane scanning satellites, the works.

I'm having a blast and I love building. Don't give up.

-- Dingbat.

[SRV Ron]

Do something like SRV Ron suggests. Small things have other advantages aside from being much more efficient; the game runs much better and you're not fighting against laggy performance as well. Don't get me wrong, I love the stupidly big things, but I started small.

(@SRV Ron, what mod are those red and white tanks from?)

The red and white tanks are from Nova Punch. Their small ones are quite useful along with the matching engines and low output decouplers. Nice selection of tanks and engines to complement the stock ones. Medium stuff works well too. The big 5 meter tanks needs tons of braces to hold them together. Hard to work with.