I love this game but...

[BostLabs]

This statement is completely untrue. I've been to Duna, Eve, Jool and most of it's moons and others all without docking or refuelling.

Type 'Asparagus Kerbal' into a search engine of your choice. That will sort you out.

Did you litter the Kerbol system? . I envision tanks on odd orbits or impacted into virgin planets.

Were you able to land and take off again in this ship? If so, that should very cool and I want to see this ship.

[Spatzimaus]

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).

It's first and foremost about the designs. Bigger is better, yes, but it's also a question of efficiencies. Different engine types are essential for the different stages of each flight; during liftoff you want high-power engines to maintain a thrust-to-weight ratio of about 2.2 (any higher and you waste too much energy fighting atmospheric drag), but once you're in a stable orbit the maximum thrust of an engine becomes FAR less important than its Specific Impulse (making the LV-N nuclear engine the favorite choice of interplanetary trips).

It's also a question of control. During ascent you should be carefully adjusting your speed and angle to maximize your efficiency, leaving you far more fuel once you reach orbit. This skill will come in time, but what you should do is go to this page on the wiki, and look at the terminal velocity table. That table also defines the best possible ascent profile; for example, at 1000m, you want to be traveling about 110m/s. Any slower and you're wasting energy fighting gravity, any faster and you're losing too much to drag. So print that table out, and as you're climbing try to adjust your throttle to hit each of those benchmarks as closely as possible.

(There are good mods, like the Flight Engineer mod, that tell you this value as you go to make it quite a bit easier.)

Similarly, once you're in orbit, you need to know what you're doing. If your goal is to leave Kerbin's neighborhood, you want your orbit to be just outside the atmosphere (70km), to maximize the Oberth Effect. Your first few times in orbit, you'll often end up much higher than that due to mistakes made in the gravity turn, and that means you'll be wasting quite a bit of fuel. Practice makes this one a lot better in the long run, as do orbital fuel depots.

[Mr Shifty]

If your goal is to leave Kerbin's neighborhood, you want your orbit to be just outside the atmosphere (70km), to maximize the Oberth Effect. Your first few times in orbit, you'll often end up much higher than that due to mistakes made in the gravity turn, and that means you'll be wasting quite a bit of fuel. Practice makes this one a lot better in the long run, as do orbital fuel depots.

If you are at 70km and you have to do a long burn, you'll push your periapsis into the soup during the first half of the burn and at best lose speed and energy to the atmosphere, at worst de-orbit. You need a cushion, particularly if you're using low thrust engines like the LV-N's.

[Maddmatts]

Know how to take advantage of Targetting and Maneuver Nodes. These are very powerful tools and those who've felt the pain of reaching the other planets before they were implemented know this all too well.

Do things in small steps and not all at once in a single transfer burn.

To make getting to the other planets easier, I burn just enough to get outside Kerbins SOI, then use maneuver nodes to work on the transfer burn from there. It's a little less efficient and adds up to 4 days to your mission time, but I find it simplifies transfers a lot. In fact, by that point it's the same process as transferring from Kerbin orbit to the Mun.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Maddmatts

[Immashift]

Interplanetary stuff will come with patience and time.

Here's how I personally learned:

I started with Mechjeb. I let it plot my interplanetary burns and all related stuff, things like transfer orbits, how to dock, everything. Then I actually watched EXACTLY what it did. Like, I would watch how it waited days and months before a transfer, and figured out that it was a required phase angle for minimizing fuel needed. I watched a docking autopilot dock with my space station, and learned which markers to point at to do what.

Then when I went for manual missions, I packed piles of fuel. I would Google estimated DV for something like a Duna mission, then double it, and that's what I would design for initially. This allowed me to make extremely sloppy missions early on. Missions where I end up hyperbolic and need buttloads of m/s to slow down to a usable level. After that, I refined things. I learned how to set up my destination periapsis from the moment I started my mission, rather than trying to as I scream past my target at some ridiculous speed.

The hardest parts to grasp about interplanetary missions is the phase angles, the inclinations (start with something inclined close to Kerbin, don't start by trying to go to Moho), and maybe figuring out how much DV your craft has when fully packed together ready for a mission.

Going from Kerbol orbit to a planet in the system is much like going from Kerbin to the Mun, only the distances are far greater, and the requirements of your craft are more grand. I initially started by slinging myself out into interplanetary space and then trying to get somewhere from there. I found that I could apply what I knew about meeting up with my space station to meeting up with another planet. If you really can't get an intercept with anything close, try Jool. It has a HUUUUUGE SOI, and is probably by far the easiest to get a capture at, if you're having difficulty. I first went to EVE, then Duna, then Moho, then the rest.

The most amusing though was the first week I had the game, trying to dock stuff in orbit. I'd fumble around, and it'd look like some sort of weird mating ritual as my ships danced around each other, blowing through RCS fuel... of course, I had no concept of relative velocities at the time. I even managed to smash some ships into each other, because I thought burning directly at them would do, if I went fast enough. Eventually I figured it all out, and now things like interplanetary burns, or docking something huge and unwieldy on the night side of Kerbin are rather easy at this point, without any sort of aid.

It all comes in time. Don't push yourself to get a Duna mission if you just can't swing it yet. Keep doing mun stuff, throw in minmus, transfer between them (very much like transferring interplanetary), and then try to apply what you learn from it to other missions.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Immashift

[Monkeh]

Did you litter the Kerbol system? . I envision tanks on odd orbits or impacted into virgin planets.

Were you able to land and take off again in this ship? If so, that should very cool and I want to see this ship.

Nah, my Kerbals are recruited with full knowledge that their trip is a one way mission. They love it though, all those happy smiling faces on the other bodies of their solar system. Most of them have a rover to play with as well so they keep themselves entertained. They HAVE to stay there so I can go visit them every now and then and go for a drive in their rovers, bringing them back ruins all my fun!

The statement I was responding to didn't mention anything about returning:

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.

I just wanted to make it clear that to go to any planet or moon in the system you don't need to dock and refuel. To come back of course is another matter.

[Monger]

Hmm... I can relate to that. I had one of these phases as well, where first everything seemed pretty easy, and all consecutive tries seem to get worse and worse.

Actually, what you need is a way to measure success. For example, if you redesign a ship, you should be able to compare its performance to the former design. Do this by creating reproducable tests, e.g. : launch your rocket straight up until fuel runs out, and measure the maximum distance it achieves before dropping back to Kerbin.

Some very efficient designs are really counter-intuitive, so make sure you not only test the rockets you assume to succeed, but also the ones you assume to fail. For example, when I started I thought that more thrust is always good when achieving orbit. However, as it turns out this is mostly true for the first 3000m, but after that, fuel efficiency is much more important. Therefore, you might want to try weaker (but more efficient) engines, and see how your rocket behaves.

Smaller ships are easier to handle, and a high payload is much more costly than you might imagine. It is perfectly possible, and actually quite simple, to create an unmanned probe that can launch from Kerbin and reach Jool with just a few dozen parts.

Learn to build small rockets. They are key to understand how to build big efficient rockets.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Monger

[asurob]

Look what I managed to pull off last night.

I'd like to thank everyone for the encouragement, tips and ideas. I actually self-built this remote lander and it took 4 tries (yes there are three others floating about the sun) but I finally hit the transfer window correctly with enough fuel, power and a parachute to get to duna. I did use a tanker that I downloaded (brilliant design). My next project is to assemble a decent rover (which I have begun toying with) get it to the mun then to duna.

Anyway thanks a lot guys you were all very very helpful.

[InfinityArch]

When dealing with rovers, Skycranes are the way to go. If you don't know what that means, basically you build the landing stage for the rover ABOVE the rover itself, then detach the rover once you're right above the ground and crash the skycrane a safe distance away.

[boolybooly]

Use this to estimate your transfer angles.

Interplanetary Calculator for KSP

Then use the in game maneuver node planner to check you can get intercept and you cannot fail... if you have enough fuel. Use aerobraking to save fuel when approaching Duna btw, one pass at between 12km-17km is usually good, depends on the craft. Just save when you enter the SOI and experiment till you find the right altitude.

[Mr Shifty]

Use this to estimate your transfer angles.

Interplanetary Calculator for KSP

Then use the in game maneuver node planner to check you can get intercept and you cannot fail... if you have enough fuel. Use aerobraking to save fuel when approaching Duna btw, one pass at between 12km-17km is usually good, depends on the craft. Just save when you enter the SOI and experiment till you find the right altitude.

I've always wondered how this works with eccentric orbits, like Moho and Eeloo. You can't rely on phase angle alone, because the distance between the planets varies by true anomaly.

[Specialist290]

I've always wondered how this works with eccentric orbits, like Moho and Eeloo. You can't rely on phase angle alone, because the distance between the planets varies by true anomaly.

This one is a little more versatile, since it lets you find launch windows based on the planet's actual orbits rather than an idealized circular one.

[Spatzimaus]

When dealing with rovers, Skycranes are the way to go.

Only if they're small rovers. Big ones are a whole other story; it gets very difficult to get enough radial separation to make skycranes stable when you're lifting something really big. Too close and the thrust will destroy your rover, too far and you'll need a lot of struts to keep the flexing from screwing up your flight. That's when you have to get more creative.

For instance, here's my mobile refinery, Mun Unit Zappa, immediately after landing on Mun:

What I did was mount the primary descent engines on three separate pods: two big side pods with high-thrust engines (seen in the picture after they detached), and a small skycrane setup at the top with a set of transfer engines (LV-Ns), which also helped to keep it stable on the way down without seriously endangering the rover. Each of the three pods was attached onto an existing docking port, so once I'd landed I just detached the side pods and drove off, and I can now use those ports for docking with other ground vessels or bases. (The top pod flew away and crashed after detaching, so it's not in the picture.) It worked surprisingly well, although the orbital insertion was a pain since the LV-Ns didn't have even close to enough thrust to decelerate into Mun orbit quickly and just rotating the thing into a wheels-down orientation took a while.

But asurob, it's good to see you made it to Duna. It's quite a bit easier to land there than it is on Mun, assuming you remembered to pack parachutes, so it won't be long until you get a rover there.

[TMS]

... 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.

Do you know how (and when) to execute an inclination change? Do you know how that works with the targeting system?

Also, minmus is often occluded by Mun, making intercepts slightly awkward. It's sometimes worth waiting for the Mun to clear out of the way.

Longer trips will require nuclear engines.

[Elkarlo77]

... 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.

I went to the mun crashed several crafts there, then went to Duna, and then to Minmus.

Minmus is easy to land but very hard to hit because it got a tiny cravity well.

I use a Moonbase Alpha (Space 1999) style Landing ship which is a little tricky to build but great to test.

I builded it in the Plane Hangar testflight it several times to get the weight correct. Strapped some big Tanks under it and launched it into Orbit.

Then i shoot Nuclear Engines up and docked them. And i had a Cross Section on it were i could dock Tanks so i could undock them inflight to shed weight.

Getting my Interplenetary Vessel up needed 6 Missions and 5 docking. Thats the first part which would be trained, docking Maneuvers

when you are confidential at them everything runs better.

A good Beginner Docking orbit is 160km.

You need a lower Orbit when you want to Catch up or increase it for slowing down relativly to your target.

Reaching Minmus is more then Docking then reaching a Planet because of the small Gravity Well.

Very Important is to Weight your Ship on the Launchpad or in Orbit. You can do it with changing into the Map and press info. Then you see the total weight. You need about 20% your Mass for Interplanetary Flight ( My Eagle MK5 had 7% which made it nearly impossible, MK7 had 20% much better) 1:1,5 for lifting of a landing zone. 1KN Thrust = 0,1 Tons of Thrust. Which means that 4 Nuclear Engines gives wou 200kn thrust Sustained or 20 Tons of Thrust. So a Ship with 300 Tons like my eagle is very hard to fly out. But when coming back with 100 Tons was easy to control.

My Lander is Stock except some Nav Lights:

Eagle MK5 on Eve:

Eagle MK5 before leaving Kerbil, note the Rescue Ship

Eagle MK7 on Minmus after dropping a Rudimentary Base carried under his Side ports:

It weights fully loaded 120 Tons and got 196 tons Lifting Thrust, just enough Fuel for Orbiting Laythe.

When you got this Design ready it is a very good and Stable Plattform with good Hover Abilities.

But you need Action Groups for the Thrust changes.

MK7 had 60Tons Thrust for traveling.