Can you give me some tips on how to start my mission for minmus?

[Lolkillalevi]

Hi i'm new to KSP and the forums, About 2 days in... I want to finally try to land on a planet and plant A flag. The one problem is... I don't know how to start my mission for minmus, I thought of going to the mun but everyone was saying that minmus is farther but easier, So i'm gonna try to go to minmus. So my problem is...I am new, I have no expirience, I don't know where to start or how to even try and land on a planet...So i need help.

Craft files will help

Links to mods that make getting to planets easier

And tips and whatever else you think will help my cause.

thanks in advance!

[Tex_NL]

[Sirrobert]

Watch Scott Manley's video, that'll walk you through step by step

[Godot]

It depends ... if you just want to get into the orbit of one of Kerbals moons (and afterwards return (which I would recommend as a first step before even trying to land)) then Mun is easier.

Minmus however is easier to land on ... but (in contrast to Mun) Minmus is farther away and you have to first match your orbital inclination to that of Minmus before trying to get there ... whereas for hitting Mun you just have to extent your Apoapsis (at the right place) to the orbit of Mun

[capi3101]

Scott Manley's video is probably best for the first attempt. If you want to change anything at all from his design, use the Mk1 Lander Can instead of the Mk1 Command Pod; it weighs less and thus will give you a little more delta-V. I'd also suggest swapping out the FL-T400 with an FL-T100, connect three more FL-T100s radially to the central tank, run fuel lines from those outboard tanks to the center tank, and attach your lander legs to those outboard tanks. You shorten and widen your stack that way without sacrificing any fuel in the process; as a rule it's easier to land something with a short and wide stack. This is an older video (circa 0.18 IIRC), so yours will need to add three OX-STAT solar panels on the outboard tank and maybe two of the little Z-100 battery packs.

Some Quick Landing Tips for Beginners:

Landing's tricky when you're starting out. Accept that you will botch it at least once and you can have fun with it.

Before you start, hit F5 to quicksave - when you botch it, hold down F9 for a few seconds and you can try again.

When you de-orbit on Minmus for the first time, aim for one of the mara - those flat, low areas. They're great to practice on and your altimeter is actually worth something (on other worlds, the surface is not necessarily at zero meters; even on Minmus's maras, it's usually at 1 meter). When you get good at landing in the maras, pick somewhere else to land and get used to going IVA. There's a gauge there called a radar altimeter that measures your actual altitude over the surface, and you can use it to better gauge where the surface is. That's the tricky part of landing - you've got to know where the surface is and slow down to <10 m/s before you get there (but not too early; you waste fuel that way).

Make sure when you're landing that your speedometer reads "surface". If it says "orbit", click on it until it says "surface".

[Sirrobert]

Scott Manley's video is probably best for the first attempt. If you want to change anything at all from his design, use the Mk1 Lander Can instead of the Mk1 Command Pod; it weighs less and thus will give you a little more delta-V. I'd also suggest swapping out the FL-T400 with an FL-T100, connect three more FL-T100s radially to the central tank, run fuel lines from those outboard tanks to the center tank, and attach your lander legs to those outboard tanks. You shorten and widen your stack that way without sacrificing any fuel in the process; as a rule it's easier to land something with a short and wide stack. This is an older video (circa 0.18 IIRC), so yours will need to add three OX-STAT solar panels on the outboard tank and maybe two of the little Z-100 battery packs.

Some Quick Landing Tips for Beginners:

Landing's tricky when you're starting out. Accept that you will botch it at least once and you can have fun with it.

Before you start, hit F5 to quicksave - when you botch it, hold down F9 for a few seconds and you can try again.

When you de-orbit on Minmus for the first time, aim for one of the mara - those flat, low areas. They're great to practice on and your altimeter is actually worth something (on other worlds, the surface is not necessarily at zero meters; even on Minmus's maras, it's usually at 1 meter). When you get good at landing in the maras, pick somewhere else to land and get used to going IVA. There's a gauge there called a radar altimeter that measures your actual altitude over the surface, and you can use it to better gauge where the surface is. That's the tricky part of landing - you've got to know where the surface is and slow down to <10 m/s before you get there (but not too early; you waste fuel that way).

Make sure when you're landing that your speedometer reads "surface". If it says "orbit", click on it until it says "surface".

Another one: Land while you are in the sun. Makes it much easier to see the terrain, and your shadow is a good indication of how high you are

[Lolkillalevi]

Scott Manley's video is probably best for the first attempt. If you want to change anything at all from his design, use the Mk1 Lander Can instead of the Mk1 Command Pod; it weighs less and thus will give you a little more delta-V. I'd also suggest swapping out the FL-T400 with an FL-T100, connect three more FL-T100s radially to the central tank, run fuel lines from those outboard tanks to the center tank, and attach your lander legs to those outboard tanks. You shorten and widen your stack that way without sacrificing any fuel in the process; as a rule it's easier to land something with a short and wide stack. This is an older video (circa 0.18 IIRC), so yours will need to add three OX-STAT solar panels on the outboard tank and maybe two of the little Z-100 battery packs.

Some Quick Landing Tips for Beginners:

Landing's tricky when you're starting out. Accept that you will botch it at least once and you can have fun with it.

Before you start, hit F5 to quicksave - when you botch it, hold down F9 for a few seconds and you can try again.

When you de-orbit on Minmus for the first time, aim for one of the mara - those flat, low areas. They're great to practice on and your altimeter is actually worth something (on other worlds, the surface is not necessarily at zero meters; even on Minmus's maras, it's usually at 1 meter). When you get good at landing in the maras, pick somewhere else to land and get used to going IVA. There's a gauge there called a radar altimeter that measures your actual altitude over the surface, and you can use it to better gauge where the surface is. That's the tricky part of landing - you've got to know where the surface is and slow down to <10 m/s before you get there (but not too early; you waste fuel that way).

Make sure when you're landing that your speedometer reads "surface". If it says "orbit", click on it until it says "surface".

I tried, The engine, Fell off. Only doing his steps...Sooo, Yeah, that can't help.

[capi3101]

Congratulations: your first attempt, your first botch. Try again.

I'm not trying to sound smart, it does happen and it's frustrating when it does. But really all you can do is practice practice practice. And make sure the gear's down.

And be proud of yourself: if all that happened was that you knocked the engine off without anything else exploding, you did exceptionally well.

[Traches]

Haha yeah, like capi and others have pointed out-- KSP is a lot about trial and error. Accept that you'll explode a lot at first. It's still fun, I promise

[Vanamonde]

Here's a walkthrough for getting to the moons, and a sandbox rocket that can do it: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25029-A-moon-rocket-and-moon-trip-walkthrough-for-newbies-(21-1)

In in career mode, here's a tier-3 ship (no walkthrough) that can do it: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55636-Career-mode-starter-ships (The moon rocket is the third one in the thread.)

[Tex_NL]

H... KSP is a lot about trial and error. Accept that you'll explode a lot at first. It's still fun, I promise

Failure is not an option. It's an integral part of the design process!

[Sirrobert]

Failure is not an option. It's an integral part of the design process!

Amen. Don't forget intentional explosions

[JiWint]

This was my first small step...which later became a giant leap

[LtHeckard]

Going to Minmus can be challenging for beginners.. You won't need much more Delta V than going to the Mun, but landing on Minmus is easy as pie. One problem you might have with trying to go to Minmus, is that the orbits are quite different.

First thing you'll want to do is set Minmus as your target. Once you do that, there will be two new markers called the Ascending Node, and the Descending Node. You will want to put a maneuver node directly on top of one of them.

Once you place the node down, you will want to mess with the Purple nodes (Normal/Anti-Normal) Until both your nodes are about 0.0 degrees or NaN. After that, look for the blue marker as shown on the example image above, and burn directly on it. NaN means Not a Number, so that means your manuever was perfect. After your nodes are in the right places, NaN preferably, you can use the maneuver node again and use the prograde tool to burn out to Minmus. After that, you can use the retrograde tool to burn into Minmus orbit.

Edit: Don't burn as soon as you find the blue marker, burn when the count down reaches T- 0 Seconds

Edited November 3, 2013 by LtHeckard

[Mmmmyum]

Seeing threads like this reminds me of my first few attempts... A three stage rocket that lands and returns on it's final stage should do it. I can't post a craft file (way too many mods), but this is able to take a kerbal and a rover to either Minmus or the Mun and return , that's the equivalent (kinda) of 3 of the long solid fuel boosters, and that's a skipper pushing the equivalent of the orange tank