Hi everyone!

[Asthereal]

Hi guys, what's up?

My name is Reinier and I'm from the Netherlands (rainy, stormy place right now - ideal time to launch some virtual rockets ).

About me: I play chess, badminton and Magic, the Gathering. Next to that I follow the football (fan of Ajax) and I enjoy special beers and red wine.

I could use some advice on fuel management in KSP. I tend to burn up a LOT of fuel trying to get away from Kerbin and into some sort of orbit around it. This leaves me with very little fuel to get me to the Mun or further, and when I get where I want I don't have enough to slow down and land properly, so I end up "landing" with like 250km/h. How does one launch and get into orbit without burning too much fuel?

One other thing: the top of this forum -IE the bar with all the buttons and stuff- is shown a tad scrambled, with the search bar and some buttons being shown on top of eachother. Is that my browser messing up, or are there others who don't see this part correctly?

[Vanamonde]

I haven't experienced any graphical problems on the forum.

Everybody burns most of his/her fuel getting to orbit. That's just the nature of spaceflight. To minimize fuel use, build the smallest mission payload possible, then add stages below it until it can get where it is going. To increase range, trim starting at the top stages and only ever add to the bottom stages. Use the minimum number of engines required to make the ship move. But mostly, just try different designs and see what works.

[Asthereal]

Thanks. I'll just build couple of rockets and see what works best. With a normal rocket, I launch vertically. At what altitude should I change course to an angle, and what angle makes most sense?

Abou the top of the forum: I'll try to add a picture of it.

[SRV Ron]

Build simple. Add to the design as you gain experience. You would be surprised just what can actually go just about anywhere in the Kerbal System.

Examples. Tiny probe SSTO

Or a Career ship to Mun orbit and back.

And back home to Kerbal

Edited December 25, 2013 by SRV Ron

[Alicelewis]

HI to everyone, I am new in this forum.

[pigletx2]

Please make your own welcome post if you would like, but welcome anyhow!

[Asthereal]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the advice. Those are some impressively simple designs! Never thought I could actually get something like that as far as that. Especially that mini probe. Perhaps I am building my stuff too big / heavy / clumsy. I did get a nice rocket into Kerbin orbit with half a large tank of fuel left, and a last stage with a full small tank. I'm going to try to land that stuff on Mun or Minmus, or if I'm really bold I'll try to get that thing a LOT further. I did notice that expanding orbits and travelling away from a planet doesn't actually take that much fuel. And if I fail, oh well, I'm in sandbox mode anyway. Jebediah is easily replaced by someone else.

And hello Alice!

[willwolvescry]

Welcome! Tab bar is fine here. Also about fuel management. My motto is take what you need than take more just incase. Well that and Jeb on Standby but that is a different story.