I've Forgotten How To Do Anything

[lammatt]

have you made sure your rocket is actually:

1.0 < thrust to weight < some crazily big number (too powerful rocket will result structural failure i believe)

enough fuel

enough electricity

enough a reaction control, whether it is the SAS or monopropellent, doesnt matter

aerodynamically stable (if you playing with FAR)

[KerikBalm]

Slightly modified for brevity:

OP -

I wanted to see how simple I could make a ship and make it to orbit... No RCS needed being such a small ship.

...

1x Command Pod Mk1

4x Sepratron I (mounted diagonally on CP)

-decoupler-

1x FL-T200 Fuel Tank

1x LV-909 Liquid Fuel Engine

-decoupler-

1x FL-T800 Fuel Tank

1x LV-T45 Liquid Fuel Engine

-decoupler-

4x FL-T400 Fuel Tank (mounted on TT-38K)

4x LV-T30 Liquid Fuel Engine

...LV-T45 and LV-T30 are all on the bottom stage and fire together.

...

Flight:

... When the four LV-T30's burn out, decouple. This happens close to the gravity turn. After the LV-T30 buns out, decouple and cut engine. Switch to map view and watch for the of assent. Keep ship pointed prograde and fire when at top keeping apleapse below 80km. repeat until pariapse is above 70km. Enjoy the ride.

Deorbit:

Turn retograde and ... fire the Sepratron's.

I'd point out a couple things:

*you'd probably get more dV if you don't fire the lv-t45 until decoupling the lv-t30's (I haven't checked the TWR, but assuming it is sufficient, you will)

*Youd probably get even more dV if you fired 2 lv-t45s, followed by another 2. Or you can action group it to shut down one pair once you don't need the thrust (I don't think you even need more than 2 to lift off, all 4 firing may be beneficial in the first few seconds until you reach 110 m/s) - assuming you don't want to asparagus stage to keep part count down

*RCS can help, I mount 2 RCS blocks on the capsule to use the 10 units of RCS fuel that it has. The RCS mount itself is only a little lighter than a full sepratron, but the ISP is better, and you have that fuel anyway. The thrust isn't that good, but its sufficient for deorbits (not much use on aborts, but I don't bother with aborts)

*I Think your rocket is still more complex/bigger than needed

My "just get a pod to orbit, no asparagus staging" rocket:

*Top stage*

Mk-1 command pod (a lander can would actually be better, but I'll keep the pod since it plausibly would survive reentry)

2 RCS blocks for extra dV

Parachute

*next stage*

FL-T200 tank

Rockomax 48-77s (or lv-909 for looks to maintain part diameter)

*next stage*

FL-T800 tank

LV-T30 or 45 engine

*next stage*

RT-10 Solid Fuel Booster or BACC booster

-optional: fins or launch stabilizers

IIRC, these craft (since there are multiple combinations) can even do moonshots (flybys - not even using the large boosters) with dV to spare.

[Madrias]

I've recently begun experiments with turbojet boosters. Great for that little extra punch in the pea soup of the atmosphere, then you just junk 'em when they're not needed anymore. I'd recommend making sure you double-stage them (dump your air intakes first, then the engines) so you don't have either a loss of thrust or insane engines at full power.

[FREEFALL1984]

I had the same issue, I started playing KSP over the Christmas holidays, and within a few hours I was successfully achieving Munar landings, then I stopped playing for a few months, and when I came back I created a new career game, but the magic was gone and I was incapable of getting into a stable orbit, I think the issue was I was trying to be too ambitious, I was trying to build too big and was forgetting the fundamentals. Once I realized this I started building simple lifters which could get themselves into orbit with a little 15ton payload, a 15 ton probe which easily travel to jool or duna without any issues whatsoever, then I would use that same lifter for a long while until the requirement increased, and I would scale up my lifters.

I would suggest a simple lifter made from 9x FL-t800 tanks, and 5 LVt30s in an asparagus setup then cover the whole thing in radial jet engine nodes with their own tiny fuel supplies and their own intakes, 12 basic jets can get the main rocket, and 15 tonnes of payload up to 15000m before you even need to fire your rockets

[Greenfire32]

Every once in a while I'll hit that Atmospheric "wall" as well. Usually it's because I just keep adding more engines, more booster (MOAR ALL THE THINGS), but 100% of the time I just have to re-think my design. Less is surprisingly better in most cases.

[Nathair]

he shows a nice design for a basic asparagus staged rocket

Actually, that's onion staging. </quibble>

[Pecan]

Mk1 lander can, Mk16 parachute (assuming you want to come back, TR-18A decoupler, X200-16 fuel tank, Aerospike (better ISP than the more powerful engines). Launch TWR 1.58 (bit low, but rises to >5 by the time the fuel is exhausted, never reaches terminal velocity), 4,677m/s deltaV (atmosphere). Gets to 75km orbit with almost 300m/s deltaV remaining. 5 parts including decoupler, no staging except after de-orbit, leave the decoupler out if you like and get about 40m/s more.

You may also like to look at: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71491-Lowest-mass-to-orbit-and-back

However, the OP said "past" LKO, so I don't suppose LKO itself is a problem ^^.

[OTehNoes]

Actually, that's onion staging. </quibble>

Pretty sure he does asparagus in that video too, that or I accidentally linked the wrong one!

EDIT: Yep wrong one, I meant this one!

Edited March 14, 2014 by OTehNoes

[The Jedi Master]

I got this design, loosely based off images on the wiki, to work:

Thank you everyone!