Beginners cheatsheet

[JoerT]

I forced my co-worker into KSP, but he had a lot of questions. I drew him a little picture of how to go about getting into orbit. When I got at home, I descided to photoshop it so it'd look a bit better. Might be interesing for other beginners too.

Here it is

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By9azxHKlc13cHZxbzRkU1o1Vm8/edit?usp=sharing - Updated to V5, typo removed and added more indicators around prograde/retrograde section.

I'm not an expert rocket scientist by any means, so any corrections are very welcome.

Edited March 27, 2014 by JoerT
Updated the file to v5

[Supernovy]

Moved to tutorials, since this isn't really a gameplay question.

That seems like a nice and concise explanation of ascent into orbit.

[Tank Buddy]

Just a question, are you depicting a westward takeoff? Because east (90 degrees) is more common and gives you an advantage because of the planet's rotational speed.

[Superfluous J]

One suggestion: "Until your periapsis is at the same height as your apoapsis" won't happen. I'd suggest "Until your periapsis is above 70km" for newbies.

Getting in orbit is more important than getting a circular orbit.

[Javster]

Also, are you choosing 6.9 km and 69 km because they're palindromes??? (Or just to get your co-worker interested )

[frizzank]

The only thing I dont like is your use of font..

[Deathsoul097]

Also, are you choosing 6.9 km and 69 km because they're palindromes??? (Or just to get your co-worker interested )

They're the values MJ uses, as Kerbin's atmo ends at 69.3 km.

[JoerT]

Thanks a lot for all the feedback so far.

I think you've all got some good points. I think I'll keep a handwritten font, tho I'll look for a cleaner one. I was trying to depict east. I now see that I wrote both 90 degrees, and "west" in the text. I really suck ;p

Would probably be a good idea to change the gravity turn to 7km - 70km for simplicity sake. I did get thos 69's from mechjeb, no innuendo intended ;p

Is 70km high enough for your periapsis? I usually aim at 80km at least, tho I'm not really sure where I got that number.

I'll update the thing when I get access to my photoshop. Thanks once again

[Superfluous J]

If your apoapsis is 80, you won't be able to raise your periapsis to 80 without either shooting your apoapsis way up to Mun's orbit or beyond, or flying REALLY well to manage everything.

If your periapsis is 70km, you'll orbit forever with no problems. Atmo ends just shy of that (69.3km sounds about right to me) so there is NO drag from that point on.

I find it's good to tell new people "Get your apoapsis to 80, and then get your periapsis above 70. Bam. orbit." Once they can do that, then you can start worrying about things like circularizing and whatnot.

[JoerT]

Great. I've updated the picture now with all your remarks appart from the font ;p

I've also added a bit more info about pro-grade and retrograde, so circularizing is possible using the data on this sheet.

[Superfluous J]

Typo: "reacha" instead of "reach a"

Looking good. I'd show this to a new player with no reservations.

[JoerT]

Thanks for the correction and the kind remarks Horseman. I've corrected the typo and added a few more arrows which I think help explain prograde and retrograde a bit more.

[Javster]

Also, it's ascent, not ascend.