Efficient Rocketry?

[subfreq23]

I have been kerbaling a few months now, and LOVE IT. But I feel I cheat a little to much to get to the MUN. Because when I download awesome packs like Kerpollo and White Monkeys able class rocket I have to add big boosters and sometimes swap out engines. I assume the packs are designed to get there as is, so what is my issue?

I have tried the slingshot around kerbin, doing short bursts of heavy burns and 'leap frogging' but I just cant get it.

HELP PLEASE Bob and Jeb want more of a challenge.

Thanks,

Subfreq

[Hypocee]

There are countless spiraling nerdfests about what\'s 'realistic' or not on a 1200km planet full of green men building 1m diameter crewed spacecraft, but the fact of the matter is that many mod packs are intended to encourage more Earthlike use of many stages than vanilla. There\'s a good chance you just need moar stagiz.

It\'s also worth noting that though some care was presumably taken with stock part parameters, they\'ve remained nearly untouched from days before any real balance concerns. Later in development we\'re told to expect many more parts and probably at least one ground-up rebalance pass.

As far as orbital dynamics goes, it sounds like you\'re mostly doing things right. Burn as heavy and short as possible, at 180 degrees from your intended apoapsis, as low and fast as possible. It\'s not possible to meaningfully 'slingshot' around Kerbin when starting from Kerbin, but it\'s not harmful either - boosting into an elliptical orbit, then again when you come back 'down' is mathematically equivalent to one longer initial burn.

[Waterlimon]

Some rocket building instructions that should help if the rocket is the problem (stock):

-Have much thrust compared to weight when launching so you dont go at 30 m/s for too long

-Have as little as possible thrust when orbiting (as you have infinite time to make course adjustments. Of course you dont want to be there too long so 1 RCS wont be enough tho)

-Have again more thrust when landing to mun or something, but mun has less gravity than kerbin so the lander doesnt need that much unless you want it to land on kerbin too or something)

-Try to always use as much of all the available engines as possible. Preferably use some fuel lines so that all engines are being used all the time and the fuel comes from the lower/outer stages

-When you dont need thrust anymore (when you have an orbit), drop a bunch of engines as theyll just waste fuel

In my current rocket i built the mun lander, then 2 liquid fuel stages radially and 1 solid booster stage radially too, then used fuel lines so the fuel always comes from the outer stage all the way to the mun landers engines. Having stages on top of each other is really bad at least with the current aerodynamics and stuff, as youll just be carrying like twice more thrust than youll ever use at a time.

To get to moon:

-Accelerate straight up until apoapsis is at like 40-60k depending on how much thrust you have

-Tilt right (i believe its the 90 degree direction?) so youre thrusting horizontal

-Keep it there until you have a nice orbit with peri and apoapsis both above 70k

-Keep orbiting until you see mun in the horizon. Immediately accelerate to the direction where youre going, until the apoapsis rises enough to be near the muns orbit

-When at the top of your orbit, you should be captured by muns SoI

-Slow down at the mun orbits peri/apo/wateverapsis so you get a nice round orbit

-Preferably on the light side, thrust to the opposite direction to where youre going so you remove all horizontal velocity and fall straight down

-When near mun (1-3k meters?), slow down the ship and land slowly

-Say 'meh'

-Return to kerbin

[subfreq23]

Thanks for the advice...Phew not as much of a noob as I thought. I know, I know mun landings are routine now. Thats why I was hoping to increase the challenge of a good MUN landing.

Cant wait for docking capability!