How to get beyond Mun and Minmus

[CrayzCrinkle]

Can someone advise how this is done?

I checked out this tutorial for getting to eve:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:How_to_get_to_Eve

It says you only need 3000 speed to get straight there, although its assuming you go into orbit around Kerbin first (which I dont do because it would waste so much fuel). But I got the angle right and got up to around 5000 meters per second but still it just removes my path after leaving Kerbins gravity well and puts me in orbit around the sun. How do I get to go straight there?

If someone can explain why there is any need to orbit Kerbin then please do. In my experience, getting into orbit means shooting upwards then turning sidewards when you have a good speed and using a lot of fuel to make yourself go around the planet. I really just want to go from A-B straight there. I've been to Num and Minmus so many times its easy, and never orbitted Kerbin once for any mission.

Also: i dont use mods or anything to make the game easier. So please bear this in mind

[sal_vager]

"If you can get to orbit you're half way to anywhere" Robert Heinlein, author, requoted by HarvesteR, KSP lead developer.

You will actually use less fuel by getting into an orbit first as long as you are doing it in anything like an efficient manner, burning straight up then sideways is actually very wasteful as you are fighting gravity much of the way.

A better way is to gradually pitch over as you ascend so you gain horizontal speed early, so your rocket is held up not just by it's thrust, but by being fast enough that it is in a ballistic trajectory with a lot of momentum.

Try this approach to reaching orbit, take off like you normally would and watch your atmospheric pressure gauge, when the needle reaches the darker blue, tilt your craft west so the navball shows about 45 degrees, if your rocket is very heavy you will want a steeper angle though so your yellow maker does not drop too far.

At the big line before you reach the very dark blue part, pitch over again to about 67 degrees, less for a heavy rocket, you'll be gaining a lot of horizontal speed now and pushing your apoapsis into the upper atmosphere.

Where the dark blue gives way to black pitch over once more to around 80 degrees, nearly to the horizon and keep burning, switch to the map and cut your engines when your AP is comfortably above the atmosphere, 80km is fine.

Coast till apoapsis then burn while pointing 90 degrees (the horizon) till you hit about 2300m/s, now you're in orbit with more fuel than you'd normally be left with, and more time to figure out what to do next

Edited April 18, 2014 by sal_vager

[Redshift OTF]

You can't just point towards Eve and thrust there like it is possible with Mun and Minmus I'm afraid. Mun and Minmus are both orbiting your fixed point on Kerbin. Eve is not orbiting Kerbin, both planets are going around the Sun on a similar orbit so it is a matter of changing orbits. The easiest way is to escape the influence of Kerbin and obtain a solar orbit and then perform a Hohmann transfer, which is to bring your solar periapsis inwards towards Eve's orbit just as Eve reaches the intersection point. Select Eve as your target, make a manoeuvre node on your solar orbit, reduce the pro-grade till you are touching Eve's orbit and then drag the manoeuvre node around your solar orbit until you get an encounter. Then you can fine tune it.

[Sirrobert]

It says you only need 3000 speed to get straight there, although its assuming you go into orbit around Kerbin first (which I dont do because it would waste so much fuel).

You're wrong there.

It's more efficient to be in orbit first, and than burn out to wherever you want to go.

On your question, you will ALWAYS be in orbit around the sun when you want to go to another planet. From there, you transfer to the planet you want. Same way as when you'd go to the Mun from Kerbin orbit.

To practice: Get in orbit around the Mun, and transfer to Minmus from there (or vice versa).

If you can do that, you can do interplanetery stuf

[CrayzCrinkle]

OK i just tried this again using sal's "turn on your way up" method and it really doesnt save any fuel at all. regardless, from tests before and after, I cant find any place to put a manouver node so it'll give me a straight line from kerbon to another planet.

I get that I also have kerbins orbital speed to worry about, but I really dont see how its possible to have the massive amounts of fuel left that you'd need to go straight to another world. Are they ever going to add in things to make it easier to know how to do this? Using 3rd party mods is basically cheating in my book.

I really hoped to come back to KSP and get at least a landing on another world, but it still seems that without 3rd party cheats its really not possible

[AlexinTokyo]

I'm no expert interplanetary pilot, so I'm not going to write out a whole lot of advice; I don't feel qualified.

Instead, I will simply link to this video, which is the inestimable Scott Manley on interplanetary navigation.

It should give you some ideas.

[Sirrobert]

OK i just tried this again using sal's "turn on your way up" method and it really doesnt save any fuel at all. regardless, from tests before and after, I cant find any place to put a manouver node so it'll give me a straight line from kerbon to another planet.

I get that I also have kerbins orbital speed to worry about, but I really dont see how its possible to have the massive amounts of fuel left that you'd need to go straight to another world. Are they ever going to add in things to make it easier to know how to do this? Using 3rd party mods is basically cheating in my book.

I really hoped to come back to KSP and get at least a landing on another world, but it still seems that without 3rd party cheats its really not possible

YOU WILL NEVER GET A STRAIGHT LINE

You are moving in orbit, not in straight lines.

Go watch some Scott Manley tuturials, he'll explain it

[RW-1]

OK i just tried this again using sal's "turn on your way up" method and it really doesnt save any fuel at all. regardless, from tests before and after, I cant find any place to put a manouver node so it'll give me a straight line from kerbon to another planet.

I get that I also have kerbins orbital speed to worry about, but I really dont see how its possible to have the massive amounts of fuel left that you'd need to go straight to another world. Are they ever going to add in things to make it easier to know how to do this? Using 3rd party mods is basically cheating in my book.

I really hoped to come back to KSP and get at least a landing on another world, but it still seems that without 3rd party cheats its really not possible

It's not only possible, but has occurred to many others out there.

I'm sorry to say it but you are the barrier to getting yourself to another planet in the Kerbal system.

From the sound of it, you really need to go back to get a 101 understanding of orbital mechanics. Patience would be second.

This is not a flame, just going on the post history and observation.

Many have tried to assist you in this endeavor, yet you keep discarding basic OM valuable info to try to achieve what cannot be done. Your trip will be a orbit around Kerbol to the planet of choice, plain and simple.

MechJeb is not cheating, it's a tool, I suggest you load it, allow it to plan the outbound transfer orbit so that you can readily see how it is done, you can then remove and continue without it if you wish.

[Mystique]

My idea of easy (though not most fuel-efficient; because I tend not to wait till best transfer window and just take more fuel instead) way of interplanetary transfer:

1. Get on Kerbin orbit (I prefer 200-250 km close to circular orbit, because my interplanetary stages use nuclear or ion engines, which produces long burns that I have to start minute or 2 before maneuver node; if orbit will be too low - I'll have to burn towards ground because of this, which will cause mission to end very fast).

2. Set up a maneuver node that will make your orbit around the Sun intersect with target's orbit (say you target Duna; you make prograde burn node with enough delta-v to escape Kerbin's SOI, then just zoom out and start moving it around your current orbit to find a moment when it'll produce solar orbit with suits your interest best). Idea is to make, for example, Sun orbit's periapsis to be on target planet's orbit.

3. Check out inclination difference with you target. Set up next node on ascending/descending node (which is closest) to correct Sun orbit's inclination.

4. Use previous inclination node or set up new one after it to play a bit with pro/retrogrand and orbit it/out directions to get closest approach markers. If approach is actually close, then correct this node a bit to get interception with target.

5. Press TAB several times to get focused on target planet and zoom in to see how exactly you'll pass by. Set up a node on periapsis for deceleration until you get an orbit around target body.

If total amount of delta-v for these nodes is within your interplanetary delta-v budget - start executing them.

P.S. If you ask me, stock information means and node controls are too rough. I usually use MechJeb's node editor to fine tune nodes, it makes life a lot more easier. And I also don't understand how exactly people calculate their rocket's delta-v without mods. Don't tell me they use manual calculations, that'll ruin my world view.

[HeadHunter67]

"If you can get to orbit you're half way to anywhere" HarvesteR, KSP lead developer.

Not to split hairs, but that was originally from Robert Heinlein.

[sal_vager]

Lol, I better update that bit

[BudgetHedgehog]

OK i just tried this again using sal's "turn on your way up" method and it really doesnt save any fuel at all. regardless, from tests before and after, I cant find any place to put a manouver node so it'll give me a straight line from kerbon to another planet.

I get that I also have kerbins orbital speed to worry about, but I really dont see how its possible to have the massive amounts of fuel left that you'd need to go straight to another world. Are they ever going to add in things to make it easier to know how to do this? Using 3rd party mods is basically cheating in my book.

I really hoped to come back to KSP and get at least a landing on another world, but it still seems that without 3rd party cheats its really not possible

Two things: I'd really like to see a video of how you do you gravity turns so you end up having the same or less amount of fuel left as burning straight up to 5000m/s. I would just really like to see it because I honestly can't imagine how you're doing that.

And to get to other planets, people usually launch into orbit, then send up another craft to refuel it. That's usually where people get the massive amounts of fuel from.

[RW-1]

P.S. If you ask me, stock information means and node controls are too rough. I usually use MechJeb's node editor to fine tune nodes, it makes life a lot more easier. And I also don't understand how exactly people calculate their rocket's delta-v without mods. Don't tell me they use manual calculations, that'll ruin my world view.

Damn! Phil Kerbin just saw that and threw out the TRS-80 that was onboard that they were using for the Eve Intercept ....

[Redshift OTF]

You don't go to other planets by going in a straight line. You use thrust to change your orbit so you either fall down to them or fall up to them.

[Tarmenius]

As others have pointed out, the first step is launching into Kerbin orbit efficiently. Use a simple rocket (like the one pictured below) as a test platform. If you can get it into orbit, or at least close to it, you'll know you have an efficient ascent profile.

Once you've gotten that down, you can practice interplanetary transfers within Kerbin's sphere of influence. Get into orbit around the Mun and try to transfer to Minmus using as little fuel as you can manage. At the end of that process, you will have a much better understanding of what it takes to travel from planet to planet.

Hope this helps, and keep asking questions if anything is unclear.