I cant get to the mun on the demo

[MASunderc0ver]

I have tried to go to the mun for 1 day now i have followed Scott Manley,s tutorial (

) on how to get there.

I just cant do it has anyone else got any tips on how to get there successfully. Also some tips on getting into orbit tips because i did it with luck ones

thanks MASunderc0ver.

[LordFjord]

What went wrong? Did you try to reproduce Scott's tutorial? Did your rocket ran out of fuel during the ascend? Did it spontaneously disintegrate? How/when did you start to turn your rocket?

Lots of questions but pictures would help as well.

[KerbMav]

If you have trouble getting into orbit, maybe you should start there and let Mun wait for a bit longer.

And as LordFjord said, please explain your problem a bit more, where did the mission go wrong?

[Sirrobert]

We need more information to help you.

Where does it go wrong. Are you in orbit already?

[Wanderfound]

I have tried to go to the mun for 1 day now

One day is not very long in KSP terms.

Learn to enjoy failure; it's an integral part of the rocket building process. And when you finally do get there you'll enjoy that too.

[LaytheAerospace]

It might be helpful to install MechJeb and watch how it does an ascent, then mimic it. MJ ascents aren't exactly optimal, but they'll get you there without a ton of effort. I do recommend you keep at it and at least orbit once without MJ before starting to rely on it heavily. It's fun, and is a nice accomplishment to have under your belt. Making orbit isn't exactly trivial, or this game wouldn't have the learning curve that it does.

As a general bit of advice, I'd recommend staying as simple as possible to start, don't use the largest parts yet, and ignore RCS entirely until you're actually trying to dock ships in orbit. Once you get the hang of the basics, it's easy to scale up and go farther. Sooner than you think you'll be stranding your first Kerbals out in space.

[Javster]

It might be helpful to install MechJeb and watch how it does an ascent, then mimic it.

He/she can't, since the demo is being used.

[SRV Ron]

Refine your flying technique. Mun landing and return is quite easy in the demo with this design.

You should be able to do the landing and return in a less capable ship using a single stage lander instead of the two stage onion staging example pictured.

[Russoft]

Practice some patience in learning. If you've been playing a single day, then I'm not surprised you haven't reached the mun. I took about three days to figure it out in the demo and I had so much fun failing over that time period that I bought the game the next day. Start by getting a rocket to fly on a sub-orbital trajectory (goes above 70,000 m but doesn't stay in space), then try to get a rocket into orbit. Then attempt a fly-by of the Mun with a return to Kerbin. Then attempt your Mun landing.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Russoft

[Pecan]

Rats! I deleted my 'Demo version starter ships' document because I thought there'd be no demand for it :-(

Have you performed the training mission "To The Mun, Part 1"? (Start Game > Training). That gives you a ship already in orbit around Kerbin with plenty of fuel and power to transfer to Mun, land, re-orbit, return to Kerbin and land. (That was interesting, I haven't played with the demo for a while. No wonder I bought the full game once I had!)

The important thing for getting to Mun is to burn (your engines) with the ship pointing prograde (in the direction you're travelling, yellow circle with 'wings' on the navball) roughly as Mun rises above the horizon - watch for this in flight mode. Switch to map mode (press M) and watch the apoapsis (high part of orbit) on your blue orbit line expand out towards Mun's orbit. When it intercepts Mun's it will change colour to indicate that you have an encounter. Press X to turn off your engines and off you go :-)

For getting to orbit a good first ship starts with a command pod with a parachute on top. This is the 'recovery stage' that will land when you've finished. Add a stack decoupler, an advanced SAS module, an FL-T400 fuel tank and then an LV-909 beneath the command pod - this will complete getting into orbit and, when you want to, push you back out of orbit to land. Finally; put another stack decoupler, two FL-T800 fuel tanks and an LV-T30 engine to launch and power most of the ascent.

Save then launch this vehicle. On the pad, once the camera 'settles', press T to engage the SAS unit. Press left-shift until throttle is at max then press the spacebar to activate the main LV-T30 engine. Standard ascent advice for beginners is to go straight up to 10km then disengage SAS (T again), yaw right (D) until the rocket is angled to about 45-degrees above the horizon then re-engage SAS (T once more). Getting to orbit means getting enough height AND horizontal speed so you stay in space instead of falling back down. This turn means you will be accelerating sideways as you climb. When the lower-stage burns-out (the engine stops) press spacebar again to jettison it and again to activate the upper, LV-909, engine. Yaw further right until pitched to only 20-degrees or so above the horizon - more of the thrust is going into building horizontal speed. Press M to switch to map mode and hover your mouse over the 'Ap' (apoapsis, high point of orbit) marker on your blue orbit line. When the apoapsis reaches 75km or more press X to switch off the engines. About 30s before you reach the apoapsis (hovering the mouse over the marker also shows you the time until you reach it) make sure the ship is facing prograde then increase throttle to max again. Burn until a 'Pe' (periapsis, low point of orbit) marker appears and then approaches in front of your ship. Hover the mouse over this and burn a little more until it's over 70km - you're now in orbit.

Getting to orbit isn't easy; the first few times you make it is quite an achievement. Practice and, if none of this makes much sense, read.

When you're ready to come home - turn the ship so it is facing retrograde (opposite the way it's moving) then burn the engines until the orbit line hits the ground. Turn off the engines (X) and press space to jettison the fuel tank and engine; now you're committed ^^. Watch as the capsule falls, press space again to deploy the parachute anywhere below about 10km. It will first appear 'semi-deployed', slowing you a little, until you get 500m above the ground where there is enough air-density for it to fully-deploy. Then the ship will just float down to land.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Pecan

[cantab]

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Basic_maneuvers

I've found this about the most useful page on the wiki. Note particularly the recommended speeds for ascent. When I started out I slapped a load of boosters on the bottom of my rocket and wasted all their power on going at silly speeds in the lower atmosphere. Now I know better of course.

[Hagatora]

I don't think he is coming back.

[zarakon]

Why do you say that? It hasn't even been 24 hours

[Bioman222]

A full day isn't anything, dude, it took me a full year to finally land a Kerbal on the mun. That Kerbal still hasn't come back!