What can I do within Kerbin's SOI?

[KASA Space]

I've done lots within Kerbin's SOI. In fact, here's a list;

• Gone to Mun and back
  
• Gone to Minmus and back
  
• Built a base on Minmus
  
• Polar orbit, both ways
  
• Equatorial orbit, both ways
  
• Kerbosynchronous orbit
  
• Docked many craft together
  
• Kethane, SCANSat, and Karbonite scanners on all 3 celestials
  
• Space telescopes
  

What else should I do? I've tried going interplanetary, but I'm not good at it yet. I'm pretty good at KSP, but not super-duper great at it.

Ideas?

[Wanderfound]

* Build yourself an atmospheric plane and explore Kerbin.

* Build yourself an SSTO spaceplane.

* Find all of the Easter eggs on Kerbin/Mun/Minmus.

* Set up an orbital refuelling station; interplanetary is a lot easier when you can launch empty and fuel up in orbit.

And, really: don't be scared of interplanetary. It's not that hard (especially if you use something like http://ksp.olex.biz to help in planning). Send some unmanned probes first if you're worried about losing Kerbals. Or go investigate Kerbol; that takes a fair bit of delta V, but is simple otherwise; just burn Kerbol retrograde until your periapsis gets low enough.

[Tortoise]

Build yourself a space station in an inclined orbit?

[SkyRender]

I don't know if the mod to make it do something is still around, but you could set up a GPS satellite array. That's an interesting challenge unto itself that will teach you an awful lot about how GPS works.

EDIT: Yep, it's still around!

Edited August 8, 2014 by SkyRender

[Mitchz95]

You could practice interplanetary by traveling between the Mun and Minmus. The principle is pretty much identical.

[DeathFromBelow]

You could practice interplanetary by traveling between the Mun and Minmus. The principle is pretty much identical.

Or do what I did. Stick a probe in high Kerbin orbit, play with the nodes/time warp until you get an intercept. Getting to Duna is a cakewalk since there's really no inclination change, you just have to know when it's in the right position.

[merendel]

Or do what I did. Stick a probe in high Kerbin orbit, play with the nodes/time warp until you get an intercept. Getting to Duna is a cakewalk since there's really no inclination change, you just have to know when it's in the right position.

Jool is also not too bad to at least reach. takes more gas to get there than Duna but the SOI is so huge that you can normaly get at least an encounter without changeing inclination. It will probably be a poor encounter that never gets close to the planet, just passing high or low below the plane, unless you tweek things a bit but mid corse inclination changes are easy, trying to hit a strait shot ejection is whats hard. Eve is also fairly forgiving to get to (just dont try and land on it)

[problemecium]

I say go interplanetary. You won't be able to get good at it in any practical fashion other than by trying it out and learning from experience.

If you're not feeling confident, go ahead and make liberal use of the quicksave system, or even try it in Sandbox mode first to get a sense of what you'll need to do.

[smart013]

I say go interplanetary. You won't be able to get good at it in any practical fashion other than by trying it out and learning from experience.

If you're not feeling confident, go ahead and make liberal use of the quicksave system, or even try it in Sandbox mode first to get a sense of what you'll need to do.

Exactly. Just go out and play the game... in Space! All the things you apparantly learned by now in kerbin soi are the preparation you can put to the test in interplanetary space. Never understood the players that stay home in a game thats about exploration.

So boldly go dammit!

[KingPhantom]

you can unlock the whole techtree only with kerbin, mun and minmus i often was only in kerbin's soi. but i discovered the interplanetary travels for me. but i hate to wait for the windows. i dont like to timewarp 1 to 2 years... thats a waste. but you have to wait for the windows. so i get out of kerbin and warp to the window and do a hoheman transfer. easy as that.

the new contracts are perfect for exploration. i waited for the right contracts and then had a motivation to to de job. now i'm heading the first time in carrer to jool. was there in sandbox but nothing more.

[MadChris48]

Capture an asteroid. Land it on Kerbin.

[r4pt0r]

ive never even been to a munar arch, but ive heard its fun trying to fly through those at orbital speed

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

Start going interplanetary, it's where most of the fun is.

If you want to test if a interplanetary ship is newbie friendly, launch straight up at dawn, don't turn, just keep going until you run out of fuel.

If your speed is greater than 10km/s, it should be able to get you anywhere (except eve landings, and possible Moho and eeloo stuff) and back with ~3km/s DeltaV left for errors and course corrections, perhaps even a second target ( )

To get the planets in the correct position,make sure that:

Moho is 247' behind kerbin

Eve is ~61' behind kerbin

Duna is 48-52'ahead of kerbin

Dres is 60-70' ahead of kerbin (not to sure on this one because I've only been there twice)

Jool is 90.6' ahead of kerbin

Eeloo is 86-123' ahead of kerbin (depending on its position in its orbit, and the fact I can't really remember this phase angle too well)

And inclinations (with respect to kerbin, and very roughly estimated deltaV values needed to correct said inclination)

Moho-7' ~1200m/s Dv

Eve 2.1' ~240m/s Dv

Kerbin ~wait, what?

Duna 0.07' about 50m/s Dv (not needed for an encounter)

Dres 5.7' ~450m/s Dv

Jool 2.3' ~200m/s Dv (not needed for an encounter)

Eeloo 6.5' ~300 m/s Dv

Now for

SpaceSphereOfDeath's TOP PROTIPS!:*explosions*

• If you can, combine radial, prograde/retrograde and inclination burns into one to save fuel
  
• I recommend going to Duna first, then eve, the Jool then wherever (Dres is slightly easier)
  
• If you are going to the inner planets, make sure they are behindkerbin (or another body) and ahead if they are higher up
  
• do your burns as close to the planet as possible in order to take advantage of the... OBERTH EFFECT!!!!
  
• when leaving for a inner planet, do your burn as the sun sets whilst in orbit. The larger the burn, the longer after sunset you must wait, for outer planets, burn at or after sunrise
  
• DON'T LAND ON EVE.
  

and that concludes this episode of SPACESPEHREOFDEATH'S TOP PROTIPS!!!*explosions

I hope I gave you enough information to help you get to your first 'plernet'

[cantab]

As for neat things to do within Kerbin's SOI:

Mun free return - you depart LKO and are on course to fly round the Mun and land back on Kerbin without needing any more engine burns. Takes a bit of fiddling with the manouvre node planner but isn't too hard.

Fly planes, drive cars, sail boats.

Precision landings. Scott Manley managed to land a rescue ship on top of the ship it was rescuing on the Mun!

IVA-only missions. A real challenge in stock, or you can use RasterPropMonitor.

Make an ion hovership for Minmus. It's a unique way to explore it, cruising a few hundred metres up at normal highway speeds just watching the terrain pass by, really good fun and relaxing.

PS: Landing on Eve is easy. It's the taking off again that's hard.

[Thomas988]

Building a space station around the Mun is one of the most fun things I have ever done in KSP.