How can I get more early-stage science?

[Coga19000]

Whoa, I had no idea I would get that many replies in a couple days!

Thank you so much of your replies. I think I'm going to use many of them in the near future. And seeing all those early-tech Munar rockets inspired me to start trying from now instead of just waiting for more advanced tech.

It also seems like a thread people are happy to help at, and which could be useful for new players in general. Should I change it to answered, or just let it flow?

[Pecan]

Congratulations and applause - realising it can be done and being inspired to do it are the first steps :-)

Make the thread 'answered', it doesn't stop people commenting any more and shows that useful answers are contained.

[Laie]

Basic science mode game start: get soil sample (3x), crew report and eva report from the launchpad. repeat on runway. Unlock Goo Container; repeat runway and launchpad (3x each). Unlock Science Junior. Repeat again.

Build a small vessel with lots of science modules. Land on KSC, Shores, in the water. Get science from each. Also science "while flying". Once you can reach orbit, you can also land in any given Kerbin biome. I don't know how much science you get from each, but IIRC it was pretty obvious when trying to gather more science from Kerbin was no longer worth the effort. IIRC it's like three or four outside landings.

If you have unlocked struts and tri-couplers, getting to the Mun is easy. Do fly-bys at first (science from high and low orbit; also science from high kerbin orbit). Unlock a few more techs. Plan your first landing not on the Mun, but Minmus -- in terms of power required, it is only slightly further away, but landing on and returning from Minmus will require much less fuel. The lower gravity also makes it more forgiving, and the flats are *perfectly* flat: no slope to topple your lander.

WHAT?! You have a T30 engine (start technology). Presumably you have a decoupler (tech 1) and, hopefully, a radial decoupler (tech 2). Mun and Minmus are yours for the taking ;-0

Yeah, but only if I use Asparagus staging. I try to keep things realistic enough, and most probably I'll download Ferram Aerospace soon enough.

Way back when I didn't know about asparagus staging, I still managed to get to the Mun on whatever lousy tech I had. Can't really recall the design, but it involved the tri-coupler and a set of radial boosters (the 45 seconds type). Looked halfways realistic to me.

[Coga19000]

So, first attempt to land on the Mun using a rocket of my design -which is basically the same design for a variety of payloads, manned or not. (not posting it now because I'm on my laptop; I most likely will tomorrow.) It successfully reached orbit, which of course was not the problematic bit of the trip. On my burn to the Mun, though, I saw my remaining fuel to around 30%, and having missed the Mun, I aborted the landing (even if I had reached the Mun, I would not have enough fuel to get out of escape velocity, retrograde burn to land AND return.) I did get some Science from several passes from the periapse of my highly eccentrical orbit by EVA reports, though.

Which also proved my main error at orbit-acquired science; EVA gets MANY more reports at orbit than Crew Reports for some reason (which seems nonsensical). I also found out the correct angle for EVAing my pilots; other times, if the ship was misangled, the nose would push away my Kerbal, and with my awful jetpack skills, it was bye-bye Jebadiah.

I also found out that mods can give me a push as regards science. I got a nice chuck using SCANSat. So, does anybody know another mod that can generate science realistically and balancedly? (Except for Interstellar. It's a great mod, but the chances of my computer handling it without crashing are slimmer than it boosting itself and getting into orbit independent of other resources.

[Coga19000]

And yeah, I'm sure Tri-Couplers will help a bundle. Which tech are they in, and which branch should I get to reach them?

I have at least two other people telling me to go to Minmus first, and to be frank, I;m not sure about it. It may be more forgiving, but

1. It's quite smaller, and thus easier to miss.

2. It has a slight inclination, which, unless I manage to acuire it during my gravity turn, will need extra fuel to align with.

3. Lower gravity means that, along with the extra delta-v needed to reach it, I'll have to burn quite some fuel to cnacel my excape velocity.

[Panzerbeard]

3. Lower gravity means that, along with the extra delta-v needed to reach it, I'll have to burn quite some fuel to cnacel my excape velocity.

Actually you'll find that the dV needed for capture is in fact less than that of the Mun. The intercept is a little trickier to get, but capture, landing, and returning are vastly easier.

[Pecan]

As Laie said the tri-coupler makes a good-looking rocket. It's in there at the tech-levels you've reached but I can't remember exactly which and the design that Umbralraptor ninja'd me with is the same, just tanks connected straight to each other rather than the tri-coupler, so you don't really need it except for looks.

Minmus is harder to reach, especially because of the plane-change but that's a manoeuvre you ought to practice because you'll need it quite a bit. Having got there the low gravity and big, flat areas make it so much easier to land on and re-orbit from that overall it's the easier mission. Even if it doesn't look like it, Minmus really is a lot better for a first landing than Mun. If you're not landing Mun is much better because it's easy to get to and has more biomes for science.

[Laie]

And yeah, I'm sure Tri-Couplers will help a bundle. Which tech are they in, and which branch should I get to reach them?

Basic Rocketry -> General Rocketry -> General Construction

IIRC, it should cost 45 Science.

1. It's quite smaller, and thus easier to miss.

2. It has a slight inclination, which, unless I manage to acuire it during my gravity turn, will need extra fuel to align with.

3. Lower gravity means that, along with the extra delta-v needed to reach it, I'll have to burn quite some fuel to cnacel my excape velocity.

1) Setting up the maneuver may be more finicky, but it's not exactly difficult. If you have trouble with the actual burn, remember that you can set a thrust limiter on your engine.

2) because of how vectors add up, this is not a problem if you do it all in one go. 900 prograde plus 200 normal make for a burn of 970 or so.

3) as others have said: no.

As to 2), trying to launch into the plane of target will be a cute exercise (but mostly an exercise -- the savings aren't all that big, really). The launch window comes up twice a day. With the stock toolbox, you'll have to eyeball it -- if you get it down to 1 degree, you're good.

[Kryxal]

For that matter, you can always drop a node for the transfer burn (just get it to the right apoapsis) then a plane-change well into the trip. The further out you are, the less delta-v is needed for a plane change (though if you go too far, you end up needing a bigger plane change). If the plane change puts you a bit off intercept, play with prograde/retrograde and normal ... if it's further off, adjust the initial burn and redo the second one.

[tsotha]

As pecan said, the tri-coupler isn't going to buy you anything. If you want three stacks just radially attach two more to the main stack. I use tri-couplers to run three engines off of one tank when I get one of those annoying contracts for a fast (meaning significantly faster than terminal velocity), low altitude test. Other than that I can't see any use for them beyond aesthetics.

And yes, Minmus is the easiest place to go. But contracts send you to the Mun first, and anyway if you're having trouble with the Mun it's likely you're going to have trouble plotting a Minmus intercept.

Edited October 14, 2014 by tsotha