Hello and Welcome!

[Dman979]

Welcome aboard, @Mycroft

First, congratulations on orbiting!

There's a few things I notice here:
Your rocket is over powered. To do a flyby, you only need to cross the orbit once. You are probably launching a huge rocket with too much ∆V. Try only raising your Apoapsis, and leaving your Periapsis at ~100km. (The minimum orbital height is 70km)
Second, your orbital plane and the Mun's orbital plane are misaligned. To fix this, set a maneuver node at the ascending or descending node and burn either anti-normal (at AN) or normal (at DN). This will change your orbital plane to match the Mun's.

There are 6 directions in space: forward (prograde) , backward (retrograde) , into the planet (radial) , away from the planet (anti-radial) , up (normal) , and down (anti-normal)

If you want to orbit the Mun, try setting your Mun periapsis to ~15km, and then burning retrograde when you arrive.

Finally, Mechjeb is a kind of autopilot/information display system for KSP. It does come from "Mechanical Jebediah," because you could use it to fly an automated mission with little player input. There is an ongoing debate about whether this is "cheating," but you don't need to worry about that yet.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Dman979

[Starhawk]

6 hours ago, Mycroft said:

Hi, I am new to KSP, and I am attempting a moon fly-by. I was able to reach the correct altitude (Apoapsis: 11,537,900 to 11,538,250 or so; Periapsis: 1,503,890 to 1,503,100 or so) with my spacecraft by using the low powered ion engines over a long period but it is on the wrong plane with the ascending node being 16.1 degrees and descending node being -16.1 degrees. When I am at the moon’s altitude, I find I am well south of my target. How would I fix this? 
Thanks,
Mycroft

Hello Mycroft, and welcome to the forum!

To adjust your inclination, you want to burn either 'Normal' at the descending node or 'Anti-Normal' at the ascending node.  Using whichever one is farther from Kerbin will allow you to make the change using the least amount of fuel.  If your craft has low thrust, then you may want to make several smaller burns adjusting the inclination a bit each time around the orbit.

MechJeb is a very large and complex mod for the game which essentially adds autopiloting.

Happy landings!

[Mycroft]

Thank you guys so much for your help! I really appreciate it. Before I read your posts, I was doing burns at normal attitude near the apoapsis, figuring that since that was where my velocity was lowest, it would be the best place to do an orbital adjustment. It sort of worked, but I am still off target so I will definitely be trying your suggestions. 
For PacThePhoenix, YouTube refuses to work on my computer for some reason. :( 

18 hours ago, Dman979 said:

There's a few things I notice here:
Your rocket is over powered. To do a flyby, you only need to cross the orbit once. You are probably launching a huge rocket with too much ∆V. Try only raising your Apoapsis, and leaving your Periapsis at ~100km. (The minimum orbital height is 70km)

Dman979, you are probably right that my rocket is huge, maybe too huge. But unfortunately, it is ridiculously under powered with 8 ion engines providing 0.03 g’s at full thrust, and 36100 possible units of XenonGas. The delta-V for it is very small. I tried to just increase the Apoapsis, but the burn also affected the Periapsis in a limited fashion. (the Apoapsis is 11x the Periapsis) I have yet to figure out how I can change the Apoapsis without affecting the Periapsis at all. It would make de-orbit burns one heck of a lot easier with these engines.

18 hours ago, Dman979 said:

Second, your orbital plane and the Mun's orbital plane are misaligned. To fix this, set a maneuver node at the ascending or descending node and burn either anti-normal (at AN) or normal (at DN). This will change your orbital plane to match the Mun's.

Thank you! As I said earlier, I will certainly use it

18 hours ago, Dman979 said:

There are 6 directions in space: forward (prograde) , backward (retrograde) , into the planet (radial) , away from the planet (anti-radial) , up (normal) , and down (anti-normal)

Thank you so much for that little cheat-sheet! I will be using that. 
By the way, I have already set up successfull Mun orbits in Sandbox with a gargantuan (IMHO) rocket.

 

12 hours ago, Starhawk said:

Hello Mycroft, and welcome to the forum!

To adjust your inclination, you want to burn either 'Normal' at the descending node or 'Anti-Normal' at the ascending node.  Using whichever one is farther from Kerbin will allow you to make the change using the least amount of fuel.  If your craft has low thrust, then you may want to make several smaller burns adjusting the inclination a bit each time around the orbit.

MechJeb is a very large and complex mod for the game which essentially adds autopiloting.

Happy landings!

Thank you. I want to save as much fuel as possible for the long de-orbit burn, and I am getting close the limit of the fuel I allotted for orbital maneuvering.

Also by the way, thanks to everyone for explaining MechJeb. That was rather confusing to me, as I have never tried the mods.

Thanks,
Mycroft

[Mycroft]

Here’s my ship. It’s called ‘Space Station 4’ 

file:///Users/ryan/Desktop/Screen%20Shot%202016-02-12%20at%204.54.00%20PM.png

I’m not sure if the link works

[PacThePhoenix]

3 minutes ago, Mycroft said:

Here’s my ship. It’s called ‘Space Station 4’ 

file:///Users/ryan/Desktop/Screen%20Shot%202016-02-12%20at%204.54.00%20PM.png

I’m not sure if the link works

Took me a while to figure out how to upload pictures . What you wanna do is go to imgur.com and upload your picture there, then paste the direct link into the URL option in 'Insert other media'. Make sure the link ends with .jpg or .png if it doesn't already.

[Mycroft]

Will do. Thanks. Do I need an account there?

 

[PacThePhoenix]

2 minutes ago, Mycroft said:

Will do. Thanks. Do I need an account there?

 

Nope. Just drop your pictures in and copy over the link. It was a bit finicky for me for some reason but it should all work out. Make sure you don't delete the pictures afterwards though, that was a mistake I made :P. The forum needs the URL in order to display the picture. 

[Mycroft]

I’m burning at the AN, and it’s working. Yay!

[Mycroft]

Mun flyby successful! Unfortunately the resulting encounter with the Mun slung my ship on to an exponentially larger orbit, with an Apoapsis of 14 thousand km, and a Periapsis of 3 thousand. I am doing a continuous de-orbit burn for now

[GroggyCastle]

Good day looks like a very interesting game! My question is whether this game with steam will work on a Dell Xperoin 14 3000. The CPU seems seems fast enough! It has the hard disk capacity, I think my graphics are good, but want to make sure before I put down two months of allowance?

 

[Dman979]

@GroggyCastle: Yup, it'll run just fine.

We're getting some game upgrades in 1.1, so it'll run even better then.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Dman979

[Crash Test Dummy]

Greetings Kerbonauts. (And Janitors too).

I'm, as you can tell by my Profile name, a terrible rocket designer who frequently crashes into things.

I like playing in career mode.

I like using Whack-a-Kerbal to destroy something to make things more interesting.

I LOVE space (and snacks).

Playing KSP helped me understand orbital mechanics.

I've been playing KSP since the early alpha (back then when there was only Jeb, Bill and Bob, no Spaceplanes, no Career mode and you only had one command module. Oh, and no maneuvers.)

I do planetary encounters without Mechjeb but I use it for rendezvous with other ships. (I'm like the WORST of the worst rendezvous planners you could ever find.)

I use F5 and F9... A lot...

I reenacted 9/11 once with Jeb, the VAB and an Aeris A3 with broken engines.

I'm weird.

Oh, sorry, I was rambling again. I'll shut up now.

[Starhawk]

Hello Crash Test Dummy and welcome to the forum!

In this community you will find many like-minded folk.  We all love space and this game.

Some of us are even weird.

Happy landings!

[Vanamonde]

That is some serious lurking.  

[Dragon2234]

Ok i would like to know if some one would guide me in the right direction. I was wonder is there is a way to update the Vessel Viewer mod to version 1.0.5 because i am continuesly now getting conflicts and cockpit issues.

[Starhawk]

Hello Dragon2234 and welcome to the forum!

I'm not familiar with that mod, but the Add-On Releases section of the forum will surely have a thread on that mod.  That's probably the best place to get info.

Hope this helps.

Happy landings!

[Dragon2234]

13 hours ago, Starhawk said:

Hello Dragon2234 and welcome to the forum!

I'm not familiar with that mod, but the Add-On Releases section of the forum will surely have a thread on that mod.  That's probably the best place to get info.

Hope this helps.

Happy landings!

Thank you for the information I will go there Starhawk, ya i found vessel viewer mod under the RasterPropMonitor mod and it look real cool. thanks again

 

[Mycroft]

I’m discovering how easy it is to accidentally get a sun orbit, so I’m going to try an interplanetary expedition. Sooooooo, does Eve have an atmosphere?

[Starhawk]

21 minutes ago, Mycroft said:

I’m discovering how easy it is to accidentally get a sun orbit, so I’m going to try an interplanetary expedition. Sooooooo, does Eve have an atmosphere?

Hey there, Mycroft.

Yes, Eve does have an atmosphere.  Boy does it ever.  Pressure is 5 atmospheres at sea-level and it has almost twice Kerbin's gravity as well.  If you send something there, it'll probably be one-way so better make it a probe.  And it'll probably need a heat shield if you are going to aerobrake at Eve.

Happy landings!

[Mycroft]

Okay, thanks! I was wondering if you knew two things: 1: How high does Eve’s atmosphere extend, and 2: roughly the best periapsis for an atmospheric capture?

Thanks, 
Mycroft.

P.s. My craft is unmanned. It came from a campaign to land on the mun and me missing the transfer burn.

[Mycroft]

Meanwhile, I’ll just launch craft weighing un at a ridiculous 1100 tons...

[Mycroft]

I make rockets too ridiculously big. On this one, the orbital stage has 20 ions with 7290 units of Xenon for each, requiring 8 Gigantors and 28701 units of ElectricCharge. How would I make smaller rockets with the same range?

[Starhawk]

7 hours ago, Mycroft said:

Okay, thanks! I was wondering if you knew two things: 1: How high does Eve’s atmosphere extend, and 2: roughly the best periapsis for an atmospheric capture?

Thanks, 
Mycroft.

P.s. My craft is unmanned. It came from a campaign to land on the mun and me missing the transfer burn.

As listed in the KSP Wiki page on Eve, Eve's atmosphere extends to 90 km.  It is very dense, so do not try to set your periapsis too low for aerobraking.  You'll may need to save and load a few times to get the right aerobraking altitude.  I'm afraid I don't have a value to recommend.

As to your other post, I've never worked with the Ion engines much.  Chemical and nuclear rockets easily have enough range to go anywhere in the game.  It's just a matter of design.  There are entire threads on how to design craft for specific missions.

Happy landings!

[Mycroft]

Thank you!

[Ruddy3702]

Hey there peeps!