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[Leonon]

Are there any tips to minimizing fuel consumption from take off to Kerbin orbit?

For minimizing fuel consumption go straight up until you get to 8km then slowly turn to the side so you are pointed upwards at 5 degrees when you hit 40km. Raise your apoapsis (orbit high end) until it gets to where you want and only burn when it drops below your target altitude. After you exit atmosphere you can just wait/warp until you get to your apoapsis and burn to raise your periapsis like you normally do.

When you're still in atmosphere ideally have your speed increase at a rate of about 20 meters per second each second.

Mechjeb can handle auto ascending quite well if you set it up to do this for you.

You also want to get out of the thick lower atmosphere and drop fuel tanks as quickly as possible. Most engines get more efficient the closer to vacuum they're in. For getting out of the lower atmosphere boosters work great. The drag calculations use the craft's total mass instead of its actual cross section so the more efficiently it sheds mass the less drag it has.

The staging type most commonly used to efficiently drop used fuel tanks (and mass) is asparagus staging, where fuel spirals in from outer tanks that are emptied and dropped in pairs. You can read more about it on the KSP wiki.

A more efficient staging type is linear staging where a cubic octagonal strut is placed below the engine and fuel tanks are placed on decouplers below the strut, drain upwards, and are dropped individually. This is likely an exploit though and will probably be patched out before asparagus staging.

Okay, I've done pretty much everything the Demo has to offer.
What does the full version have that the demo doesn't?

More parts, more planets, more features, and modding capability.

Docking, air breathing engines, ion engines, nuclear thermal engines, aerospike engines, rover wheels, probe cores, solar panels, radioisotope thermoelectric generators. And mods, lots and lots of mods.

[Putnam]

It kind of bothers me that MechJeb doesn't have a "limit jerk to (x) m/s³" option. That would be really useful for particularly forceful stages (I.E ones that have 5 mainsails and not much connection to the above) so that it doesn't repeatedly slam into itself when adjusting apoapsis while coasting to atmosphere. Smooth throttle works well too, but some adjustment to that would be nice.

(Fun fact: the fourth derivative of displacement, that is, change in jerk, is "jounce", just as "jerk", change in acceleration, is the third, "acceleration", etc., is the second and "velocity" is the first. The fifth and sixth are sometimes referred to as "crackle" and "pop", but mostly when the fourth is referred to as "snap". Following up on snap, crackle and pop are lock and drop, giving us:

Position, velocity, acceleration, jerk, snap, crackle, pop, lock, drop)

[My Name is Immaterial]

It's funny how I'm taking Calculus, and I can probably apply it now. Realistic video games are AWESOME.

[Girlinhat]

It's funny how I'm taking Calculus, and I can probably apply it now. Realistic video games are AWESOME.

When I was in highschool, everyone was like "When am I ever gonna use this?" and I'm over there in the corner, in awe, "My mind is a computer what witchcraft are you teaching me."  I have solved for x so many times it's ridiculous.  In many simple games I've squeezed a lot of functionality out of nothing impressive, and trounced people just by using a few simple equations to guide a choice.

[kaian-a-coel]

Now I picture a triumphant, badass guy over a defeated, bloodied, scared mook. Said mook ask "h-h-how did you defeat us?" and then the badass answer "Math.". And then he shoot the mook.

[alexandertnt]

Finally! A landing on Eve that wasn't in the water. Its so pretty and purple.

And then the game crashed.

[Descan]

SOMETHING needs to crash, bro. Otherwise, it's not a successful flight.

[miauw62]

SOMETHING needs to crash, bro. Otherwise, it's not a successful flight.

Amen.

[PTTG??]

Now I picture a triumphant, badass guy over a defeated, bloodied, scared mook. Said mook ask "h-h-how did you defeat us?" and then the badass answer "Math.". And then he shoot the mook.

Go ahead.

Derive my d of A sub y.

[timferius]

Finally scraped together the cash and bought this on sale last night on Steam. So far all I've done are the tutorials, but I can tell I'm going to enjoy it! Tried to land on the Mun at the end of the getting-to-the-Mun tutorial, and succeeded explosivly. How does one actually land on the Mun? (I guess part 2 of that tutorial is coming in the future?).

[Descan]

Orbit it, then slow your pod down so that it'll end up "orbiting" right into the Mun, then when you get a certain amount away from it, point away from your forward vector and turn on your engines until you're going very slowly. Land. CAREFULLY. Make sure you're upright. Have landing gear on your pod.

Any more specifics than that, I don't know. Haven't tried myself, yet.

[Girlinhat]

It's pretty simple, really.  Point retrograde, burn to get about 5m/s and extend landing gear.

[timferius]

That's a lot more simple than burning till you're orbit is in to the planet, jettisoning your engines, and trying to use parachutes with no atmosphere (it was late, I was tired...).
Do you need to use full thrust on the burn?

[Girlinhat]

Depends entirely on your engines and your weight, most of the time you want a full burn briefly to just kill your speed, then slow burn to resist the acceleration of gravity.

[LordSlowpoke]

Depends entirely on your engines and your weight, most of the time you want a full burn briefly to just kill your speed, then slow burn to resist the acceleration of gravity.

suicide burning at around 500 meters (or higher, depending on your twr) and then slowly burning is a little bit more effective, which may be important on fuel-critical landings

something about barely open throttle being as much of a waste as full throttle i dunno