Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MarcAFK]

You're all talking about some pretty awesome stuff: asteroids, the Mun, etc...

And I can't even get into orbit.

I'm going to quote from another KSP thread.

I don't know but my ship prototypes have yet to get to orbit much less their destination.

Orbit is easy:
Step 1- Make rocket that doesn't implode
Step 2- Point towards space
Step 3- Get to 70000 meters
Step 4- Point right till at the "horizon" on the navball (part where blue and orange meet)
Step 5- Burn till Periapsis is at least 70000 meters
Step 6-
Step 7- Profit

So yeah, that's how you do that. Granted that's certainly not the most efficient way, but its a good start and experience will refine that method down to actual gravity turns, given time.

That's basically it. I'll also helps to learn how to read the Navball. Burn prograde while at apoapsis to raise periapsis, or at periapsis to raise apoapsis. Or burn retrograde at periapsis to lower apoapsis, or retrograde at apoapsis to lower periapsis. You may also find that if you burn enough at apoapsis your apoapsis actually starts to raise, if that happens just delay the rest of your burn untill you catch up with your new higher apoapsis.  I couldn't tell you how to easily burn normal/antinormal, or the other ones, however the advanced navball mod points those out which is helpful if you need it. One other thing I would mention is to aim for a little higher than 70,000 meters for your initial orbit, because if your thrust to weight ratio isn't very high then when you reach your 70,000 meter Apoapsis and start burning to raise your periapsis, you will actually start coming back down into the atmosphere and ypu'll waste fuel to overcome air resistance. If your thrust to weight ratio is very low then you'll never actually manage to get your orbit back above 70 kilometers.
Finally, what do you need to actually get to orbit? Well 3 T800's and an LV-30 or 45 will get a small pod and a bit of other stuff into orbit if you're careful.

[Putnam]

That is... easily the hardest way to get into space. It doesn't even mention that you kinda need to go pretty horizontally most of the way.

[forsaken1111]

That is... easily the hardest way to get into space. It doesn't even mention that you kinda need to go pretty horizontally most of the way.

It isn't the most efficient way perhaps, but it isn't hard.

[Putnam]

I didn't really say it was hard, just the hardest. Least efficient. Not much way to get harder.

[miauw62]

MechJeb teached me how to do gravity turns.
I really recommend getting MechJeb's ascent guidance and turning on the ascent target thingie that makes a thingie appear on your navball that tells you where to point your rocket. I can do gravity turns manually now :v

[Greiger]

I've been doing a new game.  Sandbox mode. I've tried to limit myself on mods but I did get KAS just because it's so fun and I'm thinking of getting that one mod I keep seeing in videos with the moving parts and hinges and stuff.  But I don't know what it's called and I want to make sure I'm not getting some half assed ripoff by mistake.

Anyway I have a question (2 if you count me asking what that mod with the hinges is).  My for my new game I have a self imposed rule of not using the rocket launchpad.  I'm trying to make every launch vehicle a spaceplane.  I've had some success with them in the past, but in the past I always had rockets available to put a refueling station into low orbit.
 
I managed to get one lifter into orbit and drop off a starter for a refueling station.  But it seems that I can't get another lifter up there with enough fuel remaining to get close enough to even try docking. Even the flight that dropped off the beginnings of the space station had to drain some of the fuel it was transporting to get to a stable orbit.

Does anybody have a craft file for a functional vanilla spaceplane lifter that I could poke at and use to try to figure out what I'm doing wrong?

[miauw62]

The hinges mod is Infernal Robotics.

[Greiger]

I'm having more fun playing around with a rover and using it to gather up wrecked spaceplane parts than making the actual spaceplanes.  Have I missed my calling in life?  Am I a born salvager and I just never had the opportunity to learn?  What have I done with my life?

...Oh wait I installed the pistons on backwards.  Clearly I was not cut out to be a salvage engineer.  Life crisis averted.

So, now I have my first five mods. Suggestions for more?

I love me some KAS and as posted above I've been toying around with infernal robotics as well.

KAS adds winches pipes and things like that that can be manipulated from EVA.  It allows kerbals to attach and detach smaller parts from a vessel and use pipes to transfer fuel from one vessel to another without actual docking ports.  Or simply use a winch and an electromagnet to tow it.   You need to make sure at least one of the ships brings along the parts needed to build the connections, but there are some storage containers as well that can be loaded up with misc parts for your kerbals to remove in flight.   Excellent fun with rovers.

Infernal robotics adds functionality for moving parts. causing everything attached to move as well.  I'm not sure how that affects aerodynamics yet, but I imagine it's possible to make wings with variable angles of attack.  I've personally made a rotating telescoping crane and dumptruck system myself, but I've seen videos where people actually make stuff like giant mechs.

[LoSboccacc]

I was using infernal robotics with far and in that combination aereodinamic works beautifully.

I was using the shuttle cargo bay door as aerodynamic breaks and improvised flaps when partially deployed

[Sean Mirrsen]

So, now I have my first five mods. Suggestions for more?

Adding to the set of "basic things":

Enhanced Navball

Adds indicators for normal, antinormal, tangent, and cotangent orbital directions, as well as the retrograde maneuver node marker, onto the navball for making adjustments by hand. Also creates "ghosts" of the prograde, retrograde, and prograde maneuver node markers on the edges of the navball when they are not on it.
(in the picture, the ship is facing near the orbit normal, the orbit tangent is to the right, and the "ghosts" for the prograde and retrograde markers are visible)
>Link<

SelectRoot

Fairly self-explanatory, this complements the subassembly mechanic greatly and goes well with the Editor Extensions.
>Link<

Simple mods:
Surface Lights

This mod adds several teeny-tiny lights that are not powerful enough to light up the ground (much), but do a great job of self-illumination for your spacecraft, without whiting out everything with the powerful floodlights.
>Link<

Mk2 Cockpit Internal View
Pretty much explains itself.
>Link<

More complex mods:
Near Future Propulsion

This one's kind of a rival for the KSP Interstellar mod, but it takes far less upon itself, and does not overcomplicate anything. The mods contains a series of high-efficiency electric propulsion engines that use a variety of fuels, as well as several new means of generating and storing the electricity for them. (pictured: an argon-fueled VASIMR engine-powered asteroid tug, with power provided by the 250kW nuclear powerplant up front, and the two large solar panels on its sides, shown folded) It simply takes the concept used by the existing Ion Thruster, and adds a bunch of content that is based on the real-world applications of the same principle, keeping everything balanced and without going overboard with anything. I highly recommend it.
>Link<

edit: added links

[LoSboccacc]

as for basic mods, also docking navball
http://kerbalspaceport.com/navball-docking-alignment-indicator/

final frontier to keep track of achievements
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67246-0-23-Final-Frontier-0-3-9

the very handy science alert mod:
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76793-0-23-5-ScienceAlert-1-5-Experiment-availability-feedback-(April-26)

I love procedural fairings:
http://kerbalspaceport.com/procedural-fairings/


and the landing height mod:
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76320-23-5-%28Apr12-14%29-Landing-Height-Show-distance-from-bottom-of-your-vessel-to-ground

basically thei do not alter the gameplay but makes everything so much streamlined

[BigD145]

Near Future Propulsion was originally a beefed up extension to Ion drives pre .23. Ion drives have been significantly changed with .23.5. Interstellar is still the go to pack for theoretical things and Near Future does not integrate with it at all.

SelectRoot is a must. Be sensible and don't root symmetrical bits. Bad things happen.

[Glloyd]

Mk2 Cockpit Internal View
Pretty much explains itself.
>Link<

There's a really awesome one for the Mk3 as well, but I don't have the link.

EDIT: http://kerbalspaceport.com/mk3-cockpit-internals/ I haven't ever played without it, it's amazing.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Near Future Propulsion was originally a beefed up extension to Ion drives pre .23. Ion drives have been significantly changed with .23.5. Interstellar is still the go to pack for theoretical things and Near Future does not integrate with it at all.

KSPI is more of a "Far Future" propulsion pack. And it has rather more things going on, what with the upgrades and such. NFPP is much more straightforward than that, and it stays much truer to stock KSP.

KSPI, in my eyes, is on the same level of "not right now" as B9 Aerospace. It's pretty, it's neat, but it doesn't quite fit.

[Aseaheru]

Ijust dont understand why they dont add those two internals allready...