Kerbal Space Program questions?

I'm currently in the middle of doing a youtube serious on getting to the warp drive in interstellar extended on career mode quickly. So I figured I'd start a thread here answering questions about the game for anyone who has them.

i have ksp, havn't played it in a while though, i always have problems building a ship that can even get orbit... and then getting to the mun n others is a whole other issue, any tips would be nice! can pm me or mail me

That's a bit broad, do you have any pictures of your designs? It would be easier to start with what your doing wrong lol.

Firstly you should try to keep your ship as simple as possible while still having everything you need for your mission.

i'm not running the interstellar mod, but what would you recommend for a ship for the first mission? (getting orbit n possible mun) pm me as i'm on the verge of a mail ban lol i have no pics as i havn't played in a while..

The message I sent, after a few questions:

Well, id recommend focusing science points on more experiments early on. getting into orbit is easy once you have struts and radial decouplers. Spend your early money on upgrading the launch pad right off the bat for the weight limit increase. Always try to be accomplishing multiple 'missions' with every launch.

*feel free to play around with any of this either to be creative or accomplish any mission goals you have, the eventual point is essentially to make crazy designs*:
The easiest way to get into orbit early in my opinion is to do this: Start with the simple 1 seat capsule (the cone shaped one) with a parachute on top and a heat shield in the bottom. A decoupler will come under that followed by a material bay with any science equipment you have attached to the side of it, and a smaller fuel tank with the smallest engine you have underneath it. Dont forget batteries and a few solar panels (if you have them already) but an antenna isnt -really- necessary at this point.
That stage will be just for use in space, and youll have to remember to save enough fuel to slow yourself down enough to come back into the air.

Now we'll build a 'second' stage, so put another decoupler beaneath the engine you just picked. Put a medium sized fuel tank and an engine slightly better in vacuums than atmospheres, as this stage will transition between the two. Next basically put a final inline decoupler with the biggest fuel tank and most powerful engine you have. Make sure you include some fins (at the bottom), preferably ones you can control, and preferably in some kind of symetry (4 or 3 will be your typical best bets, but you may find yourself severely limited by part counts or weight).

Now, its entirely likely that this will not be quite powerful enough initially, so you'll want boosters.
Take radial decouplers and put them near the bottom of the rocket, in the same symmetry as the fins (or half as many), and then attach hammer boosters to the decouplers you just added.
I personally strongly prefer liquid fuel boosters but again, the part count will really limit you early on so the hammer booster will have to suffice usually, sometimes youll have to push the weight limit further but be careful your not directly above the launch pad when you drop your boosters, fixing the launch pad is expensive when your starting.

Double and tripple check your staging is in order!!!

Now all that's left is actually flying the thing to space and back, you may want to use a pilot for your early flights, until you either start either using multi crewed craft, integrating probe cores into ships, or just get really good at flying.


Step 1; double and tripple check your staging!!!
Step 2: set SAS (T key by default, if you have it available) and throttle to full (Z key by default)
Step 3: launch!! (typically by hitting space the activate your first stage)


You're ascent profile will be unique for every vehicle later on but your first rockets will be fairly simple; head straight up for the first 5000 meters, only gaining enough horizontal momentum to ensure the boosters dont land on the pad.
Make sure you're facing the same direction your going (yellow circle on your navbal) when you detatch your boosters so they dont hit your rocket and when you are at about 5000m begin turning the rocket to face the direction you want to go. East is most efficient (90 on the nav bal) because the planet is spinning that way. This will also make reentering the atmosphere easier.
Take a moment when the rocket is stable to switch to map view (M key) and raise the navball (click the little arrow bottom center screen) so you can controll the ship from that view, and turn the camera to look down from a pole so you can see you trajectory better.

Essentially thus is simple, get your apoapsis to about 100 km (really just 70+ but give yourself some margin for error) while slowly turning into the direction you want to orbit. I will typically send a simple rocket something like this (altitude of rocket versus degrees tiltied from 'upright')-
5km 0°
10km 10°
20km 20°
45km 45°
50km 45° fairing deploy before starting to turn again
60km 60°
70km 80°
100km 90°
If your apoapsis rises above 100 km cut your engines and coast out of the atmosphere, tapping the thrusters ocasionally to recover what wind resistants takes away.

So obviously before this point you will have used and ditched the main stage (if not dump the rest of the fuel immediately after leaving the atmosphere, pointing slightly below the horizon) and burnt through a bunch of secondary fuel. Dont worry, the first half of the fuel is only like a third of your capabilities if not less. If you have manuever planning plan a circularization burn at the apoapsis, if not wait until your about 90 seconds away and fire your thrusters full blast until you see the flight path goes into orbit, pointing a bit on the brown side (radial in) from the 'prograde' marker but in the same direction (90 if your headed east). Try to get into habit of keeping you orbit circular, around the equator, and in the direction the planet is rotating, it'll make every easier later on. You should now be in orbit with an entire stage of fuel to practice and return with.


Sorry if theres a mistake lol did not proof read that. Reentry tips to come!

There are tons of problems that could be incurred, but they are too numerous to completely cover in one post.

https://youtu.be/FJYxd3P_g80

You have to watch from a pc to see the annotations. :p i was lazy

If your not using mods i dont think youll be able to be quite as fast bust still, same concept.

https://youtu.be/Odak1KuJ8z0

Actually using ftl technology can be a little tricky at first, but with good designs and a little practice you can get pretty close to the capabilities of the ships on Star Trek. This set up would have no problem taking E.T. home!

heck of a game! a pure jewel! tho I think it needs more polishing (graphically speaking) but the concept idea is awesome! one of a kind!

If your computer can handle it, you can install EVE and Scatterer: https://youtu.be/7BpoTXpOiYQ

It's not quite playable on my laptop running all that xD but it does look nice.

[image: scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net]

This was my crowning achievement.

but EVE is spaceship simulation, have to be played online.... (and connectivity here is kind of a problem). :/ But KSP is offline and a space program manager simulation (or something like that hahaha) which I like a looooooot more :D BTW I see you are a hardcore KSP! good job with all those tips :)

Warp or Bust!: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgr3JNK5dnkFA6QzI2FsTYJcGqndv9qOb



My last Kerbal Space Program saga, complete, edited, in order, and with faux advertisements and stuff.

I think you may like this.... future changes for KSP... read this>>>

https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/damien-cox/take-two-acquire-spaceflight-simulator-kerbal-space-program/