SAS icons

[ray.mcdonough]

What do I have to do to get all of the nodes on the nav ball on the SAS icons? I only have stabilize, prograde, and retrograde now.

I have the tracking station and mission control fully upgraded. What else do I need?

[Zantonny]

Level up your Pilots.

[Manwith Noname]

...or use better probe cores if they are unmanned.

[maj.solo]

Jebediah turned 2 star today and he never ever left kerbin. I checked and the game says he have orbited the sun ...... which he has not. Maybe in his dreams. Cause I play with life support and he would not survive long. I am not even ready to send them to the mun yet....

So if you are lucky and the game have a hickup your kerbals can level up.

[ray.mcdonough]

I'm not sure how to level my pilots up. I seem to only have ferrying tourists and taking readings of Kerbil contracts available, and those don't seem to give my pilots any experience anymore. Well, I have one orbit Mun contract, but that sure would be easier if I had full SAS control.

Is there any way to level them up before going to Mun?

[Manwith Noname]

You don't really need them, at one point in KSP's history they didn't exist and people did all sorts of things. That said, would you find it easier to leave Kerbin's SoI than visit the Mun?

[ray.mcdonough]

Uh, probably not. Especially returning safely.

Yeah, I suppose I could manually align with the nodes manually. I'll try it.

[Manwith Noname]

You should be able to reach the Mun and leave Kerbin's SoI with just pro and retrograde burns.

[maj.solo]

You earn money from contracts to finance your own projects.

After a contract is complete the ship is yours. So instead of just making a ship for that contract you see if that ship can not do 1 2 or 3 contracts in one flight and then even move on to do something you want to use it for.

Like putting a satellite around minmus with a thermometer on. you can do that. but you can also add stuff like more science instruments and relay antennaes, so first you complete the contract and then you fly that satellite where YOU want it.

This is how you make money to do what you want or what you need to do, you need to build for the future. You need plans. You want to maneuver that probe around those moons around Jool ..... you need at least a few relays there.

You can level up your kerbals to level 3 in or near kerbin SOI but to get to level 5 you need to do some interplanetary missions and plant flags on those distant moons and planets. And for that you need good ships and for that you need tech and for that you need to visit biomes and for that you need money and for that you complete contracts.

make plans.

[rockettime03]

You need to lvl up ur pilots. Have one plant a flag on Minmus.

[ray.mcdonough]

I was able to orbit Mun and return. Thanks

[Bubba Fett]

Kerbals get XP for going places. They get some XP for a flyby, a bit more for being in orbit, more for a landing, and the most for planting a flag. (except on kerbin where you only gain XP for going to orbit)

Each of these action has an XP value, but you only get credit for the most valuable thing you've done. For instance, if you orbit minmus, then land, then plant a flag, you only get credit for planting the flag, not the total XP value for the orbit + the landing + the flag.

Once you've gotten your XP, you need to return the kerbal to the space center or visit a ship or station with a mobile lab. When you do this your XP gains are calculated and if you have enough points your kerbal gets another gold star and levels up. At the KSC it's automatic, with a mobile lab you need to right click and select the option to level them up.

To maximize your levels before you go interplanetary you want to orbit kerbin, plant flags on the mun and minmus and orbit the sun by briefly leaving kerbin's SOI.

When you leave the SOI, burn in any direction just enough to get a kerbin escape then time warp to it. As soon as it switches to the sun's SOI do a crew report, an EVA report and run any experiments you brought with you. Then go to the map, target kerbin, line it up on your navball and do a short burn. You should quickly end up back in kerbin's SOI since you're so close to it's edge. You gain a lot of XP for doing that, your reports are worth quite a bit and your experiments are worth quite a bit so it's worth doing with a decent sized ship to level as many kerbals as possible.

Starting from LKO, 1200 m/s of dV is enough to get you an escape, back into kerbins SOI, and assorted maneuvers to get into an areobrake trajectory on return. It's a pretty easy mission and well worth doing.
When they level up, pilots gain SAS features, engineers gain the abiltiy to fix stuff and operate resource mining gear better, and scientists get extra science for returning experiments and can make a mobile lab generate science faster.

A couple of new features that I recently heard about is that if you take a group of kerbals to the surface, only one needs to plant a flag for all to get credit for.

When you hold your mouse pointer over the level stars on a kerbals portrate, it shows what they've done to get XP. (lets you make sure that everybody gets a turn to level up)

When you level up at a mobile lab, your XP gains might not show in the portrate till you switch back to the space center. But he is leveled up and working at his new skill level.

Or, as others have suggested, use a better probe core. All of my landings that involve gathering science have a scientist on board to reset the experiments. This means that almost every ship a build uses a probe core to provide SAS so anyone can fly it.

[gigastephan]

Or you put a "CH-J3 Fly-By-Wire Avionics Hub" on your rocket, then you can fly with every
kerbonaut and have all the nodes (Thier don´t have to be a pilot, but you need a kerbal onboard).
But when you play early carrer mode, I think you don´t have them unlocked yet.

[tunamansquare]

do stuff that kerbal hasent done before like land on minmus orbit mun suborbital of mun