Please help me get into orbit...

[TropicalLazerBeams]

Hi space team,
I am trying to get my kerbins into orbit for the first time, and I am hitting a wall. I did the tutorial on how to build a ship that goes into orbit, as well as piloting a ship into orbit. I don't have all the parts the tutorial used yet, but I have constructed a similar ship that should be adequate.
What I really need help with is piloting. In the tutorial, there is a handy little marker I can follow during my ascent to keep me on track as I go into space. I can even set my 5-star pilot to automatically follow that marker. In career mode things are different, I basically just hold down the "W" key until I think I am on the right track. Is there a way to set a similar marker in career mode as the one in the tutorial? I think I am not managing my fuel well enough to steer myself once I escape the atmosphere, and as a result, I run out of fuel before I can make it to orbit.
Thanks for the help

[Docsprock]

Practice. Over and over again is the best way. Some people use mods to make the game easier.

[Gamer]

Stay under 250 M/S until you reach an altitude of 10k. Once you are at that height, go full throttle and turn to the right on a 30 - 45 degree angle, performing something known as a gravity turn. It's not necessary, but it saves fuel. Check the map with M, and make sure your apoapsis doesn't go over 100k. Once your apoapsis reaches about 100k, shut off the engines, and make a maneuver in space on your apoapsis.

Turn to the blue marker on your navball, and watch the time until burn. If the burn is 1 minute, start burning 30 seconds before you reach the node. Again, watch the map until you form a circle around Kerbin. Check that the periapsis is above 70k, because anything below, and you're technically not in orbit.

[howardsheard]

launch your rocket east, that tends to be the 'd' key, that way you have the planets rotation working with you. try to fly straight up for the first 8 Km or so (the dark blue zone on altimeter), then slow turn east in the light blue zone to a angle of about 5-10 deg. above 15 km turn more till your about 40-45 deg in the lightest blue zone. switch modes 'm' key bring up nav ball and wait till you max altitude is about 100km. turn off engines, coast a bit, then circularise your orbit when near max altitude.

remember you need some sort of reaction control. the gyoscope thingie, if you keep flipping add tail fins at the bottom of your craft and/or more gyros.

[john1352]

howardsheard's flying advice is good, especially to use D to turn east, the optimum flight path depends on thrust to weight ratios, but you'll figure that out over time.

Can you post a screenshot of your ship? There's probably a few things that can be improved to make launching easier.

[Free]

yep & play some sandbox first.... hav a play around build away ;)
At the very least ya hav some blue prints done. for wen ya carrer mode catches up

[Free]

so in english thats turn right abit at launch then slowly lay on ya side as u go up wen u get into low orbit finish leveling out, and point at the horizon. ;)

[TropicalLazerBeams]

Potential Orbit Craft 

A Screenshot of Kerbal Space Program

By: TropicalLazerBeams

Hey guys, im back, thanks for the suggestions.
Here is my craft I just used to try to achieve orbit. I got to around ~75k km when my first stage ran out of fuel. I then used up all the fuel in my second stage before I was able to go fully into orbit.

I did a little bit of gravity turning on my way up, but I am afraid that if I turn any more, I wont reach the same height, I might run out of fuel before I get to space. I tried adding more boosters/fuel etc, but then my rocket is so heavy that I can barely get off the ground. How do I see my thrust to weight ratio? That sounds like useful info.

I must admit, all this "practice" is getting pretty frustrating. I wish the tutorial would do a better job of providing the detailed information to actually get into orbit instead of teaching me with parts and pilots that weren't available to me.

[john1352]

Looking at the picture, I'd say you can add a LOT more liquid fuel to the lower stage without falling back to Kerbin. As RoofCatA said, a terrier would be more effective on the upper stage as it is lighter and has higher exhaust velocity in space.

Edit: a decoupler between the stage 2 fuel tanks and the heatshield would be a good idea too.

[maj.solo]

TWR 2.0 at launch tip nose to around 65 or so
accelerate to 500 m/s
avoid dropping nose below 45 until 500 m/s
keep accelerating to 1000 m/s
avoid dropping nose below 30 until 1000 m/s
goal is to dare drop nose as low as possible without losing to gravity. Speed is your friend.
after you pass 30K-ish and 30-degree-ish doing 1000m/s-ish you are safe
throttle down and balance the throttle so you maintain 1000m/s and
go map view key "M" and check your AP ( highest point ) atmosphere ends at 70K
raise AP to 80K or more if you wish.
shut down engines.
hold mouse over AP sign to see how many seconds away you are.
when 40 sec away from AP start engines again and accelerate to 2250m/s
look how your circle grows and a PE sign appear on other side of planet.
shut down engines when PE is 75K or more.
save
then do what you want.

If you build a rocket with TWR 2.0 when full thrust you have the power to correct mistakes.
shallower faster trajectory require less thrust at AP to circularize orbit. Though you might need SRBs to get up to speed fast enough at the start. But on the other hand the upper stage can then manage with a poodle or a terrier.
A steeper slower arc requires stronger upper stage.

Dragy rockets with things pointing in all directions require steeper and slower climb. Tip nose only to 80 - 75 , Still, accelerate quickly to 500m/s, I mean so "something" happen now not later. Then watch the nose fall and as you approach 45 degree you start accelerate again.

Build rockets that are easy to fly and do what you want. Then need thrust and they need fins ( AV-R8 ). When you try fly to space for first times you need all the available tools yo have to keep it straight.

[AoD_lexandro]

My best rockets so far have followed a few simple rules;

Balance each stages aero seperately before adding more stages.
Autostrut each stage seperately to make sure there is no wonky ones.
Have a thrust to weight ratio of 1.7 on the launch stage, any more and its a waste of power and fuel.
Launch at 90 degrees as its inline with Kerbins orbit spin for less V required.

(With 1.65 - 1.7 TWR, flying "prograde" to orbit is super easy as the rocket should automatically gravty turn on full power or require only minimal input to do so).

Try using only liquid engines (no SRB's). It gives you far more control of your V going to orbit, and you can make them the same as SRB's and dump them on the way up.

Dont blast up at max speed, this is the #1 mistake of most players starting out. I do it simple,

60 ms nose down 10 degrees and hold.
300ms nose down to 50 - 60 degrees and hold till I reach 400ms vertical speed
At 40k Apoasis and 400ms fly prograde the rest of the way to orbit on low power (60-80% throttle).
As long as you maintain your vertical speed above 200-300ms you will reach orbit speeds at 70k
At 70k, throttle back to 5% power and "pootle" to roughly 2000ms with an apoasis of 80k.

Then its just a simple burn at your apoasis around 50% power and just cruise in to orbit.


Oh and you REALLY should have a mod that adds in flight data such as your V/TWR etc. Mechjeb / Basic Orbit / Kerbil Engineer all have these options and are HIGHLY advised to use.

[maj.solo]

Well .... I watch the comments in the forum over the months and I don't know. It feels like quite many of you want to go liquid fuel only and slow and precise up to space.

YOU ARE SPACE MONKS!!! Like you are willing to live on bread and water.

We are quite many salivating frothing SRB junkies here so ..... question ... which school do you want to belong to?? The monks or those who live in the fast lane?

YouTube™ Video: KSP - "I like TWR" 

Views: 108

I am no "space monk". I am no "space purist". I always want minimum 2.0 TWR. I don't live on bread and water. I want solid rocket boosters , moar booster!!!

ALL MY ROCKETS HAVE AT LEAST 2.0 IN TWR. This video is an example of one designed that happened to top out a bit higher. The strong rockets need no redesign but if the TWR is below 2.0 redesign is necesary.



So .... are you a space monk?

[MisterSpock]

i alway go 2 staged for lifting stuff

1. stage: 1.8 TWR / 1350 Delta V
2. stage: 1.3 TWR / 2250 Delta V

Large MunLander 

A Screenshot of Kerbal Space Program

By: MisterSpock

[Joschi]

Originally posted by maj.solo:

[...]
ALL MY ROCKETS HAVE AT LEAST 2.0 IN TWR.
[...]
So .... are you a space monk?

I start throtteling down at a TWR of 2.0...

So I guess I am on the space monk side of history :p

But srsly such high TWR in low atmo are just wasting fuel due to high drag - If you get aerodynamic visuals (especially red ones) on launch your rocket is inefficient.

onTopic:
You could also add more boosters that fire at launch with less thrust (to counter their weight) but therefore fire longer and get sperated later.
Adding more boosters solves most if not all problems in KSP ;)

[MisterSpock]

Originally posted by »BoH.Crew×IRA™:

Originally posted by maj.solo:

[...]
ALL MY ROCKETS HAVE AT LEAST 2.0 IN TWR.
[...]
So .... are you a space monk?

I start throtteling down at a TWR of 2.0...

So I guess I am on the space monk side of history :p

But srsly such high TWR in low atmo are just wasting fuel due to high drag - If you get aerodynamic visuals (especially red ones) on launch your rocket is inefficient.

onTopic:
You could also add more boosters that fire at launch with less thrust (to counter their weight) but therefore fire longer and get sperated later.
Adding more boosters solves most if not all problems in KSP ;)

I get this problem yesterday. A drag peak of 9 m/2². I countered it successfully by better nosecaps.

I need 3600 delta v to orbit

[AoD_lexandro]

Originally posted by maj.solo:

Well .... I watch the comments in the forum over the months and I don't know. It feels like quite many of you want to go liquid fuel only and slow and precise up to space.

YOU ARE SPACE MONKS!!! Like you are willing to live on bread and water.

We are quite many salivating frothing SRB junkies here so ..... question ... which school do you want to belong to?? The monks or those who live in the fast lane?

YouTube™ Video: KSP - "I like TWR" 

Views: 108

I am no "space monk". I am no "space purist". I always want minimum 2.0 TWR. I don't live on bread and water. I want solid rocket boosters , moar booster!!!

ALL MY ROCKETS HAVE AT LEAST 2.0 IN TWR. This video is an example of one designed that happened to top out a bit higher. The strong rockets need no redesign but if the TWR is below 2.0 redesign is necesary.



So .... are you a space monk?

Negative. Please see my totally OP spaceplane thread. 2.5+ TWR, goes like greased lightning right in to orbit.