Posted By: Paul Rix
One small step for a Kerbal, a giant leap for Kerbal Kind. (Lots of pics). - 03/20/12 01:56 PM
Some of you will be aware of the indie game Kerbal Space Program produced by 'The Squad'.
Kerbal Space Program in it's present state is essentially a sandbox physics game where you build your own rockets and launch them into space. The action takes place on the fictional world of Kerbin, a planet smaller than Earth with one Moon (called the Mun). The planet Kerbin is populated by the Kerbals (little green men who want to explore space and visit the Mun.
Ok, enough of the storyline. Under the cute cartoon exterior KSP is like a light version of Orbiter that the rest of us mere mortals can understand and enjoy. You still have to learn a bit about orbital mechanics, but it is all presented in such simple terms that it becomes very straight forward and easy to comprehend. The KSP community is very active and there is a large amount of player produced content that you can download freely, from rocket parts to auto-pilot modules etc etc.
So, to get to the Mun you have to first design a spacecraft to get you there. The vanilla parts provided will certainly get you there, or you can add some very well done parts to provide some extra 'bling' (such as larger fuel tanks, payload fairings, crew capsules, lunar lander parts, bigger parachutes for landing amongst others). You assemble your rocket in the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building), starting with the crew module and then adding stages from the top to the bottom. So the build sequence goes backwards from that of the mission (ie think about landing the capsule first, then add stages for the other parts of the mission until you have your final 'stack'. While putting the rocket together you can adjust the stage sequence using an intuitive drag and drop process. In flight, you cycle through the stages using the Spacebar.
After all the design and preparation, it is time to fly your creation. I put together a rocket using vanilla parts, with the exception of a player created autopilot module (called the Mech-Jeb if you want to download it).
It is going to be a night launch and we are going to the Mun. To add to the challenge, we are going to touch down at the same site as some of my previous missions (think of it as the site of a new moonbase).
So here we are, sat on the launch pad, Kerbals strapped in, and the autopilot activated for a vertical climb (pitch 90):
10, 9, yeah yeah, lets go!
We have cleared the pad!
As we leave the denser part of the lower atmosphere we can start to pitch over to gain orbital velocity:
The first stage is out of fuel, so it is time to get rid of it. You can see the RCS jets keeping the vehicle pointed in the right direction.
With the first stage gone, we continue to accelerate. Need to reach an orbital velocity of about 2300 m/s to achieve a stable orbit at this altitude:
This is the 'map' view. We can see our orbital path (the green line) and the spacecraft position (the capsule icon). Also notice all the space junk, spent stages jettisoned during previous launches. Space junk continues to orbit indefinitely or until the orbit decays and the part returns to the planet.
Starting the TLI burn to slingshot our intrepid Kerbalnauts out towards the Mun's orbit.
The second stage is out of fuel, so here we see the puffs of smoke from explosive bolts of the decoupler.
Using the map view, we can see that our orbit now takes us out to intercept that of the Moon. We have to lead the moon and aim for the point it will be when we get there.
The planet Kerbin is looking pretty small in the rearview mirror!
We are now getting close to the Moon (Mun)..
Captured by the Moon's (Mun's) gravity. Our lunar orbit is far from circular, so we can anticipate having to perfrom a retrograde burn to slow down when we are close to the Periapsis (lowest point of the orbit). That will result in a more circular orbit, close to the lunar surface (I usually aim for about 10-20 km).
Much better. You can see that we are now established in a fairly circular orbit and I have adjusted it so that our flightpath takes us over our target landing site (the capsule icon on the right side of the moon. You can also see a space junk icon, which is a rocket stage I jettisoned on a previous mission. I think it is going to be in orbit for a long time!:
Kerbal Space Program in it's present state is essentially a sandbox physics game where you build your own rockets and launch them into space. The action takes place on the fictional world of Kerbin, a planet smaller than Earth with one Moon (called the Mun). The planet Kerbin is populated by the Kerbals (little green men who want to explore space and visit the Mun.
Ok, enough of the storyline. Under the cute cartoon exterior KSP is like a light version of Orbiter that the rest of us mere mortals can understand and enjoy. You still have to learn a bit about orbital mechanics, but it is all presented in such simple terms that it becomes very straight forward and easy to comprehend. The KSP community is very active and there is a large amount of player produced content that you can download freely, from rocket parts to auto-pilot modules etc etc.
So, to get to the Mun you have to first design a spacecraft to get you there. The vanilla parts provided will certainly get you there, or you can add some very well done parts to provide some extra 'bling' (such as larger fuel tanks, payload fairings, crew capsules, lunar lander parts, bigger parachutes for landing amongst others). You assemble your rocket in the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building), starting with the crew module and then adding stages from the top to the bottom. So the build sequence goes backwards from that of the mission (ie think about landing the capsule first, then add stages for the other parts of the mission until you have your final 'stack'. While putting the rocket together you can adjust the stage sequence using an intuitive drag and drop process. In flight, you cycle through the stages using the Spacebar.
After all the design and preparation, it is time to fly your creation. I put together a rocket using vanilla parts, with the exception of a player created autopilot module (called the Mech-Jeb if you want to download it).
It is going to be a night launch and we are going to the Mun. To add to the challenge, we are going to touch down at the same site as some of my previous missions (think of it as the site of a new moonbase).
So here we are, sat on the launch pad, Kerbals strapped in, and the autopilot activated for a vertical climb (pitch 90):
10, 9, yeah yeah, lets go!
We have cleared the pad!
As we leave the denser part of the lower atmosphere we can start to pitch over to gain orbital velocity:
The first stage is out of fuel, so it is time to get rid of it. You can see the RCS jets keeping the vehicle pointed in the right direction.
With the first stage gone, we continue to accelerate. Need to reach an orbital velocity of about 2300 m/s to achieve a stable orbit at this altitude:
This is the 'map' view. We can see our orbital path (the green line) and the spacecraft position (the capsule icon). Also notice all the space junk, spent stages jettisoned during previous launches. Space junk continues to orbit indefinitely or until the orbit decays and the part returns to the planet.
Starting the TLI burn to slingshot our intrepid Kerbalnauts out towards the Mun's orbit.
The second stage is out of fuel, so here we see the puffs of smoke from explosive bolts of the decoupler.
Using the map view, we can see that our orbit now takes us out to intercept that of the Moon. We have to lead the moon and aim for the point it will be when we get there.
The planet Kerbin is looking pretty small in the rearview mirror!
We are now getting close to the Moon (Mun)..
Captured by the Moon's (Mun's) gravity. Our lunar orbit is far from circular, so we can anticipate having to perfrom a retrograde burn to slow down when we are close to the Periapsis (lowest point of the orbit). That will result in a more circular orbit, close to the lunar surface (I usually aim for about 10-20 km).
Much better. You can see that we are now established in a fairly circular orbit and I have adjusted it so that our flightpath takes us over our target landing site (the capsule icon on the right side of the moon. You can also see a space junk icon, which is a rocket stage I jettisoned on a previous mission. I think it is going to be in orbit for a long time!: