Thwomp Apr 9, 2003

BA-DUHHH







Grimey Drawer





The FAQ - Rocket science for dummies



Sweet jesus there's a lot to this game. Where do I start?

The best advice I can give is to follow in NASA's footsteps:

1) Start trying out different rockets. Find a design that doesn't blow up consistently.

2) Slightly modify your non-explody design so that you can reach orbit reliably.

3) Continue with slight modifications to match your next goal (orbit and safely return, orbit and transfer to Mun/Minmus/other solar bodies, transfer to and land on other bodies, return from said bodies, etc).

4) Avoid spaceplanes unless you're really bored and want to punish yourself.



What keys are used?

WASDQE - for pitch, yaw and roll

[SHIFT]/[CTRL] - throttle up and down controllable engines (not solid boosters).

[T] - turns on SAS (Stability Augmentation System) modules

[F] - temporarily turn SAS off (if it's already on) or vice versa - this is a good way to update what direction you want the ship to point.

[M] - orbital map, double-click the planet/moon to centre it on them, [TAB] to centre back on your ship.

[G] - Deploys collapse-able landing gears/wings/panels.

{B} - Brakes your spaceplanes upon landing.

[R] - Turns on the RCS (reaction control system)

RCS transverse thrust controls (note these will only work if RCS is turned on and you've added RCS thursters and fuel to the rocket):

[H]/[N] - forward/backward

{I}/[K] - down/up

[J]/[L] - left/right

[,] - Slow Time

[.] - Accelerate Time

[F1] - Screenshot

[F5] - Quick Save

[F9] - Quick Load



What's the Navball and how does it work?

The nav ball is at the bottom center of your screen. It is designed to help you figure out where you're going. This graphic should help (courtesy of Shanakin):



The purple/pink markers on the Navball indicate the direction of your current target. By default, this is the KSC. You select a target in the Map view by double clicking on anything.

The blue markers, which are new in v.18, indicate the direction you should point your craft after you've created a flight plan.



And as seen at launch, the cardinal directions on the Navball are thusly:



You'll note that North is counter-intuitively to the bottom at launch.



How do I know which way my ship will turn?

The two blue windows on the large command module mark the "up" position for the pitch up 'S' or down [W] control. All ship controls are relative to that position.



What's the difference between SAS and A(dvanced)SAS?

Standard SAS uses just a ship's internal (and external, if any) Reaction Wheels to keep you pointed in one direction. It also prevents (or attempts to prevent) any spinning. The command pods have Reaction Wheels built in and probe cores/smaller pods/landers have smaller Reaction Wheels built in.



Adding an ASAS changes this: Enabling ASAS by itself only allows you to use RCS thrusters if you added them (and mono-propellant fuel) to your ship. This can be useful if you want to translate the position of your ship (move slowly in just one direction).



When ASAS is installed and SAS is enabled, the ASAS attempts to keep the heading constant and spin at zero using all available methods to do so: Reaction Wheels, wings and flaps, RCS thrusters, and gimballed engines.



Manually adjusting your heading and spin (using WASD-QE) always uses all available methods, exactly the same as ASAS. It'll use RCS thrusters too if ASAS is on.



So I'm doing okay with my non-sucky design. Is there a better or more efficient way to design rockets?

Sure is! It's all about fuel management and dumping excess weight. See this graphic below. Asparagus stalk staging is more efficient than crossfeeding which is more efficient than non-crossfeeding.





How do I adjust my orbit and use that flight planner feature?

First off, see this graphic courtesy of Cojawfee:



Note: Your current orbit is the Black line. the orbit you want to transition to is the Blue line. It is best to adjust your orbit when you are halfway to your "destination".



To create a flight plan (or manuever), click on your current orbital path in the Map to create a Maneuver node. It'll give you six axis to play with. You pull on each one to indicate burning in that direction. Watch with glee as it predicts where you'll go.



Once set, you'll have a burn timer (burn at 0 for short burns), a Δv calculator (this much change in speed is required), and a blue marker on your nav ball (burn while pointed in this direction). Stop burning once the Δv is 0.



Note: for long burns (like transferring to another planet), begin your burn so that you're halfway done when the start timer hits zero. The burn calculator assumes you reach your speed instantly so you'll have to compensate.



How do I get to those new planets/moons?!

Our own Enigma has put together a helpful tool called Protractor that helps calculate when to launch and burn to encounter the new solar system objects. Hit the '?' button on the Protractor screen for a guide on how to use it.

Kerbal Spaceport link here



Even with the new flight planning mechanic in v.18, Protractor is still useful and awesome at providing direction on when to launch (launch when Θ equals zero).



I'm headed towards Duna/Jool/Eve/Moho and I've heard I can save fuel when I get there. What's this witchcraft?

This is called aerobraking and it involves using the drag of passing into the atmosphere of your destination to slow you down into an orbit.



How close to these should I pass to lose some speed?

Moho - There's no atmosphere to begin with so aerobraking is out of the question. Bring lots of fuel instead.

Eve - Atmo starts around 90km up but turns into a pot of molasses on a winter's day around 60km. Don't go any lower.

Duna - Atmo starts around 45km but it's really weak unless you go down much farther (around 15-20km is good). Excellent candidate for aerobraking.

Jool - Atmo appears to start around 200km but you won't really get any effects until about 138km. However, anything below 125km will almost always result in certain crushing death but if you can hit this window, excellent fuel savings can be had.



What altitude is Kerbal Stationary Orbit?

2900 km



How does the new Science system work?

First off: There's a fixed amount of science for each task and it's never lost. Transmitting just means you have to do it multiple times.



There are two units involved in science: Science, and Data. Science is the resource that you use to buy new parts in the tech tree. Data is what your Kerbals and science instruments actually collect when out on a mission.



The farther out from Kerbin you travel, the higher the Science value is for the Data you collect. There are also many, many different locations to gather science from (both on and around Kerbin and out beyond it) so keep doing experiments.



When you give the order to collect Data, the report screen pops up, giving you some details about the experiment and the option to either trash, keep, or transmit the data. The heading along the top (eg: "Crew report while flying over Kerbin's oceans") is important is it tells you what "zone" you are in for this experiment. The larger text box gives you some flavor about the experiment itself. The Data Size tells you how large/complicated the experiment is, and this translates to how much electrical power it will take to transmit the data back to Kerbin. The Science Value tells you how much the experiment is worth in total. Return the data to Kerbin for the full value or transmit it for partial science.



Note: Experiments will be worth significantly less once you gather the full initial amount of science (via recovering the experiment on Kerbin or transmitting the data back enough times).



What science experiments are available?

Crew Reports - Right-click the capsule. You can transmit these at no transmission penalty so send these back often (as your electricity budget allows)

EVA - Right-click your kerbalnaut. You can store one report per zone (over the oceans, on Mun's southern crater, etc) so if you plan on returning to Kerbin, keep EVAing throughout your mission.

Mystery Goo - Right-click the goo canister. You can only store one result per canister so either bring multiple canisters or transmit the same experiment multiple times for the full science reward (as your electricity budget allows).

Materials Bay - Right-click the materials bay. Works the same way as the Mystery Goo but returns much higher data/science.

Surface Sample - Right-click your kerbalnaut while EVAing on a surface. Works the same as EVA reports so if you plan on returning to Kerbin, grab as many samples from each Biome as possible.

Sensors - Right-click your sensor. These were the previously useless temperature, gravity, and pressure sensors. They can now gather science in the same way as the Mystery Goo and Materials Bays. Note: Not all the sensors work in all conditions.



How does transmitting science back to Kerbin work?

You're going to need two things to transmit data back to Kerbin: an antenna and electricity.



At Tier 0, you'll be able to transmit about 1.5 crew reports. However, the base engine will generate electricity while running so you could eek out maybe 2 or 3 reports.



Later tiers will unlock batteries for greater electricity storage and solar panels for infinite electricity generation.



There are two antennas to use, a small and large. The differences are the amount of data each can send on a 'pulse' and how much electricity is used for each 'pulse'. The small antenna sends smaller pulses at a small electricity cost while the larger one sends more data at higher electricity costs.



You can queue up multiple data reports for transmission, but if you run out of electricity, the transmission will pause and wait for you to generate enough electricity for the next pulse.



What are the planned features of the game?

This is stuff the developer is planning or at least considering for future updates:

- Contracts and an actual economy to add cost to your rockets.

- Management, research of better parts, and training of astronauts to improve future piloting abilities (all the way up to autopiloting craft for you)

- Building surface bases

- Missions and goals for the program

- A simulator mode that lets you start out in orbit or in a particular situation