How to Go to space in Kerbal Space Program Part 2

This is "How to go to space in Kerbal Space Program part 2" If you want to know the whole process please look at part 1.

So,

You've mad a  rocket in the VAB and you are ready to go to space.  Press the launch button near the top right corner.

Now you'll be on the launch pad.  Wait for things to load then press the shift key to increase your thrust to max. (P.S. shift increases throttle control decreases it)  Press the "t" key to turn on the SAS.


Then Press space bar (to activate the foremost stage) and ...  Liftoff!

Continue up till you reach 10,000 meters,

Then start moving along the 90 degree mark by first toggling  the SAS with the "T" key and then pressing the "D" key or (depending on your rotation) any combination of the"w,a,s,d" turn the ball to 45 degrees or the half way point on the 90 degree line. Rotation can be controlled with "q" and "e".

Don't forget to re-engage the SAS controls to maintain your course.

You are almost there!  Follow the green pro-grade marker till you reach a horizontal attitude. When you run out of fuel while pressing space bar to detach the old stage and then again to start the next stage.

Go to the map by pressing "M".  Keep burning horizontal till your apoapsis says 100,000 meters.  then press "X" to cut the throttle.

About 15 to 30 seconds from apoapsis burn horizontal till your periapsis first exists then is about 100,000 meters. And you should have an orbit around the planet Kerbin.

Now enjoy the scenery.

To return home find the retro-grade marker and burn till your map shows a collision course with Kerbin or at most a periapsis of 25,000. That should get you deep enough into the atmosphere to slow down.

How to go space in Kerbal Space Program Part 1

If you don't know what Kerbal Space program is please refer to the previous blog post of mine. 

Kerbal space program is a technical and challenging game and if you don't know how to construct a proper space ship, you will experience many explosions and failures.  Constructing a sturdy rocket is imperative.  A simplistic rocket is the way to go for begginers but more complicated rockets can produce better efficiency if done right.

Achieving an orbital flight can be difficult if you don't know what your doing so here are my steps to Kerbin Orbit.
                                                        (Screen Shot edited to show the parts of the VAB)

1. First you must get and download the game or demo and install it.  Following which, enter a saved file or create a new one.  Enter the VAB to begin.
2. Navigating the VAB is difficult here are several important things to know the parts are on the left and separated into various categories  symmetry and other tools located below that.  Staging settings on the right and a menu  with new, load, save, launch and exit functions on the top right.
3. To rotate your rocket click and hold right click while moving the mouse.  And the Vertical view can be changed with the scroll wheel.
4. To create a rocket you need a capsule.  The small one man capsule will do and is the easiest.  Next, find and attach in this order below the capsule. 
1.  A decoupler of the appropriate size to separate the capsule, advanced SAS, a medium fuel tank, and a small rocket motor to complete the orbital stage.  
2. Below that another decoupler, two double length fuel tanks and a the larger vectoring engine.  
3. To get off the ground add a tricoupler and then turn on three way symmetry in the bottom left corner.  Add  two double length fuel tanks and the same vectoring engines that you used on the previous stage.
4. A very important thing to note is struts, struts, struts.  Struts are found under the structural tab and are important to keep ships together and stop wobbling.  Use these to tie together the three columns.  
5. To provide greater control add winglets to the bottom of your rocket.  
6. Add a parachute to the top of the capsule to prevent your kerbal from experiencing a high g death upon return to earth.
7. Staging is important.  Insure the bottom three rockets fire first (the lowest stage or highest number). Then the decoupler and next rocket, then the next decoupler and appropriate engine.  Followed by the decoupler that separates the capsule from the service module.  The last stage should be the parachute.

This concludes my first part of "How to go space in Kerbal Space Program Part 1"

Blogs

Blogs are an important topic, as I am posting to one.  These are several blogs I have seen and am interested in.

Popular authors have large fan bases and some deem it important to communicate with them.  What is better than a blog to share news and progress.

Brandon Sanderson, author of The Way of Kings, one of my favorite books, posts regularly on a blog (http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog).

He gives links to a podcast he does, talks about upcoming releases, events he'll be signing books at and distant projects he wishes to reveal information on.  He even has used it to show videos (which are actually on youtube) of him writing and his process in tackling a chapter.
 
Video games are among some of the most popular topics on the internet.  An Indie game called Kerbal Space Program has been going through heavy development and is in a public alpha state (not a full game but still playable). 

The game is a space travel simulator.  Like being in charge of a NASA like program.  Your job is to construct, fly and and return your space vehicle filled with adorable aliens called Kebals (those that live on the planet Kerbin).

The development team has a blog easily accessible from their main site, on which they post news, updates and space related events.  This is the Blog: http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com

There are among the many Blogs on the internet a large portion which have only one or no posts these are either new blogs or forgotten, lost in the sea of information and never to be touched again.

Pizza Pie Cafe has, on their website, a blog. I looked it up just to see if a blog could exist on a website such as that and indeed it does among the options for the menus and and opening and closing hours lies a blog with one post either new or forgotten, or not useful, its only post consists of an announcement for a new website. http://www.pizzapiecafe.co/category/blog/

BYU is still of course the best.  There were, nevertheless, many things I learned of my trips to the other campuses, namely UVU and U of U, I visited the week before last.  My week began, as always, with sunday which preceded monday.  Monday lacked school and was thus spent goofing off and being lazy at home.  

Tuesday was "The Best"( see sentence 1).  BYU was lots of fun. I got to spend much of the trip shadowing a college student.  I was with Benjamin a grad student studying acoustics.  I had the privilege of attending a high level class in which the professor explained the ways to mathematically model the waves and output made by a sphere with a pulsating cap expanding radially and axially.  Much of this information blew way over my head but it was neat to see the possibilities of high math and science.  After that he showed me the sound chambers rigged with various experiments showing off the more hands on science of acoustics rather than the theoretical aspects.  Both of which I found highly interesting.

  

I went to the devotional, and walked around campus most of the rest of the day with other people from the school.  It was fun.

Utah Valley University was interesting because I have hardly ever seen it before compared to BYU.  It was smaller and much more compact.  I recognized many similarities between them (Apple/ tech store, library, bookstore, pendulum.) that, I assume, are common in other universities.  But is had different architecture, layout, size, and seemed more layed back.

University of Utah was more impressive than UVU if not in size (which it definitly was) then in history. It has been around since Brigham Young helped founded it and has many older building on and around it. 

This week helped me not only learn about these colleges more but what I what out of my college experience and what I want to study.  My Ambition still remains to go to BYU and I hope to prepare well now for my higher education experience and options.