Blog Post 1: To Space (and orbit)!

Since I was little, I was always interested in space and rockets. With the ability to learn about anything I want that was given to me by this Genius Project, I will be looking more into that. I will be launching rockets in the 'Kerbal Space Program', a thirty dollar rocket simulation game that can be found here.

My goal will be to learn more about rockets and the physics behind them; I will be learning mostly about Newtonian physics, as that is the focus of the simulation. Using Newtonian physics, I will be having rockets (and space planes) reach orbit and other planets. My end goal, and project, is to have a successful manned mission to the moon and back, something done in 1969.

There is one possible problem with my end goal and project; I fired up the simulation today to test it out. I was unable to record the launch due to some technical difficulties involving either Camstudio, a free screen recording software, Youtube, or two conversion programs I installed (sorry!). However, I can show you some screenshots of what I ended up with today instead of the full video.

Anyway, the problem I noticed is that it may be too easy to get to the Moon (or Mun). These are the images of what I ended up with after my first attempt, which was quite the success. The focus was to learn the controls and test out the recording software, but I also achieved what appears to be a safe elliptical orbit.

Shot of the orbit from above. In the center can be found the Earth, or Kerbin. It is only half visible due to the Sun's location. The blue oval is the orbit I have created with my rocket, and the grey circle is the Moon's orbit. The grey dot itself is the Moon.

Orbit from the side. Again, grey is moon, blue is rocket. Unfortunately some things are in the background here; the sun and another orbit. However, the important thing in this picture to know is that my orbit pretty much in line with the moon's.

Basically what I'm getting at is that my job may be slightly easier than it seems; since I am running this in sandbox mode, I don't have to worry about the costs. Other, more difficult modes exist in this simulation (in that they require funding and also simulate the administrative aspects of space agencies). There are, of course, some issues with my rocket which I will explain below.

Rocket with a view of the Earth.

I know that it might be hard to see some of the things I'm about to point out, but here we are. This was the first rocket I launched, and it won't be my last, but some of the things that should be noted about it are:
No decoupling! Notice those booster engines? The ones that look like miniature rockets? That's a bad thing, representative of my sorry lack of decoupling. This was, I think, a problem I faced with this rocket in that when the tanks were out of fuel I wasn't able to get rid of them. Although I was still able to reach an orbit, it resulted in inefficiencies with my rocket that resulted in less fuel to go further. This brings me to my next shortcoming.
Too little energy! Fuel specifically, but energy in general. There was very little fuel, just enough to get into this orbit, and nothing to give the rocket any electricity. That electricity bit is important for this rocket considering it isn't manned and instead is run by electronics. Although I don't know if that means I will no longer be able to control it or not, which, if I could not control it, would make it space-trash and a potential hazard, but important for satellites and such nonetheless.
It wasn't manned! Although this was a good thing this time, considering its lack of fuel, parachutes, and really anyway to get anyone back home, this means that I will have to consider other things that I haven't mentioned here if I went to get there.
It was named Test Rocket One! This one doesn't matter too much, but what if Sputnik was called 'ABC' instead? That monumental moment in history would have been a bit of a joke I think. This means that, from this point on, I will be naming my rockets more creatively, or at least come up with a creative name to call them all. 

To wrap this up, I'd like to say that, all in all, the mission was a success. My goal today was simply to learn about the programs I was going to be using, and I swiftly discovered that some of my resources weren't working, and the basics of controlling the simulation. I think this quick success spells well for my future, which is to the Moon (and maybe beyond, if I find out that getting to the Moon is too easy)!



P.S. Next blog post will be focused on the research I've done on topics like aerobraking that I already know a little bit about that I used to make it out of the atmosphere. I hope that will give me some more time to find a more reliable screen recorder, which I feel like was the source of the issue we had today.
Also, please tell me if you notice anything strange, have any questions, or have any suggestions about my blog or project. Thanks!
One last thing, here are some more screenshots for your viewing pleasure since I was unable to get the video up and running.

The rocket, with the UI, facing the moon.

UI-less view of the Sun and the Earth. In the middle is the rocket, but it is hard to see.

An image of my headquarters, which is, may I say, quite beautiful; birds can be heard chirping in the background.

Edit: Also, I will be changing the design of my blog over the course of the next few days. I think it will be finalized by this Saturday or Sunday.
Also, I fixed a spelling mistake I noticed in a separate edit.
OK, one last edit, this is it I swear:
 I commented on the following blogs (the most recent posts, if the direct links don't work):
Nathan Leung's
Jason Shu's
Sam Klugherz's
(if you don't like how my links are set up I'd be happy to change them)