Damn, that's expensive. No space program for me.

Ok the rules for reentry have changed.

:-|

I... confirm.

Thanks for the pointers!

I guess seeing this is a simple as pointing my mouse toward the AP? I'll "test that out" shortly ;)

Also, Tallima mentioned something about "Now that you're in orbit, turn on your map. Set the Mun as your Target. Click on your orbit and select the increase forward velocity icon and drag it until your orbit barely touches the Mun's orbit.

Now rotate your forward velocity mark point around your orbit until your projected orbit makes contact with the Mun."

Have you ever played the demo? I'm guessing the demo doesn't let me do this (adjusting forward velocity icon and such?). Or if you have and it does, how would I do that LOL - I'm not seeing it on the map screen.

Finally, is the reason I'm feeling a fuel crunch because I can only build a 30 part ship? Or should I be able to reach Mun with a 30 part ship and I'm just really, really, REALLY inefficient?

Thanks again! Now if only I can get decent at reading the NAV Ball... ;)

That's it. hover your mouse on the AP marker, and you will see it.

For the demo : Don't know, since I play the whole game (and the present demo is not the one that was around when I bought it)
Note that if you are in a career game (or with start-of-career-game-like limitations, which is possible since the "30 parts" is one of them), then the nav nodes are not available at the start of the game (one of the reasons why career is NOT a beginner mode)

For reaching the moon under 30 parts : Seems a little tigh. I would be able to do it, but it would probably be a one-way trip, with no landing and no return.

IMPORTANT : I don't remember if the game tells you this, but if you pull up the nav ball, you can pilot in map screen. Very useful when you have to navigate without nav nodes.

So they are continuing to make space access harder. Been getting progressively worse, though more complicated arguably is welcome (although part limits are still what let the game down consistently; over 300 in an orbit and your looking at 2-3fps).

you can upgrade your facilities. Simply right-click on them.
upgrade your vehicle assembly building to allow more parts
upgrade the launchpad to allow heavier/taller rockets
upgrade the mission control to get those navigation markers(iirc?)
unless that part is removed in the demo

but, 20 parts should get you to the mun, i think :p. just into orbit and back though, not landing.
(though I don't what parts exactly you have available in the demo, so maybe i am too optimistic)

but for that it is important to practice the ascent as Kardwill desribed it.
If you waste too much fuel on reaching the orbit, it will get so much harder to build your rockets because you have to carry around all that extra fuel.
what I usually try to aim for is:
-go straight up until 1-2km height
-slowly,but gradually turn east (90° on the nav ball)
-at about 15km your rocket should reach an angle of 45°, don't try to push it further too much then, or will end up to low
- switch to the map screen, and watch your AP, if it reaches 75000, stop your engines (press 'x')
- wait until 10-15s before your rocket reaches the AP, turn to prograde, full throttle until you have a circular orbit

if you have trouble controlling the rocket while turning
- add some winglets
- lower the throttle, you often don't want to go full power

Thanks again to both of you for all the helpful pointers! Time to work on refining my process - seems like beyond being a great game this one has a very nice community too. I'm certainly going to be upgrading from the demo at some point - I think the person in this thread who said something like "If you think you'll like the game, you'll probably love it" was spot on.

With 30 parts you can definitely land a Kerbal on the Mun and back. Although career mode also start with a 18t limit, and the best I can do with that is land a probe and back.

Product page indicates 10.7 is the minimum Mac OS version. 10.6 is the actual minimum according to the app.

Thanks! :)

Yup, I noticed. I came back to say "That was fast", and here's your post about it :)