Mun Landing On Tallest Peak

[Jarnis]

I found a nice challenge which is also !Science!. Ever wondered how high the highest peak on the Mun is? We know it is above 500m as people have experienced unplanned lithobraking events when skimming in sub-500m orbits.

Land on the Mun, touching down at as high altitude as possible. Landing must be soft and capable of takeoff back to Kerbin. (As it is impossible to confirm if you\'d have enough fuel without actually flying the return, fuel remaining does not matter - just capability to perform a takeoff; craft upright, has engine, has some fuel)

As a minimum, include screenshots of the lander on surface, a wide shot of the area and a map shot showing where on the Mun you landed at.

Stock + any optional lander legs and KSP Silisko Edition are both fine. Heck, it doesn\'t really matter what you use to get the lander to the Mun as long as the lander itself is not some cfg-edited cheating thingy.

I will start with...

Landed at 582m

(And there are two peaks next to this one that I estimate both to be over 600m in height but my lander fuel was getting low so I decided to play it safe and pick this one)

[Asmosdeus]

Can\'t you see a taller peak to the right, in the second image?

[Jarnis]

Can\'t you see a taller peak to the right, in the second image?

(And there are two peaks next to this one that I estimate both to be over 600m in height but my lander fuel was getting low so I decided to play it safe and pick this one)

But I didn\'t land on either one, so I don\'t know what their exact height is... I tried to do a hop to the tallest one with the fuel remaining but after messing up first approach I had to dump my empty descent stage and ascend back towards Kerbin.

This is a very nice test of precision landings - it is easy to drift off a few meters to some direction when aiming for the peak - which could easily mean that you\'ll land on 45 degree slope and... well... :\'(

[tofof]

Humorously, I almost created this challenge about 12 hours earlier, and decided to just stick with the Limbo one for now (in linked thread).

Maybe I\'ll try both at once.

[Damonjay]

Tallest peak is wellllll before 582m

in this photo i\'m at 584 and the peak is just abit higher then me. i would have landed on it but it would have been impossible with what i was flying with.

[Rickenbacker]

Might have been the one I discovered when I tried to orbit at 400m... Worked for a while .

[Damonjay]

Might have been the one I discovered when I tried to orbit at 400m... Worked for a while .

one? there are many peaks which reach above 540m\'s just avoid the craters because thats where they seem to appear most

[Damonjay]

actually could someone get there hands on a topographic map of the mun? i will help me alot

[Jarnis]

actually could someone get there hands on a topographic map of the mun? i will help me alot

That is part of the problem in this challenge - finding high peaks

In my experience the highest I\'ve seen are on the rims of large 'seas' (even if they are round in the game and probably supposed to be large craters, I call them seas)

Edit: Obviously the game should have mapping cameras and radars that let you do a proper scouting mission, gathering data on landing sites... saving them to nice off-game files so you could then analyze them etc. - just having a full topographic map off the game files would be cheating.

[Damonjay]

That is part of the problem in this challenge - finding high peaks

In my experience the highest I\'ve seen are on the rims of large 'seas' (even if they are round in the game and probably supposed to be large craters, I call them seas)

well im currently orbiting the moon at around 603-300 700-400 694-553 625-519(adjusting as we speak) and im finding heaps of peaks. i just want a way that i can quickly leave a mark on a map so i can visit it when i want. (and to share)

yea thats where i have found the higher mountains aswell

[Jarnis]

well im currently orbiting the moon at around 603-300 700-400(adjusting as we speak) and im finding heaps of peaks. i just want a way that i can quickly leave a mark on a map so i can visit it when i want. (and to share)

yea thats where i have found the higher mountains aswell

Well, Jeb forgot to bring a GPS unit.

And KSP forgot to put GPS satellites aroudn the mun.

So that is a problem...

[Damonjay]

thats what i put around the Mun you silly goose.

well seeing as there is a topographic map of kearth there is bound to be one of the moon?

all we need to do is ask HarvesteR for the Texture

UPDATE- so i was in orbit at 610m and i crashed into a peak - does that count as landing?

the Mountain top was about 620m

i will upload photos after work

[Jarnis]

thats what i put around the Mun you silly goose.

well seeing as there is a topographic map of kearth there is bound to be one of the moon?

all we need to do is ask HarvesteR for the Texture

UPDATE- so i was in orbit at 610m and i crashed into a peak - does that count as landing?

the Mountain top was about 620m

i will upload photos after work

Not for this challenge (it must be soft landing capable of taking off again, getting a precision landing on a high peak is hard), but it does for figuring out the highest peak on the Mun.

So at this point we know 'at least 620m'. Future generations of Kerbalkind are well server by this piece of information when doing orbits around the Mun. The sacrifice of these brave pilots will be remembered.

Okay, who\'s next for that circular orbit at 630m? This is a very safe mission!

[sarkun]

While performing a standard Mün mission, I landed at ~450 meters but noticed a rather high mountain range near the LZ.

So naturally I decided to give this challenge a go, nevermind that:

1) I used almost all rcs fuel for landing.

2) My standard lander is ill suited for this challenge cause it is REALLY top heavy.

Nevertheless, I touched down ALMOST at the top of the mountain at 614m - but my lander just wouldn\'t stay upright - after balancing for about 10 seconds I took off, and crashed on my 3rd attempt to land on this mountain. I know where it is, so I\'ll return there once I build a better lander.

Screenshot before take off:

Altitude 614m, the top must be well over 620.

[Damonjay]

ok i have found a chain of mountains - at the edge of a crater

-just south are larger mountains - you can recognise the crater by the swirls on the right of the bottom of the image

i landed. a little to hard but my crew survived. at 638

There were much larger mountains around but obviously my rocket was in no condition to move on.

[Jarnis]

Helps to narrow down the lowest safe orbit ('640m is too low') but due to the boom and inability to take off, not fully qualifying for the challenge. Getting a soft landing on a tiny spot at the peak without toppling over or otherwise blowing up is the hard part here... 8)

[Spider0804]

Ahem.

I was not trying to find a tall peak...but just somewhere to land, and then i saw this mountain and decided to see if it was higher and indeed it was.

[comando222]

My first Mun landing was on a hill, well i started sliding down and almost tipped over.Sadly no pics.

[Jarnis]

656m is then the new record. I\'m sure there are still taller spots to be found...

[Radion]

It certainly looks like there will be taller areas. The peak to the left of Spider\'s lander for instance, appears higher than his current position. Circa 665? 670?

[Spider0804]

i tried landing on it but fudged it and slid down :/

[Spider0804]

Ah not to toot my own horn but I managed to head to the crater on the other side and find a slightly higher peak.

Sadly.... I currently have the game paused looking at a peak that is easily over 700 but i lost one of my solar panels and now for some reason when i turn off S.A.S. my ship wants to do a death spiral, so I will have to find it another time.

Edit: Well i found out that by centering the globe and keeping S.A.S. on, then adjusting with W A S D only , you can keep even a out of control ship manageable...aslong as you do not turn off the S.A.S. anyway, so i headed to that peak...not over 700 but still.

[Jarnis]

687m it is then... we may be getting close to the max. It could be 700m. So who can find a higher one? 8)

[Damonjay]

695!

I use a form of 'lithobreaking' to get my hush puppy down safely. also if i tried i could probably get it back to kerbin

BTW the bottom picture is of an outdated Munar Rover. the Top picture is of a more recent one. and i have just made improvements on that one

[Spider0804]

Nice.