Observational Surveys of the mun

[jakeb1993]

So i am now getting missions to do Obs survey's of the mun which is great. But they always say below 11,000 M etc. Now i know a space plane won't work out there, so how are you supposed to do them? I know a rocket would work, but they are usually laid out in such  a way that getting a sub-orbital path that would cover them all is impossible... unless of course you could complete them from the ground 

[Kosmo-not]

Is there somehow a problem with orbiting that low?

[FancyMouse]

10km is still orbital altitude for Mun. You can either do a polar orbit and be patient enough to warp until it covers your destination, or do inclination burns to get there sooner.

[Snark]

14 minutes ago, FancyMouse said:

10km is still orbital altitude for Mun. You can either do a polar orbit and be patient enough to warp until it covers your destination, or do inclination burns to get there sooner.

Protip, if you're orbiting super low and it won't let you warp faster than 10x and it's taking forever:  just switch back to the tracking station at KSC, then focus on your ship.  You can warp as fast as you like. 

[Wemb]

15 hours ago, jakeb1993 said:

So i am now getting missions to do Obs survey's of the mun which is great. But they always say below 11,000 M etc. Now i know a space plane won't work out there, so how are you supposed to do them? I know a rocket would work, but they are usually laid out in such  a way that getting a sub-orbital path that would cover them all is impossible... unless of course you could complete them from the ground 

Technically, on a body with no atmosphere you can orbit at 1m off the ground.  The problem with doing this is the terrain. If you try that on the Mun you'll go eventually smack into the side of a mountain. I think about over 8km should be fine. I wouldn't risk going into an orbit much lower than that though.  I can feel a bit hairy orbiting at altitudes that low but the payoff is that the views out of a capsule window at a low altitude can be completely stunning.

Wemb

[Warzouz]

I tend to avoid this kind of mission. They are usually painful, long and not much rewarding.

[Der Anfang]

You want to be in a polar orbit.  Preferably, I myself tend to avoid thise missions if they try to have me land in a specific spot, or if it's well below 8km above Mun's surface. Pretty much what FancyMouse had said.

[egoego]

 

You can find a list of highest mountains for each body in this thread. According to this orbiting Mun at 7200m should be safe.

[Wemb]

3 hours ago, egoego said:

You can find a list of highest mountains for each body in this thread. According to this orbiting Mun at 7200m should be safe.

I did a return from the Mun last night - my lander is somewhat underpowered being pushed by a spark engine.  I cleared the nearby mountain range by less than 30m.  It was perfectly safe but somewhat overly exhilarating. According ot the docs, the highest mountain on the Mun is 7061m.  

Wemb