Successful Mun Landers

[SiliconPyro]

I\'m just learning after making a few successful orbits and returns around Kerbin. I want to progress toward a Mun landing though and in order to do so, I\'d like to use a complete Munar lander at every test phase. Therefore, I\'d love to see the designs others have used to land and return successfully.

EDIT: I\'m playing purely vanilla, but feel free to post anything you want as long as you mention what mod pack you\'re using and why. My intent is to complete these steps before adding any mods though.

[Higgi91]

Hi, here is mine \'SwordTwo\'. Ive have only just gotten to the Mun myself and this is my second successful Mun return rocket.

Can get to the Mun and back easy with fuel to spare, dont really know why I added the last top bit on but it doesnt seem to effect anything much and is a nice \'emergency pod\' if for any reason you happen to burn all of the 3rd stage fuel before you are ready to head back to Kerbin.

Craft File attached.

[Kosmo-not]

Here\'s a picture of my economical mun lander.

[MFToast]

Here\'s mine, sort of a happy medium between those two

EDIT: Can\'t post a screenshot for some reason, sorry.

[SiliconPyro]

Thanks for the replies. Hopefully I can make one of these work for me. I\'d hate to make the trip a one way!

[Electroflux]

Hi, here is mine \'SwordTwo\'. Ive have only just gotten to the Mun myself and this is my second successful Mun return rocket.

Can get to the Mun and back easy with fuel to spare, dont really know why I added the last top bit on but it doesnt seem to effect anything much and is a nice \'emergency pod\' if for any reason you happen to burn all of the 3rd stage fuel before you are ready to head back to Kerbin.

Craft File attached.

I tried using this but before I\'m even completely out of the atmosphere, it loses control and I ended up spiraling down to my death.

[Higgi91]

Same for me on most flights but then I added the 3 Advanced SAS module on the 1st stage to steady it, I also throttle it down a little bit if it gets crazy in the upper atmosphere.

Would love to make a more efficient one with side decouplers but with the VAB bug its so annoying to rearrange after each flight.

[Xivios]

If you can, redesign it with 1 ASAS module, the ASAS module enacts no force of it\'s own, it only controls other, existing control devices, therefore, any number of them greater than 1 is wasted weight.

[Kosmo-not]

It might be helpful to add a couple regular SAS units in addition to a single ASAS unit. The SAS provide reactive torque while the ASAS does a good job of dampening oscillations.

[BillWiskins]

I mainly go for reasonably small landers, largely because the VAB runs so slow already that I can sometimes rollerskate to Las Vegas and back before the screen updates with my last addition. And while the previous sentence is a massive lie, I do prefer to keep the number of parts down for performance and control reasons.

First image is my usual lander, plus a version of it without the SAS unit. No engines usually - most of my landings have been RCS powered only.

The second image is the biggest thing I\'ve yet landed, and only the second or third to use actual engines. It also has far more fuel than is used for landing alone, so I can use it to explore a bit, then provide a launcher for the middle section to return to Kerbin much more reliably than the previous example.

[Higgi91]

Thanks guys regarding SAS/ASAS least I didnt do what Jeb wanted and replace the ASAS with fireworks! Just cant wait for the VAB Staging bug to be fixed now

[SiliconPyro]

Well, I just reached Kerbin orbit at a little over 100km. The beauty of it is I have a ship with about 2.6 full fuel tanks pushing a lander with two RCS tanks. I was only attempting stable orbit, but I might send this puppy to the mun!

What do you think, should I go for it?

[SiliconPyro]

Too impatient and I hope my Kerbanaughts don\'t pay for it, but I had to do it. Wish me luck!

[Higgi91]

Slowing at the moon may be a problem but good luck

[Silverbreez]

Here\'s my .14.1 stock parts Mun rocket & lander. makes it to Munar orbit & landing with a ton of fuel left.. unfortunately my rocket building skills are better than my munar landing skills so i\'ve never landed in one piece yet. but I know I can get there

[Awaras]

Here\'s my .14.1 stock parts Mun rocket & lander. makes it to Munar orbit & landing with a ton of fuel left.. unfortunately my rocket building skills are better than my munar landing skills so i\'ve never landed in one piece yet. but I know I can get there

It\'s not fully stock, says it needs ascent autopilot.

Here\'s mine, it looks small but gets you to the mun and back with plenty of fuel left over...

[SiliconPyro]

Slowing at the moon may be a problem but good luck

It was. R.I.P.. three brave kerbanauts.

[Higgi91]

Hehe Getting there though

[SiliconPyro]

Hehe Getting there though

Use this guide: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=7787.msg114042#msg114042

Party careful attention to the mun landing part. I didn\'t.

[SiliconPyro]

I mainly go for reasonably small landers, largely because the VAB runs so slow already that I can sometimes rollerskate to Las Vegas and back before the screen updates with my last addition. And while the previous sentence is a massive lie, I do prefer to keep the number of parts down for performance and control reasons.

First image is my usual lander, plus a version of it without the SAS unit. No engines usually - most of my landings have been RCS powered only.

The second image is the biggest thing I\'ve yet landed, and only the second or third to use actual engines. It also has far more fuel than is used for landing alone, so I can use it to explore a bit, then provide a launcher for the middle section to return to Kerbin much more reliably than the previous example.

Can you walk me through you munar insertion and landing with RCS only? At what point do you ditch everything that got you there? I think I would have been okay if I had ditched my transition stage while I was in orbit, but I thought I would use it on the way in and that was a HUGE mistake. I should have just ditched it and continued on with my RCS, which had two full tanks when I was in orbit around the mun. I was just worried I wouldn\'t have the juice to land and make it back to Kerbin.

[BillWiskins]

Can you walk me through you munar insertion and landing with RCS only? At what point do you ditch everything that got you there? I think I would have been okay if I had ditched my transition stage while I was in orbit, but I thought I would use it on the way in and that was a HUGE mistake. I should have just ditched it and continued on with my RCS, which had two full tanks when I was in orbit around the mun. I was just worried I wouldn\'t have the juice to land and make it back to Kerbin.

I can, and I will, but I don\'t know if it will come as any help to you. There\'s nothing shockingly original or exceptional about it. By the time I\'m in orbit, for \'not being very efficient\' reasons, I\'m down to a couple of tanks of fuel feeding one engine, which is enough to boost me out to just under 11,400,000m as per a normal Mun mission.

Whether I go into orbit first depends on whether I have arsed anything up dramatically and used up significantly more fuel than a competent pilot would have, and also where my favourite crater is in relation to my approach. So however that pans out, my preferred descent method involves falling to about 50,000 metres and then managing the remaining fuel in my stack to slow down. It\'s usually good for getting under 50m/s by 48 or 49,000 of those remaining metres, and since my lander has quite a lot of thrusters attached to it it isn\'t that important anyway. It can slow itself pretty well just using RCS (within reason).

The nearest of landers pictured actually had a third tank of RCS under a decoupler, as well, for \'hovering about\' purposes. Meant I didn\'t have to be super-precise with my descent into the crater - I wanted to park next to the previous mission, and this way I could come down a few km away and just mosey on over at my leisure.

So, that\'s more or less it. I take my transition stage with me as far as possible for braking - after all, I made the effort to get it off the ground, it\'s just wasteful to not use all the fuel. Mind if I ask what went wrong for you?

Hope that had some use, anyway, and better luck to you for your next mission.

[deadshot462]

My very fuel efficient lander from 0.14.1 Stock Parts, this one does not come close to running out of fuel in ANY of the stages (besides the booster stages):

Download: http://www./?7xy3f1exr7t9rkh

Taking off with 2 sets of booster stages to get you out of the atmosphere quickly:

Completing our parking orbit burn with the main stage:

The ship currently in an 80 x 80 parking orbit, with more than enough fuel to fire for the Mun:

Strong Lunar Insertion burn, with plenty of fuel to spare for plan alignment if needed:

Course is set for the Mun, time to jettison the main stage for our Lunar lander:

Course correction burn ensures my lander is ready for Lunar Orbit Insertion wile my main stage crashes on its surface to prevent space junk:

After an orbit insertion burn, I align my orbit and do an initial pass over my landing target:

Our landing burn:

Precision landing with still full landing fuel tank left:

View from a previous mission lander:

Going home:

Jettisoning the service module, which still had 1/4 fuel left in the tank:

Success!

[mahlmanatior]

I

First image is my usual lander, plus a version of it without the SAS unit. No engines usually - most of my landings have been RCS powered only.

.

how do you land with rcs?

[BillWiskins]

how do you land with rcs?

Carefully

Just make sure you have the correct equipment (tanks and thrusters, both of which I have forgotten to add at various times (though never forgotten both at once)), and then make sure RCS is activated (keyboard \'T\') and then SAS your way to a stable vertical position, and fire the thrusters in a downwardly manner (keyboard \'H\').

[SiliconPyro]

Mind if I ask what went wrong for you?

Well, I achieved equatorial Mun orbit and so I started to burn retrograde. I watched my orbit line start to intersect the Mun, but I was moving way too fast and even continually burning retrograde I just slammed into the Mun. I knew it was doomed and it started to lose control a bit, but that might have just been my lousy piloting. I\'m attaching the rocket I used. It was renamed the 'Giller 1' after my first Kerbanaut on the Mun . . . he was the commander so he would have hit the planet first.