WestSayid

I followed the program above just now (retro-Mun orbit, Hohmann at Munset, direct descent) and got a crash landing at 6:58. I was only traveling at 40 m/s... So I think 7:00 or so is very possible with Hohmann and a good pilot Bi-elliptical is slower, right?

Thanks for the help everyone. Munar missions are starting to become easier with practice. Yes, orbiting first turned out to be much easier than direct descent!

The fastest route to the Mun that uses a Hohmann orbit would probably be a westerly Kearth orbit, Hohmann transfer at Munset, and do a direct descent with a white-knuckle burn starting at 50km or so continuously until landing.

The mission I showed wasn\'t very fast because I tried munar orbital injection.

Yes, this one-body physics is confusing.... I managed to get a very nice lunar orbit. Pics in this thread. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=9963.0

This thing will get you to the Mun in a hurry! Craft file: http://www.box.com/s/e1cb3a963e3780f4f80e Study the staging for a little bit before you launch it. There are a few liftoff stages that go off in sequence. You shouldn\'t start turning your ship until the central, tricoupled engine falls out. The cross section is very efficient. Basically every square inch is covered by an engine of some kind. Because of this your engines will burn very hot but you shouldn\'t overheat. Some pictures from the maiden voyage. Sitting on the launchpad. SRB separation: Liquid booster separation: Central stack cuts off and decouples at 1:12. We are already at 15 km. Heading for a pro-Mun (CCW) parking orbit: A few minutes later, Munrise! Munar injection stacks turn on: Captured and about to burn retro: Beautiful orbit, sets us down right over that crater: Brief retroburn later - we still have about 4 full tanks-worth of fuel below the Lander itself: Lunar descent stage turns on. We kill horizontal velocity: JEB! WHAT DID YOU DO! WE NEEDED THOSE WINGLETS!!!! Jeb: '*KRRRRH* This is Keargle, we are going for a landing anway!!' 0.2 m/s! But the rocket tips over... Jeb is scared?!?! Time to launch a rescue mission for the rescue mission....

Thanks for the help guys. I just came back from the Mun. And how\'s this for a picturesque re-entry ;D My method was to enter a Munar equatorial orbit and then burn when I was going counter to the Mun\'s direction around Kerbin (which happened to be on the dark side). I burned until my periapsis was inside Kerbin and then waited. Unfortunately something weird happened. My whole orbit moved outside of Kerbin as the Mun revolved around it. So instead of hitting Kerbin head on it got me into a highly eccentric Kerbin orbit. No worries though, I still had half a tank of fuel, so I burned at the apoapsis of that ellipse and made it home. Total flight time 09:52. Next step is to try to get an Apollo-esque Munar orbit before I land. I have been doing direct descent from Hohmann transfer, because my rocket has lots of fuel and I can easily aim myself for a crater. And, I\'ll see if I can manage a more fuel-efficient return from the Mun.

Yes, I know apogee/perigee altering (burn on the opposite side etc). I just don\'t know what to do in general. Do you establish an equatorial moon orbit and then just move your apogee to hit Kerbin? Or do you aim straight for Kerbin upon liftoff? etc

Hi fellow Kerbanauts, Hugely enjoying the game so far. Orbiting is now a breeze (I can routinely get 90x120 parking orbits), and I have succeeded in landing on the Mun twice but no luck yet in getting home. I have the fuel but not the know how. Both times I just got into eccentric Earth orbits and ran out of fuel. So how do I get home from the Mun? Is there a general guide to follow? I have some other questions that would greatly improve my space program GRAVITATIONAL SLINGSHOTS? One time when I failed to get back to Earth from the Mun, I accidentally inserted myself into a high Kerbin orbit that was only a million miles beyond the Mun (see pic). So I just hit timewarp and waited for the Mun to catch up to me and slingshot me out of orbit. Only it didn\'t happen. Every time the Mun passed below Jeb just waved at it and totally ignored its gravity. Is this a bug or am I an astrophysics noob or what? LIFTOFF I have the throttle at max pretty much throughout the ascent. Is this efficient or is a lower throttle actually better? Is there a way to calculate the ideal? ORBITAL INSERTION As I leave the atmosphere and start turning, is it more efficient to aim at the horizon or the prograde marker? Is it more efficient to burn nonstop into orbit, or to burn to establish an apogee above the atmosphere, cut engines and then burn at apogee? If the latter, how high of an apogee do you aim for? ORBITING I know that pointing at 90 (due east) and 270 (due west) gets me into two different equatorial orbits. Is one preferable? Is it true that 90 uses less fuel due to Kerbin\'s rotation or does the game not model this? HOHMANN TRANS MUNAR INJECTION I read a tip somewhere that in the 270 configuration you do your TMI burn at Munset over Kerbin, and in the 90 configuration you burn at Munrise. I\'ve tried both versions and it works, the apogee lines up right with where the Mun will be. Why does this work? Why do we need Mun to be at the horizon? The 270 orbit is 'pro-Mun' (CCW viewed from north, same direction as the Mun\'s revolution around Kerbin) and the 90 orbit is 'retro-Mun.' Do you experienced Kerbanauts have a preference for proMun or retroMun pre-TMI parking orbit? MUNAR LANDING You guys make sure your nav ball is on SURFACE mode, right? That was a big breakthrough for me. Before I was coming down in ORBIT mode and getting a totally wrong reading of my lateral motion relative to the Munar surface. Now I can kill that motion at around 100km with a sideways burn and do a direct vertical descent. During this burn I generally do not aim at the retrograde marker but 'beyond' it with the aim of 'scooting' the marker into the center. Any other tips for this phase? LEAVING THE MUN This is where I\'m currently stuck ATMOSPHERIC RE ENTRY Your capsule can\'t burn up in the atmosphere so you aren\'t punished for having terrible re-entry angles and speeds. Do you try to get a realistic re-entry trajectory anyway? Any tips on how to do this? Or do people just generally come down on any old trajectory?