matmilne

Short Version: take off until 40,000m. turn 90deg and go full throttle until at 2300ms(check map to ensure periapsis is there), turn off engines. rotate view until looking along travel direction wait for the moon to rise (time warp is helpful), the sun will rise first. Reorientate the ship until pointing at the yellow acceleration circle, activate sas, go to map. accelerate up to about 3100ms the apoapsis should move out to 12,000,000 meters. turn engines off. time warp until captured by the mun. move to the green circle with the cross through it, and decelerate until in circular lunar orbit. Move round the darkside into light, and decelerate again, so the circle becomes an arc. keep decelerating until the arc becomes a straight line. wait until altitude is 10,000m, decelerate to 200ms. at 2000m decelerate down to 100ms. keep pointing at the green circle and slow the descent to between 30 and 50ms. at 500m slow to around 20ms and keep minimum thrust until touchdown (final velocity should be 10ms or less). (assuming you haven\'t exploded or inexplicably jettisoned the landing stage in a moment of wild panic) you have landed. Apply sunscreen, locate shades, bask in glorious sun until lightly crisped. accelerate until 800ms (lunar escape velocity) wait until recaptured by kerbin,decelerate until periapsis disappears. jettison final stage and wait until below 500m. now deploy parachute for a gentle, scrambled-kerbinaut-free landing. get out of craft and wobble around a bit. the end.

assuming that you simply lose the periapsis and land in a shallow curve somewhere inside a crater you should be OK, the key is not exploding, suitable parts with high crash tolerances and low explosion potential are critical. On my first successful lunar landing, the ship landed vertically, fell over, and slid down a crater wall without exploding. Had to take off again with the ship on its side at the bottom, quite fun. (sadly i time-warped on the return and de materialised in the middle of kerbin with the loss of all hands)