lmm

They totally do. Challenge accepted (well, if I have time).

280m/s is the vertical component of velocity here. So to hit at a shallow angle you'd have to be going much faster.

An old mission of mine that's kind of relevant; only twelve tanks, but possibly a similar quantity of payload. I need a new computer before I try anything like this again though.

First time posting; there is surely nothing new or original here, but I feel the need to share my achievement in landing a Kerbal on the Mun and returning him safely. The mission could be fairly described as "shambolic" and there were times when I despaired of ever making it home, but make it home I did. For the first stage one needs to lower the throttle to 90% or 95% for at least part of the ascent; if one tries to go at 100% the whole way the rocket breaks apart After first stage separation the rocket wobbles quite alarmingly; fortunately the SAS did its job, stabilising just in time for clearing the atmosphere and rotating to head due East Second stage separation is really quite beautiful, the three Rockmax stages drifting very slowly away in perfect symmetry Small burn at apokerb, just enough to lift perikerb out of the atmosphere, then munar transfer burn at perikerb From a flyby trajectory I reversed thrust to get captured in a very high slow munar orbit, then bi-elliptic transfer to a low fast circular one (~400k), then just slowly burned into a descent. The ship has more than enough fuel for this but I was surprised how much I used; is there a more efficient way to land on an airless body? For this particular rocket one probably needs to choose a landing site facing directly towards Kerbin I couldn't fit legs below the nuke, so instead came up with the crazy plan of descending under nuclear power to ~0, separating just above the surface (ideally low enough to then land on legs without needing to do a burn). In the event I misjudged it, separating at ~1500m when the actual surface was below 500m, and burned from my return stage for a ~3m/s descent. Had I got this right, the return might have been a lot easier The triumph of actual landing was short-lived, both because I wasn't sure if I could get home and because the ladder didn't reach the surface... Full power on the ascent, switching off as soon as I'm sure I'm free of the Mun and heading for Kerbin. Or rather, past Kerbin A cock-up with the time controls meant I did an extra Munar flyby before any more thrusting. In retrospect, I suspect this was rather fortunate. By now I've got about 1/6th of a tank and my orbit goes no closer than 4Mm. I wait patiently for apokerb, doing a long minimum-power burn for maximum efficiency trying to ellipticise my orbit enough to get home. As the fuel supply dwindles away, a crazy thought takes hold; I minutely adjust my course, and I allow myself a little hope to counter the despair as the tank runs dry with perikerb still at 400km altitude. I circle once... I circle twice... and then the Mun is there and my flyby is everything I had dreamed of and more. The already narrow orbit becomes almost a straight line, perikerb down to 46km. I remember with a hint of worry that the atmosphere ends at about 35km up, but fortune favours me once more. Metre by metre my orbit becomes a descent, and all that's left to do is open the parachute at 1km for a gentle splashdown only a few hundred kilometers from the space center It's probably routine for you guys, but I felt very pleased to have made it back from the Mun on just an LV-909 with a partially filled FL-T200, even if it did require two gravitational assists. Next mission: Dun, I guess. Ship at http://www./?j6khdqv4hdpd66o