How to land on the mun

[Ninja possum32]

Ok, this is up most the stupidest question ever :-[ but I REALLY need help to land on the mun, many times when I have an intersecting orbit, I\'m down to my capsule. Either that or Or I can\'t eliminate enough lateral momentum. Any help greatly appreciated. ;D ;D

[Ninja possum32]

oh and please tell me how without using mods

[vexx32]

There are a bunch of good guides around here. If you just want to be able to land on the Mun, you may need either a different craft or simply a slightly different technique.

Basically, you want to eliminate almost all of your lateral momentum while you\'re still high-up. Once you\'re falling pretty much straight down, you\'ll want to orient yourself vertically. Leave your engines off until around 60km up. Do a full thrust there until your velocity is down to around 100m/s. Then cut your engines again. Wait until 20km and then you can start a controlled descent -- once again, decelerate to about 100m/s first, then burn as needed to slow your descent in time to meet the ground.

If you run out of fuel when trying to land, you may find some ideas from my own Mun lander craft on how to do your staging and suchlike:

http://www.sporemodding.com/stuff/MITM-I.craft

I have successfully landed about 90% of attempted landings. There were only a 5% crash rate, almost always down to pilot error. It\'s pretty easy to control, too. Just remember -- when reorienting the craft in its lander stage (which I normally reach just after beginning descent on the Mun), you\'ll want to turn RCS off. The SAS gives plenty of torque for reorienting it.

Beyond that, there are plenty of threads around with the specifics, but judging from your post you are experienced enough to know what to do with some simple instructions.

The best apoapsis on a TMI orbit tends to be between 10M metres and 12M metres, that should get you headed towards the Mun without too much lateral velocity. I find going right for the Mun\'s own orbital radius can work pretty well (11.3M metres).

[Trekkin]

Well, if you want my 'forigiving' method:

I aim to put my apoapsis on TMI in the middle of the Mun, so I\'ll hit the Mun if I don\'t change course. Then I burn retrograde until my velocity vector is near vertical, starting at maybe 40,000 feet or so. Once my retrograde indicator is near vertical, I lock my orientation upward and brake with my main engines while adjusting lateral velocity with RCS till I\'m pointed straight up and down, moving straight down relative to the planet, etc.

It\'s not fuel efficient at all, but it reduces the problem to a one-dimensional one fairly quickly.

[Kosmo-not]

Burn radially until your PE is 5km above the Mun\'s surface. Burn at PE to cancel out horizontal velocity and land.

[Zephram Kerman]

Ok, this is up most the stupidest question ever :-[ but I REALLY need help to land on the mun, many times when I have an intersecting orbit, I\'m down to my capsule. Either that or Or I can\'t eliminate enough lateral momentum. Any help greatly appreciated. ;D ;D

Sounds to me like you\'re running out of fuel before you can reach your goals. That might be due to your craft design being too small for the trip, or it might be due to inefficiencies in your trajectory. (If you get the ascent speed and gravity turn optimized, that leaves a lot of fuel for the rest of your trip.)

Check out those tutorial videos. Those are helpful to find other mistakes that might be slowing you down. I prefer Kosmo-not\'s guide.

[sss]

There are a bunch of good guides around here. If you just want to be able to land on the Mun, you may need either a different craft or simply a slightly different technique.

Basically, you want to eliminate almost all of your lateral momentum while you\'re still high-up. Once you\'re falling pretty much straight down, you\'ll want to orient yourself vertically. Leave your engines off until around 60km up. Do a full thrust there until your velocity is down to around 100m/s. Then cut your engines again. Wait until 20km and then you can start a controlled descent -- once again, decelerate to about 100m/s first, then burn as needed to slow your descent in time to meet the ground.

If you run out of fuel when trying to land, you may find some ideas from my own Mun lander craft on how to do your staging and suchlike:

http://www.sporemodding.com/stuff/MITM-I.craft

I have successfully landed about 90% of attempted landings. There were only a 5% crash rate, almost always down to pilot error. It\'s pretty easy to control, too. Just remember -- when reorienting the craft in its lander stage (which I normally reach just after beginning descent on the Mun), you\'ll want to turn RCS off. The SAS gives plenty of torque for reorienting it.

Beyond that, there are plenty of threads around with the specifics, but judging from your post you are experienced enough to know what to do with some simple instructions.

The best apoapsis on a TMI orbit tends to be between 10M metres and 12M metres, that should get you headed towards the Mun without too much lateral velocity. I find going right for the Mun\'s own orbital radius can work pretty well (11.3M metres).

hey, isnt that you from the minecraft forum? who was giving away free gift codes?

0_0

i seem to find people from other games such as allegiance.

[vexx32]

As Kosmo-not said, you want to burn whilst pointing at the horizon in the direction opposite of your angular thrust (retrograde (X) marker) to cancel out horizontal velocity most efficiently. Just be careful you don\'t burn for too long and send yourself in the other direction xD

@sss:

Aye, it\'s me. Keep it on-topic though

You never know, if they manage to upgrade the store system a bit, I could occasionally do the same thing here.

[sss]

Gah, i tryed to land on mun.

could not intercept moon 2 times and the other 3 i first broke my landing gear and engine, the next one i crashed, and the final landing i landed on a stupid hill.

is there anything i can do so that i will land on a flat surface?

or is there a mod that makes the moon flatter (or even compltetly flat)

>

[Trekkin]

Gah, i tryed to land on mun.

could not intercept moon 2 times and the other 3 i first broke my landing gear and engine, the next one i crashed, and the final landing i landed on a stupid hill.

is there anything i can do so that i will land on a flat surface?

or is there a mod that makes the moon flatter (or even compltetly flat)

>

You can try to find the Munoliths. They\'re at the center of totally flat areas.

If that\'s not something you want to spend time doing, try craters. They are flat towards the middle.

[sss]

You can try to find the Munoliths. They\'re at the center of totally flat areas.

If that\'s not something you want to spend time doing, try craters. They are flat towards the middle.

erm, how do i find them? lol

[hubbazoot]

Gah, i tryed to land on mun.

could not intercept moon 2 times and the other 3 i first broke my landing gear and engine, the next one i crashed, and the final landing i landed on a stupid hill.

is there anything i can do so that i will land on a flat surface?

or is there a mod that makes the moon flatter (or even compltetly flat)

>

There\'s a really good flat spot on the 'front' of the mun (west side if looking from Kerbin. Try to land right where the orbital line intersecs the planet. The flattest terrain is in that area.

[Trekkin]

erm, how do i find them? lol

Blind luck, or the Muon detector plugin/mod.

Really, though, craters are a better bet for just general purpose landing. The big dark grey ones you see aren\'t too far off 0 inclination, and they\'re fairly flattish.

[Zephram Kerman]

If your lander has a wide base, it won\'t mind moderate hills.