Veteran players reminisce: What was your first Munar landing like?

[0x7be]

Manned Deep Impact

[vicwarrior]

Many quickloads and quickwaves were done.

They had to wait for a rescue that never came.

[Lord Aurelius]

I don't actually specifically remember what my first Mun landing was like. Most likely it was a large explosion, followed by a quickload, another explosion, another quickload...

Probably followed by giving up on that lander (this was 0.19, end flight simply teleported your kerbals safely back home and was an easy out for tricky situations) and going back to the VAB to fix the root problem (not enough fuel most likely) followed by more quicksaves and quickloads before finally getting it down in one piece.

[MacroNova]

Pretty sure my first Mun landing involved using way too much fuel, coming in way too fast, but ultimately sticking the landing, just to derp out on the differing orientations between my reaction wheel controls versus the camera angle and nav ball behavior. Yup, I tipped over.

These days I can reliably do precision landings within a decent margin for the survey contracts. Amazing how far a little practice will get you.

[cptdavep]

It went something like this...

Yes, yes, yes, I've made it! ... Errrr why is it tipping?... **** lift off!!! Which why is up!? No, no, not down... (Boom) Ooooh! I survived! Oh, I'm coming back down, (Boom) wow how did I survive that? (Bounce) **** (Bounce) **** (Bounce) **** (skid) I'm gonna make it! (Stop) YES YES YES! IN YOUR FACE GRAVITY! Wooooo!

[Orange_Slime_]

For me, I just stuck a bunch of structural plates on the bottom of a landercan, dropped it at the moon, then quicksaved and quickloaded until I managed to make the kerbal survive. He never got back though, still waiting for rescue from one of the munar canyons.

[viktor19]

Mine was back in the days of 0.22 or 0.23 (I've first played KSP 0.10 but then rediscovered it in 0.23).

Jeb was heading on a one-way trip - Mk1 cockpit and four rover wheels to move around the surface. It took me few times to land successfully (F5 FTW). Jeb was contemplating on his until the rest of the gang came to pick him up and return to KSC.

[Kilmeister]

Well my first Mun "landing" was more of an introductory lesson in lithobraking. Funny to think about it now, but my first time I had thought about how to get to the moon, but never really put much thought into how landing actually works. I don't have an exact measurement, but I believe the wreckage was spaced out over a nice 10-20km area (Jeb met his maker about 3km from the initial impact)

[Commissioner Tadpole]

I believe this image should say everything.

[Shades]

Bah, I remember landing on wings due to there being no landing gear, and god help you if you hit space by accident, nothing like having the perfect landing screwed as you watch your wings detach, which usually meant your rocket would fall over

[aleis]

Let's see. ..Fail. ....fail. .....fail. ....skip it go to Minmus

[Voidryder]

Hairy. Was pre-docking (17.1) so I had to EVA Bob to the lander (Mk-1 Pod, ladder, fuel tank, poodle, landing gear) first. Blow the decoupler. Then burn retro. And of course I burnt too much fuel on retro. Since Bob was game, decide I would attempt a suicide burn at last minute. Pulled it off, no idea how. But fuel was not looking good for rendezvous. While Bob did his magic moment on Mun surface I switched to orbiting return craft (probe controlled), lowered periapsis to about 40K. Then back to Bob, launched when return craft was on downhill slope of orbit. Got within a klick or so, burning everything including all of the mono. Once the tanks were dry, EVA'd Bob and made it. Barely. Few a lot of unmanned landers after that until I learned how to do it properly.

[tommypops]

The demo, even after I bought the game. The demo was less laggy though. My brother was watching something on TV, and I was very shaky, but after pulling it off, running up and down the corridor a couple times and posting a million Facebook and Twitter posts, I managed to splash Jeb down back home. Then I did it in the full version, and the rest is history.

[Ace_Of_Spades]

When I was a young lad (way back 0.19) my first mun landing happened when I got infuriated by not being able to reach the mun (not for the lack of trying), so I cheated . I turned on Infinite fuel and pointed my rocket strait at the mun, I landed shortly after (with much retrograde burning before doing so).

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

My first ever attempt landed me on the mun and returned me to kerbin:

It was incredibly overbuilt, launcher and lander.

This was my lifter, I called it the "Orbital Rattler":

It could lift ANYTHING into orbit!

It was responsible for this:

And this:

Ah, the old soup days.

[Wjolcz]

It was such a long time ago. I probably just mistimed the burn and smashed into the surface. And then tried again and again until I nailed it and was very proud of myself.

[NonWonderDog]

My first was in the first experimental with the Mun, I think, but I have pictures of this one:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Using the first (?) release of the KW Rocketry pack, I think, and at about 6 fps the whole way. Unfortunately, this attempt ended in tears and four little Muns rolling sedately along the surface of the Mun. No quicksaves back then, either.

Edited May 16, 2015 by NonWonderDog

[opticalshadow]

my first muner landing? i think we had like, one fuel tank and one engine , hard to remember, wonder if i still have pics somewhere (if i do ill post them later) there was no landing gear, we had to use the stbalizing fins placed on the lowes possible pixle of the fuel tank so that it was all of two hairs farther down then the engine, and we had to land perfectly stright, on flat ground, with like ~3-4 mps i think, or it broke the fins and you wouldnt be able to get back to kerbin.

it was hella fun, you had to quick save and quick load more then fallout 2, and it took a while to figure out. i think you could do the whole trip in like one engine and three fuel tanks or something (cant remember if that was because of a bug where fuel didnt drain correctly if engine power was low)

[Thomas988]

The first Mun landing that I can very vaguely remember ended in disaster...I think. That was nearly two years ago, and the next Mun landing for so, the successful one, is much more vivid in my memory.

[Anglave]

Landing on winglets, or directly on the engine bell, because landing legs didn't exist yet.

[oglommi]

I went for minimus first. Lithobraked at enormous velocity.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

This is pretty much how my first munlanding turned out

[Captain Sierra]

My first munar landing was back in the demo. I and three friends were on a KSP-kick (one of us had discovered the demo and we were all racing to the Mun). I dug through my archives of my old laptop (now gone) and found it.

My first munar landing:

EDIT:

This was the insanity responsible for taking me to the Mun.

[nadreck]

Hmm, first landing, well back in .21 Jeb'' (each ' denotes a resurrection) landed more or less ok, ship wobbled, and not knowing enough about the controls I couldn't keep it from toppling over. Next, a vehicle sent to rescue Jeb'' crashed and killed it's lone occupant, the next one landed several kilometers away and didn't even have enough fuel to get back, finally a rescue craft arrived just a couple of kilometers away and Jeb'' made his way to it and returned to fly another day.

[CRITAWAKETS]

Back in 0.25 i tried landing in DMP for exploration adventures and... i waste all the fuel.

Next time i get somebody who exploits the .... out of me and trolls everyone and makes my rocket dissapear.

Third time the ground looks closer than what it is and thus i crash into it.