I suck as a pilot..... (mun landing problems)

[Wjolcz]

Here's my tip: Always look either on the navball or the vessel you're landing. Never on both, or you'll get super confused and crash. Also beware the slopes and aim for the flat surfaces or crater bottoms.

[Jesrad]

There are quite a number of tricks to mind when landing on an airless moon.

Starting point: you are orbiting circularly above the moon.

Step 1: switch to SURFACE navball mode (click the navball to cycle through the modes), otherwise you will be stuck in Orbit mode and your indicators will be off.

Step 2: align your ship to retrograde, and kill most, but not all, your horizontal velocity

At this point your trajectory should be a prarabola going down to the surface steeply, but not straight.

Step 3: in the Map, add a Maneuver Node right at the surface point of your trajectory, and pull the retrograde maneuver handle (carefully) until you bring your future trajectory to zero m/s at that point

Now you should have a "time to impact with the ground" indicator by your navball (bottom of maneuver) and a "burn time needed to stop before you hit" (top of maneuver). Very handy to have !

Step 4: Align your vessel to maneuver target, and then a few seconds before the "time to impact" countdown equals the "burn time needed to not die" duration, apply full thrust

Step 5: When your retrograde target in the navball passes over the "center of sky" cross, zero the throttle.

At that point you should be still well clear of the ground, but with little to no horizontal velocity, and falling slowly.

Step 6: align to retrograde, which should be "up straight" and not at all sideways. If it still is a bit sideways, though, you can apply some thrust, and that will slowly kill remaining horizontal velocity.

Step 7: Lock the gimbal on your engine(s) ! If you don't your vessel will be very hard to steer finely as you apply and stop applying thrust in the last steps.

Step 8: Keep your velocity reasonably low as you descend. 50 m/s is maximum if you are still hundreds of m above the ground. Otherwise keep it around 10 m/s.

Step 9: When you can spot your ship's shadow or as you come within 100 m of the ground, slow to 5 m/s

At this point you should have found the right throttle setting to stabilise your velocity.

Keep a finger on the X key, add a leeeettle thrust before touchdown, press X immediately.

Voilà, you are landed. If you're on a slope and your ship starts tilting and is about to crash, go to full thrust to clear the ground, straighten up (look at the NAVBALL, NOT the ship), cut throttle, and retry elsewhere. Take your time !

Edited May 15, 2015 by Jesrad

[EtherDragon]

Actually, practicing on Minmas is much better. If your rocket has what it takes to land on the Mun, it also has what it takes to land on Minmas. Here are some reasons many prefer a Minmas first approach:

1. Minmas has lower gravity, meaning you have more time to correct any mistakes.

2. It take s much less Delta-V to land and depart Minmas than on the Mun. (Enough DV is saved that it makes up for the extra DV to get there).

3. Minmas might be made of snacks!

4. Minmas has huge flat lake-beds which have no slope - very easy to get a level landing.

[Kinglet]

I will try a horizontal Minmus landing sometime. Land like a plane, save delta-v and fuel by using brakes instead of thrusting your horizontal velocity away.

[moronwrocket]

I recommend putting a down-wards pointing light on your lander, if you don't want to use a mod to give you altitude above ground. It helps indicate when you are a few hundred meters up, and helps visualize horizontal velocity.