I officially landed on the Mun and returned to Kerbin safely

[jbakes]

I finally made a return trip from the Mun after logging 25 hours! Some hours were spent messing around but mostly just trying to make a round trip. I looked at numerous rocket designs and watched YouTube videos to figure out the best way to do it. I had just enough fuel to make it home, I had 2.7 seconds of burn left to spare from an L10. The rocket flies pretty well, you just have to be a little careful when tilting 90 degrees early on in the atmosphere as there is a possibility it will tip over.

Here's the rocket. Complete with 9 engines (1 M3, 6 T-30, and 2 L10's). 7 engines for lift off, 1 M3 and 6 T-30's with asparagus staging to get into orbit. The M3 runs out about midway circularizing an orbit, then the first L10 takes over to get into orbit. I then use the rest of the first L10 to orbit around mun. While circularizing the orbit around Mun the first L10 runs out and then I activate the 2nd L10 to complete the orbit, land, and get back home on Kerbin safe and sound.

The design could probably use little tweaks but for now it works good enough.

If anyone has anything to add feel free to do so (Ways to improve, share your own designs?)

Edited June 2, 2015 by jbakes

[Trentendegreth]

first off congrats on a mun landing its probably the most rewarding first. as far as tweaking the design in my opinion if its not broke dont fix it. it looks good and has the DV what more could you ask for.

[jbakes]

Thank you and yes very rewarding because it's so difficult at first but now I can do it with minimal problems.

As for the design, I already did I fixed the tilting problem, all it needed was some wing-lets. I kinda modeled it after the Kerbal X (except it can fly to the Mun and back and do science).

[Majorjim!]

How did it feel?

[HafCoJoe]

Was it... Exhilarating?

[Robotengineer]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on Mun landing! I see you have two identical stages, your 2nd stage and your lander look to be the same, you may want to get a larger tank and engine on the 2nd stage.

[jbakes]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on Mun landing! I see you have two identical stages, your 2nd stage and your lander look to be the same, you may want to get a larger tank and engine on the 2nd stage.

Yes I did realize that. I'll probably change that next but for now it works as intended.

[AbacusWizard]

Hooray and congratulations! Now put the whole thing on top of an even bigger first stage (or maybe just surround it with solid boosters that detach when empty) to get more ∆v and see if you can get to Minmus. Setting up the transfer orbit is a little trickier, because it's further out and at an angle, but once you're there orbital maneuvers and landing are easy-peasy because of the low gravity. Your kerbalnauts will have fun jumping around in the alien landscapes and your lander will be full of science and minty-fresh.

[Wallygator]

Congrats. And agree with Trent... If not broke, then keep flying it and improving it.

Well done! Very well done!!

Remember your feelings from that mission. Reflect on that when responding to others who achieve their first mun/minmus landings.

Welcome to the community of landerings!!

[LordFerret]

Congratz!

[FJCestero]

If anyone has anything to add feel free to do so ( Ways to improve, share your own desighs?)

First off, Congratulations! And doing your first Mun with a 3-Kerbal pod no less. That's impressive. I was strictly a 1-K can-lander for the longest time. (I also did the really bad move of killing my orbital velocity about 70km up and dropping -- sloooowly. Monster ship, stupid delta-V (I was terrified of running out of fuel), can on top of an FT-400 with three legs (to save weight of course -- don't try that), ).

Having now established my street-cred...

I'd call yours a good solid design overall. Kind of depends on your flight profile, really. Some critiques/suggestions:

1) Your second L-10 Poodle is a bit overmuch. 250kN for what it's pushing is far more than you need to lift from Mun or Minmus and return. Go with a LV909 Terrier. You'll have to retro-burn sooner/longer, but it will save you 1.25 tons you could carry as extra fuel instead. Or you can "cash" that in as extra delta-V. I know you mentioned being concerned about that.

2) Your middle stage, the first L-10 Poodle should have more fuel loaded. You only have a Rockomax 200 there (if I'm seeing right). Eight tons of fuel for a 1.75 ton engine isn't a very good fuel/mass ratio. I also note that your TWR for almost every stage is around 2. That's pretty up there for upper stages. Either add more fuel or get rid of this stage and merge the Rocko-200 with the orange tank. That's another 1.75 tons you'd save overall = more delta-V.

3) Your asparagus looks solid, but think about adding an FT-400 to the top of each. I also like to put a strut between my center tank and the bottom of the boosters to keep them from torquing into the main tank when the engines fire. YMMV.

4) Add a 2.5m SAS (if you have it) to the first stage (or 2nd, if you decide to keep it). You should be fine after that, but having good SAS (and fins, you might need those too) it atmo is good.

5) Move the landing legs down, right to the edge. You do not want to lose your return engine to landing impact 12,000km from home. If you can, use some girders to extend them outwards. A wide and low landing stance is very important for the first several landings...

6) I'd dump half of your RCS jets, it's best to rely on SAS for attitude control. Put the remaining four on the Command Pod's perimeter. For final adjustments to your re-entry.

7) Solar panels should move to the Command Pod as well. Those things are your only renewable resource -- don't toss them until you have to. You could misjudge your re-entry, bounce off the atmosphere and have to circle around again. At which point you might have drained your batteries. What will you do then?

Hope all this doesn't sound like too much. Like I said, your design is a good solid start. Overpowered and under-fueled would be my main critique, but much better than my first Mun!

FWIW, my "standard" lander is a LV909 + 1-K can, with Mission! & Science! and a Donut tank. Then a symmetric pair of radial decoups with fuel tanks. From each fuel tank there's two more decoups going to more fuel tanks (total: 2+4) which end in landing legs. Fuel ducts connect everything of course. I use the fuel tanks instead of girders to widen my leg stance, and then eject them to save weight on the way back. @12 tons, I get about 4600 m/s overall which gives me multiple landings. Not very aerodynamic going up though -- got to work on that.

[SelectHalfling0]

Congrats! I remember my first Mun landing. They became permanent residents.

Best of wishes to your space program!

[Superfluous J]

Nice design for 25 hours worth of gameplay. Solid 3-man mun mission there.

You've taken the first step into a larger world. You've got a few more dozen "first"s to nail before you've even scratched this game's surface!

[jbakes]

Appreciate you taking the time to type all of that. I took your advice and changed my previous design. The only thing I didn't add was SAS, I couldn't really figure it out. On the trip home I had 500 m/s Delta-V left even after a couple correction burns. The Terrier is definitely more efficient but jesus did it take a while to slow down and land lol, I also did it in the dark Anyways here it is. It flies very stable.

[Aragosnat]

Gratz on leaving it and getting back safely. Now return from Eve. =^.^=

[Sirine]

Congratulation!

Nope, next is not Eve, next should be "Rendezvous".

Then "Space Hovering + Precision Landing".

Finally, "Atmospheric Precision Landing".

[ILikeIke]

Congratulations!

[Two]

Gratz! I remember my first Mun-landing... it was that moment where I realized that no game had ever made me so happy about a success like KSP did.

About your rocket, first rule of everything: if it works, it works. After that it is optimization in details.

For your future designs you should keep in mind that there is a sweet spot at which weight, thrust and fuel just match perfectly. Beyond that point you begin to add fuel just to lift the fuel you added. Sometimes less is more.

As an example of a definitely not perfect but also working design (which I guess weights a lot less, but is definitely not as beautiful as yours): this is my latest Munlander:

[sam.johnson841]

As for the design, I already did I fixed the tilting problem, all it needed was some wing-lets. I kinda modeled it after the Kerbal X (except it can fly to the Mun and back and do science).

You can take the kerbal X to the Mún, do science and return!

Congrats though, it took me almost six real life months just to reach orbit back in 0.20.

For you next challenge, go to eve and return, in one launch!

-Sam

[Acet]

By the way, you can send that same ship to Minmus. In fact, you probably don't even need as much ship.

Even though the transfer to Minmus is an extra 200 dV than the Mun one, because of the former's much lower gravity, landing and taking-off uses a lot less dV.

[Esme]

Very well done!

I've approaching 400 hours of play now (about half of it pootling around Minmus) and I STILL can't reliably land on the Mun! I like your ship design, think I might borrow it, if I may...

[Scarecrow88]

Yep, I would say that your first Mun landing and a successful rendezvous and docking are two of the most satisfying achievements to get under your belt.

[jbakes]

Very well done!

I've approaching 400 hours of play now (about half of it pootling around Minmus) and I STILL can't reliably land on the Mun! I like your ship design, think I might borrow it, if I may...

Go for it, you should get it first try if you pilot it correctly. I learned from YouTube. They teach you all the good tricks to get to the Mun efficiently and safely