Finding neutral terrain to land on planets moons etc?

[Cloakedwand72]

Hi how do i find neutral terrain to land on planets and moons both modded and stock planets?Ps i finally successfully rendezvoused and docked to my orbiting spaceship with no auto pilot mods.

[*Aqua*]

http://www.kerbalmaps.com/
Switch to slope layer in the upper right.
- or -
Use ScanSat and create a slope map with satellites.

[regex]

18 minutes ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Hi how do i find neutral terrain to land on planets and moons both modded and stock planets?

I usually use a Mk1 Eyeball (modified slightly).

[Cloakedwand72]

33 minutes ago, regex said:

I usually use a Mk1 Eyeball (modified slightly).

Is it easy to mod the Mk1 eyeball and what is the Mk1 eyball?I had the game for three years and only used auto pilot mechjeb but i docked and rendezvoused with out it.

[Tourist]

34 minutes ago, regex said:

I usually use a Mk1 Eyeball (modified slightly).

Using the MK1 eyeball is cheating.

[regex]

1 minute ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Is it easy to mod the Mk1 eyeball

If the Eyeball is out of focus or defective in some manner one can often use a lens to correct the fault.  Correction should only be attempted by a trained optometrist.

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, regex said:

I usually use a Mk1 Eyeball (modified slightly).

I use the same thing, I like to call it "Vision vision".

[SelectHalfling0]

Without sarcasm, I typically just use a rover until I find a flat spot.

Also, the mark one eyeball is not in the stock game. Its in stock life.

[problemecium]

When I have questions about how to play KSP, I ask them in the Gameplay Questions forum.

[KerbonautInTraining]

What I'd do (assuming no mods) is put a satellite in a polar orbit, pretend you scanned the planet, and then go look at Kerbal Maps. Or use the orbital scanner and pretend it also scans terrain elevation.

[Warzouz]

If I understand your question : When you land somewhere, you would know how to get a flat landing area so your lander would not fall down the hill.

 

When you land,, what ever technic you use, the slowdown makes your landing aera change. Even though, the body rotation makes it change too. So It's quite hard to get a precise landing zone.

KER gives some indication of the slope around the projected landing point. But The precise value is known very near the ground.

 

Usually, I target a quite flat aera, and I design my landers to be not too high and qith a quite large base. My Mining lander is able to land on a 27° slope (tested) maybe more (not tested). When the slope is too high, you can do a little hop as soon as you touch down, this usually throw you toward a lower and flatter aera.

[Jhawk1099]

20 hours ago, regex said:

I usually use a Mk1 Eyeball (modified slightly).

Ha! I got the Mk2 last friday. But honestly there's no difference

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Jhawk1099 said:

Ha! I got the Mk2 last friday. But honestly there's no difference

Agreed.  I think it's a bit more nearsighted than the Mk1, though.  I think I'll need to modify the cfg of the lens mod.

[rodentgun]

You are all horrible geeks  Been on MK2 "Spectacled" Eyeball for 35 years now. I went with the FarSeeing option, found the Myopia Edition too unfocussed due to astigmatism. I find that landing is doable from the orbital map but somewhat difficult. If my lander is about to tilt I escape Again and go out of orbit rather than try to fix it near the surface of the moon I am trying to land on.

Edited January 22, 2016 by pistolhamster

[AbacusWizard]

The big question everyone's afraid to ask: does modding the Mk1 Eyeball count as cheating?

[juanml82]

11 hours ago, Warzouz said:

If I understand your question : When you land somewhere, you would know how to get a flat landing area so your lander would not fall down the hill.

 

When you land,, what ever technic you use, the slowdown makes your landing aera change. Even though, the body rotation makes it change too. So It's quite hard to get a precise landing zone.

KER gives some indication of the slope around the projected landing point. But The precise value is known very near the ground.

 

Usually, I target a quite flat aera, and I design my landers to be not too high and qith a quite large base. My Mining lander is able to land on a 27° slope (tested) maybe more (not tested). When the slope is too high, you can do a little hop as soon as you touch down, this usually throw you toward a lower and flatter aera.

Mechjeb has a landing predictor which works well in airless bodies. But you have to eyeball the slope

[FleshJeb]

3 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

The big question everyone's afraid to ask: does modding the Mk1 Eyeball count as cheating?

Considering I'm 20/500 without the glasses and 20/15 with them on...YES.

[Aloriel]

Another option is to make certain your center of mass is extremely low for the diameter of your craft. I accomplish this through a mod called Infernal Robotics. Instead of standard landing struts, I have deployable 5 meter long bars that I carefully set up to only deploy to slightly below the main rocket. This means that I can land on a 45 degree angle. I might slide down the hill, but I won't tip.

[Terwin]

When landing, large craters are often pretty flat in the middle of the crater.

Minmus I generally land on one of the Flats(greater/great/lesser) (it is hard to find something quite as flat as those areas)

Aside from Minmus, I watch the slope read-out on KER(only available under 10km).  As I usually come to a near-stop over airless bodies(surface relative), then descend, I'll leave about 20m/s on the horozontal until I can see the slope read-out.  Once I am over a slope that is flat enough for the current vessel, I'll burn retrograde instead of radial(or I'll burn on the far side of retrograde from Radial if I am not currently trying to slow my descent, or it is particularly problematic to find a landing spot).  I try to keep my landers such that they can handle 10-12 degrees(often through clipping). any more than that, and even if you could land, you will generally slide(landed a fuel depot on a ~25 degree slope on Gilly and the sliding did not slow down on its own until the slope got under 12 degrees, finally stopping in a 9 degree area)  

[Fearless Son]

On 1/21/2016 at 1:48 PM, Cloakedwand72 said:

Hi how do i find neutral terrain to land on planets and moons both modded and stock planets?Ps i finally successfully rendezvoused and docked to my orbiting spaceship with no auto pilot mods.

All of the joking about the Mk. 1 Eyeball aside, there are a few things to look for when deciding on a landing site.  

First, if the body is airless then the surface is going to be rough it a lot of places, probably pockmarked with craters or valleys.  Either way means lots of slopes, and slopes make landing more difficult.  Think about landing on a high elevation or a low elevation, but avoid places where that elevation might change.  Fortunately because of the lack of atmosphere, you can get into a very low stable orbit, which will give you a good vantage point for evaluating landing sites.  Look for things like plateaus with flat tops, or look for large craters you can aim for the center of.  Those are the places where the slope is likely to be gentle enough for a landing.  Remember to make a lander with a low center of mass and wide landing stance to minimize tipping on touchdown.  

If the planet has an atmosphere, then you cannot get close enough to evaluate landing sites quite as critically, but on the other hand the atmosphere will mean that the surface is more worn down and less irregular, and the safe landing sites will be a lot more common.  Again, from orbit look for broad, flat areas.  Places that have an icy pole are usually relatively even there, other places have gentle rolling hills that tend to accommodate easy landing.  You can also use parachutes in these environments, which can make the landing even easier so long as you are careful to avoid excessively rough areas like mountains.  So long as the lander is not too top heavy, the parachutes should get it down in one piece (or at least minimize the amount of thrust you need to spend on the way down.)  

Good luck!

Edited January 25, 2016 by Fearless Son