Safe landing sites

[djtb]

Hi All,

Does anyone know of any safe flat surfaces to land on all the planets and the moons?

If so please could you send the coordinates?

 

 

 

[StarManta]

You more or less have to eyeball them. There are so many, of so many different sizes and places, it'd be impossible to give you a good list.

Rather, learn to recognize them as you pass over them. Naturally, avoid the sides of mountains, though this one is tougher because you don't have a good reference to compare it to. (I generally  aim for the base of mountains when in doubt - it's a little easier to get a bead on what's "level", and if I'm not quite at a level spot, there will usually be a level spot nearby.) But there's one other trick here: crater walls are usually level, so you can use those as a baseline for finding level ground. For this reason I actually tend to aim for an empty spot in the middle of a group of craters.

More importantly, the design of your craft is itself important. You have to be able to stand with a few degrees of slant - you'll never find a perfectly flat site (except Minmus). Landers do best if they're horizontally spread out - I like to radially attach fuel tanks to the side (via radial separators) of the bottom of the lander and put my lander legs on that. If they pump fuel to the center, you can then stage them shortly after liftoff.

[Sir_Robert]

You can make your own list with SCANsat. The most basic scanner generates a hight map for you, that you can access in-game (with an overlay of your orbit, and where your craft is). More advanced scanners also map stuff like biomes

Very useful (and gives a point to having satellites)

[Vanamonde]

Most of them are not easy to spot during approach even if you know where they are, but the bottom of the big grayish valley on Duna is quite flat. 

[Teilnehmer]

Kerbal Maps with slope overlay on can help.

[Edax]

A simple rule of thumb is that the inside of a crater will be flatter then normal, because some rock in the past flattened whatever geography was in that location before.  Aiming for the center of a crater, even on a planet like Duna, will result in smoother terrain overall.

[Warzouz]

More generally, when you have a problem, there is a better way to do than simply overcome it. You can se yourself in such a way the problem doesn't matter anymore.

Instead of managing to land on flat area only, you can build your lander that it's much more resilient to slope.

For my part, I also always target flat area. But you are rarely precise enough to guaranty such a perfect landing. Even on aera that looked flat you can end on a 20° slope. My lander are always designed to be slope resilient (my heavy 40 to 60 tons miner lander is 30° certified), and I always pack a good fuel margin to do an emergency hover to find a better place to land**.

** to be precise, I design the whole mission so fuel is not critical (check here)

 

[Geschosskopf]

On 2/8/2016 at 3:20 AM, djtb said:

Hi All,

Does anyone know of any safe flat surfaces to land on all the planets and the moons?

How big a flat area do you need?  Just a big enough for a small lander, or a large area for a major base?  Also, if you're just going with a small (and squatty) lander, you can land on most low-gravity places even on steep slopes, and SAS will keep you from tipping over.

Another factor to consider is the terrain detail level in your game settings.  The higher this is, the more complex (so less flat) the terrain, while the lower it is, the smoother.  This makes a HUGE difference, so if somebody tells you a given place is flat but he uses low terrain detail while you use high, when you get there it won't be as flat as he said it was.

So basically, if you're just doing small landers, you can come down just about anywhere that's not an obvious mountain and be OK.  If you need enough room for a base, then you have to go looking for suitable real estate at ground level because you can't see the small-scale details of the terrain from orbit.  This means you must first send a rover, airplane, or hopper (depending on local gravity and atmosphere), land it, then move it around scouting the terrain.  Once you find a spot you like, park your scout there so you can use it as a target when you land your main base parts.

Anyway, here are some general guidelines in my experience (and I use high terrain detail):

Moho:  Except for the mountains, it's reasonably flat all over, although there are some very hilly regions.  The dark plains inside the larger craters are quite flat.

Eve:  The oceans and lakes are perfectly flat if you don't mind getting wet.  Most of the rest of the terrain (except the mountains) is smoothly rolling dune fields so you don't have to be picky.

Gilly:  The gravity is so weak you can land anywhere.  Also, you can flit along at low altitude and find the best spot without having to send a scout first.

Mun:  The Midlands are generally quite flat except near major craters.  However, small-scale craters are everywhere so just don't come down on or near their rims.  The bottoms of big craters are usually not very flat at all.

Minmus:  All the various flats, of course.  Also the high plateaux and the poles are pretty flat.

Duna:  The bottoms of the canyons and big craters are the flattest places on the planet although YMMV depending on your terrain detail setting.  About 80% of the planet is rolling dune fields which contain main base-sized plateaux.  But you have to go looking for them.

Ike:  Pretty much anywhere that's not an obvious mountain.  The lighter colored areas are usually flatter than the darker areas.

Dres:  Other than the big N-S canyon, there's not a whole lot of terrain on Dres.  Most of the ground is quite smooth although often not quite level.

Laythe:  The oceans are everywhere.  What little land there is is often quite uneven except right at the water's edge, which unfortunately is usually counted as the ocean biome so has no ore.  My favorite place to land (conveniently located on the equator) is the SE coast of the big, squarish island at about 110^ East.  Otherwise, the islands are the poles are very flat.

Vall:  All the dark Lowland basins are reasonably flat.  Not much else is.

Tylo:  Pretty much flat all over except at the obvious mountains and extreme poles.

Bop:  Pretty much like Gilly

Pol:  Not much flat ground here at all, and there are bugs with the surface collider so you often crash while still 1500m above the ground.

Eeloo:  Pretty flat all over except at the borders between the white and brown areas, which are steep slopes.