Mun and back—no map, no instruments, and no free camera

[Majiir]

The Challenge: Land on the Mun and return safely to Kerbin. Never open the map, use F2 to hide instruments at all time, and never use the free camera view.

I gave myself this challenge after using the fixed hull cameras to land and perform docking with map/instruments still available. Those missions were too easy! I streamed my first attempt last night to a few people in IRC, and after a few tries, I landed on the Mun and got back into orbit—only to run out of fuel right before escaping Mun SOI. To add to the challenge, the rocket I used was never tested beforehand. I had to learn how to fly it as I went!

Rules:

• 
  [li]Stock parts only, with these exceptions: fixed camera, Damned Robotics (for orienting cameras), and floodlights. If you can justify adding more parts, go for it.[/li]
  [li]You can keep the HUD up while still on the launchpad, but turn it off before launching. (Press F2.) Don\'t open the HUD, ever, after you launch.[/li]
  [li]Never ever open the map. Ever.[/li]
  [li]Before launch, switch to a hull camera. Once launched, don\'t ever go back to the free-floating camera; if you cycle to it by accident, immediately cycle past it.[/li]
  [li]Save points are okay for critical mission segments, but there are bonus points if you do it in one attempt.[/li]
  [li]Lots of math is encouraged. Apollo 13 jokes are encouraged.
  [/li]

I found out the hard way that camera placement makes a huge difference. My initial launch didn\'t work until I oriented my cameras so I could keep my heading parallel to the equator. My Mun descent stage was incredibly difficult (and hilarious) to control, since my controls were swapped and then inverted along one axis. I burned a lot of fuel, having spent 5-10 minutes trying to kill horizontal velocity and land, so my second attempt should be much smoother. Sadly, the stream will likely be a lot less exciting now!

Anyway, I highly recommend this kind of challenge to anyone who\'s a little bored. Try getting into orbit first and see what kind of camera angles you need for basic orbital operations. My lander has four cameras, but one\'s primarily cinematic. With some adjustment, I could get it down to three and still accomplish mission objectives.

Good luck!

[shhhilent1]

wheres SasquatchM or... the guy who landed on the SPH?

[fracx]

So you made it then. Congrats! How long did it take?

[Majiir]

Not too long to get into Mun SOI. It took me a half hour or hour to figure out how to get into stable Mun orbit (I mixed up which direction I was pointing in my quicksave, so I kept burning prograde by accident). It took me a few hours to get the landing right. With the new design, my controls make sense and I have floodlights to facilitate a night landing, so I should be able to do it much more quickly.

[Majiir]

I tried again with my modified craft and completed the full mission. I crashed on my first landing attempt and loaded a quicksave from before I deorbited onto the Mun. Both times I entered a stable Mun orbit before descending. My successful landing was in the dark, and the floodlights did their job. The adjustable nose camera was very handy; I used the side camera for most orbital maneuvers, but once landed I used the nose cam to view my surroundings and identify a takeoff trajectory. I also used it for maintaining my heading while burning back into Mun orbit.

My burn put me on an escape trajectory from Mun SOI, and I was flung a bit past the Mun\'s orbit. This was a pretty incredible coincidence, because I saw the Mun orbit once, and as I started falling back to Kerbin, I fell right past the Mun, making a close slingshot flyby. The resulting trajectory landed me very close to being opposite KSC. I didn\'t check fuel remaining when I detached that stage, but I think I used considerably less when landing this time around. Total MET was 6 hours, 6 minutes. Could definitely be done in less time.

Oh, and the Kerbin -> Mun burn was super easy. Got there in one-half orbit.

So, what can I try now that this mission is feeling pretty routine?

[EDIT] Nevermind! Tried this again on livestream a few times and couldn\'t get the Munar insertion right. I guess I just got really lucky the first two times. I made some adjustments to the craft, but I\'ve run into some balance issues I need to correct. I want to avoid doing something like a direct ascent; it\'s a cheat that eases skill requirements by piling on a ton more fuel. True Kerbals arrive at the Mun with their excessive stacks of fuel!