Bad luck with Minmus

[kacperrutka26]

Hey guys!

Today I tried to land on minmus, or at least Orbit around it. But always when I do that I either run out of fuel (That\'s the second time) or get out of Kerbin\'s gravity area (That\'s the first time) Anyone got any tips for me so I can get there safely without running out of fuel or without getting away from Kerbin\'s area?

If I can\'t land on minmus which has a tilted orbit then I won\'t be able to land on other planets in the future :-[ :-[ :-[

[leopardenthusiast]

If you\'re escaping Kerbin orbit, you\'re burning too much. Try a retrograde burn if it happens.

As to running out of fuel... MOAR BOOSTARS should help you get out of the atmosphere faster and with less fuel.

So yeah, just keep trying and add moar boostars.

[kacperrutka26]

I will try to post a picture of my rocket. It\'s meant to be good for a mun landing and not minmus. But I think it\'s good enough. And I added some BOOSTEERS too.

[Australian Sloth]

I tried a new strategy today:

According to physics an inclined orbit must cross the equator of planet.

Using my rocket I aimed for this spot where a 0 degree inlcination orbit will bisect Minimus\' 6 degree orbit and clung on for dear hope.

For the fuel problem, I suggest you redesign your rocket with less weight by removing a return stage (if you have one) I have yet to return from minimus. It also helps to try using the aerospike engine for your first stage lfe\'s.

Hope it helps and sorry I can\'t be more specific.

[kacperrutka26]

That\'s one side of it.

Top down view, Kind of.

And the last side, If you need more pics just say

[leopardenthusiast]

You have... what, 8 boosters?

Add another two on each one, strut them together, BOOM more thrust.

[G Addict]

You have way too many SAS units - they\'re quite heavy, and a single Advanced SAS, which you also have, is typically enough to keep any rocket steady during its ascent if you use the AV someserialnumber steerable winglets on the lower stages.

[Adslegend]

This is the rocket I use to get to Minmus. It usually has fuel to spare before the landing stage. It also has a stock rover .

[Analogy]

There is no way he needs more boosters on this rocket. Possibly better fuel crossflow and/or staging, but minmus and back should be downright *easy* with that many engines and that much fuel. Shouldn\'t even need the SRBs (I personally find SRBs worthless). Ditch the SAS, a rocket this simple should have no problems with stability. I find that struts deliver far more stability for the weight than SAS, and they work while you\'re turning too.

Focus more on flying a more fuel-efficient ascent profile, injection burn, and landing.

[Motorsheep]

Don\'t tip your rocket over until you\'re at about 13-16km. Turning in atmosphere eats up huge amounts of fuel.

Also, for greater fuel efficiency, try raising your orbit before you correct your orbit inclination. The higher up you are, the less fuel you need to change your inclination. It\'s more fuel efficient to increase your orbit radius from e.g. 150km to 500km and then change the inclination than to change your inclination right away.

Also, on a side note, you actually need less fuel for a Minmus landing and return than for a Mün landing and return: Minmus is farther out, but you need just slightly more fuel to get there, and a lot less fuel to land and take off because of its low gravity. I think it\'s possible to get back from Minmus on RCS thrusters alone with a small enough lander.

[Khrissetti]

I will try to post a picture of my rocket. It\'s meant to be good for a mun landing and not minmus. But I think it\'s good enough. And I added some BOOSTEERS too.

If it\'s capable of landing on the Mun it\'s easily capable of landing on Minmus, out of curiosity, how are you burning to reach Minmus and remember you can use RCS as a backup rocket if you run out of conventional fuel.

[borzwazie]

So, my input:

You don\'t need more boosters. Use 1 ASAS instead of all those SAS units. Use crossfeed to feed fuel to the center rocket - run one fuel line from the very bottom tank on each side rocket to the center rocket. Then, fire all your rockets at once. By the time you run out of fuel on the sides, you\'ll be well into orbit.

Follow an increasing trajectory angle, starting about the time you cross 10km. Steer by watching the ball, don\'t look at the rocket for guidance. Once you get out of the atmosphere (about 70km), kill *all* your rockets with 'x' and just coast until you get to Apoapsis. Then, just before you get there, turn to 0 degrees inclination, and burn the rest of your side rockets until you establish a stable orbit. You should probably be in a solid orbit just about the time those things run out. Then eject them and use the center rocket to increase your orbit until it intersects the Mun or Minmus\' orbit. If you do this right, you\'ll have enough fuel left in the center rocket to decelerate and acquire orbit at Mun or Minmus.

EDIT: Here\'s a rocket and lander (all stock as of 15.2) that will take you anywhere you need to go and back. You don\'t even really need the boosters, but I like them I like to use the second stage as a descent stage for Mun landings. It\'s too much thrust for Minmus, though. For Minmus landings, I usually get rid of the extra fuel tanks on the lander.

[Analogy]

Here\'s a rocket and lander (all stock as of 15.2) that will take you anywhere you need to go and back.

Are you really using 1.2 mass units worth of radial decouplers to dump .6 mass worth of empty fuel tanks?

[borzwazie]

Yes. I had a design that just kept the empty tanks, but it didn\'t feel like the apollo lander, which dumps the landing stage. Like the boosters I don\'t really need, I just like it. Heck, the 'nosecones' on the first stage are worthless except for aesthetics.

[dnleek]

Yes. I had a design that just kept the empty tanks, but it didn\'t feel like the apollo lander, which dumps the landing stage. Like the boosters I don\'t really need, I just like it. Heck, the 'nosecones' on the first stage are worthless except for aesthetics.

Personally, for my lander design I have 4 or 6 (depending on what symmetry I like) half tanks with landing legs and the small engines underneath, all attached directly to a central ASAS module. The return stage (pod, parachute, half tank, engine) are then attached to the top of this ASAS module with a stack decoupler. Feels even more like an Apollo style lander since the lander stage stays intact when left behind.

[BluePulseflyer]

I made a landing on the min just a bit ago using a pretty simple 3 stage rocket (1: 4 solid boosters and 4 t45s 3 t500 fuel tanks each, 2: 1 t30 with 3 t500s, and 3: 1 Lv 909 with 1 t250 fuel tank, 1 rcs tank 12 rcs thrusters 4 landing legs and the avionics nose cone)

just remember the more complicated your rocket gets the more effort your going to need putting it into space...

Also using the mun as a sling shot to the min uses a lot less fuel, its also easy to do, just make like your going to attempt a land on the mun and don\'t close your orbit, now you\'ll be more than half way out to minmus, i had to fiddle a little with course corrections because it was my first attempt today so it shouldn\'t be to hard for you to figure out, make your orbit closely relate the one of min, wait a bit with your time warp at max and if min doesn\'t catch up to you then fiddle with course corrections a little more. its a bit time consuming if you run into problems but i still had a full tank on my stage 2 left when i was landing on the min so you should be fine if your not burning at a ridiculous rate. any way there\'s my bit for ya i hope it helps you, if it doesn\'t feel free to ask me anything on the subject.