Best way for Munar/Minmussian descent? Also, question about fuel crossfeed parts

[wildkittyv1]

If you\'re knowledgeable on the Thor lander parts from Novapunch and/or knowledgeable on the Kosmos pack, please read the second question! Would appreciate help with this!

Alright, I\'m fairly decent at designing and piloting my ships and have gotten to the point where I\'m fairly efficient at everything I do from a piloting standpoint, but I am still unsure as to which is the best way to descend from orbit to planets in regards to fuel consumption.

Is it better to do a slow, controlled descent from a higher altitude and not do a heavy burn until you\'re close to surface, or is it better to wait until you\'re closer to the surface and traveling at a higher rate, then do a shorter, harder burn and disregard the controlled descent from higher up? Some mix of the two? I\'m trying to put together some lander vehicles with decent amounts of fuel in reserve so I can do a bit of exploring on a scale larger than feasible with EVA (besides, still playing on .15.2 a bit until more of my mods are updated to fit right since there\'s not a -whole- lot to do with EVAs atm).

As for my second question, I first include a picture:

Alright, there\'s really three parts at work here. The radial fuel tanks and their mounts are from the Kosmos pack. The mount is called the 'Powerpack' or something, and it is fuel crossfeed capable. The body is the TKS lander body also from the Kosmos pack and it is also capable of fuel feeding. Below those are the Thor landing tank and engine from the Novapunch pack; I like to do a mishmash with parts and see what I can come up with. Shuriken originally looked more like the object its named after, but I had to remove some fuel tanks so it would fit inside the fairing, but I digress.

So yeah, I was doing a bit of Munar north pole exploring and touched down nicely, having yet to dip into the radially attached tanks. I decided to relaunch and head towards this suspicious crater, when I suddenly ran out of fuel and came crashing to the Munar surface. I was not happy. Staging is correct, and all of the parts involved are supposed to be fuel crossfeed ready. Is there something I\'m missing with the setup here? I could easily rectify this with fuel lines, but I want to keep the landing craft as light as possible regardless of how insignificant fuel lines are. This is supposed to work with the parts involved. Is there something about the Thor main fuel tank I\'m missing? The one in question is for the ascent engine.

I really like this design and want to make it work without adding fuel lines, as both the ship and lander are fuel efficient and the lander is quite agile. Any ideas?

[Kosmo-not]

The most fuel efficient descent would be starting with a very low periapsis and doing your landing burn before periapsis so that, as you come to a slow velocity, you should be no more than 1000m above the surface.

As for your second question, I think fuel lines are the only way to do it. If the radial tanks were accessible by the engines, they would have been drained first.

[wildkittyv1]

I guess I\'ll go with the fuel lines for now then until I get another response as to whether or not I mussed it up or if there\'s a fix. As for the landing, I\'m surprised I hadn\'t thought of lowering my periapsis so that my landing distance is shorter from the 'null point' where you cancel out orbital velocity. I guess there\'s a part of me that feels odd about coming to a halt from a single km up, it just feels wrong and that I should be a bit higher. I\'ll probably still do it from like 4k or so to give myself some time to adjust my landing site, but that makes sense and will still save me a ton more fuel since I used to descend from about 20k.

[simplemunrockets]

The most fuel-efficient way is one big burn. The one that\'s easiest on the nerves is a controlled descent.

[Bluejayek]

Somewhere in between one hard burn and a easy ciontrolled descent is best..

A single hard burn IS most efficient, but you really have to calculate it beforehand, otherwise you will probably undershoot. In 0.15 I had gotten to the point where I could just about do it with my standard lander because I had landed so many times I *Knew* my acceleratiion, but I don\'t recomend it.

[John FX]

Get your Pe to 2km, Ap 20km and at Pe burn retrograde and keep altitude at 2km with attitude adjustments and control sideways thrust with throttle. When slower and descending, control altitude with throttle and slow sideways movement with attitude. You should naturally slow to a controlled descent and use a lot less fuel. Very controlled, very efficient.

Experiment and have fun!

[Kegereneku]

As said the most efficient method is ONE BURN that bring you as close and as low as possible to where you want to land.

What it mean is that your engines will be burning at 100% until you are 500m away from your landing point, and if you overshot : you'll Lithobrake.

Such burn is called a Suicide Burn, let you guess why.

[astropapi1]

DO NOT NECRO!

Seriously, this thread was dead.