Munar Activities

[austin1812]

Hey guys, i recently bought the game and on my second day managed to create a craft that would reach and land, then return from the mun. Being overly eager i was wondering if you guys had any tips on how to have a second lander land next to my stationed one.

[chuk155]

I personally don't do pinpoint landings a lot, so don't hold my word to success.

My strategy would be to:

1. Launch a vehicle into Kerbin orbit and do a trans-Münar injection.

2. Once in Sphere of influence of the Mün (SOI), burn to put your periapsis into about ~15km.

3. Do a orbital burn to get into orbit around the Mün.

3b. If you landed with any inclination, try to put your orbital path to cross over the lander by increasing or decreasing your heading along the horizon.

4. Once nearly over the lander (only a few km away from cross), retrograde burn (green heading with a cross in it) to deorbit.

5. After getting on a decent course toward your target, land as you normally would.

Some notes I have:

-Make sure your lander has plenty of fuel, pinpoint landing takes a lot of planning.

-Getting the inclination is easier while making Münar burn, not after.

-Landing if quite tricky. Try not to overcompensate and throw you on a wayward course.

-Good Luck! Pinpoint landing (within the km) is Craaazy Hard!

[TheDarkStar]

It's not actually all that hard, unless you didn't bring enough fuel. You get your orbit over the target, then slow before you pass it. If you need to change inclinations, it might help to raise your orbit first, since that can be more fuel efficient. Accurate landings might involve taking off after the first landing if you aren't close enough.

[MET?]

I do Precision landings all the time, trust me, its not as hard as it sounds. First step is certainly to bring your orbital path over the target by adjusting inclination. Ideally, this is done at the ascending and descending nodes. By burning normal- and normal+ at those points, respectively. Normal + would be a position where your craft is perpendicular to your velocity vector, so if you were heading at a perfect orbit around the equator, heading 90 degrees, Normal+ would be pointing north. The Normal+ has your prograde direction on your right, and your retrograde on your left. Normal- is also perpendicular to your velocity vector, however, prograde is on your left, and retrograde is on your right. If your perform these burns precisely at the nodes, you will adjust inclination without adjusting apoapsis or periapsis.

Unfortunately, KSP has no marker for AN and DN currently, so you have to eyeball it. The node is basically the point in your orbit where your craft crosses the plane of reference(in this case, the equator.) Ascending node is when you cross the equator heading north, and descending node means your heading south.

Once you pass over the target, do the descent burn. As you near the surface, you will realize that you aren't going to be as close as you thought. In order to adjust your trajectory, simply burn the way you need to go. You will need less fuel to do this if you cancel out your descent velocity first. (its much easier and quicker that way). Ideally, you want your trajectory to go beyond your target, otherwise by the time you want to slow down and land you will be to close to the ground. By continually slowing down and adjusting your trajectory to pass OVER the target, you will be able to cancel out horizontal velocity and descend vertically as you pass right over the target.

Finally, after you have gotten yourself very close, begin to land. You can continue to adjust your path as you land, however you want. You can hover, and use RCS(won't do much, only if you are already super close, and you want extreme precision.

Using this method, I have completed many precision landings within a kilometer. Currently my record is 40.0 meters flat. However, I had to ruin it by coming in at a slight angle and a couple of m/s too fast, so I busted the engine. Just the engine, the rest of the lander was perfectly fine.

Precision landings are fun because once you can do them you can land anywhere you want. YOu can rescue kerbals, you can visit the Mun Arch, which I recently did, and you can land in interesting areas.

Hope this helps!

[bsalis]

My 2c

Build a munbuggy and drive the last distance in style

[austin1812]

Cheers for the help guys, its not my finest landing but i definitely got close to my last lander.