Low tech

[Starman4308]

5 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Ahh, true "Apollo style" then?

Yes, I agree it's not worth it, direct return from the surface is much more efficient.

I'm assuming they did it that way in real life for other reasons like at least saving 1 of the 3 Astronauts in the event the lander failed?

Nope. The primary issue is that real-world equipment is generally lighter than KSP equipment, and, much more importantly, the real Moon is much, much bigger than the Mun.

Low Mun orbit is at about 540 m/sec.

If I did the math right, low real-world Moon orbit is around 1670 m/sec.

 

The advantages of an LOR (Lunar Orbit Rendezvous) over direct ascent:

You get to leave all the return-home propellant and other consumables (fuel, CO2 scrubbers, etc) in orbit, and not have to drag it down and back up the moon's gravity well.

You get to leave the heatshield (and a generally structurally stronger capsule) in orbit.

Some redundancy: see Apollo 13.

 

The disadvantages

Duplicated life support, communication, and other equipment from needing a separate lunar lander.

In some cases, duplicated engines.

Docking equipment is necessary (unless you're the Soviets).

More complicated to pull off.

 

KSP exaggerates the disadvantages and ameliorates the advantages of an LOR profile: engines are heavy, command pods are heavy, decouplers are heavy and absurdly expensive, and the delta-V requirement is low. There's basically no point to an LOR profile for the Mun when you can land and ascend on less delta-V than it takes just to land on the real-world Moon, particularly when the mass of duplicated equipment is exaggerated.

[wumpus]

On 11/27/2017 at 2:31 PM, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Ahh, true "Apollo style" then?

I'm assuming they did it that way in real life for other reasons like at least saving 1 of the 3 Astronauts in the event the lander failed? [answered above by Starman]

 

If you want to "mine" the Mun for all possible science (12 separate landings), you will almost certainly want to keep a fuel tank in orbit.  You might even need this for Minmus (I'd plan on it), but expect only to need to dock 2-3 times.  A single landing doesn't justify an Apollo-style landing (presumably it does in RO).

I'm surprised that a Minmus landing wasn't suggested.  A Minmus orbit was mentioned, and it is something like an additional 300m/s delta-v to the surface (and back) for a ton more science.  The difficulty with Minmus (for new players) is the inclination change, something you need to get right to orbit the body.  I'd recommend Minmus for all your Kerbin-SOI science needs (you can almost completely unlock the tree that way), but it sounds like OP is back on a funding grind.