Quick Question

[Rakketz]

Hi there, I'm new to Kerbal Space Program and am planning out a Mun rocket/landing procedure. I've watched a lot of videos from kurtjmac, Scott Manley and trydyingtolive on the Mun and orbits and whatnot, but I have a question that's been bothering me.

Is it possible to do an Apollo-styled landing?

A larger spacecraft would lie in orbit, and a landing vehicle would be attached by radial decoupler to it. Perhaps two counter weights could also be attached to balance out the rocket. (Obviously, you would need a mod to allow you to put more than one command module on to uour rocket.) The landing vehicle would deorbit and land, then rendevous with the orbiting craft, transfer crew from lander to larger vehicle, and return home.

Obviously you need a mod, but can it be done?

[sal_vager]

Hi Rakketz, the answer is "Sort of"

You'll need the Crewtank mod and the Mechjeb mod.

You can send a craft to the Mun with a lander stage with the crew tank and mechjeb, transfer your crew to it, decouple it, and control it via Mechjeb to the surface.

Then you can launch to orbit again, rendezvous and transfer your crew back, then fly home in your main ship.

The lander cannot redock though, that functionality just doesn't exist yet.

[Vostok]

Short answer: No.

You could possibly, with mods, do a russian style moon landing

, but it would require two controllable pods on one ship, something that requires mods.

But what you can't do is re-attach (solidly) a detached part back onto the parent ship. You could grab it with landing legs, but no timewarp would be possible.

When docking comes along (a planned feature allowing multiple controllable pods on one ship assembly, and multiple ships attaching together whilst in orbit or landed) you should be able to easily complete an apollo style mission. In fact, I believe that when it is possible to do apollo style missions, the developers will consider docking basically implemented. (to be expanded upon later, of course).

Edited August 16, 2012 by Vostok

[Rakketz]

Hi Rakketz, the answer is "Sort of"

You'll need the Crewtank mod and the Mechjeb mod.

You can send a craft to the Mun with a lander stage with the crew tank and mechjeb, transfer your crew to it, decouple it, and control it via Mechjeb to the surface.

Then you can launch to orbit again, rendezvous and transfer your crew back, then fly home in your main ship.

The lander cannot redock though, that functionality just doesn't exist yet.

For now, you could just rendevous and transfer crew. Thanks, I'll look into those mods.