I need help with a munar rescue mission

[Public_Storage]

     In the midst of my first munar landing, I lost it mere meters from the surface. The engine of my lander was destroyed, and the rest of the craft toppled over, destroying everything except the capsule. Now, three kerbonauts are stranded.

     Quickly, a rescue mission was organized, but however, once I got into Kerbin orbit, it hit me. How would I get my rescue lander within a reasonable distance of the stranded Kerbals?

     What would a rendezvous with a something on the ground be called, and does anyone have tips on how to do it?

[bewing]

There are several ways of doing it.

One way is to get into orbit around the Mun. If necessary, adjust your orbital plane so that the orbit passes as close as possible to being directly above the target. Lower your Pe to maybe 7km, at a point approximately over your target. As you approach the target point closely, burn in map mode until your descending leg of your orbit goes right on top of your target. Then land as normal. Using this method, you will generally end up within a few hundred meters of your target -- easy walking distance or driving distance for a rover.

Another way is to act like this is a rendezvous maneuver. You adjust your orbital plane and retroburn as above so that your orbital line hits the Mun's surface near your target. You set the target as an actual target. You go into target mode on the navball. You fly your navball, constantly pushing your retrograde marker on top of your anti-target marker. When you get within a couple hundred meters of the surface,  you do a normal landing. This will usually get you within a dozen meters of your target. If you do not remain aware of your altitude, you may land on top of your target and/or destroy it with your rocket plumes.

 

Edited October 18, 2019 by bewing

[paul23]

For these things I typically use "hovercraft", I just make the lander agile enough (local twr > 2, a lot of attitude wheels) and give a huge surplus of delta-V, so that I can "hover" around for a minute or so.

[k00b]

you need to get your orbit linear (i.e. if you launched originally at 90 degrees; do the same) then, with your periapsis over it, burn retrograde in advance so the map mode indicates will be landing ontop.

On 10/18/2019 at 10:21 PM, Public_Storage said:

  Quickly, a rescue mission was organized

...it's more difficult landing on the same spot then going there in the firstplace (need more fuel etc for the presicion maneuvers / it's a "whole new more difficult mission").

i would make a massive craft with 4 spaces, and then leave most in linear orbit around the mun, then land a lander and attach the kerbals and then rendevouz lander with the craft to get home - you can ferry the kerbals on ladders etc, (you only need the one seat for your lander.)

(once you can manage to do that though then you can pretty much do anything (it's tricky having them stuck in space...)

#savethekerbals