How do I avoid the mountains of the Mun?

[WhichwayJanus]

I’m just starting out with KSP on Xbox One S and struggling through the Training examples. Stuck at “To The Mun, Part 2”. In particular, at the decent to landing orbit. The instructions tell me to gradually reduce my altitude to 1.5km above the surface, however, when I try, I always crash at what seems to be ~2.5km. Research so far leads me to believe that high Munar mountains have been added after the instructions were written. Since the Altimeter only shows height above ‘sea level’, I can’t judge where the mountains are, how tall they are, or how to avoid them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. 

[Starhawk]

Hello @WhichwayJanus and welcome to the KSP Forums!

Yeah, any instruction which tells you to set your periapsis to 1.5 km makes no sense on the current Mun.  Many versions ago, the terrain was very much flatter.

In any case, if you set the periapsis to something in the range of 5-8 km (depending where on the Mun you are) you should be good.

I use map mode to look at exactly where my periapsis is and decide exactly where to start my braking burn based on that.  I usually want to try and land on the most boring patch of the local area possible.  I certainly look for the flattest terrain I can find under my orbital trajectory and try to time my burn to kill my horizontal velocity over that.  If I have a bit of altitude left to descend, I usually don't sweat it.  One doesn't build up too much speed in a kilometer or three.

Anyway, there are tonnes of good tutorials in the Tutorials subforum.  If you take a look, I'm sure you'll find some other helpful hints in there.

Happy landings!

[paul23]

Well one solution is to get the pc version and get kerbal engineering redux or mechjeb (or some light version of said mods). They all include functionality to solve this problem.

 

Other then that the best idea is to make sure you try to land on the "sun" side of the Mun. When landing you can then see the shadow of the lander: and the distance between you and the shadow is proportional to the distance to the ground (you'll touch your shadow when you are landed). It's a good rough estimate. Also utilize quick save often.

[bewing]

If I recall correctly, that tutorial gives you a readout in the tutorial text window of your current AGL altitude.

 

[Pecan]

How about just not bothering?

Although the tutorials are fairly useful and can be fun they can also be frustrating and generally aren't necessary.

Get out and have some fun.  You've probably learnt how to build and launch vehicles and a bit about orbital maneuvers - blast off!  There's loads you can do in Kerbin airspace and orbit plus you can send satellites to all the other planets and moons without landing.  Look at YouTube or other tutorials on landing - make sure they're up to date with your version of KSP!  Have another practice when you feel like it.

The important thing is to start having some fun :-)

[gword256]

PC version allows you to set the altitude above ground by clicking next to the altimeter (to the left of the altimeter).  Does console version have that function?

[Barefoot Friar]

"O'er the mountains of the Moon,
through the Valley of the Shadow,
ride, boldly ride," the Shade replied,
"If you search for El Dorado."

What the poet is telling you is that the Mun used to be much flatter, so choose a periapsis of 5-8km to avoid any unplanned lithobraking.

[Linkageless]

I've found that when I was unsure of the retro thrust capability of a mun lander, to circularise at roughly 10km then descend from there usually did the trick.

These days, the non-console stock version includes a TWR stat revealed by clicking in the staging display that one can check. Perhaps that is also available on conse versions.

I'd work hard to keep your final descent surface speed very low if you have less than a certain amount, say TWR of 1.5.