Please help! can't not even get close to the moon.

[TOMANDANDY]

Hi there, newb here.

I know people don't like wasting their time on people like me, but i could use some tips!

I tried looking on forum before asking, but nothings helped me.

I even downloaded a ship from here, a good one to use with landing on the moon, but getting to the moon is the problem.

Here is what i do:

Launch the chip, wait until im out of the atmosphere, and then carefully move my heading to the moon.

Like this picture: http://i48.tinypic.com/34eozl5.jpg

Then i burn my way up there, but then when i need to save fuel, i try to skip some time but when i do i end up going far past away from the moon, regardless of how much i burned into the moons direction.

Like this picture: http://i47.tinypic.com/2eyew5v.jpg

I also tried going on youtube for tips, and there was this one that you could place your ship into orbit, orbit around the earth until the moon could meet up with you.. this did not work at all since the moon doesn't even move in the latest version of the game.

I am clueless to put it painless...

I tried at least 30 times to get to the moon with no luck, i'v spend HOURS! Different ships. everything =(

What can i do?

please help!

[sal_vager]

Hi TOMANDANDY, welcome to the community, don't worry there's a lot of people here who will try to help

First thing I can do though is this, you seem to be trying to fly straight towards the Mun, unfortunately this won't work, you are trying to run before you can walk, or orbit in your case.

Ships in space don't move like you expect, everything will orbit something else, it'll fly in a circle around it, and by learning about orbiting you'll be able to progress to getting to the Mun.

Take a look here, there is a lot of info, and here about orbiting, once you are in an orbit you can then work on changing your orbit so it will intercept the Mun, then you have to get into an orbit around the Mun.

It's all about orbits, once you figure that out KSP becomes a lot easier

[Colderjake1524]

Welcome! If you would like to know, I learned how to fly and change orbits due to MechJeb! If you ever download the mod and pay close attention you might learn something.

Good luck!

[Jeebs24]

sal_vager is correct, you need to understand the basics of orbital mechanics.

What exactly do you mean by "the moon doesn't even move in the latest version of the game?" It should be moving (orbiting) around Kerbin.

[tttyto]

1 dont go straight up, just slowly go to horizon. 270 degree(left) or 90 degree(right) while launching, eventually follow the yellow icon in your compassball.

2 when in space, switch over to the map (press M)

then go burn the rocket and you see the blue line become rounder and rounder. try to keep pointing to 270 or 90, or follow yellow icon.

3 wait until the blue line meets to the moon, then you also will see yellow line, this means that the moon can capture you with his gravity, then its ok.

4 warp the time until the yellow line become the blue line, this mean that the moon gravity captured you.

then you are done.

*without mechjeb, mechjeb always make a orbit first, it cost more fuel then going straight to the mun.

[nhnifong]

You made me lol.

Look man, the mun is moving. If you just aim at it, by the time you get there it will be further down it's path. You gotta aim ahead of it.

[Colderjake1524]

without mechjeb, mechjeb always make a orbit first, it cost more fuel then going straight to the mun.

Not for me... Derp.

[AncientAstronaut]

Yes, the Mun DOES move. It's in orbit around Kerbin with a period of about 36 hours.

Now, onto helping you. You need to learn how to get into orbit around Kerbin, first. You can't just aim for it and burn -- that's what I used to do in December of 201 and I never made it. What you have to do is get into low orbit around Kerbin. Try 100 kilometers. There are plenty of guides that will help you with that.

Once you are in orbit, wait until the Mun rises up on the Eastern horizon (the direction you should orbit) and aim pro-grade (pointing in your direction of travel). THEN reignite the engine to extend your Apoapsis to about 12.224Mm. I have found that gives you a far side flyby with a Periapsis of 21 kilometers -- a nice flyby altitude.

You can either choose to drop into orbit from there or you can whiz around the Mun and come right back with a successful flight under your belt. But this is all very advanced for your first few missions. You should take it slow. Learn to build rockets, do the math to figure out their delta-V, write up a flight plan for your first mission to Kerbin Orbit and try to bring yourself back successfully. If you can achieve a 100km orbit around Kerbin and you still have something like 2,000 meters per second of Delta-V, go ahead and try your first Munar Flyby.

Remember, there's a reason why spaceflight is considered hard by most people. Kerbal is no exception. Learn your orbital mechanics and your rocket science and everything will fall right into place for you.

[EndlessWaves]

Basically, do what you did but do it when the moon has just come up over the horizon (, and . will fast forward and slow back down time). That's viewed from in orbit not on the planet.

You only need to burn until the map view shows the circle of your orbit touching that of the moon's orbit - don't worry about the fact that the moon is in a different place in it's orbit when you finish the burn.

[nivvydaskrl]

Try looking at this:

[Vanamonde]

I know people don't like wasting their time on people like me

Maybe on some websites, but you won't find that to be the case around here. The short version is, get to orbit first, then learn how to aim not for where Mun is right now, but where it will be when you get that high. Check out this guy's tutorial videos: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/15652-Orbital-Mechanics-101-A-Kerbal-Space-Program-Tutorial (They're actually at the top of the how-to forum page.)

(By the way, nivvydaskri, that is one awesome diagram. It's like "Matisse's guide to Mun shots.")

[nivvydaskrl]

Maybe on some websites, but you won't find that to be the case around here. The short version is, get to orbit first, then learn how to aim not for where Mun is right now, but where it will be when you get that high. Check out this guy's tutorial videos: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/15652-Orbital-Mechanics-101-A-Kerbal-Space-Program-Tutorial (They're actually at the top of the how-to forum page.)

(By the way, nivvydaskri, that is one awesome diagram. It's like "Matisse's guide to Mun shots.")

Hee, yeah. I dropped it on the KerbalSpaceProgram subreddit a couple of days ago, and it was very well received; I hope it helps the OP! When 0.17 comes out, I'm thinking of doing a series of diagrams for interplanetary transfers.

[1of6Billion]

@nivvydaskrl This...is....awesome...

[Grand Lander]

We all where newbs at one stage at landing on the Mun untill i got the soyuz mod which made me understand how to land without horizontal speed

[T-Pilot395]

What I do is I vertically takeoff until I hit orbit before rotating and burning at heading 270 degrees. This is when you watch the map carefully to make sure your flight path intercept's the Mun.

And yes, the Mun moves, although a bit slow to the naked eye.

[Vanamonde]

at heading 270 degrees

Don't do that! Steering towards 90 adds the speed of Kerbin's rotation to your flight speed, whereas steering at 270 SUBTRACTS Kerbin's rotation from your flight speed. Approaching Mun at 270 puts you on a collision course with a body that's coming at you at 542.5m/s, so you have to burn to kill off that much speed just so you don't crash into it. In short, compass heading 270 wastes lakes of additional fuel.

[Rickenbacker]

What I do is I vertically takeoff until I hit orbit before rotating and burning at heading 270 degrees. This is when you watch the map carefully to make sure your flight path intercept's the Mun.

And yes, the Mun moves, although a bit slow to the naked eye.

While this works, it's the absolutely least efficient way to do it. Ideally you should start adding horizontal speed much sooner, and head 90 degrees (thus adding Kerbins rotational momentum to your orbital speed) which also makes it much easier to get to the moon later. And a nitpick: going straight up, you will never get into orbit, at least not around Kerbin .

As the diagram earlier shows, it's pretty easy to get to the moon once you grasp some basic orbital mechanics.

1. Get into orbit going roughly 90 degrees (east).

2. Wait for the moon to show up on the horizon.

3. When it does, burn all you have prograde (in the direction of travel) and watch the map.

4. When your orbit intersects the moon's influence, you will see an extra, orange orbital bit at the end of your course line. Stop burning!

5. Wait until you enter the moons sphere of influence, which is easiest to see on the map.

6. Wait until you reach periapsis (lowest point) around the moon, then burn retrograde (against the direction of travel) until you are in orbit around the moon.

7. Profit!

[Nibb31]

There is no such thing as a straight line in orbital flight.

First you need to learn how to reach orbit around Kerbin. Just getting "out of the atmosphere" is not good enough, because unless you are on orbit, your ballistic flight path will just be a parabolic line up and down. You need to reach a certain speed so that your parabolic arc "misses" the ground and makes a circle around Kerbin.

Once you've got that laid down, you can learn how to raise and lower your orbit to reach the altitude you want. Reaching the moon is simply a matter of raising your orbit high enough that it intersects with the Mun's orbit around Kerbin, and a matter of timing to reach that intersection at the moment when the Mun is actually in the right place.

[Randox]

As a point of interest, while you certainly should learn how to orbit, it's not really a requirement for the Mun. If you just fly in a big strait line off the launch pad, the Mun will move through a 45 degree arc in the time it takes your rocket to arrive (give or take, but the Mun is so close and has enough gravity that there is a reasonable margin of error). If done right, you should be captured just ahead of the Mun in its orbit, in prime position to either establish a Munar orbit, or get right to the landing (I've gone to the Mun and back many times without ever completing an orbit, because it's faster).

Do learn to orbit though, since this method is only feasible for reaching an object in orbit of Kerbin, and on the same orbital inclination (the Mun).

[Markus Reese]

Don't do that! Steering towards 90 adds the speed of Kerbin's rotation to your flight speed, whereas steering at 270 SUBTRACTS Kerbin's rotation from your flight speed. Approaching Mun at 270 puts you on a collision course with a body that's coming at you at 542.5m/s, so you have to burn to kill off that much speed just so you don't crash into it. In short, compass heading 270 wastes lakes of additional fuel.

270 gets you there faster though But quite true on the fuel with the recent changes. The 90 degree is also a good practice to get into for performing slingshot maneuvers. A good and close 90 degree slingshot around the moon can get you a seriously nice launch out of kerbin orbit. At 270 degree, you pass by too fast to make any significant use of it.

[Jay_Em]

I recently landed on the Mun, and I found this series of videos by pebblegarden really useful. It's the 'Flight of the Munitar' series you want. The basic concept you need to understand though has been very well explained in the posts above me, but sometimes seeing it implemented helps as well.

EDIT- Just noticed I'm basically repeating what someone else said. Sorry.