Dark side of the mun communication and reverse navball indication

[Joe Kerbal]

I managed to make my frist land on mun using a double unmanned probe. It's first attempt and I succeded so I'm pretty satisfied. I have two question about what happened.

1 ) how you manage to control an unmanned ship on the dark side of the moon? I think should be possible using some "bridge" satellites that staying more far from the mun make sorta "mirror" effect bouncing the signal. Is it possible? is it how the network works? because till now I just see that every satellite makes indipendent connection with Kerbin.

2) this is more complicated. I made my lander using a docked ship staring docked from Kerbin. I put it upside down on the main vessel releasing when I was on mun orbit. I noticed how navball was exactly indicating things fully 180° flipped. Now I realize I should probably have turned upside down the control probe when mounting. Is that the problem?

[Streetwind]

12 minutes ago, Joe Kerbal said:

1 ) how you manage to control an unmanned ship on the dark side of the moon? I think should be possible using some "bridge" satellites that staying more far from the mun make sorta "mirror" effect bouncing the signal. Is it possible? is it how the network works? because till now I just see that every satellite makes indipendent connection with Kerbin.

Yes, it works like that. You can make such satellites, and they will bounce the signal back to Kerbin for you.

There is two reasons you're only seeing direct connections to Kerbin right now. One, Kerbin's ground based antennas (the Deep Space Network, DSN, after the real life system of the same name) are several orders of magnitude more powerful than what you can carry on your spacecraft. Antennas automatically search for the most high-quality path home they can find. Because the DSN is so powerful, this highest quality path is almost always "just talk to Kerbin directly". Two, not all antennas can bounce a signal. There are two different kinds: so-called "direct" antennas, and so-called "relay" antennas. Direct antennas weigh and cost less, but cannot route other spacecraft's signals through them. Only relay antennas can.

The first relay antenna you get is the HG-5. It is pretty weak, though. You'll want to put two or more of them on your relay satellites, and the landed vessels on the Mun will need a dedicated antenna of their own (not just the integrated transmitter in every pod or probe core). Alternatively, you could use the RA-2, which is plenty powerful for all your Mun relaying needs. But it takes more research to unlock it.

More information: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/CommNet

 

20 minutes ago, Joe Kerbal said:

2) this is more complicated. I made my lander using a docked ship staring docked from Kerbin. I put it upside down on the main vessel releasing when I was on mun orbit. I noticed how navball was exactly indicating things fully 180° flipped. Now I realize I should probably have turned upside down the control probe when mounting. Is that the problem?

Also correct. The orientation of your control point matters.

That said, you might be able to right-click the probe core and set it to reverse control in the part action window. I'm not sure if that option is always available, or only if you have Advanced Tweakables toggled on.

[Joe Kerbal]

I could not strive for better or more accurate explanation.

Thankyou

[jimmymcgoochie]

Fun fact- the “dark side” of the Mun (and indeed the Moon) is the side that faces Kerbin/Earth because that side gets eclipsed by Kerbin/Earth whereas the other side never does, so on average it gets more sunlight.

The correct term is ‘far side of the Mun/Moon’ because they’re tidally locked and always show the same face to their parent, thus the near side and the far side and the ‘Farside Crater’ biomes on the Mun.
 

Landing on the far side is more difficult because there’s no line of sight back to Kerbin/Earth for a radio signal, so you’ll need a relay satellite to bounce the signal. This must use relay antennae like the HG-5 or preferably RA-2 as a direct antenna cannot relay signals from another ship.
A useful trick is to put relays just in front of and/or behind the Mun, or any other planet/moon for that matter, which can cover almost an entire hemisphere at once and will stay in the same relative position all the time, unlike orbiting relays which move in and out of line of sight as they orbit. Just be sure to match the orbit of the target planet or moon as precisely as possible or you risk the relay falling into its gravity well and crashing or being thrown out of the system entirely.

[Spricigo]

20 hours ago, Streetwind said:

The first relay antenna you get is the HG-5. It is pretty weak, though. You'll want to put two or more of them on your relay satellites, and the landed vessels on the Mun will need a dedicated antenna of their own (not just the integrated transmitter in every pod or probe core). 

 

Notice that is only a concern for science transmission. Even the weakest signal will be enough to grant full control to unkerbaled crafts. 

Sticking a HG-5, probe core and solar panel in anything you expect to let floating in space is an easy way to build a basic but functional relay network.