how to land on mun

[god42]

i tried many rockets to get to the mun and all have either been lost in orbit or smashed into the mun. is there any simple way without all the mathematical stuff because i fail at math

i have also tried with mechjeb but thats just.. well confusing

any ideas?

[Optical9090]

When you manage to reach the mun, ar eyou just going head on or are you achieving an orbit? i find it easier to first set myself in a orbit around mun, about 10km or so, then perform a retrograde burn to remove most of the horizontal speed, then it's just a matter of falling gently while firing rockets towards the gound to slow your descent.

But it all depends on the rocket you're using.

[Person012345]

No math and no mechjeb hmm?

Put your lander in orbit. at the periapsis, burn until your orbit extends to the mun. Warp until you encounter the mun (this will happen eventually). Wait until periapsis then burn until you achieve a land-able trajectory. Land. Coming home is much easier, all you have to do is escape mun (go into orbit and burn on the side facing away from kerbin so that your escape trajectory brings you inside of the mun's orbit, if you don't it can be a pain because the mun will keep recapturing you) and you'll automatically be in kerbin's hill sphere, so then you just need to burn to a sub-orbital trajectory and deploy your parachute when you get home.

If you want to use mechjeb, go into orbit, click "orbital operations", click "trans", click "transfer to mun". Once you arrive, make sure your periapsis is positive (if not, use orbital operations to bring it up) and basically do the same thing.

My lander design in this game is a 16 ton vehicle on a 173 ton rocket, and is easily capable of going to the mun and back. My interplanetary vehicle that I just managed to land on duna is, obviously, also capable of that, but that's a 35 ton vehicle on a 370 ton rocket, which would be a tad overkill. Of course, you can make lighter ones, just an idea of my current design that I have to hand that I know can do it.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Person012345

[god42]

Thanks i made it too the mun but failed the land i use the kerbal x rocket in the load feature and all i done is tweaked it a bit wich seems to work for me

[karolus10]

Before you land (when you still on mun orbit) make Quicksave by pressing [F5] key, so you can reload game after crash by holding [F9] button. In this way you can try so many times as you want.

Also you had (in 0.17) game scenario where you start the game with lander right on munar orbit !

Edited September 25, 2012 by karolus10

[Gunhed]

If you create rockets that should land somewhere, make sure that your balance point is as low as possible. (Don't build high landing rockets)

That prevents the rocket from easily falling to it's side.

[Rickenbacker]

...and use at least four landing legs, preferably six, placed as far out as possible. Also, try them out on the pad with just the lander, to make sure that they reach the ground .

[Person012345]

Oh, as for landing, just practice. There's not much more to it. You wanna be touching down at very low speed.

[Spyre9]

Simplest method needs no math and a basic understanding of the phrases used.

Launch your rocket and do your gravity turn on 90 degrees, on the Navball thats right. Keep as close to 90 as possible, though long rockets do lead to some variance as it "wobbles". Establish your Prograde (meaning your moving with the planets rotation) orbit at 100km (100'000m) altitude.

Point your rocket in the right direction and wait for the Mun to rise over Kerbin. Don't burn as soon as she appears but give it a moment, let the Mun rise a bit. Once you think it's all good throttle up and burn burn burn, you might want to switch to map view to hit the old 'x' button once your trajectory is set for intercept. Basically aim to set the Apoapsis to 11.4 million meters and you should be all set to intercept.

Once intercepted you'll need to slow your speed down to turn your trajectory into a orbit, the best advise I saw for this was to point your ship retrograde, look for Kerbin, point more to Kerbin then straight retro as you will most likely need to move your trajectory, burn establish a good perapsis with, most likely, a highly ecliptical orbit, then adjust your orbit as you want before setting yourself up for landing.

Apologies if some of the wording is wrong, been a long day and the brain is getting fuzzy.

[LaydeeDem]

6m/s or lower is good. Careful with your throttle though, you want to land slowly, not fly back up.

[god42]

thanks guys for all the help i landed ON THE MUN!! but i need a lot more fuel.. poor kerbals all alone.