First Mun Landing!

[Feud]

I'm still working on getting a design that I like (and that can get a lander there with enough fuel), and my technique is really to just get an orbit going that puts me near the Mun's orbit and wait for things to line up. But I managed to make my first Mun landing!

Sadly, things did not go so well. The first time I landed on uneven terrain and the lander rolled. There goes that mission.

The second time I might have made it back, fuel was scarce but possible. I came in a bit too hot though, and on touch down my engine exploded. Kerbalnaut Mivkin freaked out a bit about that, but miraculously the rest of the ship remained intact and settled upright.

With awe the first boots were set upon another world. It was a terrible moment, for he knew he would never again leave...

Felt kinda sad to leave him up there, maybe I'll get him home someday.

[Richy teh space man]

You can get crew pods in some of the mods that will let you carry passengers, so maybe you could make a rescue mission at some point?

[Feud]

Maybe, I don't have any mods installed but down the road it could happen.

In looking at the picture I now realize that the explosion blasted one of the landing struts off. I only see three and there were four on there when we left Kerbin.

[technotica]

Gratulations!

I just got my first Mun landing too... unfortunately I also botched teh landing, blew up everything except for the crew pod, so now I have three kerbonauts stranded on the Mun...

Maybe they can keep your Kerbonaut company though!

How did you do it?

I usually burn until my 'orbit' (which starts and ends on the planet) is high enough to intersect the Muns orbit, then I burn parallel to the Muns rotation until I get the yellow line to indicate Mun escape velocity, then I coast close to the Mun and then I burn away from the Mun and towards Kerbin until I get an orbit, then just burn away from Mun until the orbit starts intersecting with the surface.

And then the landing! Which hasn't worked out for me so far. I had enough fuel, even to take off but I did not burn hard enough and landed with 16 m/s which exploded everything...

Edited September 26, 2012 by technotica

[Feud]

My strategy is to establish an orbit that allows for some intersection with the Mun's orbit, then wait for us to get close (takes a few orbits sometimes). That way I'm at a fairly low speed when I'm trying to land, as I'm near the peak of my orbit.

I haven't figured out yet if a slow or hard retrograde burn works best, but I'll try to be around 100 m/s by the time I'm a 1000 meters up. This time I cut my burn too soon and dropped the last little bit, otherwise I think I'd of made it.

My issue has been the fuel. I want to get to the Mun with as near a full fuel tank as possible, but it takes so much to lift off Kerbin and get out that far.

[Cooly568]

Congrats on the first landing!

It's a achievement for everyone.

About getting the kerbals back...

Maybe you need my Munplane.

<a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40/screenshot68j.png/" target="_blank"><img src="http://imageshack.us/a/img40/7696/screenshot68j.th.png" border="0"/></a>

[technotica]

My issue has been the fuel. I want to get to the Mun with as near a full fuel tank as possible, but it takes so much to lift off Kerbin and get out that far.

I use my Awesomely Oversized Rocket for landing on Mun, your approach to getting to Muna nd landing on it is probably a lot mroe fuel efficient than mine butwith my setup I still have half a 2m tank for each of the three nuclear engines of my lander left when touching down on Mun (or crashing more likely).

It's pretty slow though I have to be over 200k m to actually accelerate towards a decent speed.

But there is a lot of fuel in those tanks!

What does your rocket look like?

[hubbazoot]

You can get crew pods in some of the mods that will let you carry passengers, so maybe you could make a rescue mission at some point?

Make a ship with the MKIII capsule (the 3-man) and then EVA->end flight one of the crew members on take off. Boom, you have a cheap rescue vehicle that's totally vanilla.

Just a few tips about Mun landings that helped me:

You want to lead the Mun's position by about 120 deg.

Coming around the "back" side of the mun makes landing and return easier (IMO) and gives you more options.

As soon as you're getting near 3km on Mun, you can turn 90deg for your orbital acceleration. The Mun's highest peak is at 3km.

When taking off, try to return "retro grade" and escape towards the 'back' side of the Mun, this will save on fuel for your Kerbin descent.

If your rocket starts getting overly complicated, you may want to get a clean slate and start rebuilding again. I've seen people get to the Mun and back on 5 small tanks and a MK1 pod, so keep that limit in mind.

[Rickenbacker]

You can get crew pods in some of the mods that will let you carry passengers, so maybe you could make a rescue mission at some point?

Or, if you prefer stock rockets, just disembark one of your astronauts on the launch pad, end flight, and go back to the rocket via the tracking center. That way you'll have a free seat.