Am I the only one

[TheUnknownPoet]

Am I the only one who has never landed a kerbal on any celestial bod at all? even with cheats enabled? I can't seem to do it. Closest i've come is a 1200 m/s impact with the mun.

[Nibb31]

Now all you need is an engine capable of losing those 1200m/s of delta-V.

[Moeceefus]

Just use MechJeb until you're better at it is all.

[thenbagis]

I suggest watching this series. You don't have to follow it 100%, but it definitely helps give a summary of what you need to do to land on the Mun.

Watch the alternate way to land on the Mun, it's easier, because it removes the horizontal velocity component and you're less likely to hit the surface and start tumbling.

I've since found that my easiest landing technique is somewhere between her two methods and using RCS thrusters to completely remove the horizontal component.

[amore555]

Nah, you dont need mech jeb, just persevere, when coming in to the mun point yourself at the yellow marker on your nav ball and just blast that speed away!

[Tauge]

Mechjeb's nice, and I use it all the time, but it shouldn't be a crutch.

Basics of landing on Mun

Get into orbit (75km-150km circular-ish orbit)

Wait until Mun rise

Point your ship prograde (the yellow cursor on your nav ball without an X in the middle) and burn

Hit 'm' to open your map

Wait until you see the blue line turn to yellow

Hit 'x' to stop your burn

Coast until you get a change in SOI (Basically, you'll see the yellow line become blue again, the camera will reset, and Mun will be the center of your universe)

Hit F5 for quicksave (you may need it and you don't want to have to go through the earlier steps again)

Coast until you get to periapsis (NOTE: You're periapsis may be in the Mun itself in which case land, another lesson for another time, or raise your periapsis) and burn retrograde (the yellow cursor on your nav ball with an X in the middle)

Burn until the blue line turns into a blue circle then hit 'x'

You are now in orbit. It may be eccentric. It may be ugly, but it's an orbit. From there land...or return to Kerbin.

[Markus Reese]

The great thing about ksp is that once you do get it, it becomes easy. Number one easy task is try to orbit into and capture orbit before attempting landings. Let gravity work for you, not against.

[bsalis]

Am I the only one who has never landed a kerbal on any celestial bod at all? even with cheats enabled? I can't seem to do it. Closest i've come is a 1200 m/s impact with the mun.

I'm sure your not the only one. There's plenty of material to learn from around here. Videos in particular help. Read/watch some tutorials then practice and you should get where you want to.

The great thing about ksp is that once you do get it, it becomes easy.

Well, I would not say it becomes all easy. However the learning curve is not a wall. It's a nice journey, with satisfying achievements for those willing to try.

[opticalshadow]

my biggest barreir to overcome was patience. learnign that you cant make that final protion of landing go faster...or yuou willd ie.

[Khrissetti]

It took me about 2 weeks of repeated crashes before I finally touched down and returned my first landers. I began the program with Mercury I. the Mercury VIII finally succeeded in landing!

[PakledHostage]

You could also build a little lander to practice hovering and landing at home before you fly to the Mun, like they did during the Apollo program.

I spent a lot of time practicing hovering and landing at KSC before I ever attempted a Mun landing.

[Wayfare]

Take it step by step. Set yourself a single objective and figure out how to achieve it. Once you've done that, set a new objective one step higher and go for that. Etc. At each step, you can make use of awesome YouTube tutorials if you can't figure it out for yourself.

Working up to my first Mun landing I went through:

1. Getting a rocket off the launch pad.

2. Getting into orbit

3. Getting into orbit and back

4. Intercept the Mun and go back (no landing)

5. Intercept the Mun, orbit, and go back (no landing)

6. Full-on Mun landing and return after having the crew do a victory lap around the lander.

Good luck!

[John F. Kerman]

If you haven't already, practice landing on kerbin/earth (start small, from say 50m off the ground, and then work your way up to orbit).

It's a little harder but once you've got the hang of it you'll find landing on the Mun far easier.

It's also handy for testing your lander, you don't want to be finding out the engine's on backwards when you're on your final descent

Edited October 2, 2012 by John F. Kerman

[thenbagis]

If you've gotten the hang of Kerbin orbit, getting to the Mun, and getting into orbit around the Mun.... but just struggle with the actual landing. I'd highly suggest the use of F5 (quicksave) and F9 (quickload). Hold F5 before beginning your descent to the Mun, if you crash, press F9, rinse and repeat.

It'll save the frustration of having to redo all previous steps, every time you crash.

[Gamergull]

I used to hit the Mun's surface a lot (when I used to orbit Kerbin westwards!). Keep trying for hours on end, that's what got my first legit landing there. Lots of trial and error. Darn this game is addictive.

[Markus Reese]

Well, I would not say it becomes all easy. However the learning curve is not a wall. It's a nice journey, with satisfying achievements for those willing to try.

Ha ha, quite true in many respects. I think alot of it has to do with my techniques for how I overcome not using any mods. Example, purposefully cross my rendevous orbital with my own trajectory so that on the return cross I get my interception. Small tweaks (means a bit more fuel) allows a capture almost every time. It takes longer, but I find more fun in flying then having software calculate. Also I always need to keep my engineering mindset in control as I have a nasty habit of making things way too complex which brings up a good point.

greater complexity leads to greater chance of failure (plus more lag)

Making a basic plan in your head is a good way to also plan your staging. Always start from your last task and make a list to your launch. Only carry what you need (plus a bit extra in case of oopses). Example for getting to Mun.

1. Kerbin landing.

2. Mun->kerbin

3. Mun Lander

4. Kerbin->Mun

5. Kerbin orbit

6. Kerbin launch

This will get you a most basic setup to get going. The nice part is that if you are like me, if any stage is insufficient, you always can return and land again to redesign. No kerbals stranded ever in my space (much). Following this design, you can do one part and test each until you reach your final goal of all 6 stages. So for example.

1: Design a lander, launch it into space and see if it comes down. Do this and if ever a rocket fails, you can deploy your kerbin lander, always back alive.

2: Launch lander plus stage into orbit that can get you from the moon. Note that it takes much less fuel to return from the moon as it does to get there. So a good test is if you can get out to mun orbit then this stage is good. Remember fuel efficency is key once you have orbit. Want to return, then when at Apo, do a braking to cause your peri to scrape atmosphere. Two tasks at once done there. You know you can return from mun plus you practiced aerobraking.

3: Lander, tough to test this exactly. But it doesn't take too much fuel to come down. the nice efficient and light 1m engines with pretty much any tank will work.

4:If you can get this point, then you are at the moon. Build your stage that gets you from orbit kerbin into orbit of the moon into space. Your extra fuel can be used to suppliment any other stage. For example, you can use remaining mun capture components to begin your decent.

[szpw]

Don't worry, you'll get it soon. Tauge had a pretty good guide on how to do it, but I find the hardest part is building the right craft for the job. It took me almost a month to get into a lunar orbit. Most engines can perform the lunar transfer, but I'd specifically recommend the smaller engines (not the lander ones, but the original 2 engines.) For landing a usual capsule-small tank-lander engine with 4 landing struts normally works fine with me.

[Nikolai]

Quick rule of thumb: On the Internet, any question that begins with "Am I the only one who...?" can be truthfully answered "No."

[Aescwulf]

My Mun lander is just a capsule with a small fuel tank ( not the 1x1 tank the 2x1 ) with a 909 engine also ladders, landing legs, ASAS and everything else you need and this gets me onto the Mun with half a tank of fuel and the rest gets me into areobrake of Kerbin

[Geeny]

You've never landed on the Mun? How did you do on the tutorials?