Need help getting to the mun

[ochw]

hi guys new to this i can orbit now every time and have loads of delta v but can not work out how to get to the mun

[Vanamonde]

Hello new person. Welcome to the forum. There could be several reasons for your trouble. 

Are you playing KSP1 or KSP2? Making your own rocket? Maybe there's a problem with your design. Can you share a picture of your ship? Or it could be the path you're trying to fly to orbit. 

I made a guide a while back and although the game has changed some it might still be helpful. 

 

[TLTay]

I thought one of  the selling points was the fantastic tutorials? Did they not even finish those yet? Lithobraking in 2020.... pffft.

[Socraticat]

If you have DV you should be able to set up a maneuver node.

Set Mun as target

Select maneuver node and adjust prograde until your projected trajectory meets the Mun's orbit.

You can move the maneuver node around your current orbit to see where you'll get a Mun Intercept. 

You'll find that in the sweet spot in LKO  looking prograde, when the Mun is in front of you [target marker near prograde], is the time to burn for Mun.

The same is true for Minmus, for the most part, but there is also an inclination change to deal with.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Socraticat
Autocorrect disagrees with orbital vocabulary

[KUAR]

Foolproof steps, works despite bugs. This isn't necessarily the most efficient, but it'll work.

1. Get to orbit.
2. Ensure orbit is circular. To achieve this, warp to periapsis; face prograde; and burn until Pe/Ap are equal. 
3. Ensure orbit is co-planar with the Mun. To achieve this:
   1. Right click on Mun and "set as target".
   2. Warp to AN/DN. These are your ascending or descending nodes. 
   3. Turn Normal (if DN) or Anti-Normal (if AN).
   4. Burn until inclination equals zero.
4. At any point on the orbit, create a new manoeuvre node. Drag the prograde icon until your predicted Apoapsis is at or just beyond the Mun's orbit. It should take about 850 m/s of dV, give or take a couple of dozen. 
5. It's possible but unlikely that you'll get an intercept from wherever you first plonk your node; if so, great. If not, grab the manoeuvre node by the central ball and drag it around the orbit until you get an intercept. Do your best to tweak it so that the course change when you get to the Mun is as sharp as possible - that's a good indicator that you've got a close encounter. You can also look at the numbers but I won't go into that now.
6. Carry out the burn. Get to the node, point prograde, and burn until your actual orbital line matches up with the predicted line. I don't trust the KSP2 burn indicator at the moment, too many bugs. You should now be on an intercept trajectory.
7. Perform a mid-course correction. Warp to halfway or 2/3 of the way to the Mun. You'll probably be on some wacky trajectory when you get there - you can right click on the Mun and "Focus" if you want to see. Create a new node a little ahead of your craft and play with the sliders. This is your chance to learn how adjustments affect orbits so I won't go into detail - trial and error! You want to get a fairly close approach to the back side of the Mun (especially if you want to land) so you can end up in an anti-clockwise orbit (when viewed from the North pole).
8. When you get into the Mun's SOI, you can start planning your capture burn. At or near Periapsis, plan and execute a retrograde burn until you're in an orbit. Once you're in orbit you're safe and can start tweaking it to get it equatorial/polar as you wish, or circularise, or start planning your landing.

Note on circularising & plane adjustments. When I say "warp to", actually you want to come out just before. This is so that first, you can point in the right direction before needing to start your burn; and also so that you can start your burn just before. When burning, watch the node (Pe/Ap/AN/DN whatever) and if it's becoming further away, slow down/stop your burn; if it's getting closer, speed up your burn. The aim is to stop your burn when you get to the node's position. A bit of trial and error will help you to understand the concept here.