Help! Mun lander request?

[Damazo]

I'm pretty new to this game so I don't really know how it works. I had a lot of fun in the demo and recently got the full game, but one thing I've noticed is that the physics in the later versions is completely different, so none of my tried and tested designs will work. :mad:Could someone post a design that can land on the mun please? I need some help, even if you could talk me through it that'd be great!

[Kosmo-not]

Here's a design that will get there and back.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/22344-0-17-Stock-Simple-Mun-Rocket-%28SMR-1%29?p=282375&viewfull=1#post282375

[Khrissetti]

This is slightly over-engineered but she'll get you there and back, usually with fuel to spare:

[maple51]

A rocket that can make it to the mun or minmus, but no interplanetary travel. The rocket doesn't use any SRB's at all.

Specifications:

Crew-3

Range-Mun or Minmus

Completely Stock.

Craft File-[ATTACH]34383[/ATTACH]

This is my basic Mun rocket.

[Damazo]

What decouplers did you use for the outer rockets? And what are the stages? Sorry!

[Damazo]

Thanks! And you wouldn't mind explaining the term "Gravity Turn"? I really am clueless..

[Markus Reese]

Frist and foremost between demo and 17.0, the largest change for getting to the moon have to do with tanks, fuel consumption and other assorted bits. First part is tanks. Outside of the obvious new sizes, the old ones hold less fuel. Engines also have different consumptions in different levels of vacuum. As result, typically you will need more fuel and thrust than back in the demo. Remember that the most important part about getting to orbit is the faster you can do it, the less fuel you will need to get there. So more thrust is of greater importance than just adding more fuel. Use a few of the big engines in staged tanks to get yourself up and into orbit.

The gravity turn is whenever you burn out from a planet, you will arc/turn as you escape since gravity is still pulling you in an orbit. But for a bit more on how to get the feel for it, the building of a rocket. You need to break it down and build it in reverse. Use your last stage you need and build up from there. So for a moonshot, here is how it goes.

1. Kerbin landing - just your capsule and parachute

2. Kerbin Return - need just enough fuel to escape Mun and decelerate at mun orbit to have your periapsis graze the atmosphere. Single tank and single efficient engine usually does it with plenty to spare

3. Mun Landing - A small group of the tiny engines. Light is good here. If your lander is small, then the small engines will do plenty for getting stopped. You want to touch down at <4m/s for a safe and stable landing. Slower means better success. Also try to keep the landing legs wide apart and rocket small to prevent tip over. Horizontal velocity is also bad, Keep yourself pointing retrograde when you are making final approach to landing site to eliminate horizontal, and rcs as well if comfortable. When you touch down, you should be coming down vertical as possible.

4. Munar orbit - For simplicity, this can be combined with orbit escape from kerbin. either use the moderate thrust engines to get your mass moving and stopped relatively quick, or use the nuclear engines for minimal fuel consumption but a slow burn. Keep in mind that the nuc engines have some weight to them so are only worth it if you have a few tanks for each, or one of the large tanks minimum to feed a couple. orbit capture is easy, just burn retrograde at periapsis. To capture moon, the best thing is as soon as you see moonrise on the horizon while in kerbin orbit, if you burn prograde you will get a munar capture. This is because moon is head of you, but because your orbit is faster, you will catch up. This is the gravity turn because you turn as you come around the planet. On the map you will see that you will capture the mun just as you are becoming tangent to it's orbit.

5. Launch and kerbin orbit - Lots of thrust. Use the bigger engines typically because it helps reduce lag. Most people use what is called an asparagus setup. This is where you have a single large engine centre column on a short fuel stack. (say two tanks) Which if the rest of the rocket is not overkill, it should get you to orbit speeds once out of atmo. To get out of atmosphere, surround this single booster with a second stage of radially mounted taller stacks. Run a fuel line from these to the centre tank so the centre one doesn't burn up all it's fuel. Just launch, burn fast and begin turning to 90 degrees once you start getting out of the lower atmosphere. Watch the map, you only need to get up to +70km, so if your apoapsis is passed this, you can shut engines off until you get close to here and burn towards horizon to elongate and make a nice circular orbit.

Use structurals to build stability into the rocket, and just play around to see what works. Remember the key to getting orbit is do it as fast as possible. If your acceleration is slow, you need a bit more thrust, or reduce some weight. Solid booster assists at launch or when in your orbit capture angle. Play around, be creative. How you set it up is all up to you and make your own style. If something doesn't work or is going wrong, post up in here with the craft or pics!

[Damazo]

Cheers Markus. Might have to copy that into a word document to remeber it all. And yea, I couldn't quite work out why my rockets ran out of fual a lot sooner, I thought it was worse consumption from the engines rather than less fuel.

[Millitron]

Its all really good except for one minor thing. You absolutely don't need more than 1 tank for your nuclear engine if you're only going to the moon, especially considering 1 tank can get you out past Duna if you do it right. In fact, you can almost certainly get away with using the half-sized tank for a Mun mission.