Mun Landing assistance needed.

[Junedax]

Greetings,

I have successfully crashed and exploded a number of Mun landers on the surface of the Mun due to my lander bouncing off of the surface of the Mun as I descend. I've gone through a number of tutorials and have my descent velocity down to 3 m/s yet I still bounce when the lander legs touch down. At that point I usually have some horizontal drift so the craft lists to one side and if I'm not quick enough, or I panic, the lander ends in its destruction.

Any tips out there for getting my Mun lander to "stick" once it touches down? I thought about using RCS to "push" the lander down into place once the legs touch down, not sure if that will work.

I'll get a picture of my Mun lander up here one day, it's a combination lander/rescue pod with a Command Pod MkI and a Hitchhiker Storage Container. Strapped to that are four LV-N engines to power the craft to the Mun with enough fuel (I hope) to get back.

Any help/thoughts/ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'm pretty sure the low gravity of the Mun is what I'm struggling with, just not sure how to counter that. Jebediah had a blast during the last crash, literally.

[Awaras]

Eliminate as much of the horizontal drift as possible. Press 'X' a split second before you touch down to turn off the engines.

[capi3101]

RCS should work; thrust down on contact. You might also try widening the base of your lander; if you make it low and squat, it's less likely to tip over. I'd also recommend making sure the grade of your landing site is as level as possible.

[RoboRay]

While descending, keep your nose on the retrograde mark. This will result in virtually no horizontal drift when you touch down.

[Shrike42]

It's worth noting that, especially as you get close to 0 m/s, the retrograde can start moving around significantly. Don't panic. Also, depending on your lander's design, you might be able to right your lander by retracting and extending the legs... but this might also hurl your lander up and crash it down.

Also, the lander can control module is built for doing landings in IVA, and has a radar altimeter(maximum distance 2000 meters) and vertical speed gauge, as well as a (way too shiny) Navigation ball. This might help you manage your descent, since you can see both the vertical motion numbers and the ground itself in better detail than you can from outside the lander.

[MBobrik]

A little trick that helps me. kill all your velocity at 1-2 km above the surface. You will then come down almost exactly vertically.

[Vanamonde]

Build the lander on a wide layout so that it's less likely to tip. If you have both ASAS and RCS on the lander, they will fight to keep the ship from tipping over. Yes, pressing N to force the ship onto the surface can help. Don't use the middle-sized landing legs, the LT-1 model, because they are EXTREMELY bouncey. And if you're just learning how to land, a capsule AND a Hitchhiker module makes for a kind of a large ship to practice with. At least remove the Hitchhiker until you get better at landings, and maybe use a 1-man capsule instead.