Targeted Landing advice

[GoSlash27]

Funny thing: this Thread just showed up on the forum when I was thinking about a moonbase (and thus, target landing) by myself. The informations here really helped alot.

Yesterday, I did my first try following the instructions in GoSlash's link, and it worked fine for me.

However, my first shot only brought me in an about 2-3 km distance to my target. Close enough :-)

GoSlash, your instructions are fine, but one question:

My target is not on the equatorial plane.

However, from my target position, I launched a small sateliite directly westwards, this means I now have an object in lower Minmus orbit which I can use to get my transport ship to the right inclination (targets on the surface don't show an ascending/descending point :-( ).

When my transporter is in the desired orbit, I have to wait till my surface target intersects my orbit. This only happens once per Minmus day.

Maybe this introduced my 2-3km distance? I guess I always have to add some normal/antinormal component to my burn because you never get exactly the right point?

Is there a way to improve target landing when the target is not on the equator?

And, more generally, is it a good idea to place a surface outpost in such a spot?

And, one more time: your instructions rellay helped a lot! :-)

lugge,

I'm glad you found it helpful!

Landing sites that are offset normal to the lander's trajectory are tricky to get right for the reasons you mentioned. In addition, you're viewing your trajectory from the side and it's hard to see if you've corrected your landing spot sufficiently due to the poor resolution.

I recommend placing your lander in an orbit with enough inclination to ensure that it passes close overhead the target. After the initial retroburn, you will want to do a normal/ antinormal burn to "bend" your landing point to hit the target.

After that, you proceed as you normally would, with adjustments left or right as necessary.

Once the picture gets too small to work from map view, transition to normal view. You should be close enough at that point to finish the rendezvous visually.

I prefer to put my bases directly on the equator on bodies with short days and on a pole for bodies that are tidally locked.

Best,

-Slashy

Edited July 24, 2015 by GoSlash27

[Nich]

GoSlash that is just disgusting lol. Ok time to try some truely persision landings Perhaps a challenge?

[SanderB]

I've already landed pretty close, and docked with something on the surface: