1st Minmus Landing - Everybody Has to Start Somewhere

[Geschosskopf]

So, after getting a handle on the basics from some Kermin-side experiments and watching a lot of tutorials, I decided it was time get Jeb to Minmus. I built the rocket Scott Manley uses in his Minmus tutorial with a few additions:

1. ASAS with 4 RCS blocks right under the capsule separator. Good investment.

2. Kerbal Engineer attached during construction just to see what the numbers looked like. Maybe I learned something.

3. MechJeb as a back-up to my seat-of-the-pants navigation, but mostly so I could get a 2nd opinion before I committed. Rather a mixed blessing.

4. Stitched everything well up, which might have saved my bacon during the landing.

Lift-off and initial transfer burn done by hand and all went well, but then I decided to see what MechJeb could do so I told it to refine my Minmus periapsis to 35km from the 150km I had already gotten myself. Oops! It put me in for a 3km periapsis. Egad, there are mountains taller than that. And of course I hadn't saved at all so far, and didn't want to waste fuel trying to solve this problem, so I took a deep breath and decided to see what happened. Maybe I'd fly between the mountains and could do a gentle de-orbit burn on the other side.

As it happened, there was a big mountain in directly in the way so there was nothing for it but to land somehow, out in the hill country far from any of the flat areas I'd been planning to land on. I had no idea how far I was above the ground so I killed almost all my horizontal velocity at about 10,000m and floated down vertically with the ASAS engaged in the minimal gravity, occasionally giving a blip of engine to keep the descent speed from getting about 50.

Finally I saw my shadow and for the 1st time realized how steep the hillside was, but there wasn't anything better anywhere around so a final blip and kill of the engine, and I was down. Then I waited for the lander to fall over. It sure looked like it was trying but it just kept flopping around while staying more or less upright. So I zoomed in from my shadow-watching distance to get a closer look.

I saw something I hadn't expected because I'd never heard of it in any tutorial. The ship had only 1 leg touching the hillside, the rest in the air, and it was flopping around this single support, like a tied balloon in a breeze. I quickly deduced that this was because the ASAS was able to keep the ship pointed straight up (more or less) against the weak gravity. But EVA was out of the question because I figured the flopping ship would kick Jeb over the mountain as soon as he let go the ladder and I wasn't going home without planting a flag and taking pictures. Besides, taking off again looked chancy as well, so I had to do something. So, I used the roll keys to rotate the ship so 2 legs were touching the hill and 2 pointing downhill, turned off ASAS, let the ship fall over until all legs touched the ground, then quickly turned ASAS back on. This locked the ship perpendicular to the slope so it didn't fall over. It slid a few feet down the hill but finally came to a stop.

I waited a little while to see if it was stay there and then gave myself a pat on the back for cheating the reaper while making something of an emergency landing on my 1st attempt . Then out came Jeb with the flag. In the pic below, you can see the hillside was about 35^ or so.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39416639@N02/9027464832/in/photostream/

So now it was time to try to get home. I recalled from Scott's tutorial how you could lean over as soon as you left the ground on Minmus so I figured taking off under ASAS from the hillside was already a good start in that direction. But it also gave me a highly inclined orbit, so I came back to Kermin nearly over the pole. And I just came straight in without establishing an orbit, not wanting to push my fuel any more (only had about 1/4 tank left once I'd established a highly elliptical Kermin orbit. Jeb experienced 24.8 Gs in the final descent, leaving white shockwaves behind the capsule after the fireworks of re-entry ended, but never completely stopped grinning, although he did look a bit worried. Still, he came home safe and sound and is ready for his next adventure.

Whew! Got that "1st landing" monkey off my back! AND I did it with only 1 hand because I had shoulder surgery a couple days ago so 1 arm's in a sling Geez, that was a lot more fun than doing the same sort of thing in Orbiter. KSP rocks

Edited June 12, 2013 by Geschosskopf

[Margaul]

Congratz on the Minmus landing. I love goofing around on Minmus. The low gravity makes for some fun adventures. Extreme EVAs are fun. A little jump with some pack fuel and Jeb flies around like superman.

[Geschosskopf]

Thanks! I know this trip was no big deal to even mediocre players but I'm proud of it because it was my 1st.

I suppose experienced players know all about the ASAS hillside trick I accidentally learned. Thus, I'm wondering if you know the general parameters of where it will work on other bodies with different gravity. I suppose it might also depend on lander mass, hill steepness, etc. So is it limited to tiny landers on tiny rocks like Minmus or can you do it on Mun, say, with a bigger ship?

[Specialist290]

Nicely done!

The "ASAS hill trick" is actually a new one for me, but that's mostly because I've never actually tried landing on a steep slope if I could help it (and not necessarily because my landing site picking skillz are that good, mind you; I've had to go all "full throttle panic" for more hillside landings than I care to count ).

And Minmus is definitely a great place for a beginner's landing. It's actually a little more forgiving than the Mun once you get out there. Low-gravity antics are fun, too, especially if you make a rover breakdance.

[Margaul]

I have to say I never really use the ASAS trick. I did try using the ASAS for some nifty tricks with rovers. This resulted in dead kerbals. As a general rule, I try to land in the flatest spots possible. I have had to ZOMGTHROTTLEUPHARD!!!! on even some minor hills. When I first started landing on Duna, hills were a concern. Since I play without mods, a parachute assisted landing on Duna has the tendency to place me in non-ideal locations. I actually used a couple extra landing gears in case I tipped over. Now I just use pretty wide gear setups. Hills scare me. When I landed on Ike, I was sweating bullets because the whole moon looks like a crumbled up mountain with very few flat places. It wasn't that bad though.

[jwenting]

Ah, hilly Minmus. Made my first (and so far only) successful manual landing there last week, also on a hillside.

Floated for like 10 minutes, just over the ground, while killing speed, until I hit softly. Too softly maybe as I bounced 3-4 times before I was firmly planted with all 4 legs on the ground, at a 25-30 degree tilt.

Now to get more practice, have since landed a few more times using mechjeb (and crashed a few more times too, Mechjeb doesn't always get it right).

this is planned for my next Minmus expedition, but needs either more fuel or a better pilot to get it there and back (the one test flight proved it to be surprisingly stable, but lacking fuel to get to Minmus, orbit, land, take off again, and return to Kerbin).

Did I tell you I love struts. And yes, that's a tiny robot rover to leave behind

[Góral]

I like thys double set. But to go somewhere beyond the Kerbin orbit, you need at least four large tanks. For flight and landing at Mun (one way) with heavy Rover (3xPPD-10 Hitchhiker Storage Container,1xcoupola + wheels and others, total mass around 15 t) i use 10 large and two medium tanks.

[jwenting]

actually, that thing ALMOST made it. Got it in orbit around Minmus with fuel to either land or get home, but not both

Will have to experiment a bit, clean it up some, and see what I get.

btw, she flies surprisingly steady.