Munar Achievements

[Ntmoore19]

I wasn\'t that first to hit the moon (crash) or land on the moon, but I was the first to get back.

Lmao you were not the first to get back.

[Kryten]

He\'s the first that I saw, and HarvesteR said that he never made a complete kerbal->mun->kerbal trip with the actual orbit system in place. Unless you can find any from earlier, let it stand.

[LukeTim]

He\'s the first that I saw, and HarvesteR said that he never made a complete kerbin->mun->kerbin trip with the actual orbit system in place. Unless you can find any from earlier, let it stand.

Fixed. For the sake of Nova\'s sanity.

[DrLucky]

My first trip to the Mun, I knew I didn\'t have the fuel to land and take off again. I lowered my orbit to 70m, and impacted a 325m mountain range. That was using some Sunday Punch Parts.

Second trip, I broke the lander. After a bunch of mucking with designs, I completed a round trip, again using SP parts.

Then I reduced the rocket to stock parts plus the Lander Legs from CaptainSlug. After messing up that approach, I rebuilt with just stock parts. At landing I had a sideways vector which was most of my 1.4 m/s speed. The engine popped off, and *THUMP* we landed. The boys seem pleased.

From previous experience, if I hadn\'t trashed it, we\'d have made it back.

Next ship will have limited RCS. That adds a *LOT* to lander mass, though. And I\'ll make some legs out of decouplers or something.

I can do the takeoff -> orbit -> TLI -> Mun Orbit -> deorbit pretty easily now. Just having trouble with parts breaking off even on very gentle approaches.

Edit: stole the two-radial decoupler-plus-wing landing gear, ditched the SAS completely and threw on 12 more boosters to cover the added weight in the top stage.

Had an iffy TLI, so I had to wait a few days to get into the Munar sphere. Straightforward descent, but I had a slightly rough landing, and cracked one wing off on the gear. Since I have no SAS or RCS, I boosted back up and jettisoned the legs before I toppled all the way over. Return trip was uneventful, but I didn\'t pay attention to my earth deorbit burn, so instead of grazing the atmo a few times to kill V, I augered in to the KSP at Mun return velocities. I think I was still going 3200m/s at 28000m. I wish the max G was working properly, since I probably incinerated AND crushed Jeb into a pulp. Anyway, parachute to successful if abrupt landing.

[sneakeypete]

I\'ve done the trip to the moon and back, with stock parts, at last! (which is nothing special it seems. Someone did have the brilliant idea of using fins on decouplers as legs which is probably a better idea than lugging down a ASAS module)

Lower stage of a tri stack and 4 tanks, 3 engines. 3 soild fuel boosters with 3 boosters of 2 tanks and a gimball engine each.

Upper stage of a advanced SAS, 3 tanks and a gimball engine, and command pod stage of a parachute, a reaction fuel tank and 6 reaction thrusters.

First stage reaches orbit and partway into moon transfer orbit, second stage first tank can do the rest. (orbited it a few times due to missing the moon on my first shot). second tank of second stage for moon orbital insertion and dropping horizontal speed, third for dropping vertical speed during landing. close to landing, reaction system is turned on, and with SAS helps hold the rocket vertical. depending on how steep your landing site is you can probably then turn it off.

The remaining part of the third tank can get you back into moon orbit, and then be used to boost you off anti earth spinwards, and the remaining RCS fuel on the pod helping that. once in earth orbit again, further boosting to get your lower orbit into the atmosphere and then bob\'s your uncle.

I didn\'t take any pictures however, but the mission took 4 days due to the long wait for moon to rearrive.

[greggles]

So first the trusted steed. A modified version of the Kroton posted by another member here. Basically more engines, more struts, more struts, and more struts.

So doing things the kerbal way, i launch from kerbal, escape the atmosphere, point at the mun, and just burn like crazy.

This should work right?

Hmm...this isn\'t working right...

Oh no. Out of gas!

Attempt 2

I\'m coming for you moon!

I can taste it!

Woo HOO!

Oh no...I run out of fuel at 50 meters! Going horizontal!

Wait the capsule....it\'s still in one piece! Sliding sideways down a crater! Wait...wait!!!

SUCCESS!!!!

Wait we weren\'t supposed to go back right?

[GroundHOG2010]

I am putting all my faith in a modifed K1 (a modification of the K1 in Nova\'s first pack) to a slight more realistic burn time. So far the N1 design has lived up to its reputation as always blowing up before the first stage detach.

[Crash]

All my landing training on Kerbin paid off. Successful landing on first attempt with my Amz-1B Lander.

Too bad my chute was ripped off during an earlier staging malfunction..... Rest in peace boys

What do you all think of naming the landing sites, I\'m going to name mine the Euripides Crater

The Euripides Rocket

Entering Orbit of the Mun

Initiating Descent

Sun Rise on the Mun

The Euripides Crater

[DrLucky]

Oh, and before I forget; my stock craft that got me to the Mun and back:

This is the build, (from memory, but I think it\'s right -- note that there\'s no RCS or SAS):

Parachute, Mk1Pod } Kearth re-entry stage

Decoupler, 2 x Liquid Fuel, 1 x Vector Liquid Engine } Descent, Ascent, Kearth Return Stage

3 x [ 2 x radial decoupler + 1 x Wing] } as lander legs -- thanks, whoever came up with that.

Decoupler, 3 x Liquid Fuel, 1 x Vector Liquid Engine } TLI and Mun orbital stage

Decoupler, Tricoupler, 3 x [ 4 x Liquid Fuel, 1 x Vector engine] } Core liftoff stage, provides positive control. Ignites at 0:00:00

6 x [ Radial Decoupler, Solid Rocket Booster] } Liftoff Booster Stage 2. Air start.

6 x [ Decoupler, 3 x Liquid Fuel, 1 x Non-Vector Liquid Engine ] } Liftoff Booster Stage 1. Starts at 0:00:00, provides most of the oomph.

6 x [Radial Decoupler, Solid Rocket Booster] } Liftoff Booster Stage 0. Starts at 0:00:00. Put \'em here cuz Jeb asked me to.

I think I added struts between the Stage 1 boosters and From Stage 1 to Core.

Note that there\'s no SAS beyond the Mk1Pod. Positive control by vectored thrust. If you\'re not used to this, you can only steer while you\'re doing a burn. Not really a problem, and the craft handles very well despite the huge wings at the tip :/

[Rascal Nag]

I think crashing three times in a row in the same fashion (SRBs just gave out on landing) has to be some sort of achievement... though it\'s not what I was hoping for. After getting in one successful mission to the Mun and back, it seems like I\'m not allowed another successful flight. I only have two of the pictures though, on the third I just ended the mission right when it fell over and started to explode.

I want to get one landing in before I get some sleep.

So first the trusted steed. A modified version of the Kroton posted by another member here.

Hey, that was me! Unless someone else has a rocket of the same name.

Edit: New crash to add... those 25 points of thrust would have really helped out there. Back to the normal LFE.

[Herra Tohtori]

Juturn V with the Munlander Mk.II Spacecraft

Juturn V is a three-staged launch vehicle.

First stage contains five kerosene and liquid oxygen burning, powerful engines. Aerodynamic control is provided with four moving fins. Future variants are expected to use gimbal engines on all stages. This first stage is used to lift the massive vehicle from the launch pad and through the lower atmosphere.

Second stage contains five hydrogen-oxygen burning rockets that have gimbal mounts to provide control during ascent. This stage burn lasts significantly longer than Stage #1 burn. Here, the second stage is just being separated.

The third stage is the actual Mun rocket. It is powered by a single, gimballed liquid fuel rocket engine and provides the necessary delta-v for final orbital insertion burn, transmunar injection burn, and munar orbit entry burn. Its power is in relatively long, sustained burns.

On top of the third stage is the Munlander Mk.II Spacecraft. The Munlander was originally developed as a Flophopper Mk.I craft used on Kerbin for various types of practice missions and even orbital re-entries, which is why its engine is rather overpowered for Munar landings, but Jebediah likes it the way it is and it was cheaper and easier to just bolt it on top of Juturn V rocket, than design a more suitable lander craft.

Munlander Mk.II contains technically two stages. The lower stage contains a powerful (and heavy) fission engine with excellent fuel efficiency, yet sufficient thrust to fly the spacecraft safely even on Kerbin\'s gravity field. In Mun landings, it has very wide safety margins - it has more than enough fuel for powered descent, landing, and even take-off, so it would be amiss to simply call it a descent stage. The lander uses Captain Slug\'s lander legs - three for optimal stability on uneven terrains. Due to heavy fission engine on the bottom, the lander is surprisingly capable at landing on tilted surfaces without toppling over - indeed, pilots have experienced a tendency to slide down slopes instead of toppling over. This gives the pilots additional safety margin in landings - if first landing zone is not suitable, the craft will not be as likely to fall over as its appearance would suggest.

The top stage was originally designed as an emergency escape pod for the Flophopper Mk.I design. In that incarnation, it had a habit of detonating the lower stage as the engine ignited. The Munlander Mk.II is, however, equipped with retrothrusters that should (in theory) push the lower stage away from the upper stage before engine ignition - and in case they malfunction, the RCS thrusters can also be used for forward thrust. Upper stage is powered by a small liquid fuel rocket engine and the craft has plenty of fuel to return to Kerbin from Mun mission.

The lower stage of Munlander Mk.II contains one RCS fuel tank and a single SAS module, and the upper stage contains a single RCS fuel tank.

For extravehicular activity on the Mun, the craft is fitted with rope ladders. It is hoped that in the future, additional cargo (such as Munar Rover, or scientific equipment) can be fitted in the space between fairings and the core of the lower stage.

On the very top of the stack is a Command Module that acts as the habitat for the crew during the duration of the mission.

Getting to Moon is not a very straightforward process, much less so than simply entering stable orbit.

After stabilizing an orbit around Kerbin, a transmunar injection burn needs to be plotted. Transmunar injection puts the spacecraft on a transfer orbit to rendezvous with the Mun.

After moving to the gravitational influence of the Mun, you will find your spacecraft most likely on a hyperbolic trajectory around or behind the Mun:

Near the periapsis, the third stage of Juturn V performs its last required task: Insertion on Munar orbit by slowing down the spacecraft with its remaining fuel.

Orbit successfully stabilized! The third stage had enough fuel in this mission that it actually moved the periapsis to the other side of the orbit, and the entry point became the new apoapsis for the orbit.

After orbit was stabilized, it was time to jettison the third stage. Munlander was now on its own, far from home.

Next step was planning the de-orbit, descent and landing zone. I decided I would be landing next to the large Mare on the lit side of the Mun, preferably near the rim mountains around it. That meant I would be starting my de-orbit and descent near the periapsis of the orbit. As the ship emerged from the shadow of the Mun, the vista was truly magnificent.

The de-orbit burn put the spacecraft on a shallow descent that would take it above the desired landing zone. During this high speed, unpowered descent, some final adjustments could be made for the general landing zone.

Powered descent started as the craft passed south of the dark Mare on the Mun. This maneuver put the craft on a steeper descent path but also slowed down the total velocity significantly. The angle of descent would gradially deepen until the craft would descend vertically before touchdown. Final descent began at altitude of about 6000 metres above Munar surface.

This first touchdown was in too steep territory, and as the ship tilted dangerously, commander Kerman increased thrust to take the ship back up, then located a more suitable landing area and finally put the ship down for good.

The final touchdown occurred at flight time 7 hours, 17 minutes and probably about 10-20 seconds (no one was watching the clock at the exact moment, so it\'ll never be known exactly). Landing area was a few dozen kilometres southeast of the aforementioned Mare, on the foothills of the ridge mountains.

After spending some jolly good time on the surface of the Mun, the Kerbalkind\'s brave ambassadors left this foreign world and headed home.

Full speed ahead! The remaining fuel on the lower stage of Munlander was sufficient to boost the spacecraft to a ballistic trajectory about ye high:

At the top of the arc, it was time to lay the lower stage to rest and separate the command/service module on top of it for the remainder of the mission, and then boost the ship first on stable orbit around the Mun:

Setting homebound orbit was trickier than I expected. Initially the trajectory looked all fine and good... with stunning visuals on the way home:

...but, at the gravitational switch point between Mun and Kerbin, something strange happened:

Basically, I got stuck between two orbits and the game didn\'t know which one I was supposed to follow. What was even worse, the game thought I was experiencing acceleration, and limited time compression to 2x, so I spent ages in this point. Worse still, as the game was switching between the two trajectories, it also switched the orbit-relative camera angle all the time, making the normal view completely epileptic and unplayable. After a while, I got fed up, did a burn of couple dozen seconds at full power to get out of the conflict area, and eventually the flickering tuned down and eventually stopped. I didn\'t truly hit Lagrange point, but it was close.

However, now I had a problem, as the ship initially settled on this kind of trajectory:

...and I had to do some rather fuel consuming trickery to change my trajectory to this:

As I got close to perikerb, I did a long ass retrograde burn, trying to align my trajectory with Kerbal Space Center location - but, as it turns out, the trajectory fell a bit short.

After deciding I had finalized my trajectory, I jettisoned the service module:

Space center in sight... so close, yet so far. Already too deep in atmosphere. Well, nothing to it... will just perform normal parachute landing somewhere in the deepest Kerfrica.

This successful mission was a huge surprise to mission control who honestly expected them to run out of fuel or crash at some point during the mission. Reports from Kerbal Space Center indicate heavy casualties of the upper management team, suffering afflictions ranging from mild nervous twitching and epileptic seizures to full on heart attacks and cerebral hemorrhaging. Crisis team has been assembled to help the affected.

[Shedao]

@Herra Tohtori

awesome! I tried to build a saturn like craft myself in 0.10 but it was unfliable in 0.11. Mind csharing the craft with us or to tell us the mods you used?

[Herra Tohtori]

@Herra Tohtori

awesome! I tried to build a saturn like craft myself in 0.10 but it was unfliable in 0.11. Mind csharing the craft with us or to tell us the mods you used?

Here are the dependencies:

C-7 Flight Pack

SundayPunch\'s Wobbly Rockets (alpha fixed textures)

Radial Booster Pack

Captain Slug\'s Lander Leg

I think that\'s all that are required. If the ship is missing parts, gimme a shout and I\'ll see if I\'ve missed something.

Here is the .craft:

Juturn V + Munlander Mk.II.craft

The first stage may benefit from switching from moving canards to stationary fins, and replacing engines with gimballed version of same engine. If you do modifications, though, you need to make sure the staging doesn\'t go haywire, there are certain rather complicated solutions at certain places that can easily cause engine staging to go all pear-shaped.

Also remember that this lander is heavy duty lifter in Mun. It has no performance issues and has quite a bit of fuel so if you feel so inclined you could add ASAS module on the CSM, or whatever you wish.

[mincespy]

What? The moon is already out? How come it didn\'t tell me there were updates?!

[Fabri91]

It didn\'t because it\'s only an experimental release, so the latest stable version is indeed 0.11, which you\'ve got already. When 0.12 goes official it will most likely point you to it.

[Herra Tohtori]

Breaking news!

Mün is radioactive!

Based on the analysis of the samples collected near

the landing zone on the recent Mün landing mission -

the Mün is highly radioactive!

Scientists have found significant quantities of high and medium active isotopes from the samples

recently brought back from the first successful Mün landing with enough leg room to fit in some

scientific devices and haul back samples. The sensational results need to be confirmed by peer

reviewed analysis of the tests, but preliminary inspection of the samples is conclusive with fissile

products.

-The isotopes we found have very short to medium half lifes, says Kerbal Space Program leading

geologist Bobby Bartholomew 'Dread Bore' Kerman. -We do not yet have clear picture of the

distribution mechanism of these isotopes, but it does mean that there have been nuclear activity

in the Mün during recent years, possibly even months.

The most vocal supporters of the 'Mother Kerbin' theory of the Mün\'s origin have already hailed this

discovery as a confirmation to the hypothesis that the Mün was separated from Protokerbin in a

massive impact hundreds of years ago. In their opinion, these fissile product isotopes suggest that

the Mün, like Kerbin, contains a high mass percentage of transuranium elements - to an extent where

spontaneous fission is possible.

-There must be a reason for all them craters and holes, and fission reactions undergoing under

the surface of the Mün would certainly explain them, said the chairman of the Society for Promotion

of Mother Kerbin Origin of The Mün, Lawson Carson Anderson 'Son' Kermanson. -I mean, sure, some

say that Mün was probably just hit by some Useless Bits of Rock, but come on, seriously, Useless Bits

of Rocks are out there and the Mün is here, clearly there\'s a miscommunication here.

Meanwhile, the three Kerbonauts, Bill, Bob and Jebediah Kerman, are still in extended quarantine to

make sure they have not been exposed to higher than usual levels of radiation from the Munar dust

carried into their ship during their Munar excursions. So far, all appear to be in excellent health.

In a statement earlier today, the flight crew briefly commented the flight.

-It was eerie, almost everything went smoothly, told the flight\'s commander, Jebediah 'Jeb' Kerman.

Other crew members - William 'Bill' and Robert 'Bob' Kerman - agree.

-Yeah, aside from that little hijink on the way back, everything went better than exepected, William

Kerman told us. Robert Kerman shed some more light to the brief period when communications were

lost to the crew: -Well we lost communications and then things went a bit weird. I never thought I\'d

see a Resonance Cascade, let alone create one, but I guess that\'s what happened, our displays were

alternating between different orbits and we seemed to be stuck on the neutral gravity area between

Kerbin and Mün, but Jeb - that\'s Jebediah - he just put the engine on for some time and the problem

went away.

The plans for positioning a satellite on a Lagrange point have been postponed in the light of this

unprecedented risk, until the behaviour of neutral gravity areas are understood better.

---

On other news, Kerbal Space Center has announced a minor design change in the famed Munlander Mk.II

design, in which the lander\'s extremely efficient fission engine will be replaced by a suitable replacement.

Technical director of the Munlander programme was not available for comment.

[Ferrit]

Breaking news!

Mün is radioactive!

Based on the analysis of the samples collected near

the landing zone on the recent Mün landing mission -

the Mün is highly radioactive!

---

On other news, Kerbal Space Center has announced a minor design change in the famed Munlander Mk.II

design, in which the lander\'s extremely efficient fission engine will be replaced by a suitable replacement.

Technical director of the Munlander programme was not available for comment.

Of course the chances of these being connected are at least, um, 1 to 1! ;D

[thorfinn]

Well we lost communications and then things went a bit weird. I never thought I\'d

see a Resonance Cascade, let alone create one (...)

'Unforeseen consequences' are our daily bread here at KSC.

[Arrowstar]

After my first Mun orbit, as I was nearing apokee, I escaped Munar orbit velocity and went on a wild ride orbiting the Kun. I have yet to be recaptured by Kearth or Mun gravity, and it\'s pushing 150 days mission time. I never touched the throttle, so not sure what happened. I think my Munar orbit was too high.

What happened is that you never touched the throttle. When you approach the Mun from Kerbin, you are explicitly doing so at a speed higher than the escape velocity of that body. You must use your engines to capture into an orbit.

To reiterate: It is impossible to approach the Mun in such a way that you create a closed orbit (an ellipse) when you enter its sphere of influence (SOI).

[softweir]

What happened is that you never touched the throttle. When you approach the Mun from Kerbin, you are explicitly doing so at a speed higher than the escape velocity of that body. You must use your engines to capture into an orbit.

To reiterate: It is impossible to approach the Mun in such a way that you create a closed orbit (an ellipse) when you enter its sphere of influence (SOI).

Having managed three Munar transitions that led to Munar orbits without using throttle, I can say it is possible to achieve, but you have to do it right.

Now if I knew what I did right, I could package it and sell it. I think I managed it by having less eccentric Kerbal orbits than most people do when going for the Mun, which meant my Kerbal orbital velocity was higher, ie I was orbiting Kerbin rather faster and therefore 'retreating' from Mun rather faster at the moment when I transitioned from Kerbal to Munar orbit.

Landing, however, I have yet to achieve.

[Arrowstar]

Having managed three Munar transitions that led to Munar orbits without using throttle, I can say it is possible to achieve, but you have to do it right.

Well, something is goofy with the orbital mechanical then, because I\'m fairly certain that you can\'t do this in real life. Even the Apollo folks needed a capture burn at some point, and I can only assume that if they could develop a trajectory that didn\'t need one, they\'d use it.

[Motorsheep]

Breaking news!

Mün is radioactive!

:D

Reading this forum is just as entertaining as playing the game at times. Thanks for taking the time to make this.

[softweir]

Even the Apollo folks needed a capture burn at some point, and I can only assume that if they could develop a trajectory that didn\'t need one, they\'d use it.

On the contrary, they used an orbit that would naturally return them close to Earth orbit in the event the capture burn failed or was aborted. They would still need a re-entry burn, but it was hoped the crew would manage to debug any issues causing the failure on the way home, or else use the lander\'s engine - which was excellent foresight, because it was this exact strategy that enabled the Apollo 13 crew to return safely with the minimum of delta-v needed from the lander. Had the mission planners opted for any other orbit, it is likely the lander would not have had the delta-v to make a safe return.

[thorfinn]

On the contrary, they used an orbit that would naturally return them close to Earth orbit in the event the capture burn failed or was aborted.

But from the Lunar point of view, that IS an escape trajectory

[DrLucky]

All right, I\'ve been to the Mun so many times now that Jeb\'s getting frequent flyer miles. I\'ve tried 8 different (stock) lander configurations, as well as one non-stock. I\'m having *great* difficulty landing in such a way as to not shatter parts off when I touch down. I have four separate missions now where I\'ve touched down, observed the legs breaking off, and lifted off again before I was permanently stuck there.

I haven\'t delved into the details of part strength vs breaking strength vs explosive tendencies, but I\'m wondering if there\'s just a sharp divide (like, orders of magnitude) between stock parts and non-stock parts in that department?

I\'m starting to think that no number of struts are going to keep my lander intact. I\'ve had touchdowns at 0.1 m/s absolute that have cleanly snapped an engine off.

I can land some of these at KSP without the same problem, and that\'s six times the g-field. Why\'s the Mun such a problem?

Someone want to post the details on their lander and their experience vis-a-vis not suffering a RUD on Munar contact?