Newbie moon problem.

[Lazro]

It actually takes more fuel to get to Minmus, but not too much more that it becomes an issue. Requires a lot less fuel to land, though, so that is where fuel savings come in.

[jgjiscool]

The rockomax engines are very powerful and emit a looooot of heat. The only option you really have is reducing the thrust slightly so that the overheat bar sits stable and hope that they still put out enough power to lift the ship. The other option is to dock in orbit and transfer some fuel so that you have enough. You can make decent use of the manoeuvre node system to plan your orbital intercepts.

Welcome aboard SpaceMan Xetalim!

[Kirbypowered]

I just pulled off my first non explosive Munar landing myself, with a whole 0.09 units of fuel to spare. Sure is inefficient, landing in the dark. >_> Got to see a solar eclipse afterwards though, courtesy of Kerbin. On to...maybe a manned lander! Or another probe to Minmus. Maybe even try to figure out how to launch a functional rover somewhere.

[Jngodup]

keep an eye on your throttle, the big Main Sail does overheat. When they get to about 80% overheated, throttle down to about 3/4 thrust. Make sure your m/s is increasing as well.

Ultimately it is a dance. a beautiful MANLY Dance.

and this is coming from a bottle rocketeer :-D

Good luck and spread the love

[MajorThomas]

Nice job Xetalim!

Scott's videos are possibly the most valuable source of info on how to do it right. This forum's participants are also mighty helpful.

The third place to go for inspiration is...real life. I find that making my rockets and spacecraft resemble real life in terms of proportions works wonders. For instance:

A. Make your first stage big but not overly large. Target about twice the height and twice the width of your upper stage.

B. Make the upper stage small, use the smallest engine for the job. Engines weigh a lot so don't overbuild here. Make it just big enough to loft your payload into orbit with no more than say 1/2 fuel remaining (or less).

C. Use the upper stage to send your (small) lander off to the Mun. Typically my upper stage is about the same size as my lander, with a slightly higher thrust engine.

D. Make the lander small, and with a very efficient engine. You don't need high thrust to land on the Mun or Minmus. Use the fewest legs possible, that's 3 (not 4 or more). Don't bring goo or materials lab, they're too heavy. Just bring a Kerbal, small battery, small solar panels, small chute. Forget RCS. Just trim down the weight as much as possible.

E. You'll find your lander fuel stretches almost forever if you keep the weight down enough. You'd use 1/5 to enter into Mun orbit (less if your upper stage is still attached and has fuel left), 1/5 to de-orbit burn, 1/5 to actually land, 1/5 to take off and orbit again, and 1/5 to depart the Mun and correct your course to hit Kerbin's atmosphere at 30 km.

That's how I get to the Mun on a budget.

[fastbikkel]

Practise and do not hurry. I have been playing KSP for a number of weeks and i also have not landed on the mun yet.

I might be a bad example though, but i am taking it one step at a time. I seriously do want to succeed and not leave 2 kerbals behind.

Oh hey, and welcome to this site!

[Vanamonde]

Folks, Xetalim originally posted this about 8 months ago. It's nice of you to offer help, but I suspect he's cracked the moon landing problem by now.

[fastbikkel]

Folks, Xetalim originally posted this about 8 months ago. It's nice of you to offer help, but I suspect he's cracked the moon landing problem by now.

I just look at the most relevant posts. This was high up on the list, the date is not something i look at.

[Jngodup]

Folks, Xetalim originally posted this about 8 months ago. It's nice of you to offer help, but I suspect he's cracked the moon landing problem by now.

OR MAYBE!! now just hear me out now... okay? okay? okay.

THE SPACE KRAKEN got him mid flight and now he has no gas, and is orbiting Kerbin, drifting, hoping, praying, he remembers his email address he used for this forum.

[que dramatic End Music]

"Fin"

[Kerbart]

Scott Manley's videos are not the best for beginner learning because he uses mods too frequently. Try looking at HOC Gaming, Stomp Thomson, Operation Dx1, Trydyingtolive, etc. They don't use mods and if you look at some of their older videos you may find some Mun landing videos. If you are not an expert at maneuver nodes and orbiting, try figuring that out first. SuperWeegee is right, you can try to land on Minmus first, but it may require an inclination change to get there. I actually landed their first by accident.

None of Manley's tutorials uses mods, to my knowledge. His regular adventures do but if anything it's to make things harder, not easier. But the tutorials are always stock only.

[fastbikkel]

None of Manley's tutorials uses mods, to my knowledge. His regular adventures do but if anything it's to make things harder, not easier. But the tutorials are always stock only.

Edit : i removed my comment, you mentioned tutorials. You could be right.

I saw a movie of Scott with mechjeb, but i guess it was not a tutorial.

[Rampage9112]

Edit, didn't see how long ago this was posted.