Moon craft for beginners

[Scarecrow88]

This vehicle is ideal for newcomers struggling to build a craft suitable for getting a 3 man crew to either of Kerbin's moons, Mun or Minmus.

It uses asparagus staging for the initial lift stage. Shortly after jettisoning the second set of tanks, you should be high enough to start your gravity turn.

After establishing your parking orbit around Kerbin, you should still have a tiny amount of fuel left in your final 1st stage tank. However, as the vehicle isn't fitted with RCS for manoeuvring, ditching the tank makes the craft slightly more responsive for lining up on manoeuvre nodes.

The second stage has plenty of fuel for your burn to reach the Mun, as well as slowing you down again to establish Munar orbit.

In fact you should have enough fuel left in the second stage to be able to use it to perform your initial burns to de-orbit and to start your descent to the surface.

If you have flown conservatively, despite being close enough to the surface to finally ditch the second stage, you will probably find that it still has fuel in it.

The landing stage has a wide stance tripod landing gear arrangement which should help with touching down without tipping over.

By default, extending the ladders for EVA are assigned to the number 4 action group key.

The lander is a simple single stage affair, which doesn't require you to leave bits behind, or to dock with a command pod in Munar orbit before setting off back to Kerbin.

As with the previous stages, the landing stage should have enough fuel to get you back to Kerbin on a sub-orbital trajectory with some to spare, unless you have been really ham-fisted with your ejection burn to leave the Mun.

All that remains once back in the atmosphere of Kerbin is to dump the engine/tanks/legs and to deploy the chute.

If you'd like to have a go with this craft, you can download it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pjodilzk64m341p/Munar%20III.craft

p.s. It is also just as happy going to Minmus.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Scarecrow88