Final touchdown of Mun landing

[Switchblade88]

I know this is covered before, but this is the succinct/protracted version that will hopefully help those who\'ve already, like me, added several craters to the Mun from an altitude of less than 500m I didn\'t come up with these ideas, I\'m just filing them together.

(1) Add ASAS to your lander

i.e. before you liftoff... this will help in final descent to no end. Usage instructions are below.

(2) Kill horizontal velocity using last stage

Don\'t jettison until you are moving straight down (slowly). This makes things easier with RCS.

(3) Turn on ASAS when vertical

Once you\'re in position, slowly rotate until you\'re up-down then press T to turn ASAS on; locking your craft in a vertical position. This lets you concentrate on using the RCS in the final 100m.

(4) Using RCS

- The biggest key: H and N is UP and DOWN. Use H as you would your throttle to slow your descent. This isn\'t covered anywhere ingame (yet) but I found was the greatest help to play.

(5) Watch your shadow

This clues you into any horizontal movement remaining, which you can counter using RCS on J I K L to \'strafe\' the craft. Your shadow also shows your height above ground level; DON\'T trust the altimeter (as you may have already found out)

(6) now LAND IT

A cautious 2-5 m/s does the job. Touchdown! ;P

[Tosh]

And here is an alternative way, for those who (like me ) is no good in using RCS:

1. ASAS is the must. I imply that ASAS is always turned on, excluding the moments when you are changing the lander\'s orientation. Get used to quickly turn ASAS off, change the course and engage ASAS again; that may save your life at low altitude .

2. To deorbit rotate the craft retrograde so that the craft\'s marker in the navball coincides with retrograde marker (a green one). Burn retrograde at full thrust right until you see retrograde marker slowly crawling towards the center of navball (which means that horizontal velocity is mostly suppressed). Then shut an engine down.

4. Do not hover! It\'s nothing more than a waste of fuel! Wait until an altitude of 2000-3000, then once again match lander\'s orientation with retrograde marker and burn at 10-20% thrust until the marker moves right to the center of navball (don\'t forget to maintain an exact match with green marker as it shifts!). In process decrease thrust if vertical speed falls below 10 m/s. Then shut down an engine again.

5. Begin hovering at no more than 800 meters (by altimeter); there\'s no mountain higher than 700+. Once again -- green marker is exactly in the center of navball, vertical speed is not less than 3-4 m/s until you see lander\'s shadow, 1-2 m/s after that.

6. Pray you are not going to a steep slope (ups... ). If there is a steep slope, rise up (vertical speed +1 m/s), tilt the lander slightly and try to hover to some other landing spot (I must admit that most times I\'ve been unlucky with that).

[dbellmo2]

Sometimes the ASAS likes to take my lander and throw it over sideways with the RCS thrusters.

Otherwise it was such a beautiful landing

[dbellmo2]

And here is an alternative way, for those who (like me ) is no good in using RCS:

1. ASAS is the must. I imply that ASAS is always turned on, excluding the moments when you are changing the lander\'s orientation. Get used to quickly turn ASAS off, change the course and engage ASAS again; that may save your life at low altitude .

Don\'t forget the 'F' key.. it is like a temporary SAS key which either activates or deactivates the SAS as long as the key is pressed.

If ASAS is toggled 'ON' the 'F' key will temporarily disengage the SAS for as long as you hold down the 'F' key.

Conversely if ASAS is 'OFF' the 'F' key will temporarily engage the SAS for as long as you hold down the 'F' key.

This is really useful if you\'re making minor corrections to your lander.

[Switchblade88]

dbellmo2, that is a brilliant point I didn\'t know! Thanks!

[SteevyT]

Oh, don\'t forget x now functions as a MECO switch. Doesn\'t turn it back on though, have to throttle up for that.

[dbellmo2]

Oh, don\'t forget x now functions as a MECO switch. Doesn\'t turn it back on though, have to throttle up for that.

Ah, I didn\'t know that.

[NovaSilisko]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Since when?

[dbellmo2]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Since when?

Yeah, I never knew about it either... but hey I can verify in 0.12.0 it works.

[Tosh]

Don\'t forget the 'F' key.. it is like a temporary SAS key which either activates or deactivates the SAS as long as the key is pressed.

Yes, I know about <F>... I\'m just not used to it. So I didn\'t mention it in the flight plan

[Plymouth]

Well, my landers survived an impact with kerbin on 30 m/s.

I was really impressed, cause my chute got torn, and i had really low fuel, i managed to slow down it to 15 m/s, but during last 100-50 meters started to gain speed.

[Newman]

Yeah, I never knew about it either... but hey I can verify in 0.12.0 it works.

It doesn\'t just work, it works on the orbital map view! Meaning my days of 'burn, toggle map on, watch apo rise, toggle map off, decrease thrust a bit, toggle map back on, check, toggle map off, kill thrust, toggle map on, oh noes I killed thrust 0.6 seconds too late, toggle map off, burn against vector slightly, toggle map on, check, toggle map off, kill engines, toggle map on, verify it\'s ok now' are officially over!

[Mirage]

press CAPS LOCK, precise control is your friend.

[dbellmo2]

It doesn\'t just work, it works on the orbital map view! Meaning my days of 'burn, toggle map on, watch apo rise, toggle map off, decrease thrust a bit, toggle map back on, check, toggle map off, kill thrust, toggle map on, oh noes I killed thrust 0.6 seconds too late, toggle map off, burn against vector slightly, toggle map on, check, toggle map off, kill engines, toggle map on, verify it\'s ok now' are officially over!

No. Wai.