Early Career Mode Mun Landing

[The Jedi Master]

All right, I'm in career mode, and I currently have the following techs:

*Start (duh)

*Basic Rocketry

*Stability

*Survivability

*Science Tech

*Electrics

My question is, can I land on the Mun with these parts, and if so, how? Thanks!

[beer0space]

I would say your chances are slim. In my limited experience, fuel is the number one issue, and the more advanced fuel tanks make an enormous difference when trying to construct a rocket that will take you to the Mun and back with a little forgiveness to correct mistakes.

[Dave Kerbin]

Yes you can.

This is how I did it using those techs in .22

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/53159-Science-leads-to-wonderful-things-%28PIC-HEAVY%29?p=707046&viewfull=1#post707046

The only difference in .22 is you had to bring back all your science parts, so I needed to bring extra parachutes. In .23 you can use your kerbal to move everything to the little command pod and land just that.

I would say the hardest part in using those techs to get to the Mun is building a safe booster rocket to get you into orbit. Once you are in orbit you should be using the LV909 engine and some fuel tanks to get yourself to the Mun, then landing using another LV909 engine and probably a single T400 fuel tank and the landing gear. If you've never landed on the Mun before I might suggest leaving out the Science Jr for your first attempt, that will reduce the weight (fuel will last longer) and make the lander shorter which makes it easier to land without tipping over.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Dave Kerbin

[KvickFlygarn87]

that will reduce weight (fuel will last longer)

Actually AFAIK you'll burn your fuel faster (higher twr) but you'll get more delta v out of it.

Sorry for my pickiness and merry xmas!

[Monkeh]

The fuel will burn at exactly the same rate regardless of the weight it's pushing, that's just down to the ISP of the engine. Reducing weight means you'll accelerate faster and get more delta v out of it, but burn times will be the same.

[Cupojoepro]

Scott Manley did it with the starter parts (to Minmus anyway but you could probably get to the Mun as well).

[Laflaga]

Hi buddy, I have a similar thread going about career mode and you may find some useful answers already posted in it.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/63226-Career-Mode-help

[Sirrobert]

Scott Manley did it with the starter parts (to Minmus anyway but you could probably get to the Mun as well).

That is completly, utterly USELESS information for someone with this question.

The fuel will burn at exactly the same rate regardless of the weight it's pushing, that's just down to the ISP of the engine. Reducing weight means you'll accelerate faster and get more delta v out of it, but burn times will be the same.

Higher mass means you need to burn longer to get the same acceleration. Thus burn times are not the same.

Anyway: All you need to land on the Mun is a pod (duh), a parachute to get back home. Some fuel, a LV909 engine below, and some landing legs.

Everything else is bonus.

Since you lack ways to recharge your batterys, make sure you don't use them to much. Don't transmit data. And keep your manouvering limited. Each move you make with torque costs power. With a few batterys you should have more than enough to make it to and back from the mun though

[tavert]

Higher mass means you need to burn longer to get the same acceleration. Thus burn times are not the same.

You're talking about different metrics. More payload mass means longer burn time for the same delta-V, but same burn time for the same amount of fuel.

[Markus Reese]

You betcha that will get you to the moon! In fact, I went there in a similar tech. Without the struts, it can be tricky getting off the pad, but doable. I will put up a pic of my vintage mun lander to get you an idea of what my lander looked like. Now without fuel lines, it means no asparagus staging. The inner lander legs allow you to parachute down the science portion and dampen the slightly faster impact.

What I do though is I have different fuel contents in my engines so that I have larger outer fuel ones jettison first, then some smaller ones. Without struts, I recommend doing the following to minimize flex. Have a two fuel tank middle engine. This will be what assists getting you to the moon. For boosting and making the orbit, have on the four lander engines another double tank setup. Radial mount to these four, eight triple tanks and finish with SRB to assist. I dont have the exact time right now to do a full rebuild, but if I remember, that was how I did it....

[zinfinion]

An analog of this will get you there and back no problems. Substitute FL-T400s for the FL-T800s and add 4 more batteries on the lander tank (an FL-T400 with a 909 Engine, btw). And don't worry about not having the ladder, you can jet jump back into the pod.

You will need to aerobrake back to Kerbin rather than establishing a Kerbin orbit, just set your periapsis at 20000m over Kerbin when you get set to leave Munar orbit.

One other note, since you don't have the LV-T45 engines that can gimbal or the inline reaction wheel unlocked, it's going to be a bit of a rollercoaster getting out of the atmosphere. So you might want to get them first.

Also, that lander is a bit tipsy, so you might want to put the landing legs on some girder segments projecting radially for a more stable platform.

Edited December 25, 2013 by zinfinion

[Markus Reese]

Yup, with how I described previous, I was able to get to mun! Anywhoo, the outer 8 pack did need to use four tanks and the srbs have to be mounted under the inner engines that are holding. As expected, spin was a repeated killer. It can be tricky to maintain control when you start to spin because without any struts, the engines pivot outward applying a rotational thrust. Though something went wonky on screenshots and it multiscreenied. When I was clearing duplicates, I accidentally cleared the lander on Mun pics. The above got me there after quite a few failed attempts caused by instability. Winglets probably might help.

Edit: Oops, the inner four used LV-45 in my build but the lv 30s have same efficiency so should still work in place

Edited December 25, 2013 by Markus Reese

[Jr0d]

You absolutely can get there with those parts, I did it with precisely 30 of those parts. Here's how:

http://imgur.com/a/U5ofh

[Slugy]

You absolutely can get there with those parts, I did it with precisely 30 of those parts. Here's how:

http://imgur.com/a/U5ofh

As this was first posted over a year ago I suspect the OP has probably made it to the Mun by now.

[tsotha]

You can absolutely do it with those technologies. Heck, once you have PV cells it's actually pretty easy. The only questions is what buildings you've upgraded. You might have trouble fitting it all in 18 tons and 30 parts, though I suspect that's doable.

[ghpstage]

Under 30 parts is easy, you can land on Duna with that.

Under 18 tons is the tricky part, but it has been done. This thread is full of them.

All heavily reliant on one or both of jet engines and 48-7s however. You won't achieve that with the tech levels being talked about.

Edited January 22, 2015 by ghpstage

[tsotha]

As Slugy pointed out (and I didn't see until after posting) this thread predates those restrictions. But continuing on as an intellectual exercise... jet engines and 48-7s aren't in his toolbox. That's why I'm not sure it's doable. On the other hand KSP players are pretty clever about this kind of stuff.

[Musicrafter]

I recently landed on the Mun using such configuration in 1.0:

5 BACC boosters for 1st stage

3 stacks of 5 T400 tanks with Swivels on each for 2nd stage (and orbit circularization)

1 T400 with an LV909 for a munar transfer stage

1 T400 with an LV909, a capsule, a Science Jr, and various misc. sciences for lander and Kerbin return ship

I went twice, and got boatloads of money out of contracts and got 400 science the first trip and 200 on the second. I was able to unlock almost every science tier up to 100 (except for the jets and things). It seems I'll need to upgrade my science building.

[Kryxal]

The LV-909 takes another 55 science (or 20 science and a bit of luck with contracts). I'd strongly suggest unlocking at least the next-larger tank and the LV-909.

Oops, missed that this was a multiple necro...