How to land on kerbin, I am only good at planets i end up crashing in kerbin.

[ThatKerbal]

Title says it all i can't land on kerbin, Can someone tell me what to do?

Like do you thrust down and then parachute with landing gears or....Im confused lol.

Edited December 30, 2013 by ThatKerbal

[Skyler4856]

I usual decouple my pod and deploy my chutes whilst on a sub orbital trajectory.

[ThatKerbal]

Yeah thats what i do, But i saw mechjeb do it without the parachutes and still have the lander and the gears out, So yeah. is that a 2nd way or something?

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

Much easier to do it with your parachutes..

[BlackBicycle]

Landing on Kerbin:

if 1-man capsule: 1 parachute on top is enough.

if 3-men capsule: 1 top (can be a drag one if you are feeling fancy, or the regular one. 2 chutes on the sides of the capsule.

Open them when you are past the entry stage (when the flames subside).

Don't forget to disengage the stabilization (T key) - the chutes will do all the stabilizing for you (unless you've arranged them in a weird way while constructing the capsule)

that's it : )

[Dogface]

On my utility vehicle, I use atmo to slow the ship, then rockets, then parachutes for the last bit. And the utility vehicle doesnt even have lander legs and still lands softly.

KSP Parachute Calculator

http://ksp.freeiz.com/

Edited December 30, 2013 by Dogface

[BlackBicycle]

And the utility vehicle doesnt even have lander legs and still lands softly.

Add enough chutes and you can land a fishbowl at Kerbin without so much as a splash. Provided that it is a flat surface, of course. Or if it is not a fishbowl, but a rover (which is just that much more sturdy and is much more slope-tolerant : )

[celem]

It is of course possible to land with no parachutes whatsoever. It works the same way as any other planet, you have to kill your horizontal velocity and then get your landing speed low enough for your legs. It takes quite a bit of fuel and of course a Thrust-to-weight ratio of considerably better than 1.

If doing this then wait for re-entry effects to finish and watch for the secondary 'whitish' effects. At this point your speed is going to be plummeting past 600ms towards 300 and you are likely around 6km up. This is where I usually start killing the horizontal and slowing the drop. Kerbin takes a bit of practice to powered land, but with enough of that practice you can drop landers from orbit onto the pad.

edit: also 'thrust down'? If by that you mean whilst pointing at the planet, then no. You de-orbit by thrusting backwards, towards the horizon you are flying away from until you fall in.

Edited December 30, 2013 by celem

[NikkyD]

You will always reach terminal velocity just before impact, which usually means about 100 m/s.

So all you need to land is 100 m/s delta_v(atmos) and good timing or mechjeb.

Sometimes not using a chute but some fuel can increase overall d_v

[Pursuedtank]

edit: also 'thrust down'? If by that you mean whilst pointing at the planet, then no. You de-orbit by thrusting backwards, towards the horizon you are flying away from until you fall in.

Well, it is possible to de-orbit by thrusting down towards the planet, it just wastes a load more fuel that if you did it the normal way. It also results in a faster reentry.

[BlackBicycle]

A (very) short essay on atmospheric landings.

My most tricky one was landing on Dune. I quickloaded 3 times before finding a proper periapsis for atmospheric braking. Just in case anyone is wondering, that was 12500m at the first try. It was not quite enough, but on my second try (11000) I got stuck in the (already very low/thin) atmosphere and crashed... In fact, my chutes riped off : ( BUT! there is a "butter zone" there, and it of course depends on the speed with which you are entering that thin atmosphere.

The rest of the story:

I did use engine braking the time I landed successfully, not a lot of it, just enough to make sure the chutes don't rip off when they open. I also had a bad luck of landing in a high-elevation area, several km ASL (as if there was any S there, hmm). The chutes worked well, and I didn't have to use the engines after the chutes were fully deployed. Those were 8 side-mounted stock ones. Cannot figure out the weight, but it was I'd guess about 4 tons, give or take a ton. Landed OK : )

Edited December 31, 2013 by BlackBicycle

[BlackBicycle]

Well, it is possible to de-orbit by thrusting down towards the planet, it just wastes a load more fuel that if you did it the normal way. It also results in a faster reentry.

This is about the absolutely worst kind of attempted reentry. I have to say I attempted something like this... but that was very long time ago. No, really. On a programmable calculator. At the end of the Cold War. In Moscow. It was pure fun, but it didn't work. I just kept running out of fuel no matter what.

Thanks for bringing back the memories : D Really : )

[Vanamonde]

Even though the atmosphere will eliminate most of your speed for you, landing with engines on Kerbin is still quite difficult because of the high gravity. The gravity means that it will be hard to keep the ship to a safe descent speed, and even if you do, more weight will be trying to compress/damage the landing gear upon contact. It can be done, but you'd probably be better off practicing engine landings in the more forgiving gravities of Mun and Minmus before trying it on Kerbin. However, if you want to practice landing on Kerbin, don't leave Kerbin. Just build a lander, put it on the pad, and practice lifiting it a few meters and letting it come down again. Expect many crashes.