Got out and pushed my ship back from the Mun, now what?

[dNinot]

Hi everybody!

Got turned onto this lovely game by the ThorLP's Insane Science Division youtube videos, and I've had a blast toying around with it for a couple of weeks.

I just completed my first (mostly) successful Mun mission. I was wasteful on my landing, so I ran out of fuel returning to Kerbin. No problem! At my AP, I did an EVA and had Bill Kerman push retrograde until I got a 20k PE! Very amusing end after many failed (crash landing) attempts!

I expect I'll be going back to the Mun to fill out some more science trips, but what is a cool next mission for someone in my spot? (all the 45 science techs researched, a couple of 90 so far).

Cheers!

[Vanamonde]

A ship that can reach Mun can reach Minmus. Have you tried that yet? Also, if you have probe cores and solar panels, you can send one-way missions on fly-bys of the sun and other planets. And if you have parachutes and landing legs as well, you can send probes to land on the other planets.

[Xacktar]

What Vanamonde said. Minmus is a fun place to go and not hard to land on. (just watch out for the low gravity and bumpy land.)

[dNinot]

A lot of my Mun mission failures had to do with very bad landing attemps, either because of lack of fuel or rocky landings. I'll probably have to perfect my landing technique before I try out Minimus.

Right now I only have the flat solar panel, so my ship has to be properly orriented if i'm going to do a probe.

I have enough Science to get docking I think, but I'm a little intimidated by that. Would that open up a lot?

[SRV Ron]

Right now I only have the flat solar panel, so my ship has to be properly oriented if i'm going to do a probe.

Place them on the probe as shown and you won't have to worry about orientation when you have landed.

[Kilmeister]

Welcome to the "Got out and Pushed" space club! I too am a member.

[Doozler]

Is that a space chicken?!?

[dNinot]

Well I spent last night building and sending out probes for some quick science. One attempt at the sun (Didn't even get close, need more Delta-V) and one to Duna (crash landed, got some nice temperature data from the atmosphere though!)

Question though: Now that I've transmitted data back from a probe sent to Duna, when I finally get to sending a manned mission there, will my science returns be less because I chose to transmit the data from the probe, or will it even out?

[DrD]

Yeah landing can be hard. I was happy to find that the gyros are strong enough to right a light lander that has tipped over.

[Taki117]

Question though: Now that I've transmitted data back from a probe sent to Duna, when I finally get to sending a manned mission there, will my science returns be less because I chose to transmit the data from the probe, or will it even out?

If you send a manned mission you will be able to get the remaining science in the area. i.e if you transmit science for 40% gain, when you send a manned mission you will get whatever science is left (so 60%)

[dNinot]

Yeah landing can be hard. I was happy to find that the gyros are strong enough to right a light lander that has tipped over.

Maybe I used the wrong terminology. My probe wasn't equiped with parachutes, landing gear or fuel. Instead of "crash landed" maybe I should have said "sailed faithfully into the surface at 2000m/s as was intended". Or impacted. Yeah, impacted sounds right?

[AlexinTokyo]

You mean you selected lithobraking as your deceleration method?