Need advice on basic Mun landing

[Kerba Fett]

I know how to do a regular Mun landing, but I'd like to try a bit more basic mission.

The idea is that instead of wasting all that time flying in circles I just fly straight up from the pad to the Mun's surface. No gravity turn or orbiting just a slight correction after I detach from the transfer stage so it doesn't hit the lander on the way down. Then a suicide burn a couple of km from the surface and I'm on the Mun without all the fuss and bother of a normal mission.

The problem is that you need to time your launch pretty accurately and I'm hoping someone here has already figured out how to do it.

Any advice?

[Francesco]

That's not more 'basic', it's actually harder to land that way.

And you would need a bigger rocket.

Regular = easy

[Taki117]

Besides being horribly fuel inefficient? You will need to time your launch so that KSC is about 60 deg from where the Men is in its orbit.

[Wooks]

This is not basic my friend, this is harder to do than a basic transfer / landing.

First you´ll need a bigger rocket, with booster stage that packs quite a punch. My best advice to achieve this is to wait in the launchpad until the Mun begins to rise over the sea, is a good visual cue.

[Taribu]

Wait no gravity turn? So you want to move in a straight line towards the mun's surface? Watch this video:

Another way to go "straight towards the moon without going in circles":

Not sure if this is correct, but i do it this way:

Imagine you are in an circular orbit. Usually the best time to make a hohman transfer to the moon is when the target-vector (moon) matches up with your velocity vector. Now, while on the launchpad, timewarp until you reach that time (When the target vector is 90° east of the "up"-vector, maybe a little earlier). Now do a standart launch, the same as usual, but instead of heading for a circular orbit, try to move your velocity-vector towards the target vector and just burn towards the moon. Keep an eye on the orbit view, you should get an encounter. If you can eyeball the way you have to burn to go for a collision course, keep the engines running and do it, else make a maneuver node. This way you should go straight towards the surface of the moon, with no unnecessary "going in circles" But it still includes gravity turns :/

Edited February 28, 2014 by Taribu

[Xavven]

Wait no gravity turn? So you want to move in a straight line towards the mun's surface? Watch this video:

:/

LOL!! I laughed so hard at that video. Very clever. I can hear Einstein rolling over in his grave.

[Dust]

I know how to do a regular Mun landing, but I'd like to try a bit more basic mission.

If your idea of a "basic" Munar landing is to fly straight there, I'd be interested to hear exactly what your "regular" Munar landing entails.

[Kerba Fett]

That video was exactly what I had in mind I just wasn't sure how much to lead the target. I'll try the 60 to 90' range and see how it works.

As for it being more difficult, anybody can fly in a straight line and my rockets often have lots of extra dV so even if it does take more fuel I don't think it will be much of a problem.

[Claw]

This was actually one of the primary early plans for getting to the Moon because it was going to be the fastest plan to accomplish. It was scrapped when they told the president it would be a one-way trip.

[Pecan]

1) Hack your engines to silly thrust so you don't have to worry about that

2) Use inifitefuel so you don't have to worry about that

3) Relax and fly where you point

Or

Use Hyperedit and get there quicker

[MoonMan22]

Here's my version of that, just not as extreme.

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[Kryxal]

1) Hack your engines to silly thrust so you don't have to worry about that

Ludicrous speed ... GO!

[Alchemist]

That's pretty much how we used to do this in 0.13.

Pitch 45 at 10 km and burn until your apoapsis is at the Mun's orbit. Here's your impact trajectory, don't forget to brake.

(note that back then the planet position was always the same at the start of each launch - no persistence file at all)

[Francesco]

Here's my version of that, just not as extreme.

Pitch 45 at 10 km and burn until your apoapsis is at the Mun's orbit.

Guys, he asked how to do no gravity turn at all, like, flying straight up without touching WASD and achieve a Mun encounter.

[Aphobius]

Everyone posts Manley's videos, but it looks like no one knows about the True God of Kerbal. =)) =))

[Francesco]

Everyone posts Manley's videos, but it looks like no one knows about the True God of Kerbal. =)) =))

Impressive, but still not as impressive as this:

True no-WASD mission!

[Aphobius]

As you should have clearly noticed, my intention wasn't to do it without WASDQE.

[llegar]

Wait no gravity turn? So you want to move in a straight line towards the mun's surface? Watch this video:

Another way to go "straight towards the moon without going in circles":

Not sure if this is correct, but i do it this way:

Imagine you are in an circular orbit. Usually the best time to make a hohman transfer to the moon is when the target-vector (moon) matches up with your velocity vector. Now, while on the launchpad, timewarp until you reach that time (When the target vector is 90° east of the "up"-vector, maybe a little earlier). Now do a standart launch, the same as usual, but instead of heading for a circular orbit, try to move your velocity-vector towards the target vector and just burn towards the moon. Keep an eye on the orbit view, you should get an encounter. If you can eyeball the way you have to burn to go for a collision course, keep the engines running and do it, else make a maneuver node. This way you should go straight towards the surface of the moon, with no unnecessary "going in circles" But it still includes gravity turns :/

Amazing video! Nice post.

[MarvinKitFox]

Direct vertical ascent is always less efficient than entering orbit, then transferring.

Ignoring air drag, the delta-v for orbit, then escape vs. direct vertical to escape are the same, IF you have infinite TWR. i.e. if you are launched from a cannon.

If your rocket burns stuff over time, then every second of vertical ascent robs you of 9.8m/s of delta-v. (slowly declining as you get further, of course).

Going to orbit takes 200 seconds or so. Going vertical take hours.

In realistic terms, with a healthy TWR of 2, going to orbit wastes about 1300m/s due to gravity and about 400m/s due to air drag/

Going pure vertical wastes about 4300m/s due to gravity and 350m/s due to air drag.

No contest.

[Justin Kerbice]

@Kerba Fett: have you take a look at KSP stock tutorials ? There is one about the Mun, at the end, you can try to land with the provided ship.