Having Trouble Landing on the Mun.

[doggywarning]

(Using Alt+F12 for Fuel/No Crash Damage) Well even when I'm using NCD, I cant seem to get my lander on the Mun in one piece. I can get it there, but not how I want it, I always go in too fast either just approaching the Mun, or orbiting it, please help!

Edited March 3, 2014 by doggywarning

[sjwt]

Scott Manley will show you the way!

[ScottyDoesKnow]

Very general answer, but Scott Manley is a well known KSP youtuber and he recently made a beginners tutorial series:

Edit: very well known

[capi3101]

What kind of Mun lander have you built? A screenshot or a craft file would be helpful in diagnosing potential problems.

Getting it right is one of those things that takes practice. I will say that the shorter and wider your stack is, the less likely it is to tip over when you crash. Try this: put an FL-T200 under your command pod. Put three more radially around the center tank (set it so that there's no tank directly below the hatch to the command pod). Connect the outer tanks to the inner tanks with fuel lines. You'll have as much fuel there as an FL-T800, but without nearly as much height involved. Good for early landers.

Stock, you need to go IVA while you're landing and look for your radar altimeter gauge. When it starts to twitch, you're 2500 meters above the deck and can plan accordingly. What you want to do when you're ready to land is burn retrograde until your surface velocity is near zero; the retrograde marker should start pointing at least very close to straight up (all blue on the nav ball). Stop your burn and start falling. Watch your radar altimeter; when it starts twitching, start slowing down. Right above the surface you don't want to be going much faster than 5-10 m/s vertically (use the gauge right beside the altimeter for this purpose) but if you're higher up you can afford to go a little faster than that (indeed, you want to be going down a little faster so you don't waste too much fuel). Make sure your gear is deployed. Your radar altimeter will really start to dial down fast once you're less than 1000 meters to the deck; use that to gauge when to really slow down and estimate the elevation of the deck. If you have landing lights, turn them on and use your shadow to gauge the final deck.

That's really all I can suggest. And Scott Manley rules, of course.

[Wooks]

All of the above.

Personal suggestion: ditch the debug mode and try to do it without cheats, I am sure one of the main reasons you are having trouble is because you are not managing your fuel, thus burning like a madman all the way "up" the Mun and then failing to brake properly.

The debug menu should be used to test ship designs, kind of a training excercise.

[Kryxal]

The craft would help ... what sort of TWR do you have (and say what it's relative to, 1.0 Kerbin-relative and 1.0 Mun-relative are pretty different and call for different landing profiles)?

[doggywarning]

Thanks Everyone, I believe Scott Manley WILL Help!!!

[Pecan]

Note that although it is easier to get to Mun it is easier to land-on Minmus. For your first landings Minmus is the easier return-trip mission.

[Kerba Fett]

Note that although it is easier to get to Mun it is easier to land-on Minmus. For your first landings Minmus is the easier return-trip mission.

I'd completely agree with that. The gravity is lower, there's huge flat areas to land on and everything you do there is worth more science points.