Guide for Going to the Mun for all beginners and bottle rocketeers.

[VincentMcConnell]

ESTABLISHING AN ORBIT OF 100KM

The first important step for the more traditional and realistic way of flying to the mun is to establish an orbit around Kerbin. This whole phase is fairly easy, but most novice players just can\'t seem to get it. I was the same way. No fear....

You should already have built a rocket with the capabilities to get to the mun, so I won\'t go into that. But if you sincerely can\'t make a moon rocket, just modify all your .cfg files like a cheater and give yourself a low burn rate, infinite fuel capacity and high thrust.

At T-1 second, you should lift off from the pad and head straight up until you are 6,000m from the surface of Kerbin. At this point, you want to begin a yaw to the left. Your rocket\'s nose should be pointed to the right of your screen. The degree on this is going to be no more than about 60 degrees. If you\'d like, roll your rocket until 'W' points you in the direction of orbit, but I recommend just pressing 'A'. Engage your stabilizers and adjust if you have to.

Open up your orbital map and look at your Apoapsis rise above the Earth. If you\'re yawed over enough, your blue line indicating your trajectory should be extended fairly quickly. If you can get your blue line all the way around Kerbin to establish a PE before your AP reaches 100KM, that\'s your best bet. But regardless, shut your engine down (MECO) when your AP reaches 100KM. The wider your blue line is wrapped around Kerbin the better. Now sit in your parabolic trajectory for a little bit. Open up your orbital map and look at your Apoapsis. Warp a little bit until your rocket gets very close to that Apoapsis. When you reach it, pitch your rocket over until it\'s perfectly horizontal (on the right artificial horizon of your NAVBALL) and burn at 75% - 100%. You should see your blue line wrap around and have a PE extend out really quickly while your AP remains constant. When the two spin around each other and both say ~ 100KM, MECO your engine. Now you wait...

MAKING A TRANS-LUNAR INJECTION BURN

This is the phase where you launch to the mun. Sit in orbit, carefully pointing the nose of your rocket in your direction of travel (pro-grade burn coming up) and wait. You will constantly have to correct to keep your rocket on line. Warp for a little bit until you see the mun JUST START to rise over the Kerbin horizon. Return to normal time-rate. Point straight towards the mun -- if low over the horizon -- or just burn pro-grade. Your T.L.I. (Trans Lunar Injection) burn will be at 80-100%. Watch your Apoapsis extend outward towards the Mun\'s orbit around Kerbin. When your apoapsis reaches about 11,200KM (just below the mun), shut your engine down. You have approximately 4 DAYS in real time to adjust it exactly how you want it.

TRANS LUNAR COAST

During this phase, you are essentially doing NOTHING. A good use of this time would be just to take a look at your fuel gauges. If you\'re doing a landing mission, inspect your Lunar Module and make sure it\'s in good condition. If all of your systems are a go, go into your orbital map view and warp until you get 'captured' by the Mun\'s gravity. This will be evident by the green line that goes over the Mun. Congratulations, you have just exited Kerbin\'s gravity, possibly for the first time.

LUNAR ORBIT INSERTION

This burn is very important. It\'s called an L.O.I. -- or Lunar Orbit Insertion burn. Basically, what this will do is put you from a hyperbolic trajectory around the Mun into a circularized orbit around it. Watch your rocket head out towards your Periapsis above the moon. The closer you are the better. Execute a Retro-Grade burn at 100% and you will see those green lines extend RAPIDLY out into space on either side of the Mun. The will come together and turn into a blue elliptical line around the mun. Continue the burn until your AP and PE move into a fairly circular orbit around. If you have a PE that is too high, wait until you reach your AP and burn retro-grade. This is indicated by the little yellow circle with an x through it on your navball. If your AP is too high, wait until you hit your PE and burn retro grade. Both of these will circularize your orbit, which is called a 'Circularization Burn'. Burn Retrograde at each point to establish an orbit around the mun of about 15KM above the surface. Congratulations, you are now orbiting the Mun.

There are two things you can do here. You can either make a 'Trans Earth Injection Burn' and return to Earth, or you can land. Since you\'re just learning, I\'ll teach both, but cover the return first.

TRANS-EARTH INJECTION

The Trans-Earth injection is not much different than the Trans Lunar Injection. Once in orbit -- you should be moving from west to East over the Mun -- you will have to point your rocket perfectly horizontal, ready for a Pro-Grade burn. Wait until you see the Kerbin rise above the Mun\'s horizon and point pro-grade. Execute a 100% burn. Watch your Apoapsis extend outward and let it reach 13,000KM. Shut your engines down. Now it looks like it\'s pointed way to the left of Kerbin -- which it is -- but this is a good thing... In fact, it is just what we need. Here\'s what\'s happening. As the mun rotates around Kerbin, so does your Apoapsis. If it points to the left of Kerbin, when the mun rotates towards the right, your Apoapsis is right on track towards Kerbin\'s gravity. Open your orbital map and WARP TIME! You should get captured into a really high orbit above Kerbin. Something like 8,000KM or less. This is how you return...

RE-ENTRY INTERFACE

Once you\'ve gotten this high orbit around Kerbin, point retro-grade and burn at full speed. Your orbit should head back down to Kerbin and make a return trajectory. Execute what I call, 'ALLSEP' or 'All Separation'. Jettison all your stages except your parachutes and get ready to reenter just like you do on any other mission. Once you\'ve come back to Kerbin, deploy your parachutes and enjoy the fact that you\'ve possibly made your first Mun mission.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LANDING ON THE MUN

Landing on the Mun requires a little bit more skill than a simple orbital mission. Once you\'ve established your orbit around the Mun, burn retro grade at full speed. We won\'t even bother with precise landing spots on your first mission. If anyone wants to know, I have a full notebook filled with drawings of orbital mechanics and ways to get to Mars and the Mun that I\'ve drawn, and so I can send you a screen shot of how to determine a precise landing spot from orbit, but there\'s no need to right now. Burn retrograde at 100% until your orbital trajectory goes into the surface like a return to Kerbin. Here is where it gets good. Jettison all of your stages except your lunar module and burn retro grade until your velocity equals about 100m/s.

A simple list of the velocities as you come down for powered descent is this-

2,000KM - 200m/s.

1,000KM - 100m/s

1,100M - 50m/s

8.6 KM - 20m/s

3.2 KM - 15m/s

1.1 KM - 14m/s

500M - 10m/s

200M - 6m/s

100M - 5.9m/s

71M - 4.2 m/s

Lunar Contact - 4m/s.

Your retro grade indicator will constantly dance around your navball. Every time it does, align with it and burn. This will kill all of your lateral velocity so that when you land, you are coming down perfectly vertical. You should hit the surface at about 4m/s.

Here is a list of procedures after you have landed:

Establish Firm Contact (stop sliding, etc.)

Shut your engine down (Engine Stop.) (X)

SAS (ACA) out of Detent. (T)

Descent Engine Command Override off and Engine arm off (Alt+L)

LUNAR LIFTOFF

After taking in the sites of your landing spot, it\'s time to go home. Lunar Gravity is very low, so establishing an orbit is like a walk on the park. Burn straight up for about a second and then quickly pitch to almost 170 degrees. Burn at 50% and wait until your Apoapsis reaches 100KM. Your ascent stage should have a lot of fuel. Shut the engine down and wait until your rocket hits your Apoapsis and burn Pro-Grade. Like on Kerbin, this will wrap your trajectory into a near perfect 100KM orbit around the Mun.

To see how to return, check the Trans-Earth Injection section of this tutorial.

I hope you had a good (first?) mun mission and it will allow you to have a lot more fun with this game. With persistence now out, you can deploy orbiters around the moon, satellites, image future landing sites, leave retro-reflectors on the surface and much, much more.

That is all.

8)

[shaunlake]

I think that\'s too hard for real bottle rocketeers. I used a little more easy technique.

But I also modded the tank to get familiar with the technique - that\'s very useful.

[Kryten]

Why bother going into orbit if you\'re landing? Why not just launch the ship straight onto a collision course? That\'s usually what I do, and it avoids a lot pointless time- and fuel-consuming manoeuvring.

EDIT: If you want to do this yourself, just have your apoapsis slightly below the Mün\'s altitude (around 10,000 Km works well), then, when near the Mün, burn towards your retrograde vector (the green with with the lines) until it\'s at the top of the navball, and you\'re ready to land.

[VincentMcConnell]

Why bother going into orbit if you\'re landing? Why not just launch the ship straight onto a collision course? That\'s usually what I do, and it avoids a lot pointless time- and fuel-consuming manoeuvring.

Yeah that\'s good, but this method, as is stated, is a way of closely following a real mission to the moon. In real life, you insert into orbit and then make a burn on the far side to break the orbit and begin going down towards the surface. Firing the engines for the final phase during landing is called the 'powered descent'.

[Kryten]

Yeah that\'s good, but this method, as is stated, is a way of closely following a real mission to the moon. In real life, you insert into orbit and then make a burn on the far side to break the orbit and begin going down towards the surface. Firing the engines for the final phase during landing is called the 'powered descent'.

Almost all of the real missions launched to the Mun that didn\'t have to leave something in Lunar orbit anyway (i.e. anything other than Apollo) used my technique; the surveyor landers, most Luna landers...

[VincentMcConnell]

Almost all of the real missions launched to the Mun that didn\'t have to leave something in Lunar orbit anyway (i.e. anything other than Apollo) used my technique; the surveyor landers, most Luna landers...

They weren\'t manned and they weren\'t Lunar Orbit Rendezvous.

[Ydoow]

Why bother going into orbit if you\'re landing? Why not just launch the ship straight onto a collision course? That\'s usually what I do, and it avoids a lot pointless time- and fuel-consuming manoeuvring.

I always put myself into an orbit.

It\'s never a precision orbit, there\'s no need and it\'s wasteful as you said. But I find making a Munar orbit very useful to give myself time to think and plan out my landing.

Maybe I want to land in a certain spot, so I wait for my craft to be in position, or maybe I want to change missions and use the Mun to slingshot me into a Kerbol orbit

[MrBark]

I\'ve also had better luck performing a munar orbit insertion rather than direct descent. I think it\'s easier, as your velocity is less and you have more time to pick a landing spot, such as landing in the maria.

[shaunlake]

I\'m certainly voting for a direct burning. It is easier for newbies.

[VincentMcConnell]

I\'m certainly voting for a direct burning. It is easier for newbies.

The best direct burn method that I use is to open my orbital map and warp until the mun is 3/4ths until direct left of Kerbin as viewed from the North Pole looking down. This all done while still on the launch pad. When the Mun is 3/4ths until direct left, I just burn straight up and keep SAS on detent. When my Apoapsis reaches 11,929KM, I shut my engine down and wait until I enter Lunar gravity. This always allows me to land on the far side (my favorite landing site. No LM shadow or indicators of how close you are. Doing it all with instrumentation requires more skill.) When it\'s a far side mission, I point my engine NOT retro-grade, but directly facing the Mun\'s surface and burn. That always puts me right on a collision trajectory and then I just land.

[Red Iron Crown]

Descent Engine Command Override off and Engine arm off (Alt+L)

What does this do?

[VincentMcConnell]

What does this do?

Locks your staging so that you don\'t accidentally separate while on the Mun.

T and R stop you from sliding around by disabling your stabilizers and rcs thrusters.

[Huojin]

Any advice for landing in a specific area? I always have difficulty doing that, and when you\'re aiming to make a Mun base, it\'s kinda important...

[MrBark]

Any advice for landing in a specific area? I always have difficulty doing that, and when you\'re aiming to make a Mun base, it\'s kinda important...

Easiest option, IMO: Maria, the dark grey portions of the Mun. When viewing the Mun from Kerbin, note the one on the left. It\'s pretty equatorial. Prime target #1, in my book.

Establish a 50K x 50K equatorial orbit around the Mun travelling 270-degrees, clockwise when viewing the Mun above it\'s north pole. When your ship crosses the Mun\'s orbital path behind it\'s direction of travel, i.e. when it comes from the far-side to the Kerbin-side, deorbit so the crash landing site is on the far western (left) edge of that 'sea'.

Then, cruise until you get over the 'sea\'s' eastern (right) edge, and power the engine for a landing attempt. I mean, you\'ll at least crash there, but if you\'re good, you\'ll land there.

Rationale, if you always fly with the same reference points, you should be in the ballpark, but your manual flying skills will determine how close you actually get.

Please note, I\'ve done this with the version 13 small engine with no problems. I haven\'t gotten around to testing the newest version 14 small engine, so I don\'t know if it has enough thrust to land with this flight profile. I look forward to trying it though.

[VincentMcConnell]

Easiest option, IMO: Maria, the dark grey portions of the Mun. When viewing the Mun from Kerbin, note the one on the left. It\'s pretty equatorial. Prime target #1, in my book.

Establish a 50K x 50K equatorial orbit around the Mun travelling 270-degrees, clockwise when viewing the Mun above it\'s north pole. When your ship crosses the Mun\'s orbital path behind it\'s direction of travel, i.e. when it comes from the far-side to the Kerbin-side, deorbit so the crash landing site is on the far western (left) edge of that 'sea'.

Then, cruise until you get over the 'sea\'s' eastern (right) edge, and power the engine for a landing attempt. I mean, you\'ll at least crash there, but if you\'re good, you\'ll land there.

Rationale, if you always fly with the same reference points, you should be in the ballpark, but your manual flying skills will determine how close you actually get.

Please note, I\'ve done this with the version 13 small engine with no problems. I haven\'t gotten around to testing the newest version 14 small engine, so I don\'t know if it has enough thrust to land with this flight profile. I look forward to trying it though.

I like to put myself into a 1.5KM orbit around the mun, deorbit to pick my landing site while on the far side, wait until I\'m DIRECTLY over my landing site, burn the descent engine retrograde and then start powered descent. It takes only about 30 seconds and you only need to kill about 500 m/s. It\'s the best option for fuel preservation.

[VincentMcConnell]

Any advice for landing in a specific area? I always have difficulty doing that, and when you\'re aiming to make a Mun base, it\'s kinda important...

Sure. Here is my advice. Build a base in a Maria Region. They are the large basaltic, dark gray impact basins that were formed billions of years ago. Establish an equatorial orbit of about 1.5 - 3KM (depending on how comfortable you are that you can kill 500m/s). When you get to the dark side of the moon, use the RCS to thrust retro and pick a very precise landing site inside that crater. Your trajectory will end where your landing site is. Drift until you get directly over it and then burn your descent engine at 100% at retrograde. Keep following your retro indicator to slow your velocity. Like I said in the guide, my ideal touchdown recommendation for velocity is 4 meters per second with no lateral velocity.

If you initiate the powered descent too soon, you\'ll land short. You have to burn the Powered Descent Initiation (PDI) right over your landing site. From there, landing is as easy as it always is.

[togfox]

I always power straight in (without orbiting) and find I use up two whole tanks of fuel trying to get my speed down and to keep it down. If I don\'t have two full tanks then I run out of fuel and either crash or abort.

I\'m guessing it is far more economical to establish an orbit at the Pe and Ap slow your speed that way? I hear the tallest Mun mountain is 400m high. If I retro to a 500m orbit using Pe/Ap, pick a landing spot and do a final thrust to bring my horizontal speed to zero then I\'m assuming the controlled descent from 500m down to ground would be a piece of cake?

[VincentMcConnell]

I always power straight in (without orbiting) and find I use up two whole tanks of fuel trying to get my speed down and to keep it down. If I don\'t have two full tanks then I run out of fuel and either crash or abort.

I\'m guessing it is far more economical to establish an orbit at the Pe and Ap slow your speed that way? I hear the tallest Mun mountain is 400m high. If I retro to a 500m orbit using Pe/Ap, pick a landing spot and do a final thrust to bring my horizontal speed to zero then I\'m assuming the controlled descent from 500m down to ground would be a piece of cake?

[move][/move]

Yes, that\'s correct. A direct approach is a quicker method, but you have thousands of meters per second to kill before you get down to the surface and that number grows as long as you aren\'t burning your engine. If I were you, I would get into an orbit of at least 1KM, though. 500 is very low and I have seen people crash with that low of an orbit. I was passing over some mountains yesterday and felt unsafe in some areas even at 1KM. And of course, from 1,000 meters up, you\'re more likely to have enough time to be able to get rid of all your orbital velocity and come in for a straight descent.

[MrBark]

[move][/move]

Yes, that\'s correct. A direct approach is a quicker method, but you have thousands of meters per second to kill before you get down to the surface and that number grows as long as you aren\'t burning your engine. If I were you, I would get into an orbit of at least 1KM, though. 500 is very low and I have seen people crash with that low of an orbit. I was passing over some mountains yesterday and felt unsafe in some areas even at 1KM. And of course, from 1,000 meters up, you\'re more likely to have enough time to be able to get rid of all your orbital velocity and come in for a straight descent.

I swear I have landed crashed into a mountain with an elevation of around 725 meters. I have no idea where on the mun though.

[Huojin]

Sure. Here is my advice. Build a base in a Maria Region. They are the large basaltic, dark gray impact basins that were formed billions of years ago. Establish an equatorial orbit of about 1.5 - 3KM (depending on how comfortable you are that you can kill 500m/s). When you get to the dark side of the moon, use the RCS to thrust retro and pick a very precise landing site inside that crater. Your trajectory will end where your landing site is. Drift until you get directly over it and then burn your descent engine at 100% at retrograde. Keep following your retro indicator to slow your velocity. Like I said in the guide, my ideal touchdown recommendation for velocity is 4 meters per second with no lateral velocity.

If you initiate the powered descent too soon, you\'ll land short. You have to burn the Powered Descent Initiation (PDI) right over your landing site. From there, landing is as easy as it always is.

So is this for landing on the darkside? Suppose you want to land in a maria on the Kerbin-side, is it just a matter of waiting until you\'re in a position that thrusting retrograde will put your trajectory in your landing site and then burning so you descend straight down as you get over it?

[togfox]

Thanks Vincent. I did exactly as you describe, at 1200m. Orbit Mun, long retro burn. The key is to watch the altitude and slowly move from a horizontal thrust through to a vertical thrust in prep for landing. I\'ve now got two pieces of moonbase on Mun now (and crashed a third but lets not go there!).

I\'m now working on how to retro-thrust with the correct timing so as to land where desired. This way when I\'m parked over a mountain I don\'t have to accept that as my only landing spot! S:|

[Kosmo-not]

I always power straight in (without orbiting) and find I use up two whole tanks of fuel trying to get my speed down and to keep it down. If I don\'t have two full tanks then I run out of fuel and either crash or abort.

I\'m guessing it is far more economical to establish an orbit at the Pe and Ap slow your speed that way? I hear the tallest Mun mountain is 400m high. If I retro to a 500m orbit using Pe/Ap, pick a landing spot and do a final thrust to bring my horizontal speed to zero then I\'m assuming the controlled descent from 500m down to ground would be a piece of cake?

Actually, it can be more economical to do a direct approach, depending on how much thrust to weight you have. Inserting into a low orbit first is easier on the nerves, since you don\'t have to worry about smacking into the ground if you screw up your timing.

[VincentMcConnell]

Thanks Vincent. I did exactly as you describe, at 1200m. Orbit Mun, long retro burn. The key is to watch the altitude and slowly move from a horizontal thrust through to a vertical thrust in prep for landing. I\'ve now got two pieces of moonbase on Mun now (and crashed a third but lets not go there!).

I\'m now working on how to retro-thrust with the correct timing so as to land where desired. This way when I\'m parked over a mountain I don\'t have to accept that as my only landing spot! S:|

You\'re welcome. Glad I could help. Remember, if you\'re coming down over a mountain, your Reaction Control Thrusters (RCS Thrusters) can maneuver you out of harm\'s way and out onto a lunar plain.

[VincentMcConnell]

Actually, it can be more economical to do a direct approach, depending on how much thrust to weight you have. Inserting into a low orbit first is easier on the nerves, since you don\'t have to worry about smacking into the ground if you screw up your timing.

It can, but direct approach is commonly associated (As I have noticed) with a direct collision trajectory and not a Munar Orbit insertion and then landing. Collision trajectories require you to kill thousands of meters per second.

[VincentMcConnell]

So is this for landing on the darkside? Suppose you want to land in a maria on the Kerbin-side, is it just a matter of waiting until you\'re in a position that thrusting retrograde will put your trajectory in your landing site and then burning so you descend straight down as you get over it?

It\'s a method for both. A burn on the far side causes a landing trajectory on the near side. An even safer method is to sit in a 1KM orbit around the Mun and fly directly over the place you want to land. About 400 yards before it, burn and start descending. RCS helps wonders, even after you\'ve landed, to put you in a place of your choosing within only a few meters.