I'm in deep ....

[Scarredclown]

I Just landed succesfully on minmus. My lander is a bit rocket like, my problem is that it fall back on the side during landing. Luckily i'm on high ground. is it possible to launch from minmus ?

[LethalDose]

Congrats on the landing.

Uhm, yes it's possible to launch from Minmus. Can you clarify what the problem is that you're having? Why is the rocket falling over?

As always, pix help.

[Moss]

It's quite possible. It helps if you have extra torque or a gimbal-ing engine.

[Scarredclown]

[Pecan]

As hinted, it is possible and Moss gave you the best tip - Minmus's gravity is so low that you may be able to 'rock' the ship upright(ish) using pod-torque and SAS. You'll probably need to retract the legs, then disengage SAS and play with the WASD keys. Engage SAS to keep you pointing up-ish. A very Kerbal option is to use the spacesuit's RCS to push as well.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Welp, there's your problem right there!

Getting that thing right-side up, on a mostly flat plane, with your nose pointing down?

It's not impossible, but it's the closest thing to it. My advice would be to send a rescue mission. Take the science from that rocket, put it on the rescue craft, and fly it home.

Otherwise, you're gonna have to basically try rocking the damn thing onto its legs; shake it back and forth, try to use the torque from your command pod, goose the engine, whatever you can do. If you can get your nose pointed even a little up, you should, more or less, be able to take off.

I will note, that if you're feeling very ballsy, you have a second space-ship capable of achieving Minmal orbit right there: your Kerbal's EVA pack! If - and this is a BIG if, mind you, but IF - you can get a rescue vehicle into a stable orbit over the point where your Kerbal is landed - he can grab the science, take off on his pack (don't forget to jump: free dV there!) match orbits, and climb aboard.

But that's the kind of thing that only Scott Manley or Jebediah Kerman would seriously consider.

[Scarredclown]

The problem solved itself...i was triyng to go back in the capsule and the game bugged. The whole mission just disapear and jeb was place in the missing in action file... I resolved the problem by fliyng an old débris and then F9 to load my last quicksave a few seconds before landing But just to know, was it possible to lift off the planet in that position ? (sorry for my bad English...)

[Taki117]

The problem solved itself...i was triyng to go back in the capsule and the game bugged. The whole mission just disapear and jeb was place in the missing in action file... I resolved the problem by fliyng an old débris and then F9 to load my last quicksave a few seconds before landing But just to know, was it possible to lift off the planet in that position ? (sorry for my bad English...)

From horizontal like that? Not without breaking things. However, you can use several tactics as listed above to get your rocket skyward once more. On Minmus you could even try toggling the Landing legs to make your rocket hop.

[Pecan]

Glad it's sorted-out, even in a bad way.

It was 'possible' to lift off from Minmus in that position as long as your engine could gimbal to get you pointing up very quickly. If you had dragged along the ground for very long, with any sort of speed, it would have been, to use the technical term, a 'crash'.

[nli2work]

I'd give it a try, throttle up just enough so you are moving, you might lose a landing leg or two, but you got the parachute to return. Alternatively, you could possibly push the lander upright with the kerbal. retract the legs, then get out and walk under it from the tip of the pod.

[jedensuscg]

Make sure you RETRACT the gear though, as they will get in the way and might cause your lander to do something crazy. In the future, plan for this sort of thing.

I have started to put the small separation rockets on my command pod, originally for mid-launch abort procedures (getting away from a rocket that is going the wrong direction after launch, that sora thing).

I found out however that if you fire one of these, if works wonders for getting a sideways laying small lander back where it needs to be. I had mine land on the crew hatch on Kerbin, blocking the poor guy inside, I fired a single rocket and was able to flip it back to the other side.

On minimus one of these rockets would probably put the lander in a crazy spin, but would most likely allow you enough clearance off the ground to fire the main engine and use SAS to right it.

[Mr Shifty]

I believe it's possible to return a Kerbal to Kerbin from Minmus with only your EVA pack. The pack has 600 m/s and it takes about 250 m/s to lift off from Minmus and escape its orbit. Then another 250 m/s to lower your periapsis to Kerbin's atmosphere. There was a video about a year ago of Scott Manley doing this from Gilly's surface. Of course, you'll need a [thread=25305]parachute[/thread].

[LethalDose]

So for future reference, that, uh, "situation" may be recoverable as previous posters have said. I would do the following:

1. Get back in the craft
   
2. F5 quicksave
   
3. Rectact the legs
   
4. Try to rock the craft upwards
   
5. [Probably] failing that, activate the engine at VERY low thrust and pull up hard
   
6. Throttle up until one of two things happens:
   

- The engine gimbal provides enough torque to rotate the vessel upright

OR

- The engine and/or rest of the vehicle are destroyed in a glorious fireball.

With Minmus' low gravity, both of those situations are equally likely. If that were the Mun, you'd be boned.

Edited June 12, 2014 by LethalDose

[xtremespino]

This did happen to me a while back on career mode. The craft was out of power, so there was no torque from the capsule. I just put the engine on a low throttle and using the gimbal of the engine I could pitch up. I did lose a few landing gear as they were pulled along the ground.

[-root]

So for future reference, that, uh, "situation" may be recoverable as previous posters have said. I would do the following:

1. Get back in the craft
   
2. F5 quicksave
   
3. Rectact the legs
   
4. Try to rock the craft upwards
   
5. [Probably] failing that, activate the engine at VERY low thrust and pull up hard
   
6. Throttle up

This. Depending on the topography, you may need to combine 4 & 5 (with extremely exquisite timing for the rocket). I was in this situation not too long ago where I ballsed up a landing really bad and ripped off a couple of science jr pods i had around the main engine and so the lander was really really stable on its side XD

The pod didn't have enough torque to stand my lander back up so I used a combination. Ended up using full powah (Jeb was driving) and having to bounce the ship off an outcrop (more damage and lost science :'( ) to get it stood up and accelerating in the right direction to make orbit. Many quick load iterations were used before i got it right .

[Kryxal]

On Minimus, I think "get out and push" has a great deal going for it ... find a terrain feature that might let you get some air and have at it!

[cantab]

With Minmus' low gravity, both of those situations are equally likely. If that were the Mun, you'd be boned.

I've made a horizontal take-off from the Mun one time, with this early career jerry-rigged lander.

I benefited from fairly smooth terrain, and actually took off facing downhill. Probably the broad shape of the lander helped - widest in the middle, narrower at the front and (if only slightly) the back. That would give it the ability to start pitching up while still dragging on the ground.

[magnemoe]

to avoid this from happen again, try to build wider rockets, one tips here is to use the material labs if you don't have the pipes yet.

Put four labs and goo containers on decoplers on the side of the lander and put legs on them. this let you take the samples and store in pod and eject the labs before returning.

[Shiv]

This is why I build squat landers. My first Mun lander looked almost identical to yours and it did much the same thing. I was able to launch it off a hillside to get it back into orbit, but not enough fuel to return home. It's still orbiting Kerbin as a testament to my failure.

My next lander was basically one fuel tank with three more wrapped around it. Put legs on the outer three containers and it works pretty darn good. I also use the radial mounting engines and that seems to do better for landing instead of mounting the engine directly under the fuel tank. Also: RCS thrusters help out a lot in righting a downed craft.

[Kerba Fett]

I've found decouplers work well for giving me a wider base for landing. The the nice thing about them is that you can mount stuff inside of them. I use 3 way symmetry on the legs but only 2 way symmetry on the goo pods.

This is usually my first lander on Minmus when I have to restart my career.

For the second trip I usually send an extended expedition. The lander gets even wider and I add science JR's. The large ship is for refueling and resetting experiment bays when I pull the data packs. The smallest ship docked above the lander is to ferry that data back to kerbin after a bunch of landings.

[Lucky 38]

Your problem is with your landing legs. Try putting them lower to give your engine more head room. IF you can't, attach the cube wire frame to your rocket as low as possible then the landing legs on those as low as possible. You could try 3 legs instead of 4. Remember always quicksave before an important moment like landing.

[LethalDose]

I've made a horizontal take-off from the Mun one time, with this early career jerry-rigged lander.

<pic>

I benefited from fairly smooth terrain, and actually took off facing downhill. Probably the broad shape of the lander helped - widest in the middle, narrower at the front and (if only slightly) the back. That would give it the ability to start pitching up while still dragging on the ground.

Uh, congratulations? How is that even comparable? If you're point is that it's possible to take off from the Munar surface with a toppled lander, if you're just stupid lucky about how it goes down in the first place, fine. You're right, albeit irrelevant.

The lander you posted has an engine four times more powerful with double gimbal range (assuming its a T45, not a T30) of what the OP posted, plus the radial fuel tanks to act as a fulcrum... None of which the OP has.

My statement stands: if the OP had crashed like that on the Munar surface, the lander is boned.

Edited June 15, 2014 by LethalDose

[Heagar]

I appreciate the statements above, but the best thing is not to fall over for the next time is:

RCS-fuel and thrusters for the landing. With witch you can avoid sutch hazards. And if it happened already, trying to lift up the lander.

Otherwise you can use a widespread base for a lander: One center tank with three small tanks attachet to it, on witch the landing legs are mounted (both in symmetry [tanks/legs]).

      l                           0 = center tank with engine
      x                           x = external tank (on witch could also mounted a SC 9001 aj)
      0                           l = landing leg
   x    x
l          l

Or 
     l   l
       x
       0
   l x   x l
    l     l

You have to pump fuel around (after the landing), or use later on fuelpipes. But having the savety of a big "base", witch can also fether a bump, landings are easy (even when additional small landing-legs are aquired due the additional weight). Test it on kerbin, when it works it shall be great on other planet/moons.

You have also the increased possebility for a save return (to Kerbin).

Edited June 14, 2014 by Heagar

[LethalDose]

Your problem is with your landing legs. Try putting them lower to give your engine more head room. IF you can't, attach the cube wire frame to your rocket as low as possible then the landing legs on those as low as possible. You could try 3 legs instead of 4. Remember always quicksave before an important moment like landing.

I would be very careful with this advice. Putting the legs lower means your CoM is higher, and landers with high CoM can be be tricky for beginners since they tend to topple over, especially on ground that isn't level.

[Claw]

I would be very careful with this advice. Putting the legs lower means your CoM is higher, and landers with high CoM can be be tricky for beginners since they tend to topple over, especially on ground that isn't level.

Yeah, I would say the same. After my first Mun landing, I started building my ships a bit wider until I got more practice. I still prefer them to be (proportionally) a bit wide when I can get away with it.