Getting to the Mun the Kerbal Kaveman method

[Algomeysa]

Ok, pretend I'm a Kerbal Kaveman, who's learned just enough about orbital mechanics to be dangerous.

I've figured out how to get into orbit, and then, by aiming at 90 degrees and firing my engines, to lengthen my orbit until I've got a highly elliptical orbit, with an apogee that's in the 11.5 million meter or so range.

So it's Mun crossing. If I'm a patient person, who cuts engines and time-warps, my orbit, which is blue, and the Mun's orbit, which is white.... since my Kerbals never run out of air or food and such, if I'm willing to wait until the number of days lengthens to 50, 100, etc.....

eventually, there's a point where my orbit turns yellow.

Is this telling me that I'm in the Mun's sphere of influence. At this point, should I be turning to 270 degrees, and firing rockets to slow me down? Is that how I'll achieve Munar orbit?

[Aethon]

Aww. That's adorable.

Welcome. You've got a long way to go, but you've come to the right place! Someone who enjoys typing'll be along directly.

One simple caveman tip. Wait 'til mun rises from sea, launch then. ugh. Click mun in map mode. Set Mun as target. Get above 10,000m. Burn direct at mun 'till map shows mun encounter. Burn retro at mun periapse.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Aethon

[turkwinif]

Get above 10,000m.

I thought that he would've done that before getting into orbit . Either way, have fun trying to learn landing! I recommend little to no tutorials for maximum enjoyment and feeling of accomplishment and pride!

EDIT: After re-reading post, turk see he read post wrong. Turk go back to making fire. Ugg.

Edited July 15, 2014 by turkwinif

[Taki117]

I'll save myself some typing and point you to Scott Manley.

Enjoy.

[Algomeysa]

Thanks for the tips, all.

Today, on this 45th anniversary of Apollo 11, I managed to land a Kerbal on Mun.

There's certainly room for improvement; something of a Pyrrhic victory. Spacecraft and moonbuggy destroyed, 2 other Kerbals killed. Stranded at 12 north 95 east, and quite a long walk from anywhere interesting. But magnificent desolation!

[Taki117]

You made it and that's what counts!

[Blind Dead McJones]

Like they said in the tutorial, if you aim about 45 degrees ahead of the Mun's current location then you should get an encounter. Otherwise, you can set up a maneuvre node to burn prograde until you meet that point, and then move the node around until it shows an encounter. This second method works for just about anything. It gets a bit more complicated with interplanetary transfers, of course, but you shouldn't worry about that until you can easily move around within the Kerbin system.

[Algomeysa]

A weird bit: Due to an unfortunate choice in where I F5 saved the game, I was stuck with slamming into the Mun at about 500 meters/second. That's why the ship and other 2 Kerbals were destroyed. But I had my Kerbal go EVA and then cling to the outside of the ship. The results here were interesting. Most of the time he'd get killed on impact. But about 1 time in 20 he'd actually hit the ground and somehow survive. And then, sometimes he'd bounce into a suborbital flight of just him. Usually he'd still die when he came back down, but sometimes, with enough EVA jetting, or just plain dumb luck, he'd actually survive hitting the Mun again. That's how I made Munfall.

[Aethon]

Technically, that's a hardware assisted litho-braking maneuver, followed by Munbounce!

Well done.

[Mahnarch]

I found out that I can land on the Mun a LOT easier if I use the "stock lander" and build a lifter underneath it. It's a 5 rocket, squat design. All my earlier, homemade designs where single engine.

I learned by trial, fire and error.

[Jimbimbibble]

Congrats on your landing! Some advice: get Kerbal Engineer if you don't already have it. It will give you a lot of useful data to help you build better spacecraft.

[Talavar]

(For those who need a full tutorial) remember, Firing your rockets in the direction you're heading (pro-grade) Will Expand your orbit on the other side of the planet. Retrograde will do the exact opposite. So launch firing rockets till you get your orbit apoapsis to 100k (watching the map). Once you do that, Cut your engines. Then once you are at your apoapsis (highest point in orbit) turn pro-grade (the direction you are moving) and fire them again until the other side of your orbit is also at 100k.. Remember pressing x will cut your engines instantly. If you pull up your nav ball in map mode, you can control your ship while looking at the map. After you achieve a stable orbit (100k or so) click on your blue orbit line in map mode around 70 degrees before the moon and use the delta-V slider and add Delta-v till the hypothetical shows you encounter the mun.. This will add a burn node and a target reticle to your Nav ball.. once your (time to node) is 1/2 of your calculated burn time, Start your burn facing the reticle on your navball, and cut it off when the Yellow DV indicator is empty. Now you wait a bit.... Once you are halfway to the moon click on the moon in map view and focus on it. Check where your orbit is. If it's colliding with the moon, then fire your ship facing (right) of your orbit path. It will only take a slight amount to move your orbit to a different path, so go easy. Get it to where you are just passing the moon instead of crashing into it.. Once you enter the moons Sphere of influence and are at the muns Pe (periapsis node) , Turn your ship retrograde (Facing away from teh direction you are moving) and fire your engines until you achieve orbit around the moon. Congrats, you have just completed a Homan transfer to orbit of the mun.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Talavar