First landing on the mun !

[Scarredclown]

After having a brief pause from playin Kerbal, last night i finally land on the Mun, my biggest problem was the horizontal speed. I think i finally got it. Next step for me is an orbit rendez vous ! Any good tutorial ?

[cantab]

I just learned from here

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Basic_maneuvers#Docking_.2F_Rendezvous

Took a couple of goes the first time but now rendezvous is second nature.

[Taki117]

Watch the Video, learn the things.

[FishInferno]

Just look in the tutorials forum, there are lots of good rendezvous ones out there. That's where i learned.

ps. Rendezvous seems hard (and hard to spell:P), but once you get the hang of it its easy!.

[capi3101]

I learned with the Gemini 6A/7 tutorial myself. The tutorial is a couple of versions old at this point, but if you slip a Z-4K battery (the big one) between the lander can and the RCS fuel tank, you should be capable of performing the mission in the current version without issue. Bear in mind that the tutorial teaches you to perform both the rendezvous and the docking on RCS thrust alone - a good way to learn the lesson of going slow, no doubt. When you get better at docking, though, you'll probably want to use regular bi-propellant thrust to conduct the rendezvous part (i.e. you'll still want RCS for the actual docking, but getting to that point goes a lot faster on regular thrust).

[RizzoTheRat]

Look up Scott Manley's videos on youtube, lots of really good ones. Docking confused the hell out of me to start with but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy (apart from the last few feet where I lose all co-ordination and forget which keys I'm supposed to be pressing).

[Oafman]

Congrats, first of many successful landings on many different planets and moons, I'm sure.

RVing is kind of hard at first. Mainly because you usually have various options for how and where to make your RV, and it can be hard to know which is best. But tbh, as long as you have plenty of deltaV, it doesn't matter too much. You can learn how to do it efficiently later; the first thing is learning to do it at all. Manley's guide, and plenty of well written stuff on this forum, were really helpful for me when I started.

Once you RV, it's time to dock. I still find docking hard when I do it solely with stock. There are some great mods (Navyfish & Lazor come to mind) which give you additional docking UIs, and which are very helpful

Personally, I like the Lazor docking camera. It looks really cool, giving you a black and white camera view from the port you're controlling, but it also gives you data on distance and velocity which are useful. The other great mod for this is the RCS build aid. Docking becomes much easier when your ship responds well to your RCS controls.

[Alshain]

FYI, Scott Manley's rendezvous docking tutorials are very old (It works but it's inefficient). This one is much better

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/90621-How-to-Dock-in-6-Steps

[FishInferno]

The other great mod for this is the RCS build aid. Docking becomes much easier when your ship responds well to your RCS controls.

rcs build aid helps a ton. I can not tell you how frustrating it is to have a space station module with poor RCS that makes you spin when you try to move.

[Alshain]

rcs build aid helps a ton. I can not tell you how frustrating it is to have a space station module with poor RCS that makes you spin when you try to move.

Yeah, helps with more that just RCS too. The more and more I start building "eccentric" space planes, the more it helps me balance engines that are off the center of mass. You can tell it to show you engines rotation effects in space (make sure your rockets are in the first stage, won't work with jets very well because the wings affect it) and then balance them out perfectly by rotating the engines or even adding radials to offset it.

[Montag]

Pebblegarden has some good instructions as well. He gives some recommended approach speeds versus distance to target. I go a little more aggressive than his recommendations. When you are ready to take the next step for docking, I strongly recommend Navyfish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator. That is an awesome mod - and I would not view it as a cheat at all.

[SRV Ron]

A good test of your ability to docking is to get two ships together orbiting Mun that were launched from Kerbal. Then, you will be able to do a docking much easier as the hard part is syncing the orbit of both ships. Do all maneuvers slowly for best fuel efficiency. Neither ship was designed for docking, this was just a test for orbital intercept.

As for landing on Mun, use the navball as your guide for killing drifting. Don't steer with RCS, use the WSAD keys to tilt the ship into the retrograde marker and follow it as it changes until you can get it directly vertical. Some is acceptable at the low descent rate prior to touchdown.

Edited October 7, 2014 by SRV Ron