Landing on Gilly - Adventures in microgravity!

[moogoob]

I just recently took a contract to "Explore Gilly", (slideshow) and decided to try landing on it. I burned until my orbit intersected the surface and noticed that my velocity was tiny - only a few m/s while I was still over a dozen kilometers away. I'd be there all day!

So I tried treating it more like a docking exercise and burned right for the little rock - maybe 100m/s or so. Well, it worked!

Has anyone else got any stories of docking (err, landing ) with Gilly?

[Specialist290]

Dropping this in General Discussion. Carry on

[SkyRender]

Gilly is a fun little space potato, it's true. Back in the days of 0.18, there was a challenge called the Bobcat Colonization Challenge, and Gilly was a particularly hard site to colonize. Not because it was especially difficult to get to or anything, but because it took an insane amount of patience and care to land there and not accidentally knock your colony structures over in the process.

[xtoro]

Yeah I burn straight towards it as well. One of my fav moons for mining resources because a tiny engine can lift so much weight!

[Rithsom]

Even ion engines are powerful enough to overcome Gilly's gravity. I sent a small lander there back in 0.23 (before the engines' thrust was increased), and it could still fly around with ease.

[KevinW42]

Why yes I do.

It was actually very difficult to get them to stay like that. They kept slipping off of each other's heads and the whole thing toppled moments after I took the screenshot.

[worir4]

Wait who was flying the craft?

[Levelord]

Wait who was flying the craft?

But... Who was phone?

[WWEdeadman]

Yeah, Gilly, the only body in KSP that you feel the need to burn down to when trying to land. Did a landing with a probe recently, that was really weird. I encountered Gilly retrograde, 'cause I had gotten into orbit around Eve the wrong way. Anyway, I ended up burning towards it because I wasn't falling fast enough for my taste.

Video:

[Duke23]

Why yes I do.

http://i.imgur.com/3vr6f5z.png

It was actually very difficult to get them to stay like that. They kept slipping off of each other's heads and the whole thing toppled moments after I took the screenshot.

Bravo sir, bravo... lmao

I think I've only been to Gilly once, back in .23.5. I was just screwing around with a design that never should have gone anywhere... The transfer stage wasn't pretty and we landed the final stage on Gilly. None of it was planned, I was kind of surprised the thing even got to orbit and I was like "screw it let's go to Eve" and then just went with it to see what would happen. Lembin hopped down to plant a flag and watched as the ship started dancing down the hill and slowly tilting over (but made it back inside before anything bad could happen).

[magnemoe]

I wanted to move a base to an flatter locations back in 0.18-

Operation was successful even with the insane turn.

I also landed an long 0.625 meter thick probe on Gilly to get land and transmit data, no problem using the probe reaction wheel to keep it upright while I did a temperature reading.

[bsalis]

Gilly is... different.

I find that a craft is more stable if you leave it lying down on its side rather than on landing legs.

[Tw1]

Gilly is one of those places where you can beat your spaceship to the ground, and easily live to tell the tale.

Here's a bit from Oceans Of Eve....

Just above the surface, he pulled in the solar panels. He slowed to a still. Then, he hopped out of the lander...

And became the first kerbal to touch a completely untouched body. Not even a spaceship got there before him.

(You could argue the suit counts as a spaceship, but I think we'll give him this one, won't we?)

[cantab]

When I landed there it was pretty normal. Relaxed, shall we say, but I never felt the need to burn down. It does have that practically-in-space feel with the low gravity though.

Since I'd landed a rover, I went for a drive. That was interesting, it's as much flying as driving, you're in the air most of the time and just touch wheels to ground occasionally for a boost forward. I did try to drive right into orbit but could never get going much above 7 m/s. I still wonder if a better design could attain orbit, or at least a once-round suborbital flight, with wheels alone.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

The few times I've been there so far I've used RCS to touchdown... and keep it down lol

[JayKay]

I just put a satellite down on Gilly a couple days ago. I had planned to put down a lander, but mysterious calamities have befallen most of my probes I've been sending there and two Eve/Gilly lander missions have gone missing or astray so far. So, to fulfil a contract, I just put down the one orbital probe which managed to make it there instead. I just landed it on its engine bell. It wanted to bounce a little, but did eventually settle down.

Edited October 21, 2014 by JayKay

[BDelacroix]

Only time I went there, I RCSd down, jumped out and had to work at not walking at escape velocity.

[rdwulfe]

Yeah, Gilly, the only body in KSP that you feel the need to burn down to when trying to land. Did a landing with a probe recently, that was really weird. I encountered Gilly retrograde, 'cause I had gotten into orbit around Eve the wrong way. Anyway, I ended up burning towards it because I wasn't falling fast enough for my taste.

Video:

Offtopic: I really want to know where the sciency bit with the tape-reader in it comes from!

[cantab]

Is it the Kerbal Engineer computer?

[lordlundar]

Is it the Kerbal Engineer computer?

Loos like it to me. Little bit of part clipping (only the bottom reel is exposed) but that's my best guess.

[magnemoe]

Yeah, Gilly, the only body in KSP that you feel the need to burn down to when trying to land. Did a landing with a probe recently, that was really weird. I encountered Gilly retrograde, 'cause I had gotten into orbit around Eve the wrong way. Anyway, I ended up burning towards it because I wasn't falling fast enough for my taste.

Video:

Burning downward makes a lot of sense on Gilly, faster and easier to land on the assigned area, then getting close to surface you brake to normal landing speeds like 5 m/s, cut to 2 m/s before touchdown. Use rcs too push down after landing.

[KevinW42]

Wait who was flying the craft?

Oops, late reply. Mechjeb was flying.