Problems landing big things

[Spearka]

i am having trouble trying to land this craft on the Mun

i have already attempted various ways to land it

Manual-strays off in one direction, too bulky to make presice movements

shifting to side-not enough RCS fuel and too little influence

Mechjeb landing Autopilot-cuts out at 5000m to let me fall to my death

Mechjeb Retrograde-goes anywhere but the right way round

Mechjeb Translatron-doesnt work at all!

[cardgame]

Too bulky for precision? Nonsense. Smaller RCS ports and/or less engine thrust is required.

[Spearka]

Too bulky for precision? Nonsense. Smaller RCS ports and/or less engine thrust is required.

i tried minimising thrust, but it doesn\'t change the problem regarding turning and 'crabbing', RCS fuel is a big problem too

[xzbobzx]

Maybe the top is too heavy?

[Eldestish]

Have you tried using ASAS?

[Spearka]

Have you tried using ASAS?

would i post this thread if it were that simple (yes i have, just keeps it in one direction but does not affect direction its moving)

[xzbobzx]

would i post this thread if it were that simple (yes i have, just keeps it in one direction but does not affect direction its moving)

Make the rocket point all the way up, then engage ASAS, you can still make little corrections with the ASAS on.

[Australian Sloth]

I personally don\'t use mechjeb.

Instead during landing I stay on a retrograde heading constantly adjusting. Just a personal preference

1: Have you got landing gear?

2: How many rcs thrusters do you have?

3:How many rcs tanks do you have? (You may need more)

4:What is the big problem with landing?

I\'m assuming that your rocket lands with too much horizontal velocity

[E. F. Kranz]

You\'ve got something off-center.

[Zephram Kerman]

I think I see two MechJeb modules on there. Maybe that radial pod thingy is something else, but if it is McJ, then simply remove that radial one. That\'d improve the balance a little, and perhaps avoid some kind of dueling autopilots conflict situation.

Otherwise, the problem you describe sounds like insufficient control authority. You can fix that in any of the normal ways: add more RCS thrusters and fuel, or more SAS gyros, or replace big engines with the gimballed ones.

Also, it helps a lot to set down on something with high impact tolerance, like lander legs, wheels, winglets, or skids.

[khyron42]

On the MechJeb retrograde thing: MechJeb uses the orbital retrograde, not the surface-relative one. When you\'re above 12 km it works right, but below there it\'ll always end up pointed off to the east from your displayed retrograde.

[sal_vager]

Are all your main engines on that thing vectoring?

If not then swap them for engines that are, then use ASAS and WASD together.

Also make sure whatever you\'re landing on reaches below the engines, though I have had some luck landing on engines braced with struts.

Oh yeah almost forgot, land as slowly as possible, less than 1m/s is best.

[xzbobzx]

I\'m starting to feel old, not having 0.14 nor knowing what mechjeb is nor does.

\'Back in my days we used to land ships ONLY with ASAS!\'

*a big gasp emerged from the kids*

[Spearka]

Are all your main engines on that thing vectoring?

If not then swap them for engines that are, then use ASAS and WASD together.

Also make sure whatever you\'re landing on reaches below the engines, though I have had some luck landing on engines braced with struts.

Oh yeah almost forgot, land as slowly as possible, less than 1m/s is best.

they are vectoring, and i have ASAS

[sal_vager]

It\'s really hard to know what to suggest without having a chance to fly it ourselves, or if you want to keep it to yourself you\'ll have to give us more info on what happens when you try to land it, maybe a youtube vid of your attempt?

[Caesar15]

It\'s really hard to know what to suggest without having a chance to fly it ourselves, or if you want to keep it to yourself you\'ll have to give us more info on what happens when you try to land it, maybe a youtube vid of your attempt?

Hes right.

[Flyberius]

Are you using add ons? More importantly, are you using those really strong black struts? Reason I ask is that they add huge amounts of mass to your craft. Exchanging them for a few stock struts increases fuel efficiency massively and increases agility.

[Flyberius]

Also the same goes for the super strong lateral decouplers (or whatever they are called). If you use the super heavy ones on everything they add far too much mass.

[Zephram Kerman]

I\'m starting to feel old, not having 0.14 nor knowing what mechjeb is nor does.

It does a bunch of autopilotey things familiar to Orbiter players, plus some additional modes, and reports data which we don\'t yet have instruments for. I like it a lot.

[boolybooly]

Do you know about using RCS with the translate keys? They push it sideways instead of turning the ship, they should be able to adjust for sideways motion, if you have the ship vertical in the first place.

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

I\'m starting to feel old, not having 0.14 nor knowing what mechjeb is nor does.

\'Back in my days we used to land ships ONLY with ASAS!\'

*a big gasp emerged from the kids*

\'Back in my day we didn\'t have animated parts, ASAS, the mun, the seas were solid, so was the atmosphere, and gymbaling, and a few other things\'