Landing on The Mun

[lolski85]

Using MechJeb i'm able to get in orbit then hoghmann I sometimes get near the mun but autoland never works. Could someone please help me actually land somehow with an explanation possibly?

[Tweety]

Using mechjeb as an info readout can sometimes be better. That said i have used it to teach me docking so I'm not against it. Use the readout out for suicide burn. When you are in Munar orbit burn retrograde until your orbit 'intersects' the Mun then using the suicide burn readout go full throttle retrograde again so you dont splat the surface with kerbal remains. I used to burn a couple seconds before the readout said for a safety margin.

Might make sense, also might not

Tweety

[Kryxal]

Note that once you're in your descent, you might have to burn a bit above retrograde.

[Taki117]

the trick to landing is to point at the surface retrograde marker and burn. Like Tweety said, use the suicide burn countdown after your initial de-orbit so that you don't go splat. Also, if you have a pilot of sufficient level (Or Mechjeb SASS capability) point to retrograde (for a kerbal make sure you're in surface mode on the navball, for mechjeb make sure you are in SUR mode) this will keep you pointed in the right direction as you fall.

[ColKlonk]

As said..

I lock onto Retrograde and start with a slow burn... at some time you'll be nearly vertical.

At this point I throttle down so my descent slowly reduces to minimum of 20ms. Reducing to around 10ms closer to the surface.

As you get to know your lander you can get it right so that your descent come to within 5ms just before the surface - reducing it to less than 1ms on landing.

Close to the surface it's advisable to unlock Retrograde coz if you start going up, and as computers are stupid.. it'll flip you over - quite fun to watch..

[Tank Buddy]

There are a plethora of tutorials all over the internet. I also would not reccomend having MechJeb fly for you; it is better if you experiment and figure things out yourself. Try some YouTube tutorials or the in-game tutorials.

This info graphic may help.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Tank Buddy

[Superfluous J]

The best thing I can offer is to quicksave in orbit. Then just keep trying. Each failure will teach you something and only take a minute or two. After a half hour, you could have done 10-20 attempts and learned a TON.

I actually successfully did my first Mun landing about a half hour after learning that quicksave was a thing. Before that, I almost gave up on the game entirely. After that... well I'm still here

[Sirrobert]

Open surface info. Switch speedometer to surface mode.

Point your ship retrograde, and burn until the surface info reader tells you your horizontal speed is 0 (or very low. In the mm/sec).

After this you will drop straight down slowly. Now use the surface info altitude info (true, which tells you exactly how far you are from the ground) to make sure you touch down at less than 5m/s speed (vertical speed. Since your horizontal speed should stay basicly 0).

During this phase of landing, point your ship exactly up (so the entire navball is blue. Or tell smart ASS to point UP).

There are more effcient ways to doing this, but that involves combining the steps into a single burn. That's more complicated

Quicksave just before you start retrograde burn, so you can easely go back if you screw up. Alternativly, use alt-F5 to make a named save just before your attempt, and make a regular quicksave after every landing step.

Final tip: Try landing on Minmus, instead of on Mun. Minmus's lower gravity means it's easier to land, and the lower areas are perfectly flat, which means you don't have to worry about landing on an angle and tipping over.

And if you DO tip over, you can still salvage your ship on Minmus, but on Mun you'd be screwed

Edited February 14, 2015 by Sirrobert

[cantab]

If you're determined to use Mechjeb, try and understand why it's failing. Is it burning the engine hard but crashing anyway? If so, check you actually have enough TWR for a Mun landing! Is it running out of fuel? Add more. Is it smacking into the ground despite having plenty of fuel and plenty of thrust? Maybe ask for help in the Mechjeb thread.

Keep in mind that Mechjeb is an autopilot, it's not a magical I Win button. Mechjeb can and will crash your ships if you don't set it correctly.

[lolski85]

If you're determined to use Mechjeb, try and understand why it's failing. Is it burning the engine hard but crashing anyway? If so, check you actually have enough TWR for a Mun landing! Is it running out of fuel? Add more. Is it smacking into the ground despite having plenty of fuel and plenty of thrust? Maybe ask for help in the Mechjeb thread.

Keep in mind that Mechjeb is an autopilot, it's not a magical I Win button. Mechjeb can and will crash your ships if you don't set it correctly.

I was mostly using it to get me near enough to whichever planet or satellite i'm interested in. I struggle using keys because i'm using onscreen keyboard as I can't physically use a keyboard this seems simple enough to land.

[Sirrobert]

I was mostly using it to get me near enough to whichever planet or satellite i'm interested in. I struggle using keys because i'm using onscreen keyboard as I can't physically use a keyboard this seems simple enough to land.

That might make the fine control required for soft touchdown very difficult.

Why doesn't autoland work though? It worked fine the last time I tried, which to be fair is a while ago, but still. Maybe there's something with your ship that makes Mechjeb think it can't land? Show us some screenshots, maybe we can figure something out

[Vanamonde]

Landing through Mechjeb is a question about mod use, and so, moved to add-on affairs.

[theend3r]

You can also use the translatron for neat and easy touchdowns:

1) Tick the "kill horizontal speed"

2) Choose "Keep vertical speed"

3) Input the descent speed in negative number (just choose something safe like -50, then -10 or -5 when near the ground and -1 for the final touchdown)

That's the only thing I use MJ for while landing, the rest is better and safer when done by hand.