Kerbal Space Program

Made myself a challenge, what is the lowest orbit you can do on the mun....


Per - 4150m
Apo - 39000m

Every time i lower the apoapsis, i loose altitude the longer i orbit? Its stable for now.

Just got it down to Per - 3100 Apo- 6500. Cant warp time :(

Did this myself, i think the safe lowest circular orbit is around 4.5km, as the highest mountains on the mun are that high
 
Did same with minmus. Just quick snaps, i acheived a good 5k all the way around.... Pictures where taken before adjusting. I just missed the mountains.
KSP-2012-08-10-22-57-00-58.bmp

KSP-2012-08-10-22-56-15-10.bmp


Look at his face as i prepare a EVA >>
KSP-2012-08-10-22-56-46-61.bmp
 
Ha, no idea how you guys manage stuff like getting to minimus, especially with so much bloody fuel left when you get there?!?

I finally made it to the Mun today :)

Separated my boosters to leave my lander approaching the planet....

Did a very tidy job of pointing my lander directly away from the Mun and sorting my approach speed to a very manageable one.....

Lowered my landing gear......

Got closer and closer (no shadow to gauge from though??).....

Then realised my lateral speed was far too high so corrected....

Over corrected....

Started going up....

corrected....

Over corrected.....

Long story short, I smashed Cmdr Desfrey Kerbal into the Mun :(
 
*** Noob Tip Alert***

If like me, you're new to the game and not yet very good at it, you may well get a little overexcited when you realise you can finally get your rockets into Munar orbit consistently and at will.
You may therefore decide that you want to land on said Mun, and excitedly adjust your orbit so that your trajectory will meet the surface.
However, do pay attention to what you're doing and MAKE SURE YOU DON'T TRY TO LAND ON THE DARK SIDE!!!

I was doing great, controlling my descent well, my lateral speed was good, problem was I couldn't see bugger all and the surface at the point I was at was much higher than the altimeter said.

RIP little astronaut dude :(
 
:D

I really need to get back on and make some alterations to Fredrick V1, got it to the Mun once but overshot by accidentally speeding up time too fast! :p

Damn Batman stealing my time :mad: I WILL get round to playing this today!
 
Chris [BEANS];22538851 said:
*** Noob Tip Alert***

If like me, you're new to the game and not yet very good at it, you may well get a little overexcited when you realise you can finally get your rockets into Munar orbit consistently and at will.
You may therefore decide that you want to land on said Mun, and excitedly adjust your orbit so that your trajectory will meet the surface.
However, do pay attention to what you're doing and MAKE SURE YOU DON'T TRY TO LAND ON THE DARK SIDE!!!

I was doing great, controlling my descent well, my lateral speed was good, problem was I couldn't see bugger all and the surface at the point I was at was much higher than the altimeter said.

RIP little astronaut dude :(

:p

I think everyone must do this once. I certainly always think very deliberately about where I burn now. :p
 
Chris [BEANS];22538851 said:
*** Noob Tip Alert***

If like me, you're new to the game and not yet very good at it, you may well get a little overexcited when you realise you can finally get your rockets into Munar orbit consistently and at will.
You may therefore decide that you want to land on said Mun, and excitedly adjust your orbit so that your trajectory will meet the surface.
However, do pay attention to what you're doing and MAKE SURE YOU DON'T TRY TO LAND ON THE DARK SIDE!!!

I was doing great, controlling my descent well, my lateral speed was good, problem was I couldn't see bugger all and the surface at the point I was at was much higher than the altimeter said.

RIP little astronaut dude :(

*** Experianced Tip Alert ***

Its steal easy to botch up landing on the dark side.
8 Missions yesterday, to create a Mun colony.
3 Landed craft + 5 Failed missions... :(

In my defence, all craft where newly developed prototypes. So I didn't know how they would perform on Mun landings. PS: They where large heavy craft, so slow to respond even with RCS.
 
Hm im having trouble getting into the Muns orbit. I turn towards either 90 or 270 degrees orbit for Kerbin, then wait for the moon to set/rise and boost till my orbit hits the Muns path. However when I get there I usually just spin off on it's orbit, I can never do a retro burn strong enough to slow down :p
 
Hm im having trouble getting into the Muns orbit. I turn towards either 90 or 270 degrees orbit for Kerbin, then wait for the moon to set/rise and boost till my orbit hits the Muns path. However when I get there I usually just spin off on it's orbit, I can never do a retro burn strong enough to slow down :p

My advice, but other players may try differently.

Its always easier (More efficent) to burn with Kerbins orbit.
So imagine your nose pointing straight up.
Wait for the Mun to be dirrectly above you, an burn straight up.
Always point your ship directly at the Mun, not where it will be.

What speed are you at when caught by the Mun?
I am typically 200-300M/s. Wait until your at the Muns Ap point Highest, then burn agressivelt until your orbit arcs around the Mun.
The rest is controlled retro-grade.
 
Well... it depends. You have to look at your path in the orbital map and make a decision based on that. Once you're in the Mun's SOI:

Priotity 1: Making sure you're not going to crash into the Mun.

Basically, if your line of travel intersects the surface then you either need to burn prograde, perpendicular to prograde away from the Mun or somewhere in between. It's up to you to find out what works, for me i find it depends largely on how far away you are.

Priority 2: Getting into Munar orbit.

Once you've got your periapsis to an acceptable level (if you're not sure then try to get near 30km, but there's a huge range you could choose from) you can do some time compression until you're near it. Accuracy doesn't matter too much, i see people wait until the exact point to start the insertion burn which is kind of pointless because your burn will take time, by which point you will be well past periapsis anyway. But yeah, just get near periapsis then burn retrograde until you see an apoapsis. Strange things might happen with the lines outside the SOI, but you don't have to pay attention to that.

Priority 2: Getting into a good Munar orbit.

From there on it's just basic circularization stuff that you should already have a pretty good hold of.

How you burn to the Mun makes a big difference as well. You're right to burn as it comes over the horizon, but do you stop the instant your line of travel enters the Mun's SOI? Or do you keep going? Because if you keep going you can swing round, in fact that's how you enter a free return trajectory.
 
I stopped burning as soon as my line entered the Mun's SOI...

I think though it was mainly down to my error though, so ill try again soon and post how I get on :D
 
I can't even get out the atmosphere now :(

For some reason the game keeps glitching and all my 12 bottom engines and their fuel tanks "float" up the side of my craft while still connected then collide and explode :(
 
The way I get into the Muns SOI (taken from a vid on YouTube) is to take off, and once high enough, turn directly towards the 90 degrees marker on the nav ball and get my ship level with the horizon.
Then faff about getting into a circular orbit (doesn't really matter how high).
Then in the map view, with Kerbin centred, scroll around and zoom out so that the Mun is in the top right corner of the screen.
Keeping the map view in this orientation, wait until your craft (which should be orbiting anti clockwise) is at the six o'clock position and begin a burn.
In the map view you'll see your orbit become very elliptical very quickly and once the apoapsis reaches the path of the Muns orbit you should get the orange lines indicating that you'll be pulled into the Muns SOI.
At this point stop the burn and coast towards the Mun.
Once you've been pulled in, retro burn to orbit as usual :)
 
I can't even get out the atmosphere now :(

For some reason the game keeps glitching and all my 12 bottom engines and their fuel tanks "float" up the side of my craft while still connected then collide and explode :(

:(

Same craft as you've used before to head to the Mun??
Any changes that might have upset anything??
 
Chris [BEANS];22539927 said:
:(

Same craft as you've used before to head to the Mun??
Any changes that might have upset anything??

It's happened to a few of them since I bought the game, just a glitch I should think with some of the parts/layout :(

Altered a few things but it continues to happen :/
 
My current ship, can get me into orbit of minmus and back to the earth with 4 full tanks of fuel left, and 1 more stage left which as 1 tank and a small engine. The last stage is just in case i mess up and have no fuel left. But if i can get to minmus, orbit then home again with 4 full tanks left....i would have to completely screw up something for me to use my final stage :)
 
My current ship, can get me into orbit of minmus and back to the earth with 4 full tanks of fuel left, and 1 more stage left which as 1 tank and a small engine. The last stage is just in case i mess up and have no fuel left. But if i can get to minmus, orbit then home again with 4 full tanks left....i would have to completely screw up something for me to use my final stage :)

Sounds like you're ready to go play with the new plantes that are coming soon! :D


I'm having a nightmare if anyone's able to offer some advise?
I can now get to the Mun no problem, can get into orbit no problem (With too much fuel that I end up sacking off to get down to my 'lander' stage), and I can ensure my craft should touch down on the light side.
I can even control my descent speed quite nicely, but I absolutely can't sort out my lateral speed.
I thought I was doing OK, but it appears that 14.something M/S is far too fast, and that's by far the slowest I've ever managed :(

Please advise me before more valiant Kerbals give their lives in vain.......
 
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