Kerbal Space Program - From the Kearth to the Mun

[Logan Darklighter]

Update: Two more successful landings and an important lesson figured out - 

Woot! A much smoother landing than the first one! There was some sliding involved, but only a small amount of horizontal skid. 





There were only two bits of weirdness on that 2nd trip. One was this - I have NO idea what to make of that partial orbital track. But it cleared up shortly when Kearth gravity caught me. 



The other was that instead of splashing down in the ocean, I landed on land. 



Uh... that's a MOUNTAIN!! Uh oh!!!



Ack! Ow!

"Think that exceeds the warranty, Bill?"

*Bang* Ow! Ass over teakettle!

"WHAT Warranty, Jeb?"

*KLONG* Ow ow ow! 





Russian capsule is RUSSIAN STRONG! 

Yeah, that'll buff right out!



Now - the important thing I figured out is this - 

Try to get to low Munar Orbit with a lot of extra fuel/delta-V. Get to low perihelion, then brake HARD, coming to as near a dead stop to vertical drop over the landing zone as possible. And line up your vector cross-hairs with the dead center of the nav ball. Like so - 











See how the green crosshair is dead center there? I'm coming down dead vertical. No horizontal vector at all. That makes landing super easy. Just keep your SAS on and feather your thrusters for as soft a landing as you could ever ask for! 



(That explosion was planned - had to drop the next to last motor and fuel tank to free up the final descent engine and landing skids. I still had fuel in that thing!







And down! And with nearly a full tank of fuel remaining! Enough that I felt like doing an extra excursion. Lifting my LM up the hill out of the valley I'd landed in and up to the ridge so that I could catch the lunar sunset. 











Needless to say - getting home was easy from here. 



This particular stack and lander is very forgiving. Enough that I learned techniques that make me confident in testing out new designs made from other parts.

Well that's it for the evening. Love this game, but I need to go do something else for a bit. Later!