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[Aqizzar]

...but if i was trying to actualy succeed I wouldn't be copying one of Jef's designs.

Welp, back to the drawing board for me.

Funnily enough, I managed to make an all-vanilla Mun-rocket that totally failed to leave the atmosphere as it gyroscoped its way up and down from the stratosphere, but I managed to stabilize it after the boosters ran out.  I successfully made it back down to the surface with my "moon lander" segment.  "Successfully" in that the capsule survived, but it started ground-traveling really quick when it was close enough to get reverse-effect lift, and skidded over the ground doing about 40.  Still, the concept is sound.

[Sirus]

Here's hopping that a future update includes landing legs or something for the capsule, since engines tend to explode if they hit the ground at any speed whatsoever. I'm still not sure how things are supposed to land on Mun and get back up again.

Not that that's a problem right now, since I can barely achieve a stable orbit as it.

[Aqizzar]

Here's hopping that a future update includes landing legs or something for the capsule, since engines tend to explode if they hit the ground at any speed whatsoever. I'm still not sure how things are supposed to land on Mun and get back up again.

By landing your entire vessel, or at least a return segment.  In my case, I have the capsule on top of a triple-coupler, with six fueltanks and three engines.  If I can get it on a trajectory toward the Mun, I can deorbit at the moon and hopefully land on the engines (I guess I'll need to add struts, but the lower gravity and lack of atmosphere should help), then take off again, hit Kerbin with a return trajectory, then de-orbit.  I almost made it with a smaller rocket, but ran out of fuel adjusting my lunar orbit so much.  A better lift vehicle should do the trick.

[Aklyon]

I wasn't saying it won't work Aqizzar, just that as it is in that picture its not getting very much farther that that. Might work with more engines, or it might explode everywhere and be a giant mess.

[zchris13]

Hey Aqizzar, how goes the "Be a plane" side mission? I never got it to work again after the first successful flight.

[sluissa]

For lander legs, I've been using a modded in set. Although that's the only mod I"m using at the moment. They work well and I don't really consider them cheating. Except for a few experiments using empty solid boosters(which requires me to deal with making them empty at some point in the flight) I haven't found a single halfway sturdy, and decently weighted way to make legs that can survive a landing, especially one with any sort of lateral movement, from the stock parts.

For the moment, my lander/return craft is capsule+parachute on to of a coupler, on top of a liquid fuel tank on top of a liquid engine. attached as low as possible to the center fuel tank are four more, connected with fuel lines to the center one, and with the legs attached to the outside of those. Originally this was only because the legs were shorter than the liquid engine, so I needed some way to extend them a bit, but now it seems as if this is a good design otherwise. Spreads the legs out a bit to provide more stability, keeps the center of mass low so I don't have to worry about landing on slight slopes too much and gives me plenty of fuel to work with. Those 5 tanks have been getting me all the way from low kerbin orbit to the mun, and back very reliably.

Most of my experimenting has been to do with the first and/or second stages, trying to find a more efficient or stable way to get into orbit and perhaps giving myself a bit more push off to the Mun before having to separate so I might eventually drop a tank or two from the lander.

I also need to work on my Mun to Kerbin transfers. They definitely need to be more efficient. Kerbin to Mun aren't too bad but could use a bit of tweaking as well. I usually get there with a velocity of 550-600 m/s at a periapsis of 200-250km. On the way back though... yeah, I'm usually left in a very wide, very eccentric orbit.

[LoSboccacc]

I'm landing on the winglet (the non controllable ones)

works great!

[forsaken1111]

I like how this community doesn't shrink from providing a Step by Step Guide to Visual Stellar Navigation: How to Reach the Moon Without a Calculator.

[monk12]

I like how this community doesn't shrink from providing a Step by Step Guide to Visual Stellar Navigation: How to Reach the Moon Without a Calculator.

I think I'll sig this, though I may need to go find the sigtext thread first...

[Vorthon]

My most successful flight to date lasted about five minutes, reached about 18 kilometers above the ground, and ended with everybody aboard dieing in a fiery explosion upon impact with the ground. I may be horrible at designing rockets, but damn, it's fun.

[LoSboccacc]

Spoiler: HL mk2 (click to show/hide)

my last lander design, certified for atmospheric reentry 

[Sirus]

So what's the proper way to fix an orbit? I managed to get into orbit again yesterday, but it was highly eccentric, with a maximum distance of something around 5 million meters and a near distance of about 90km. I tried to fix it by angling lower while boosting, but wound up breaking orbit, and would have flung into deep space if I didn't use the last of my fuel to brake and eventually land.

[Silfurdreki]

To get a good orbit around Kerbal you go straight up until you are satisfied with your height (I usually go for a million meters and at least 1000 m/s). You then cut the engines and realign so that your rocket is parallel to the surface of the planet, and then boost until satisfactory orbit is achieved. There might be more efficient ways, but that is the quick and dirty way.

[alway]

The most important thing to remember is increasing your horizontal velocity increases your orbital height on the side of the planet opposite you. Reducing horizontal velocity decreases it. The easiest place to change your orbit is the periapsis, as the higher orbit and lower velocity decreases the fuel required to change orbits. To get into orbit, pretty much just go up. When you get partially up with a decent upwards velocity, go sideways and let the upward velocity get you to orbit.

[Orangebottle]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

SO.
MANY.
STRUTS.

This thing can get out of the Mun's orbit, at least. It's pretty cool.