Tutorial:Moon landing using mods

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Landing on the Mun is no easy task! With a reasonable gravity well, and no atmosphere, the rocky natural terrain make a rocky grave for Kerbanauts. This tutorial provides tips on how to land on the Mun using MechJeb.

Specifications

• Length: 5-10 minutes
• Difficulty: Moderate
• For version: 0.19 and above

Steps

Step 1 - Getting MechJeb

Get MechJeb from [1]. MechJeb is a autopilot plugin that allows you get into orbit, and go to the moon in the fastest and efficient way possible.

Suggested mods to find include:

• MechJeb Command Prods & Probes [2]. This extra mod enables MechJeb on all the command pods.

Step 2 - Launch the rocket using Ascent Autopilot

Since MechJeb doesn't use much fuel you may use Kerbal X which is included with KSP, and add two extra Rockomax X200-32 Fuel Tank at the the middle section at the bottom.

Step 3 - Go to the Mun

Difficult on first glance, a rule of thumb will help you get there.

• Wait for Mun-rise to finish from an approx. 100,000m orbit
• Burn to raise your apoapsis to between 11.5 and 12.5 million.
• Get captured by the Mun's gravity.

Step 4 - Land on the Mun

• Once captured by the Mun, Retro-burn to first counter-act the slingshot, past, slowing into an eliptical orbit.
• Continue retro-burn to place Periapsis on the surface of the Mun.
• From here, several large burns, or one long gentle burn will be required to negate your horizontal and vertical speed.
• Aim to hit the surface land with less than 5 m/s vertically and less than 3 m/s horizontally to ensure a safe landing.
• Keep SAS on, to stabilize the vehicle on landing.

Step 5 - Return to Kerbin Optional

• If your rocket has the fuel to reach the Mun's escape you can most probably return to Kerbin.
• First fire your rockets but monitor your map view for the point at which you reach the Mun's escape velocity and cut the rockets.
• Once in the gravity well of Kerbin burn to lower Periapsis to lower the 70,000m.
• Warp to your Periapsis. Lower than 70,000m the drag from the atmosphere of Kerbin will lower your orbit without the need for additional burns.
• With luck you will have some fuel left that can be used for canceling extra vertical and horizontal velocity before the opening of your parachutes or a power landing. (Parachutes are much easier than power landings on Kerbin.)

Finishing word

Flying to Mun is a great achievement and one which all aspire to accomplishing. This guide should help you to achieve your goals and begin to look at even more challenging possibilities in KSP!

If you feel you have anything to contribute to this tutorial, please feel free to add, as this is still very short!

Thanks for editing the rest of this PD.~Longmvu