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My new medium-parts lander uses a LV-909 “Terrier” engine instead of the CTV’s “Poodle” engine. That lowers the Thrust to Weight ratio to 2.5, which should be enough. The Apollo LEM had a TWR of between 2.1 to 3.6. My landing will need to be more like the Apollo landing where the engine ran continuously during the descent
The transfer stage should have a bunch leftover delta-V to assist with that.
Testing the lander on the pad showed some issue with the ladder. The Kerbal would leave the capsule and descend using the rails on the MK1-3 “Gumball”. At the bottom he would stop, unable to make the transition to the “Kelus Long” Telescopic Mobility Ladder attached to the service module. I added a “Pegasus 1” Advanced Mobility Enhancer to try to bridge the gap but that didn’t work either. The best I could manage was to hit the space bar to let go and then quickly hit the “F” key to grab the ladder again. And the same issue occurred climbing the ladder where I would climb to the top and stop. Hitting “F” would allow me to then grab the next part and continue the ascent.
Not a big deal in the Mun’s gravity but something that could be more troublesome later.
I tried a few different things with the launcher but ended up with a core driven by an RE-M3 “Mainsail” with a pair of radially mounted tanks with RE-15 “Skipper” engines with fuel lines feeding back into the core.
Every stage has a lot of extra delta-V.
Mission Designation : LN-1
Rocket Model : Lunaria UL-I
Total delta-V (to orbit) : 7,984 m/s (3,135 m/s)
Surface TWR : 1.2
Total Mass (to orbit) : 183.73 t (30.12 t)
Dry Mass : 37.60 t
Part Count : 52
Height : 24.52 m
Width : 7.99 m
Length : 3.96
Mission Objectives : Munar landing at Arch
Crew : Keldun Kerman, Donbles Kerman, Theobus Kerman
When the core stage is discarded during circularization, it still had over 300 m/s of dV. I might just try to optimize that a little. The ascent to orbit doesn’t need as much of a buffer as, say, a landing would.
The transfer stage arrives in Munar orbit with 474 m/s of dV. Having that much extra dV will help on the descent.
The arrival in Munar orbit is also with the landing zone in darkness, before local midnight. That means I will need to wait in orbit for several days, waiting for dawn at the arch. I could add lights to the lander but I hate landing in the dark.
As sun rises over the arch, I can get a better look at the area. The broad, flat mare to the south, a crater within a crater to the north. The arch rests on a rise between the two that is mostly flat but with more space to land to the east. The whole space seems a little broader and flatter than I remember it being in KSP1.
Deorbit. Landing approach. I do not like how much I have to run the engine to slow my descent. It makes it harder to choose a landing site precisely when you are worried about decelerating enough not to crash. The next updated version will have more thrust.
The landing is 145 m from the arch.
This arch is 134 m high, about 10 m shorter than the golden arch found previously. It appears made of natural or local stone but nothing to indicate it was a massive stone carved to its arch shape. It is aligned 45 degrees east of north. The arches region or biome extends about 190 meters from the arch.
The lander still has 2,063 m/s of dV after landing so it is an easy thing, before returning home, to lift off at a very low thrust and slew eastward to land in the highland region to gather additional environmental science.
It is on the return to Munar orbit that I start having glitching.
On the launch I can no longer see the orbital path. Once I get up to an appropriate apoapsis and circularize, it doesn’t stay circularized. The craft starts falling as if there were some decelerating force being constantly applied. I reload a save and try again. And again.
Eventually I quit the whole game, relaunch, and reload from a manual save before takeoff. Back to normal. I have heard online about these issues. Previous versions apparently had even more problems more often. The game is officially “Early Access” so bugs are to be expected.
Once in orbit and having done the transfer burn to return to Kerbin, the craft has plenty of dV. Enough to make Kerbin orbit if I wanted to. I might have tried hopping to another region. One of the “Crater” regions, the problem being that not all craters count as a region.
Next time, Gadget. Next time.
Mission Summary
Mission Elapsed Time : 5 days or so, didn’t write it down
Highest Altitude : 11,904 km
Maximum Velocity : 2,937 m/s
Highest G-force Endured : 70.2 G (don’t believe it, probably closer to 7 G)
Landing Site : Ocean south of Great Desert
Science : 532
With the science gathered, the mission rewards, and a few Orbital Survey milestones that occurred during the trip, there are 1,000 science points total.
I’m going to start watching the Micro Engineer much more closely during flight to work out the G-forces thing.
The transfer stage should have a bunch leftover delta-V to assist with that.
Testing the lander on the pad showed some issue with the ladder. The Kerbal would leave the capsule and descend using the rails on the MK1-3 “Gumball”. At the bottom he would stop, unable to make the transition to the “Kelus Long” Telescopic Mobility Ladder attached to the service module. I added a “Pegasus 1” Advanced Mobility Enhancer to try to bridge the gap but that didn’t work either. The best I could manage was to hit the space bar to let go and then quickly hit the “F” key to grab the ladder again. And the same issue occurred climbing the ladder where I would climb to the top and stop. Hitting “F” would allow me to then grab the next part and continue the ascent.
Not a big deal in the Mun’s gravity but something that could be more troublesome later.
I tried a few different things with the launcher but ended up with a core driven by an RE-M3 “Mainsail” with a pair of radially mounted tanks with RE-15 “Skipper” engines with fuel lines feeding back into the core.
Every stage has a lot of extra delta-V.
Mission Designation : LN-1
Rocket Model : Lunaria UL-I
Total delta-V (to orbit) : 7,984 m/s (3,135 m/s)
Surface TWR : 1.2
Total Mass (to orbit) : 183.73 t (30.12 t)
Dry Mass : 37.60 t
Part Count : 52
Height : 24.52 m
Width : 7.99 m
Length : 3.96
Mission Objectives : Munar landing at Arch
Crew : Keldun Kerman, Donbles Kerman, Theobus Kerman
When the core stage is discarded during circularization, it still had over 300 m/s of dV. I might just try to optimize that a little. The ascent to orbit doesn’t need as much of a buffer as, say, a landing would.
The transfer stage arrives in Munar orbit with 474 m/s of dV. Having that much extra dV will help on the descent.
The arrival in Munar orbit is also with the landing zone in darkness, before local midnight. That means I will need to wait in orbit for several days, waiting for dawn at the arch. I could add lights to the lander but I hate landing in the dark.
As sun rises over the arch, I can get a better look at the area. The broad, flat mare to the south, a crater within a crater to the north. The arch rests on a rise between the two that is mostly flat but with more space to land to the east. The whole space seems a little broader and flatter than I remember it being in KSP1.
Deorbit. Landing approach. I do not like how much I have to run the engine to slow my descent. It makes it harder to choose a landing site precisely when you are worried about decelerating enough not to crash. The next updated version will have more thrust.
The landing is 145 m from the arch.
This arch is 134 m high, about 10 m shorter than the golden arch found previously. It appears made of natural or local stone but nothing to indicate it was a massive stone carved to its arch shape. It is aligned 45 degrees east of north. The arches region or biome extends about 190 meters from the arch.
The lander still has 2,063 m/s of dV after landing so it is an easy thing, before returning home, to lift off at a very low thrust and slew eastward to land in the highland region to gather additional environmental science.
It is on the return to Munar orbit that I start having glitching.
On the launch I can no longer see the orbital path. Once I get up to an appropriate apoapsis and circularize, it doesn’t stay circularized. The craft starts falling as if there were some decelerating force being constantly applied. I reload a save and try again. And again.
Eventually I quit the whole game, relaunch, and reload from a manual save before takeoff. Back to normal. I have heard online about these issues. Previous versions apparently had even more problems more often. The game is officially “Early Access” so bugs are to be expected.
Once in orbit and having done the transfer burn to return to Kerbin, the craft has plenty of dV. Enough to make Kerbin orbit if I wanted to. I might have tried hopping to another region. One of the “Crater” regions, the problem being that not all craters count as a region.
Next time, Gadget. Next time.
Mission Summary
Mission Elapsed Time : 5 days or so, didn’t write it down
Highest Altitude : 11,904 km
Maximum Velocity : 2,937 m/s
Highest G-force Endured : 70.2 G (don’t believe it, probably closer to 7 G)
Landing Site : Ocean south of Great Desert
Science : 532
With the science gathered, the mission rewards, and a few Orbital Survey milestones that occurred during the trip, there are 1,000 science points total.
I’m going to start watching the Micro Engineer much more closely during flight to work out the G-forces thing.
