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Having discovered all the known discoverables on Kerbin, it is time to set my sites on the Mun. Mission Control has already sent me to the Monument (the golden arch) and I have found another arch. There are at least three others that I haven’t seen from low orbit so I “cheated” a bit and went to the forums to look up where they are.
One is south of the Mare Orientalem Plagam (the East Farside Sea), another is southwest of Mare Tergus (the other Farside Sea) and the third is on the northwest “coast” of Mare Chorum (the Northwest Sea). The plan is to go to the Mun and see which one turns out to be the best opportunity for landing.
Mission Designation : LN-5, LN-6
Rocket Model : Lunaria UL-II
Total delta-V (to orbit) : 8,842 m/s (4,013 m/s)
Surface TWR : 1.20
Total Mass (to orbit) : 184.07 t (30.46 t)
Dry Mass : 37.93 t
Part Count : 62
Height : 23.79 m
Width : 7.99 m
Length : 3.96 m
Mission Objectives : Discover discoverable
Crew : Jebediah Kerman, Kaldun Kerman, Jonbles Kerman
The first launch glitched for some reason. I switched to map view during the launch and when I switched back, I could not see the craft or the UI. The map view wasn’t showing the trajectory or the UI. In IVA I had the UI. There was no way I was going to space that way so I shutdown my engines, staged everything, and parachuted back to the ground.
Closing and restarting the application returned control to normal and I was able to launch, orbit, transfer, and orbit the Mun without issue.
The inclination was pretty steep but didn’t quite line up on any of the targets. The first was near the sunset terminator so I could have burned a a bunch of fuel changing my inclination and attempting a landing at nightfall but I wanted to have at least one orbit to flyover and judge the landing zone before actually performing the landing. I resolved myself to waiting on orbit for a few days until a landing zone came into the next day.
The second target was also not quite along my trajectory to get a look before it too went into darkness.
The third one, In was able to see something on the horizon before it too went into darkness. It will likely be my next landing target as it was big enough to see from a ways off.
The first target had now crossed the morning terminator and I did a small change on inclination burn to pass over it. From an orbit of 16 km I couldn’t tell much. Maybe a big rock in the middle of a crater.
On the next approach, I used the last fuel of the transfer stage to deorbit and descend.
I had to slew my landing because I was coming down right on top of it and didn’t want to do that. I landed just as it was getting dark as I touched down just as Kerbin eclipsed the sun.
It was, in fact, a big rock. The Mun Mound is an apparently huge piece of ejecta 100 meters across and 34 meters high. It sits in the center of a crater that is about 286 meters across though, because of the way craters are made, it is not the impactor that would have made the crater. The region appears to be 240 meters in diameter and my craft had landed just outside that, meaning I would need to gently lift off and slew closer so that the “Science Jr. Jr.” can make an observation.
And I fell over.
Much like Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lunar lander had too much lateral speed on it’s landing and fell over, my craft had the same problem, thankfully not breaking anything. I was able to retract my gear, then, by applying torque trying to right the vehicle with the reaction wheels and re-extending the gear, the craft was able to pop back upright. Again, without breaking anything.
But I still wasn’t within the fairly small science region. So I tried again. And fell over again. And had to right myself again.
At least I got my science.
Mission Summary
Mission Elapsed Time : 5d, 5h, 55m
Highest Altitude : 10,640 km
Maximum Velocity : 2,952 m/s
Landing Site : Ocean east of Great Lakes Seaway
Science : 220
One is south of the Mare Orientalem Plagam (the East Farside Sea), another is southwest of Mare Tergus (the other Farside Sea) and the third is on the northwest “coast” of Mare Chorum (the Northwest Sea). The plan is to go to the Mun and see which one turns out to be the best opportunity for landing.
Mission Designation : LN-5, LN-6
Rocket Model : Lunaria UL-II
Total delta-V (to orbit) : 8,842 m/s (4,013 m/s)
Surface TWR : 1.20
Total Mass (to orbit) : 184.07 t (30.46 t)
Dry Mass : 37.93 t
Part Count : 62
Height : 23.79 m
Width : 7.99 m
Length : 3.96 m
Mission Objectives : Discover discoverable
Crew : Jebediah Kerman, Kaldun Kerman, Jonbles Kerman
The first launch glitched for some reason. I switched to map view during the launch and when I switched back, I could not see the craft or the UI. The map view wasn’t showing the trajectory or the UI. In IVA I had the UI. There was no way I was going to space that way so I shutdown my engines, staged everything, and parachuted back to the ground.
Closing and restarting the application returned control to normal and I was able to launch, orbit, transfer, and orbit the Mun without issue.
The inclination was pretty steep but didn’t quite line up on any of the targets. The first was near the sunset terminator so I could have burned a a bunch of fuel changing my inclination and attempting a landing at nightfall but I wanted to have at least one orbit to flyover and judge the landing zone before actually performing the landing. I resolved myself to waiting on orbit for a few days until a landing zone came into the next day.
The second target was also not quite along my trajectory to get a look before it too went into darkness.
The third one, In was able to see something on the horizon before it too went into darkness. It will likely be my next landing target as it was big enough to see from a ways off.
The first target had now crossed the morning terminator and I did a small change on inclination burn to pass over it. From an orbit of 16 km I couldn’t tell much. Maybe a big rock in the middle of a crater.
On the next approach, I used the last fuel of the transfer stage to deorbit and descend.
I had to slew my landing because I was coming down right on top of it and didn’t want to do that. I landed just as it was getting dark as I touched down just as Kerbin eclipsed the sun.
It was, in fact, a big rock. The Mun Mound is an apparently huge piece of ejecta 100 meters across and 34 meters high. It sits in the center of a crater that is about 286 meters across though, because of the way craters are made, it is not the impactor that would have made the crater. The region appears to be 240 meters in diameter and my craft had landed just outside that, meaning I would need to gently lift off and slew closer so that the “Science Jr. Jr.” can make an observation.
And I fell over.
Much like Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lunar lander had too much lateral speed on it’s landing and fell over, my craft had the same problem, thankfully not breaking anything. I was able to retract my gear, then, by applying torque trying to right the vehicle with the reaction wheels and re-extending the gear, the craft was able to pop back upright. Again, without breaking anything.
But I still wasn’t within the fairly small science region. So I tried again. And fell over again. And had to right myself again.
At least I got my science.
Mission Summary
Mission Elapsed Time : 5d, 5h, 55m
Highest Altitude : 10,640 km
Maximum Velocity : 2,952 m/s
Landing Site : Ocean east of Great Lakes Seaway
Science : 220
