Overview
There are a lot of ways to land, and this guide will cover them all. Covers everything from sucicde burns to slow and gentle landings.
Hello there Future Starter!
There are many people who want to prove their space programs are not just death sentences, and the best way to do this is to go to another world. Landing is very dangerous however, and must be done properly. Many other guides exist on this, but I feel they don’t cover enough landing procedures. Let’s get the ball rolling now!
Getting There From Orbit
This guide is going to assume you’re already in orbit if you’re planning on getting here, so I won’t go over how to do that. To get to the target body, you must transfer orbits. The diagram below is the optimal orbital procedure.
Landing
Less imposing than it sounds, Suicide burning is very simple and easy for first time Mun landers, Burn retrograde until you go straight down. When nearing the surface, burn at maximum power. Be careful, as I have had missions die this way due to it’s generally dangerous nature and high fuel consumption. Most missions like this will require a rescue. Suicide burning is NOT a pleasant thing for those who didn’t bring enough fuel…
Burn very carefully toward retrograde until your Pe marker enters the surface. wait a while, and burn again. Continue this process every once in a while until retrograde is on the top of the navball, which should happen fairly near the surface. Burn until you are less than 1 m/s and keep your velocity that low until you land.
Use an above method, but only use RCS.
NOTE! THE GRAVITY MUST BE VERY LOW IF YOU WISH TO DO THIS, OTHERWISE YOU WILL CRASH.
Some planets have atmospheres, which allow parachutes to work. You may need several of them, but you can land on any atmospheric planet this way, just as long as the Pe marker is in the atmosphere.
If using a space plane and the planet has an atmosphere, you can glide down.
YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE JET ENGINES ON OTHER PLANETS! Laythe is the only other place with Oxygen in its atmosphere, and it’s a moon.
Know Your Limits
Despite your best efforts, you just can’t land on some things:
The sun has a surface, but no atmosphir, and the largest gravity well to date. Landing on the sun is not possible, and would result in the death of any and all kerbals involved.
Jool is a gas giant, and the high pressure will crush any craft trying to land on it… Don’t even think about it bub.
Everywhere else. No other planets/ celestial bodys will kill you when you try to land.
There is Nothing More I Can Teach You…
That’s it, there’s nothing more. Now go! LAND ON EVERYTHING POSSIBLE!!!
Take pictures while you’re there as well.
