Mun Tech: A Retrospective Look at Failed Ideas

Ah yes, one of my first rovers I've ever built. Arguably a rolling slab, this little guy didn't do much other than go forwards and backwards- and explode. One of the hardest aspects to roving on the Mun is simply the low gravity. I can only imagine how it must be on any of the inner planets or even Minmus. Regardless, roving on the Mun brings about its own set of challenges, such as gravity and gaining way too much momentum. There's a few solutions I've found, such as stabilizing your craft using Monopropellant or using the docking system rather than the rocket system to drive your rover. But really the Devs just need a dedicated roving system.

 This is one of those ideas that honestly pisses me off that it doesn't work as well as you'd like. Land based, Mun landing lights. I'm not looking for the impossible, just some high intensity lighting that will glow from a couple kilometers off. Okay, maybe that's asking a bit much.

 To be fair, this is still among the best Mun Rover I've ever made. The center of gravity was low, the craft was wide and flat- it was nearly perfect. Nearly. The biggest fault in this design came in the shape of the science probes you'll see jutting from the center mass of the rover. They were intended to decouple from the center of the craft, tossing itself into the field even as the rover moved. The problem was, they'd often get caught under the wheels as the Rover whizzed over the Mun surface at 70 meters per second. Which resulted in big explosions and nasty results.

But this craft will always have a special place in my heart, even if it can't be produced anymore. As with many of the updates, things change and in this case- building wheels on top of other wheels isn't possible anymore. Which is sad news, as the multiple wheels are what made this rover work so well on the Mun.

Kerbal Space Program: The Great Mun Race

I have no idea how this vessel even came to fly. Before the days of fairings, optimized rockets, or even atmosphere mods I was flying by the skin of my teeth with little, to no guidance. I hadn't a clue what I was doing as many of these pictures will make very apparent.

A friend of mine named Jordan turned me on to Kerbal Space Program and quickly our conquest for space pitted us against each other to achieve a landing on the Mun. A monumental task considering neither of us knew how to even exit the atmosphere back then. Jordan would be the first to exit the atmosphere but I wasn't far behind him, though I recall him giving me a few pointers. I wasn't anymore clever then your average space enthusiast and I recall not understanding how going straight up somehow didn't equal making orbit.

Though Jordan may have been the first to reach space, heck he may have been the first to reach the Mun. But I was gaining pace and already had developed a completely untested lander. I was proceeding exactly in Kerbal Space Program style- and I would come to pay for that soon enough.

It's tough when you first start off in Kerbal because you don't have a good sense of how much fuel you'll need for any particular launch. This would come to be the biggest problem I would face. Landing the craft on the Mun wasn't good enough- the winner would have to get back home too. My first attempt ended in scattered parts across the Mun.

My second, third and forth attempts didn't get me much further. While I was gaining critical knowledge which eventually led to stranding my kerbals on the surface of the Mun, I wasn't much closer to actually bringing anyone home.

While it may have taken a number of tries. Eventually, I started to figure it out and with that knowledge came even more experimentation and more advancements in deployment on the surface of the Mun. Winning the Mun race was a big deal and as time has gone on, I've really come to believe that if you can land on the Mun- you can go anywhere within Kerbal Space Program. The only thing you need is a little bit of determination and a proper amount of fuel.

I decided to write this article today to encourage every young Kerbal Space Program astronaut to not give up. The biggest challenges may lie ahead of you, but that's not to say they're not conquerable.

KSP Log: 002 Airbreaks Make Rentry Simple

Having trouble during re-entry? So did I until I found this awesome method to avoid most disastrous entries. The story goes like this, atmospheric drag was implemented and like most players I suddenly found my craft slamming into brick walls- those once easy sub orbitals that I passed off like grains of salt suddenly became heaping mounds of trouble. Nothing was safe- including my Kerbals.

As I experimented with ways to increase my drag during re-entry I got the slick idea to use Airbreak's to slow my decent. I mean, they have the word 'break' in them so I figured it couldn't be all bad. I applied multiple airbreak units to my craft and right clicked on the units to turn off their atmospheric controls. Meaning, they wouldn't work when maneuvering and would only deploy when I turned on the breaks manually.

The use of the airbreaks have worked wonderfully and when properly applied have proven the difference between life and death. While other considerings have to be made, such as proper use of parachutes and heat shields, the airbreaks form a vital first step top drop airspeed and prepare your craft for decent. Typically I won't drop into an atmosphere if I'm moving more than 3000 meters per second, but that's not to say I haven't skirted the higher limits of that limitation. In this picture to the left you'll notice I've used the deployable airbreaks on a probe. Not to toot my own horn, but this craft was a real work of art. Using the thrusters and airbreaks to slow its decent into Eve's atmosphere before jettisoning the mentioned components. Falling slower the parachutes were deployed and provided for a soft landing on Eve's surface. The heat shield was larger than necessary, but that was largely on purpose to protect the components behind the shield. I couldn't be too careful on Eve- prior landings have taught me how thick the atmosphere is, so I worried I might burn up if I wasn't careful.

 Today's final example of airbreaks were used to deorbit a small space station. You'll note in the rear there being a craft slightly larger than the closer craft. Both utilize airbreaks to slow their decent, but really none of this would have been possible if the airbreaks weren't there to slow the crafts during decent. In order to salvage both craft it meant docking in the shape of a 'T' and burning fuel de-orbit. That was the simple part, slowing the lop-sided craft was the hard part. But once again, with the aid of airbreaks it proved useful enough to slow decent, launch the parachutes and detach the craft. Both craft landed safely and most important- were recovered for a full refund on parts.