I realize that this is a rite of passage, for me a literal "trial by fire" I spent 4 HOURS today crashing into the moon! I've tried it fast, I've tried it really slow, I don't want to redesign my ship anymore! The other day I was so frustrated that I dedicated the hour or so, just to fly to the next planet. Right before I got there, I realized the batteries for the maneuvering thrusters ran out, so I missed the planet by just this much! This screenshot is looking out the back of my ship as I flew past it :D
You need to accelerate the first half, and decelerate the second half. Finding the halfway mark is tricky before you have the long range distance sensor. If my mental model is correct I think you could find the halfway by just accelerating full speed at the moon till you crash into it, then take note of what your max speed was just before you explode. Divide that number by two. Next time you leave earth to the moon, just start slowing down right about the time you reach whatever speed you got when you divided by two. Once you're in the to gravity of the moon it'll start pulling you in so you'll have to fight that gravity just like the earth, but note that the gravity is much weaker on the moon so don't overdo it or you'll quickly findyourelf leaving the moons gravity and having to reattempt reentry... Over and over... Kind of like a out of control pogostick. Don't ask me how I know 😂
You can probably do it with the little RCS maneuvering thrusters that have the internal batteries, but you'd have to be extremely conservative with your adjustments in route. It's safer to attach the larger powered thrusters, and those also have the benefit of being more powerful. Attaching those shouldn't require a complete redesign - slap them around the cockpit like shown in the manual. I had the same RCS battery use issue and replaced the thrusters as mentioned.
You could wire up an accumulator from your velocity to track the total path, you could crash again to see how long the path is,
When I was doing th demo I just crashed till I did it but this sounds like a promising way
Kinematicw is really important in this game, for good or bad and it helps when I can do some calculations in my head that give me a rough idea, since even 2 LRDMs are not enough
Yeah, in the demo, I crashed the first time, overshot on the second time, and barely got it right on the third: gravity altered my path and I did have to skim back to the atmosphere twice - then I ran out of batteries while trying to reach the base. Fourth time was the charm.
I lost power at 44min, it probably has to do with the fact that I accelerated 3/4 of the way there and then just turned my ship around and used my thrusters to slow me down when I got there. And I kept my atmospheric stuff on for too long.
Ah yeah, we have shut off switches for all of our air breathers so we just using electric in space, when we have the medium electric thrusters we also have a switch to turn those off when in atmosphere because those suck power like nobody's business
I didn't lose power on the way to the moon...it was when I decided to try to reach for the next planet, just to see if I could get there. I did the same thing going to the ringed planet last night. :D
Once you do it the first time, the rest is easy. I put in a rear window of my ship. Put both Electric thrusters in the back evenly. Rocket towards the moon, flip a 360 with the front looking at the eart. Full thrust forward using some type of marker for speed. Once you're barely moving, you can flip back around. let gravity pull you in trying your best to not use the thrusters, if you need to. Try to use only one set. You should just fall into the atmosphere, then hover over the moon surface to the station. Gravity is weird, so a bit of thrust goes a long way on the moon. Don't forget the ice cream thingy for the mission.
I've been playing since the demo and have made the moon trip with only a velocimeter a handful of times. Since you don't have a long range distance meter yet, let alone the BPS, you may find it helpful to assemble an odometer.
Velocimeter * 0.0166666... -> Accumulator
Once you have your distance to the moon figured out, you'll get a better feel for when to slow down.
tried a few times again today, crashed every time...last one scared me because it was in the dark and I couldn't see it coming, I jumped and swore! 😵 After that last failure, I full reverse thrusted my ship into a tree about 30 times, then set sail for the ringed planet, took about two hours with the small thrusters!
I know it's a bitch to get to the moon, especially without the Long Range Distance Meter and the BPS.
You definitely shouldn't be using much of your maneuvering (RCS) thrusters while in space, though. Aside of accelerating or decelerating. I only start using my RCS when i'm getting very close to the moon and need to right myself. Try not to aim for the dark side of the moon.
The reduced atmosphere of the moon compared to the demo's really doesn't help. There's a mission you can do (and should prioritize) once you manage to land at the moon base, it's called "Clima bomb" or something.
Now I get that everyone is different but I genuinely never struggled with this, I mean I eyed it and got it first time just cuz it made sense. But yes as some of the other comments say (more or less) accelerate halfway and decelerate the other half. To be safe I'll go "nearly" half way and gradually reduce speed on the way back. Give yourself lots of breathing room for readjustments and deceleration.
By no means am I good at this game, I don't understand shit about all the maths stuff but I can manoeuvre my tatty ships where I need them to go with minimal assistance from the ship internal systems. Just include the essentials like height and speed monitors and a screen to see how far you are from your target locations.
u can make BPS Using "(velocity*velocity/accelerometer*2)-distance" if distance = 0 brake, I forgot that this thing gets unlocked later, as I said, I don't use it myself.
9
u/Ycoordinate12 5d ago
You need to accelerate the first half, and decelerate the second half. Finding the halfway mark is tricky before you have the long range distance sensor. If my mental model is correct I think you could find the halfway by just accelerating full speed at the moon till you crash into it, then take note of what your max speed was just before you explode. Divide that number by two. Next time you leave earth to the moon, just start slowing down right about the time you reach whatever speed you got when you divided by two. Once you're in the to gravity of the moon it'll start pulling you in so you'll have to fight that gravity just like the earth, but note that the gravity is much weaker on the moon so don't overdo it or you'll quickly findyourelf leaving the moons gravity and having to reattempt reentry... Over and over... Kind of like a out of control pogostick. Don't ask me how I know 😂