Well dang! Moho is really hard!

[One Eye Jack]

First attempt to land on Moho.

Didn’t look like too much of a challenge.

I guess it’s to tilt of the orbit that’s the problem. Takes a ton of Delta V to get into orbit.

I think I still have enough gas to land. Fingers crossed. It’s gonna be close.

Anyone else find this planet to be a hard target?

[Quizzical]

Well yes, planets are hard, other than Jool. I recommend landing softly so as not to take too much damage.

More seriously, in terms of how much delta-v it takes to get there, Moho is the farthest away from Kerbin. So yes, it's the hardest place to orbit, and the only thing stopping it from being the hardest to land is that some others such as Tylo and Eve have much stronger gravity.

I generally budget about 5000 m/s of delta-v to go from a low orbit of Kerbin to a low orbit of anything else, but 7000 m/s for Moho or Jool. That leaves a lot of slop so that you don't risk just barely not having enough. You'll also need a little over 1000 m/s to go from a low orbit about Moho to landed there.

[One Eye Jack]

Originally posted by Quizzical:

Well yes, planets are hard, other than Jool. I recommend landing softly so as not to take too much damage.

More seriously, in terms of how much delta-v it takes to get there, Moho is the farthest away from Kerbin. So yes, it's the hardest place to orbit, and the only thing stopping it from being the hardest to land is that some others such as Tylo and Eve have much stronger gravity.

I generally budget about 5000 m/s of delta-v to go from a low orbit of Kerbin to a low orbit of anything else, but 7000 m/s for Moho or Jool. That leaves a lot of slop so that you don't risk just barely not having enough. You'll also need a little over 1000 m/s to go from a low orbit about Moho to landed there.

Yeah I realized I was a mere 200 m/s shy of having enough gas to land when I got into orbit. So close.

I got a second ship on the way mostly for gas. LOL. I will be able to land. Eventually.

[Quizzical]

If you want something that actually uses a lot of delta-v, then try getting into a low orbit about the Sun. The threshold between high and low space is one million km, or 1 Gm.

[Jupiter3927]

Moho is about as hard to get to as Eeloo.
You could use Eve for a gravity assist to reach Moho with less fuel.
It's also so fast that you can ignore transfer windows and launch at one of the orbital nodes for a cheaper inclination change, then do a deep space burn at the other node to get that encounter.

It's also deceptively massive so that ground is going to come at you a lot faster than expected.

[One Eye Jack]

Originally posted by Jupiter3927:

Moho is about as hard to get to as Eeloo.
You could use Eve for a gravity assist to reach Moho with less fuel.
It's also so fast that you can ignore transfer windows and launch at one of the orbital nodes for a cheaper inclination change, then do a deep space burn at the other node to get that encounter.

It's also deceptively massive so that ground is going to come at you a lot faster than expected.

Yep I figured that out trying to land. Managed to land and even had enough gas to get back into orbit. Just barely. Working on getting a miner going so I can make some gas for my return trip now. Next trip will be better now that I know what I’m in for. This game is a blast. Bugs and all.

[Jupiter3927]

Go for the nuclear engines if you don't already have them.
Their high specific impulse and liquid fuel only requirement gives them a ton more dV than most other engines.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Jupiter3927:

Go for the nuclear engines if you don't already have them.
Their high specific impulse and liquid fuel only requirement gives them a ton more dV than most other engines.

If you don't have fuelswitch mods of some kind, using LF only seems disadvantageous. You can use jet fuel tank parts, but that provides a lot fewer options. (Though the ISP advantage will often make you come out ahead even with rocket fuel tanks minus the oxidizer, I think.)

[Empiro]

With Moho it's highly dependent on exactly how you do the transfer. This is because Moho's orbit is both inclined and eccentric.

You need to find a way to correct the inclination while also trying to capture when Moho's at its PE. When going into an eccentric orbit from a higher up circular orbit, it's most efficient to lower your PE to the new orbit's PE rather than the other way around. In Moho's case, the difference can be thousands of m/s.

I posted on the official forums with some advice here a long time ago:
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/187831-tips-on-a-moho-mission/

The optimal transfer is around 4200 m/s. By using the technique in that post, you can easily get it less than 4500 m/s. I remember the first time I did a Moho mission. I also took over 6000 m/s because I didn't know how to do it right.

[One Eye Jack]

Well update time guys.... OK I know I didn't do this as efficiently as possible. I ended up sending another ship mostly for fuel. Managed to land a mining ship with a grand total of 57 m/s left over. It was pretty much a suicide burn to get landed. But success!

Now I just hope the thing has enough power to take off when the ore tanks and the fuel tanks are full..... LOL I guess we will see. If it can, I will be able to refuel everything so Jeb can get back home. If it can't, he's stranded for now...... What a game.

[One Eye Jack]

Originally posted by Empiro:

With Moho it's highly dependent on exactly how you do the transfer. This is because Moho's orbit is both inclined and eccentric.

You need to find a way to correct the inclination while also trying to capture when Moho's at its PE. When going into an eccentric orbit from a higher up circular orbit, it's most efficient to lower your PE to the new orbit's PE rather than the other way around. In Moho's case, the difference can be thousands of m/s.

I posted on the official forums with some advice here a long time ago:
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/187831-tips-on-a-moho-mission/

The optimal transfer is around 4200 m/s. By using the technique in that post, you can easily get it less than 4500 m/s. I remember the first time I did a Moho mission. I also took over 6000 m/s because I didn't know how to do it right.

I have a terrible time with transfer windows. I can never seem to get an encounter. I guess it's a matter of practice. Usually I just get into solar orbit and adjust my inclination then go for an encounter. I know that's probably not too fuel efficient but it works fine for almost every planet I have gone to. This one was a major exception.

Guess I need more practice.

[Empiro]

If you look at the link above, it doesn't really use transfer windows at all. Instead, it's all about using the built-in KSP tools to know when to do the burn. You get a point where your orbits touch, which lets you see the encounter markers, and then you get the encounter by slightly tweaking your orbital period.

By far, the greatest savings come from planning to encounter at the right place (near the PE), and correcting both the inclination and lowering your PE at Kerbin. It's actually really easy to time it if you launch a canary ship as instructed in the post.

If you can get that first step mostly right, then you shouldn't need to make many adjustments in solar orbit. Moho is small enough that you don't lose much efficiency if you do retrograde burns at Moho's PE. Still, if you follow my advice in the thread, you will come very close to the absolute minimum delta-v (without using gravity assists) that you can get.

[One Eye Jack]

Originally posted by Empiro:

If you look at the link above, it doesn't really use transfer windows at all. Instead, it's all about using the built-in KSP tools to know when to do the burn. You get a point where your orbits touch, which lets you see the encounter markers, and then you get the encounter by slightly tweaking your orbital period.

By far, the greatest savings come from planning to encounter at the right place (near the PE), and correcting both the inclination and lowering your PE at Kerbin. It's actually really easy to time it if you launch a canary ship as instructed in the post.

If you can get that first step mostly right, then you shouldn't need to make many adjustments in solar orbit. Moho is small enough that you don't lose much efficiency if you do retrograde burns at Moho's PE. Still, if you follow my advice in the thread, you will come very close to the absolute minimum delta-v (without using gravity assists) that you can get.

Thanks much. Next trip I will try it this way. Appreciate the help. Countless hours in the game already and I’m still learning new stuff. 😀

[GunsForBucks]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2114292582

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2111825135

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2111825864

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2111831837

[One Eye Jack]

Originally posted by GunsForBucks:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2114292582

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2111825135

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2111825864

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2111831837

Awesome! So much rocket for one little rover!

[Mightylink]

Moho is like Kerbin without the atmosphere so there is nothing to slow you down during landing and you need a good sized rocket to be able to leave again.