Moon Activities

After orbital missions, most players attempt orbiting and/or landing on the Moon.

Requirements[]

The Moon is close to Earth. It is the closest celestial body from the Earth in-game. Transfer windows occur very often making travel to and from earth and the moon easy and frequent. The Moon has a moderately large sphere of influence and very close to Earth at 19220 kilometers away, making it easier to target. Its low gravity makes liftoff possible with the smallest rockets and rockets that have little fuel left. It is easy to escape Moon's sphere of influence and fly towards Earth orbit.

On the other hand, the Moon has no atmosphere. So, parachutes are useless. Any rocket descending on the Moon will have to use retrorockets to slow down. However, given the low gravity, the amount of fuel spent is not significant.

Objectives[]

There are many things that can be done on and around the Moon. Any player can recreate historical missions, such as Apollo 11 mission. Here are some activities:

Hard landing[]

The first probes sent to the Moon were designed to impact its surface. Hard landing requires less control and less preparation, but it can be hard to determine what will remain of the spacecraft post-impact. Certainly, it will not be able to return home and much of the science equipment will be affected. Hard landings and lithobraking can also facilitate fuel saving needs for low mass or low part count missions.

Flyby[]

The first probes sent to the Moon failed or were not designed to orbit. A lunar flyby can be easily achieved.

The Moon can be used for gravity assist manuevers. A rocket passing once or twice (with the perfect position) can be thrown into heliocentric orbit or sent to impact Earth (free return trajectory). Some players use this effect at their advantage to save fuel for interplanetary missions.

Orbit[]

Getting into lunar orbit is not difficult, only a short and cheap burn is needed to circularize.

In lunar orbit, one can do many things:

Space stations can be made
Fuel depots
Lunar orbit construction
etc.

Landing[]

It is easy to land on the Moon. There are three things that can be done:

One-way missions can send in the first step equipment to lunar the surface; an example is a research probe on the lunar surface.
Moon base missions will carry parts for building a base or a colony on the Moon. The colony can have rovers, a platform for rockets, a rocket ready for return and facilities for astronauts.
Landing and return missions can recreate the famous Apollo program. These missions require less fuel and less time than reaching other planets.