Strategy Guides/Mercury Landing

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These are the strategy guides for Mercury landings, and possibly return missions to the planet.

Landing

Strategy 1 (Most Efficient)

The most efficient way to Mercury requires several gravity assists from Venus and Mercury, known as leveraging. This method uses several more advanced methods to reduce delta-v. This method can be very challenging to new players.

1. Launch your rocket to orbit.
2. Wait for the transfer window.
3. Transfer to Venus.
4. Make sure the post-Venus flyby trajectory intercepts the orbit of Mercury.
5. Flyby Venus.
6. Plan a Mercury encounter. Make sure that the post-Mercury flyby trajectory has its aphelion reduced.
7. Perform more flybys or Mercury to reduce aphelion near Mercury. (5 or 6 is recommended)
8. Wait for a Mercury transfer.
9. Place the perihermion as close to the surface without hitting the surface as possible.
10. Capture at perihermion to use the Oberth effect for maximum efficiency.
11. Continue burning at perihermion to land. Angle <90° to lower maximum altitude. Angle >90° to raise maximum altitude. Try to make the perihermion lower the longer the burn lasts.
12. Once all horizontal velocity is canceled, place the craft's angle to 0° and burn to cancel vertical velocity.
13. Land.

Strategy

Still easy, but Delta-V is higher than strategy 1. A ton of fuel is used, so build the rocket in orbit first or BP editing.

1. Launch the rocket and get to Orbit.
2. Wait for the transfer window of Venus.
3. Burn your rocket to go to Venus
4. Get into Venus orbit
5. Wait for the transfer window to Mercury while in Venus orbit
6. Burn the rocket to Mercury orbit
7. Deorbit rocket.
8. Slow down using retrorockets
9. At 200 meters, slow down to 5 meters per second
10. Do a small burn just before touchdown

Strategy

Instead of going to Venus, which will consume a lot of fuel, the rocket instead gains a low heliocentric orbit, then it lands on Mercury.

1. Launch the rocket and get into a stable orbit.
2. Use a transfer window to Mercury to gain a low heliocentric orbit. If you know when to burn to a lower heliocentric orbit, skip this part instead.
3. Set a perihelion from 3,000,000 kilometers to 4,000,000 kilometers.
4. At the perihelion, circularize the orbit.
5. Wait the transfer window of Mercury.
6. At the transfer window, burn the rocket to Mercury.
7. Get into Mercury orbit
8. Deorbit the rocket and land.
9. Do a little retrorocket burn just before touchdown.

Strategy

A ton of fuel must be used, since it takes a lot of Delta-V to get into Mercury orbit.

1. Launch the rocket and get into a nice, stable orbit.
2. Wait for a transfer window of Mercury.
3. Burn your rocket into Mercury.
4. Wait until the rocket enters Mercury.
5. Get into Mercury orbit.
   1. You need to pack a lot of fuel on your rocket.
6. Land on Mercury. Use retrorockets to slow down.
7. Do a small retrorocket burn just before touchdown.

Strategy

This will take a long time, but Delta-V is lower in this thing.

1. Launch the rocket and get to orbit.
2. Do 1 or 2 flybys of Earth
3. Do 1 or 2 flybys of Venus
4. Do 3 - 5 flybys of Mercury
5. Get into orbit around Mercury.
6. Deorbit the rocket.
7. Land on Mercury

Landing and Return

See also:

Strategy 1 (Similar to Mercury Return Mission Strategy)

See Mercury Return Mission article. This strategy is feasible with the free version if Spaceflight Simulator.

Strategy 2 (Get into heliocentric orbit before going to Mercury and go to Venus before return to Earth)

This takes a lot of time, parts, stages and budget, but this is a pretty easy task to do the mission.

1. Launch the rocket and get into a stable orbit around the Earth.
2. Click Mercury, and click "Navigate To".
3. Wait the transfer window to pop up in your rocket.
4. Burn the rocket into a low heliocentric orbit, between the orbits of Venus and Mercury.
5. Wait the transfer window to Mercury, then burn your rocket to Mercury.
6. Get into Mercury orbit.
7. Deorbit the rocket, then land. Use retrorockets to slow down.
8. Do a little retrorocket burn just before touchdown.
9. Liftoff from Mercury's surface.
10. Get a Mercury orbit, either high or low.
11. Wait for a transfer window to Venus.
12. Go into Venus orbit.
13. At Venus orbit, go back into the home planet.
14. Wait for the transfer window to Earth.
    1. Sometimes, the Moon can damage your trajectory.
15. Get into Earth orbit. It is better than aerobraking into the atmosphere of the Earth, or else the rocket won't slow down enough.
16. Deorbit the rocket.
17. Wait for rocket to slow down the the Earth's atmosphere.
18. Deploy the parachute, and safely return to Earth.
    1. If you land the rocket as a lander instead of a separatable capsule, you must have landing legs, to avoid destroying any part, such as an engine, fuel tank or whatnot.
    2. If you have no parachute, and you return to earth as a lander, use the retrorockets. Do not exceed 12.5 meters per second, or else your rocket would be destroyed.
    3. If you have no parachute, or it is not a lander, the best way to protect your rocket is putting your capsule with Rover Wheels, to not damage the capsule and or killing your astronauts due to high impact speeds.
    4. If you have no parachute, no lander, and no Rover Wheels, you can just crash your capsule into Earth. It is still a successful mission even if the capsule is destroyed at the end.

Strategy 3 (Flybys)

Similar to strategy 5 on the landing section, bur with more flybys.

1. Launch the rocket and get to orbit.
2. Do 1 flyby of Earth
3. Do 1 or 2 Venus flybys
4. Do 4 Mercury flybys
5. Get into Mercury orbit
6. Land on Mercury
7. Return to Mercury orbit
8. Do 1 Venus flyby
9. Return to Earth orbit
10. Return to Earth's surface