kerbal-space-program
I'm trying to land on the Mun in the first Mun tutorial. What I find is that I can escape Kerbal orbit and intercept the Mun, then set an orbit basically going straight down into the Mun.
But when I try to slow down to land, I always run out of fuel well before I get close to the Mun's surface, or I get too close too fast to slow down in time.
Is it actually possible to land on the Mun in this tutorial, or will there never be enough fuel?
Should I even bother with trying a low energy transfer, utilizing Mun to get to Minmus?
No. Minimus has an eccentric orbit. Attempting to gain a gravity assist from the Mun that will provide the exact normal/antinormal force to end up in a good Minmus encounter at the exact right point of it's orbit will require some very exact calculations.
The most efficient way I know of is to match the orbital inclination before making the injection burn. From a parking orbit of approximately 100km this just happens to be as it rises over Kerbin.
You're right, that setup wont get you to Gilly and back, for a variety of reasons.
Here are four ways you can improve your game and make for yourself a rocket that will perform that mission. I'm assuming, since you're playing KSP in the first place, that you want the achievement of having made and flown the entire thing, not just downloaded someone's .craft file!
* Caterpillar Staging is when you have engines that aren't jettisoned with the fuel tanks, as pictured below. (The parts with the diagonal lines are meant to represent the 2m Rockomax decouplers.) Just like Asparagus Staging, Caterpillar Staging is meant to drop the dry weight of empty tanks and therefore keep the rest of the craft light and long range.
Best Answer
I believe that you can with the proper technique, but it won't be simple because this craft inexplicably has a massive amount of dead weight in RCS fuel.
I think that if you burn all your RCS immediately you should be able to make the landing.
If you're desperate, you could also use the unlimited EVA jetpack fuel to literally get out and push, which is very slow but free.
Edit: I just read your opening post more carefully, and that is seriously not how you do it. When setting your initial interception orbit, aim for a periapsis no lower than 10k. Then when you get to periapsis, circularize. This puts you in the lowest, slowest stable safe orbit you can be in. Then when you come to land, you have a much lower amount of velocity and time to deal with, so it's a lot easier to time it correctly.
The stock craft should have a couple hundred extra m/s dv I think to make the landing comfortable for a player with the right technique, but it should not be difficult for you to make it reasonably close to landing safely if you are doing it right.
In my first attempt, I crashed on the Mun, but my command pod survived just for example.