Guide / Tutorial The popular guide to planetary landings

[Lance 'Spacecat' D.]

Small update done today, mostly cleaning the odd typo, updating some links and adding a 'last updated' timestamp.

 

[Spaceman Si]

Great guide, fun to read, and explains a lot in one place for a new commander! Thank you so much

 

[Ricochetv1]

Great guide again. The 50% approach proved especially useful, as I was struggling to figure out a good speed to use when coming out of gravity wells. The 50% works well, even when ETA numbers drop like stone when leaving star's gravity well for approach for close station/planet or whatever.

Also notice that deeper you come in, closer you are to your target point at the end. Come in at 30 degrees and you are some 8 km out, come in at 50 and it is only 3-4 km to the aim point/surface port at the end of the glide. This is due the glide end altitude being always same. Useful for smuggling as coming in at 50° when bringing in some contraband reduces the distance between you and the landing pad and the time the local fuzz has to scan you.

I typically aim high until after the glide. Brings you right over the site, and makes for an easy approach. You can always dive down if you need to.

 

[Ricochetv1]

I did have a big story of landing on a very high-g planet, but as it is, it was much less than I thought. Apparently, TCE's calculations leave much to be desired, and what it reported as a 13.3g planet is actually 1.36g...

 

[Lance 'Spacecat' D.]

Update done today: I reviewed the wave scanner results, which changed since 2.2 or so. High time I review them.

One of these days I ought to write a page about high Gee landings now that I read up on them and practiced more.

 

[Lance 'Spacecat' D.]

Update done for 3.3: Mostly explanation on planetary 'features' discovered by a DSS probe.

I really should get around to finding a new target for the coordinates exercise, harrumpf.

 

[Lance 'Spacecat' D.]

Small update done today, I got rid of most of my coordinates exercise... And realized 'high G landing' is a good place for some advice, too cramped to add a nerdy picture alas. guh.

 

[Bealdor]

Small update done today, I got rid of most of my coordinates exercise... And realized 'high G landing' is a good place for some advice, too cramped to add a nerdy picture alas. guh.

Just dropping by to thank you for all your awesome guides mate, not just this one.
I recently just got back into the game after a 3+ year break (before Horizons) and your docs brought me up to speed with the new mechanics in no time!

Thanks to your "High G Landings" advice I managed to safely land on that 6G world in NGC 6871 24:

 

[Lance 'Spacecat' D.]

Just dropping by to thank you for all your awesome guides mate, not just this one.
I recently just got back into the game after a 3+ year break (before Horizons) and your docs brought me up to speed with the new mechanics in no time!

Thanks to your "High G Landings" advice I managed to safely land on that 6G world in NGC 6871 24:

Woah, and I just did a quick and dirty, in fact I was unhappy about it, and updated the high Gee section with proper infographics and everything.
So yeah, new update on the 10th, and glad I helped out Bealdor!

 

[pippo]

Tiny update: Someone mentioned to me that 'touchdown' on a fairly high-G world is risky to try with the 'thrust down' key. It's much smoother to quickly turn off and on flight assist.

Not if you have analog control on your vertical thrust
It is entirely possible, easy even, to downward thrust smoothly until landing, even in heavy ships and high G's, provided you've got the adequate thrusters installed.