Landed on my first 2G world - in an Anaconda!

[smartroad]

So on a short trip out to the rim. On my way I have found my first landable 2(.15)G world. So I did what all great explorers do, take your 700T starship and land it on it!

I was in orbital cruise and found an area I thought should be landable (2G worlds are rather flat it seems). My approach angle it no more than 15 degrees, I have heard the horror stories! So exitied orbital cruise and into glide mode, gee that ground is rushing up somewhat quickly...

My bottom started twitching a little as I came out of glide and the retro's fired, thankfully slowing me down to a sedate 190m/s and still about 7km above the surface. I pointed the nose of the ship where I wanted to go, still only about 15 dgree pitch. As I got to the landing site and was still about 3km above the surface I leveled off, deplopyed landing gear and started my final dessent at 100m/s. At 2.5-2km I slowed to 50m/s and finally below 1km down to 25m/s. As I got to 200m from the surface I slowed even more to 8-10m/s and turned that down until I landed.

I have never been so glad to see the landing indicator come on!

So when out for a drive in the SRV, which drops faster than a stone from my Anaconda! Managed to reach a blistering speed of 50m/s on the surface (about 110mph!).

Oh and this is while orbiting a binary star pair

Take off was a little sketchy, engines took an age to power up enough thrust to lift, but got there and was back in orbit and on my way.

[Primeh]

Not sure of the tonnage but I landed a bare bones Connie on a 2.60g world.
Pretty much the same story. Took it easy and landed comfortably. I would of attempted a 3g+ world but taking off from the 2.60g was a little resistant. Something I've considered trying if stranded on the surface, is to nose up, retract the landing gear and immediately boost. Not sure if it works as i've not needed to try it.... yet!

Congrats!

I know what you mean though. After reading and watching some horror stories, the relief of safely touching down is a little intense.

[evovi]

Hmmm... Do we need to factor in limitations on thrust from engines? Moving off a 3g planet may be impossible as the engines may not be able to provide enough thrust? Stranded!

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Hmmm... Do we need to factor in limitations on thrust from engines? Moving off a 3g planet may be impossible as the engines may not be able to provide enough thrust? Stranded!

I don't think so. I think that if you can land safely, then you can take off. Just hold up thrusters until you get quite high (it can take a while to start moving), and then slowly transition to forward, while holding up thrusters, and pull your nose up. You may need to boost as well to enter orbital cruise.

I did land on (and take off from) Achenar 3, about 6.8G, w/o a problem, but I took it very slowly and have an analog joystick for thrusters. Then I got in a little trouble landing on a planet at 1/2 the G, but got going a little fast and pancaked. I wasn't destroyed, but did loose shields and some hull. Another time I tried transitioning to forward flight too early and dropped back to the planet surface.

[smartroad]

Hmmm... Do we need to factor in limitations on thrust from engines? Moving off a 3g planet may be impossible as the engines may not be able to provide enough thrust? Stranded!

I tested my thrusters while still up in the 'air'. Was about 6km up, levelled off, and came to a halt. Thrusters held me in the air with no issues. Pushed on vertical thrusters and they started to lift me up okay. Once I was comfortable I finished off my landing. If they hadn't been able to hold me/lift me then I would have pointed nose up and boosted up and away.

What we need (like all the components to be fair) is more information on the thrusters. What is the vertical thrust amount, lateral, main, retro, boost etc. The only thing I would say is as long as your thrusters are listed as more mass than your hull you should be okay.