Landing a Space Shuttle on the Moon! - KSP

I've built a lot of Space Shuttles over the years - big ones, small ones, weird ones, broken ones, but they've generally always done 1 thing - deliver payload or crew to Low Kerbin Orbit. I've always used the shuttle vehicle as a means to an end, rather than have it go somewhere exciting, if that makes sense.
Until today. I was scratching my head about what video to do this week, and this idea suddenly popped into my head: why don't we make a realistic NASA-style space shuttle, and land it on the Moon! With crew and everything!

My PC specs:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor
64 GB RAM
3840 x 2160 (x2), 144Hz

This video is intended for audiences 13+ years old.

KSP VISUAL MODS INSTALLED:
⭐ Waterfall
⭐ Restock
⭐ 4kSP
⭐ Scatterer
⭐ Environmental Visual Enhancements
⭐ Stock Volumetric Clouds
⭐ KSPBurst
⭐ Deferred Rendering
⭐ HUDReplacer with ZTheme
⭐ PlanetShine (you probably won't need this, I use it to boost the brightness)
⭐ Parallax Continued

[jasonmcgee]

To be very bluntly honest, I did click expecting you to land the whole stack onto the moon. Was a little bit disappointed, but I'm glad you addressed it in the video, and it was still an interesting video. Maybe you could try to land the whole stack on the moon??

[MrHwsmp]

If you want to check thrust:weight ratio with some engines not running, you don't have to take them off and replace them with mass simulators, you can just turn them off or throttle them down to zero (can't remeember which) in the VAB/hangar.

[MitchCyan]

They did it in Armageddon, so it must be possible in reality.

[Blue-]

Matt can make any -nightmare- fantastic space concepts come to life with KSP -2-

[midwaynerd]

MAKE A FOR ALL MANKIND SHUTTLE

To elaborate, build a first-generation space shuttle and a Saturn V, use the Saturn V to transport an LSAM to the moon and then launch a space shuttle, refuel it in orbit, send it to the moon, dock it with the LSAM, and use the LSAM to transport the crew to the surface while the shuttle remains in orbit. Then, relaunch the LSAM, perform rendezvous and docking with the shuttle, and return the crew to earth. It’s complicated, yes, but cool as heck.

[timemachineoneone]

Hey Matt, Id reccomend checking out the mod atmosphere autopilot, its really great for janky craft like the space shuttle as it keeps you spot on where you want to be pointed and is essentially ULTRA SAS with proper fly by wire, it also allows you to set maximum g values for realistic fighter jet builds and maximum Angle of Attack so you dont spin out when re entering the atmosphere in a Space X style configuration. Been using it for about my last 200 hours of KSP gameplay, and its made the game so much more enjoyable, especially for someone like me who builds whacky planes and fighter jets in KSP most of the time rather than rockets. Keep up the awesome videos!

[brendancaulfield]

Gotta love the classic Matt Lowne "cut myself off in the edit" ending.

[TheHutchy]

I love the fact canard means deceptive story, the little wing stability thing, and also just a duck.

[EUGENETHEODORELEE]

This would have been possible in real life if they sacrificed 0.05% of the military budget for this

[NNZaero]

TD Channel - How to land a space shuttle on the moon - Stick it on a 1km tall rocket
Matt - How to land a space shuttle on the moon - I just can

[Dave]

@MattLowne: I'm certain that you aren't aware of this about the Parallax Continued mod: I was going to download the source to build it myself, until I read in the build instructions about them having large portions of the mod locked behind a paywall, since building and installing it requires files from within the early access zip file. Dirty on their part to advertise it as being free to access it if you are willing to build from code.

On the bright side, thanks for a great video. I love watching the missions you come up with.

[MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

This is what I do for my science run. I have a space station gas station in kerbin orbit. I launch my ships up as payloads on board a massive booster. They can dock, up to 6 at once, to the fuel station.

I have a mining base on minimus that brings ore over to make fuel. The shuttles never go back down. There is an escape pod to get back down to cycle crews out. They do rotations on minmus, the Mun, and soon Duna and then a rotation on the gas station. Then the station crew goes back to Kerbin and becomes the next expedition crew.

It's pretty nifty. The shuttles just get repaired in space if you need it. They land on each body either vertically and tip over or just like a plane.

[EmilisStancaitis-id]

5:28 Bye bye comm access to your space centre!

[witext]

its ridiculous how good this game looks with mods, like you'd think you were playing KSP 2

[jRsqILVOY]

I was expecting a vertical landing on landing legs. The RCS for lift was amazing.

[Blurgert]

1:53 You could have just set the thrust limiter to 0% on the vectors. That makes it so they don’t count to the dv reed out. Or you could have moved the other engines into a lower stage.

[AerospaceMatt]

5:34 Actually, after the TDRS constellation was completed, the later shuttle missions rolled to a heads up wings level orientation to better communicate with Houston. Off the top of my head, the STS-125 launch coverage showed that in a spectacular way. So, your launch profile was pretty accurate!

[marksainsbury]

Thumbnail is fine. Pic is a succinct summary. That is it's power if it tells the story. With luck people are aware enough to realise that there would be little reason to get the full stack to the mun.

I like it. Would never call it click bait at all.

[costbubbles]

To think it has been 7 years since i first got obsessed with the KSP Demo version as a 13 year old. Thank you Mister Matt Lowne and Sir Scott Manley for making space FUN and showing me that the possibilities in this game are far more than just getting to low kerbin orbit ;) Your commentaries have always been my go to background noise as well as my tutorials for the game.

[janmelantu]

6:46 “rather than monopropellant for vacuum burns like the real shuttle” [pushes glasses thru face] ackshually the shuttle used a bipropellant for orbital maneuvering, it was just hypergolic propellants (monomethylhydrazine and mixed oxides of nitrogen). Then again, most RCS uses a hypergolic bipropellant too. Monopropellant is quite a bit rarer than KSP would have you believe