Mun Research Base

Lore & Background

In the early days of the Kerbal Space Program, the Mun was a destination you visited and left. A lander touched down, a Kerbal planted a flag, collected a few science readings, and the ship limped home. The Mun Research Base changed that calculus. Once a crew could stay, sleep, and conduct experiments over multiple Mun days, the moon stopped being a postcard and became a workplace. The base grew organically: a habitat module here, a lab over there, a rover trundling between them along a hand-drawn path of dust tracks.

The base's location is a matter of pride and practicality. Kerbals tend to favor relatively flat terrain near a landing site with a clear line of sight to Kerbin's horizon, where the big blue-green world hangs in the black sky like a lighthouse. From the base's observation cupola, the contrast is staggering: the sterile gray of the Mun stretching to every horizon, and above it, Kerbin's swirling clouds and oceans, impossibly close and impossibly far.

Over time, the base becomes a hub. Minmus-bound craft stage their final burns from Mun orbit, using the base as a logistical anchor. Parts are resupplied from Kerbin, experiments are logged, and the small crew of Kerbals living out there develop a quiet, dusty routine that feels, in its own way, like home.

Reader's Guide

The Mun orbits Kerbin in a near-circular path, completing a full revolution in roughly five hours of game time. Its surface gravity is about 1.63 m/s²—roughly one-sixth of Kerbin's—making it a forgiving landing environment but also meaning your craft needs less thrust to escape. There is no atmosphere, so aerobraking is impossible; every descent and ascent is a pure ballistic burn.

The surface is a sea of craters, ridges, and flat basins. The terrain is generally gentle, with no mountains or canyons, which makes base siting straightforward. Look for a broad, relatively flat area with a clear Kerbin-rise horizon for navigation and a low-traffic orbital corridor overhead for resupply. Avoid the immediate rim of large craters where slope can complicate surface driving.

What makes the Mun a natural mission target: low gravity, no weather, short transit from Kerbin (a few hours of burn), and the ability to build a permanent presence without atmospheric erosion. What makes it a trap: no atmosphere means no aerodynamic braking, so you must carry all the propellant for both descent and ascent. A miscalculation in your return burn, or a fuel leak in the vacuum, and there is no air to slow you down, no wind to push you back. The Mun is patient, silent, and utterly indifferent to your trajectory.

First-landing milestone in a standard career is the single most celebrated moment for a new Kerbal program: the first boots in the gray dust, the first flag, the first 'we are here.'

Did You Know?

• The Mun's low gravity (about one-sixth of Kerbin's) means a Kerbal in a standard EVA suit can hop several meters high, and surface vehicles can traverse slopes that would be impossible on Kerbin.
• The Mun's surface is permanently illuminated or in shadow depending on position relative to Kerbin's shadow; there is no atmospheric scattering, so the horizon is a hard, black line rather than a gradient.