The most important thing to keep in mind is that this game is an (accurate) simulator when it comes to the physics used. There are three maps of the moon and one map of Mars. The moon has such a thin atmosphere that it's essentially negligible. Mars on the other hand does infact have an atmosphere. Mars also has some mighty bad dust storms, the likes of which you won't find anywhere else in the solar system.

You may say, "Well that's all fine and dandy, but what does that have to do with Lunar (and Mars) Moduling!?" Good question! Since the game is a good reflection of what piloting a lunar module in these two worlds is like, you'll see how an atmosphere and lack thereof plays an important role in piloting your lunar module.

Your height above the ground (or the vertical displacement between you and the surface) is one of the many things you need to keep an eye on (and perhaps the most important). When you're first starting out, I'd recommend going rather high above the surface. Maintaining a height of at least 50 - 100 meters should be plenty, this will give you the vertical room necessary to make up for any mistakes you make in the other directions before coming down for a landing. Ultimately you'll spend quite a bit of time slowly moving down to the landing pad at the end of your trip, but during the trip you won't need to worry about micromanaging your height very often, letting you figure out the other controls. As you get better, you'll definitely want to start staying closer to the ground, something that should occur naturally as you play more and more.

I'll go over this in the next two sections, but keep in mind that managing height will be different on the Moon than it is on Mars. On the Moon the drag is neglible and the gravity isn't as strong, so if you gain a lot of upward momentum you'll really rocket upwards before gravity starts pulling you back down, so you could easily go rather high up if you don't watch your velocity, if you start to get too high just hold down "Shift" and monitor your vertical velocity (vertical velocity is indicated in the screenshot below: it's in the middle screen, it's marked by a capital lambda (Λ) with the value 1.77 in this particular screenshot--the other velocity value just beneath it is the net velocity in all direcitons, I just happen to be only moving vertically). You don't need to ever increase your vertical velocity too high on the Moon when you take off, one good thrust will easily get you quite high.



On Mars, you'll be using your upward thruster quite a bit more, as you'll be fighting both air resistance and a stronger gravity.

The lack of an atmosphere and cosequently air resistance (and from here on out referred to as "drag") on the moon means that there is nothing slowing you down, other than your own thrusters. So as you zoom along in near-vacuum space, your velocity increasing as you put your metal to the pedal, there is nothing slowing you down. So what happens when you want to stop? You essentially need to spend just as much time slowing down as you did speeding up (assuming that your boosters are applying the same amount of force--this is true if we're talking about the mini boosters, but not necessarily true about the main thruster since you can control how much force it puts out).

So in practice, if you need to do a delivery to another landing station, the best way to do it is to face the station (you can quickly tap "Q" or "E" a few times to turn left or right respectively, until you're facing the destination) use your upward thrusters (spacebar) and your forward thrusters ("W") while facing the destination. I just about always hold down "W" until I'm just shy of the halfway mark (something you'll have to judge) in which case I reverse the thrusters ("S") thus effectively slowing my module down. I continue to hold "S" down until I slow down quite a bit. Assuming you're doing this for the first time I'd suggest slowing your speed down to under 2 m/s and if you timed it properly you shouldn't be too far from the landing pad. From here you'll slowly crawl towards the destination landing pad, using your four directional keys (WASD) to line up your craft to land on the pad, while slowly lowering your craft down towards the surface.

The only difference when it comes to playing the game on Mars, is that you can hold down your forward thruster for almost the entirety of your trip to another landing pad. Only when you have the landing pad in your sights do you need to start to slow down. Generally you will max out your forward velocity at 12 m/s* and if you start to slow down (and again, by thrusting in the opposite direction) at 250 meters you should be able to get down to about 2 m/s comfortably.

It's rather windy on the Mars level, although as long as you are actively piloting the craft it's presence won't be as noticeable. If you do a vertical take off (without any other directional movement) you can go into your top view and see yourself drifting slowly away from the launch pad.

Landing on Mars when it comes to controlling the craft is identical to landing on the Moon. You'll mainly use your side thrusters (WASD) as well as your main thruster to slowly land on the pad.

*I don't actually know what the unit of distance and time is for the velocity, I just write m/s out of convenience

Congratulations space cadet! You've now successfully piloted and landed a lunar module, or at least you did so in your mind while reading this guide. Now go and take your knowledge and land a real lunar module, or at least a virtual simulated lunar module--upon which I'll offer you re-congratulations!

If you are having any problems after reading this guide, I first re-advise you to check out sh0v0r's guide.

If you haven't noticed the button for the manual in-game, you can find it here[www.shovsoft.com].

Lastly I want to say that what I've included is the pure basics for your first few attempts and for learning the ropes. There is a LOT more you can do in this game, whether it's directional movement or doing different missions. I encourage people to try out the diifferent mechanics beyond what was included in this guide once you learn the ropes, there are some very helpful and efficient ways to navigate your craft.

If anyone wants specific screenshots or video footage of any of this, or if anyone wants any rewordings or reclarifications of anything stated in the guide, please please please comment and I'll do my best to update the guide.