As of build v0.55_135.07.07 (beta) Argonil and Kalit both have at least one functional orbital station at 755km. This means that instead of following the guidance below, you can instead aerobrake down to low-orbital velocity and then intercept the station, refuel and save, and then land on the planet. It also means it it now much easier to travel from Kalit/Argonil to another planet, since you can follow roughly the same launch profile that we do from NVA-31 including orbital refueling on the way.

• BACK UP YOUR PLAYER FILES BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY LANDINGS – If you land on another planet (as long as it's on a pad/base) your save will be stuck on that planet unless you fly all the way back (for some reason, this affects both rogue mode and free flight). Back up your player files first!
  
• The guide below includes the name and location of other planets in the Noren system, which are there for anyone to find but are very well hidden. If you consider that a spoiler, do not continue reading!
  
• Practicing high-efficiency landings while still on NVA-31 is recommended. You will be low on fuel and will have only one chance to get it right at the destination planet. Orbital refueling is not available.
  
• The EX-5 Calum is by far the best ship to use for this mission.
  
• Even if you do everything perfectly, you may still fail. Kalit and Argonil are in development and have bugs. Expect them to be worse than any bugs you've seen on NVA-31. Bugs might cause you to explode or try to land at a base that isn't actually there. And there are no orbital stations. This is something you have to be ready to accept if you want to try an interplanetary mission before the game officially adds them.

• Community discovery: 2024/11/03, by Heuristic
  
• First flyby: 2024/11/05 by Heuristic (Impacted surface)
  
• First landing: 2024/11/07 by Eiko
  
• Distance from NVA-31: 2,700,000km
  
• Departure burn best longitude (from 185km station): -132 degrees
  
• Estimated mission time (fly-by): 19 hours
  
• Estimated mission time (landing): 38 hours
  
• Reference picture at start of burn:

• Community discovery: 2024/11/02, by Eiko
  
• First flyby: 2024/11/08, by Eiko
  
• First landing: 2024/11/11, by Qwendo
  
• Distance from NVA-31: 7,000,000km
  
• Estimated mission time (fly-by): 48 hours
  
• Estimated mission time (landing): 98 hours
  
• Departure burn best longitude (from 185km station): +170 degrees.
  
• Reference picture at start of burn:

1. Refuel at a 185km station.
   
2. Undock from the station at the noted longitude (above)
   
3. Burn directly prograde until velocity is 21 km/s
   
4. During the burn, because of NVA-31's gravity, the prograde vector will drop. Track this motion during the burn to continue burning prograde.
   
5. Keep inclination as close to 0 as possible. Once the burn is complete, use RCS to make it exactly 0.
   
6. As you escape NVA-31's SoI, the prograde vector will continue to drop. It should stabilize near the planet.
   
7. Around 200,000 km, NVA-31's gravity is trivial and can be ignored. At this point, use small main engine burns or RCS burns to center the prograde vector directly over the planet. It is OK if inc is not exactly 0 at this point. Prioritize keeping prograde directly over the planet. Note: Technically, inc should be exactly 0 throughout the entire mission. This deviation happens for two reasons. 1. The prograde vector indicator is very slightly misaligned, which only becomes apparent on astronomical scales. 2. The flight instruments always assume gravity will be felt from the current SoI's CB. However the physics simulation turns gravity completely off when it is less than 0.01 m/s/s. This causes the instruments to be wrong when very far away from any planet. On the outbound coast, before the halfway point, this effect is even stronger because the flight instruments are factoring in the gravity from NVA-31 behind you and not the gravity of the destination planet.
   
8. Now you can spend as much fuel as you want to increase speed further. If you don't want to stop/orbit/land, you can spend all of it and you will get there about twice as fast. If you do want to at least orbit, I recommend keeping 55% fuel at minimum.
   
9. During the outbound coast, you will probably notice the prograde vector drifting off-target. DO NOT waste propellant correcting this continuously. Just do your best to center it in step 6/7 above and then accept that it drifts afterward. Once you're past the half-way point, you will get orbital parameters for the destination and can do a accurate course correction then. This is described below. Note: Actually, I have found that aligning the top of the prograde vector's top prong with the planet tends to result in less deviation. However this is preliminary. I'll update this guide as more information becomes available. If you have extra propellant available, consider experimenting with this to see if you get better results.Note 2: Leaving the game in focus and not locking the screen may also help mitigate this somewhat.

Note: The above is obviously not the only possible mission profile. Departing from Galdar is easier (you don't have to lead the planet by nearly as much, you can pretty much just burn directly at it) and starts you farther out from NVA-31's gravity well. However I'm describing the profile from a 185km station above because that's more accessible. An even better option would be to start at Galdar and then drop PE to just above the atmosphere, and then burn prograde at PE. This uses the Oberth effect to increase efficiency. However, without an orbital calculator in the game it is difficult to perform, and also increases the amount of time required to set up the launch window by at least an hour. Because of that, I do not think it is worth it unless you want to work it all out manually for fun.

Note: In the current state of the game, the star's gravity is displayed only. It is not applied to your ship's or planets' physics calculations. Planets are static objects in space and do not orbit or rotate, so you don't have to account for it. However, the destination planet's gravity does affect you and will start to pull you in once you get close enough.

Now, wait. At the half-way point, the NAV page of the FMS will update to show the new closest CB, the altitude display will start counting down, the orbital parameters and motion vectors will update to be relative to the new CB, and an audio cue will play which says “Attention: Destination Threshold”. If you are on a direct course from NVA-31 to Argonil, you will briefly pass through an area of space where you are closest to Kalit, so these things will happen twice relatively close together.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following paragraph is not 100% true. It describes the way things should be, however at the current point in the game, there is an issue caused by the fact that when very far away from any planet, no gravity affects you at all. But the instruments still assume that gravity is affecting you. So apoapsis, periapsis and the motion vectors will appear to have an anomalous motion opposite the direction that gravity should be pulling you. This means that you should essentially just aim at the exact center of the planet until the moment you start being affected by gravity which is about 200,000km. However, if the game is ever made more accurate by having gravity affect you at any range, then you should follow the below paragraph immediately after reaching the half-way point.
Once you are able to see the destination planet clearly, align your prograde vector near its eastern equator. As long as you didn't rotate your ship during the cruise, this should be the “top” of the planet. You can confirm you've done this correctly because inclination will be 0. If it is not 0, use RCS to try to make it so. If you intend to land, I recommend that you also set PE to about 400km at this point. Lower than this is dangerous due to the possibility of physics glitches while approaching a planet at high speed. Setting these values as soon as possible is more efficient. Making course corrections while farther away is best. While approaching, ensure inc and PE stay at the values you set earlier. If oriented normally, and exactly as described above, Translate-Up-Down will affect PE, and Translate-Left-Right will affect inc.

Now, wait some more...

Start your capture burn when your altitude is about 2,000 km above PE (e.g. if PE is 400km start the burn around 2,400km). Burn directly towards retrograde, but do not track the retrograde indicator. Instead watch inc and PE and try to keep them at 0 and 400km. Assuming a normal orientation, with your head facing away from the planet, Yaw will affect inc, and Pitch will affect PE (while your engines are running).


Continue burning until your AP is close to 400km, while making sure that PE doesn't deviate too far from 400km. Once you are in a stable orbit, you can perform a normal aerobraking atmospheric entry. See guides on how to do that on NVA-31 for more detail. Once below 80km, you can use the long-range ground scanner to find a base. Land as normal. You will be low on fuel throughout the entire entry and landing. As stated at the beginning of this guide, you should practice landing on NVA-31 while using as little fuel as possible, before starting this mission.

Start your capture burn when your altitude is 2,500km. Burn directly towards retrograde, but do not track the retrograde indicator. Instead watch inc and PE and try to keep inc at 0 and allow PE to smoothly drop to 70km over the course of the burn. Assuming a normal orientation, with your head facing away from the planet, Yaw will affect inc, and Pitch will affect PE (while your engines are running). Your goal is for PE to reach 70km and your velocity to decrease to just below 15km/s. If PE reaches 70km before velocity drops to 15km/s, try to maintain it there while you continue to decelerate. If velocity reaches 15km/s first, you must expend more fuel to bring the PE down. It's obviously fine if velocity continues to decrease as well in that case. The goal is to reduce the amount of fuel you need to use to decelerate.


As you encounter atmosphere, point towards prograde and invert. Once below 80km, you can use the long-range ground scanner to find a base. Once at PE (70km), pitch up (which is toward the ground since you are inverted). Watch the VSI and attempt to keep it as close as possible to 0. Do not allow hull temp to exceed 1,100C. If it is in danger of doing so, allow the altitude to increase, but only do this as much as necessary to save yourself from overheating. Land as normal. You will be low on fuel throughout the entire entry and landing. As stated at the beginning of this guide, you should practice landing on NVA-31 while using as little fuel as possible, before starting this mission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmHa9oW7iuA
[Coming soon...]
(And world-first soft landing on another planet, by me!).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fih4peTebyk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fih4peTebyk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIagnZ39E8
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2299144858?t=01h28m0s

View of Argonil, looking east over Kalit at +/- 180 degrees longitude:

While this is theoretically possible to do, you'd need to save fuel because Kalit has no orbital infrastructure yet. The trip would probably have to be performed at 15km/s or slower.