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[RedKing]

Don't the legs burn off during takeoff from Kerbin? Or otherwise create problems with drag?


And though it seems counter-intuitive, disable SAS on touchdown. I've had multiple probes make a good landing and then topple because they bounced a little, and SAS tried to keep the angle at 90 degrees rather than letting gravity (however miniscule) take control. This led to me trying to manually bring that loose leg down and flipping the whole shebang. Doesn't matter so much if you found a perfectly flat landing spot. But if you're like me and have a knack for landing on the side of a crater.... 


I did a close-shave Munar flyby with Jeb, Bob and Bill and was quite proud of myself. At closest approach, I was skimming by the Munar surface at an elevation of only 200m (and praying that there weren't any mountain ranges in my path). So proud that I warped home.....and exploded into dust as the game failed to de-warp in time. FML. >_<

And I didn't have a quicksave, so I'm out the 60K or so for the rocket, and I had to wait for the boys to respawn.

[Shadowlord]

This works fine* for me. (I tried putting it in an aeroshell, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference, and looked terrible)

It's also only a probe, though, and the engine on the bottom is the tiniest engine there is. I forget its name. It says something about being an engine for ants in its description, I think.

* I've only landed it on the mun once, and did not make orbit with it, but that's because I wasted almost all of its delta v thrusting constantly from a very high altitude, because I haven't installed and don't want to use MechJeb in 1.0, and was trying to figure out how the heck to land without exploding on impact still.

(But I haven't really played since then, because I'm waiting for 1.0.3 to come out and make all my rockets obsolete, so...)

[Lightningfalcon]

And though it seems counter-intuitive, disable SAS on touchdown.

Unless you are like me and often overcompensate on the RCS and reaction wheels, so SAS can instead hold you at an angle preventing you from flipping over at all. 

[miauw62]

Holy shit, all these landers are super duper tall. Mine is an MK1 lander can with a service bay on the bottom and a detachable thruster stage on the TOP, which is two 909s attached to the smallest 1.25 fuel tank with four of those super tiny tanks mounted radially for some extra fuel.

Super duper squat. It doesn't use the top thrusters for landing, though. I have a stage on the bottom that's a standard 1.25m tank and a terrier. I drop it just before touchdown.

This works really well. Doesn't include a science junior, though. It includes a probe core in the service bay so I can pack a scientist instead of a pilot. Fairly high-tech, though, since you need most of the 90-science techs.

E: Also, I don't really use the pilot functions much, they drain electriccharge like crazy.

[Dutchling]

I just landed these on Mun.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Zero protection from Kerbin's atmosphere, but that didn't seem to matter.

[BFEL]

All your designs are like 3x smaller then anything I would feel comfortable launching from the Mun, nevermind landing with it first o.o

My last "landing" was marred by landing on a giant slope of doom and promptly flipping over, so about half my remaining fuel got wasted thrusting horizontally to try and hit a bump, so that's the other thing.

But even when I end up over perfectly flat terrain I've always had flipping. While having a total surface velocity of 5m/s usually. Even after making wider bases.

Er, anyone know how tweakscale affects thrust/weight/etc. values? Latest design used a 1.25m poodle instead of a terrier, which I THOUGHT would have higher thrust, but don't know now.

[forsaken1111]

All your designs are like 3x smaller then anything I would feel comfortable launching from the Mun, nevermind landing with it first o.o

When it comes to rockets, less is more. You can get a TON of delta-v by using a tiny lander and engine.

[nogoodnames]

Er, anyone know how tweakscale affects thrust/weight/etc. values? Latest design used a 1.25m poodle instead of a terrier, which I THOUGHT would have higher thrust, but don't know now.

Last I checked (which was a couple versions ago to be fair) downscaled engines tended to be overpowered compared to their default size equivalents. You use MechJeb, right? It should tell you the Isp as well as the TWR which can be used to derive the thrust.

[sneakey pete]

Also, the amount of fuel you need to return from the mun is quite low and I know that, at least, I used to bring way to much which needed a bigger rocket etc.

[etgfrog]

hm...the kraken seems to strike my science lab whenever I load it, it isn't even that big, there are 2 random solar pannels that falls off 5 seconds after loading from the science lab itself then the 2.5m cargo falls off that is attached to the lab. The only thing I can think of is the materials science experiment that is inside of the 2.5m cargo.

Edit, installed kerbal joint reinforcement, the 2.5m service bay blows up when loading now.

[Dutchling]

To be fair, that manned probe has like 300 dV left. My landers only have to rendezvous with my Mun Station though.

Whether or not 300 dV is enough for that I'm not sure xD.  can always send a rescue ship though.

[BFEL]

Er, anyone know how tweakscale affects thrust/weight/etc. values? Latest design used a 1.25m poodle instead of a terrier, which I THOUGHT would have higher thrust, but don't know now.

Last I checked (which was a couple versions ago to be fair) downscaled engines tended to be overpowered compared to their default size equivalents. You use MechJeb, right? It should tell you the Isp as well as the TWR which can be used to derive the thrust.

I do not use MechJeb, or Kerbal Engineer or any such things that would tell me, thus the question.
Still, sorta figured the downscaled poodle was OP. And I STILL had to turn on infinite fuel to not die.

I have this terrible feeling I will eventually use less rockets to get off Eve then I will to abscond from the Mun.

Also, just downloaded USI Kolonization. How do I get it to play nice with TAC? Right now the outputs for the life support things are "supplies" instead of food, water and oxygen, as is right and proper.

[nogoodnames]

Oh, must have been thinking of someone else. Well I just remembered that the right-click menu will show the current Isp and thrust of an engine during flight so you can do that. And you can easily figure the mass out by using the Engineer's Report in the bottom right of the VAB.


Got a rough draft for the core of my SSTLAB attempt:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's 410 tonnes right now, and should have about a 30 tonne margin for wings and such. The xenon storage needs to be expanded a bit and it will probably need some more turbojets and liquidfuel before the wings go on, and who knows how much reworking will need to go into that. Still, I'm convinced this is doable, and it's impossible to not get inspired by the sound of 18 turbojets spooling up.

[Aseaheru]

SSTLAB?

Single Stage To... where exactly?

[nogoodnames]

Laythe and back, without refueling.