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I just got enough Science to unlock the nuclear engine, and I want to build a Duna lander with one, to make my first landing on the planet. The thing is the damn engine is so long, my imagination is failing me on an elegant way to build, and put landing struts and a ladder on it. After spending an hour getting frustrated, it occurred to me that approximately everyone reading this has already built one, or something like it. Any tips or pictures you have would be awesome! A few points: The mission is full science (I don't have upper level experiments unlocked yet). I am planning on not activating the lander (NERV) stage until getting into Duna orbit. However, I was planning on trying to biome hop once or twice. The lander I was working on had 6000+ Dv, and had a 1.2 thrust on Duna, with about 17 ton weight. I was planning on only bringing a scientist to reset and collect experiments. However, that means the experiments need to be within his reach and a probe core is needed. I have all engines unlocked, as well as the largest fairing. So long as it isn't crazy wide, un-areodynamic stuff should be fine. I was planning on having the entire lander reenter Kerbin, using the parachutes, but I guess I am not married to that. The only addon I have is mechjeb. So un-stock parts would mess me up OK, so here is what I have so far: UPDATE: So after reading everyones posts, here is what I am going with. Decided that the NERV engine was not the best way to go, everyone was making that a pretty strong point. I will be using Nerv for transfer stage, which will be brought into orbit separately and attached with the docking ports. Will send an unmanned refuel pod first, to maximize hopping potential. Again, thanks for all the help!

Hello everyone I've become quite addicted to this game recently, and although I've never had this much fun with a computer game, sometimes it makes me want to rip my hair out. I have been testing an Eve lander and ascent craft on Kerbin, and finally got to the point in development where I could test its landing ability. Lands like a dream, however, when I was about to jettison all the unnecessary parts for re-ascension (everything is attached to radial decouplers), all that happened was that every single stage that was left on the craft got jumbled together in one stage, and not a single stage goes off. If a try to fire off this last mega stage (which would inevitably end in catastrophe) nothing happens. If I try to redo the stages (a ridiculously painful task with 200 decouplers), everything goes back to its pointless mega stage, not doing anything at all. (Manual decoupling does not work either). As a side note, the resources tab tells me I have 55 as maximum electric charge, as opposed to over 3000 before take off. The batteries are still attached mind you and the decouplers on the batteries have not fired). The only mods I have installed is KER and Mechjeb. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! EDIT: I think I've found the fault. Seems the landing was a tad too fast and snapped off the final stage with the command pod without actually causing any visible damage. Hupps, apologies.

As in the title, this is a very WIP design, using slightly modified thermometer bearings. Here's some pictures of it in action: (alternate rover) If anyone knows how to make it less ugly, please tell me.

Eve SpnKr II Hello KSP community I have come out of retirement of this game to create a new ship for landing and returning from Eve! One that that has always irked me with KSP is the lack of Eve landers (most likely due to the difficulty of landing on the planet). Another thing that has always bothered me is when people have built vessels needed to be launched from 7-8,000km above sea level. Realistically, I don't see someone sending living beings (kerbals) to another planet with a ship that won't be able to return if it lands off of it's target (which is very plausible with 1.0 now). I have built a vessel to solve all of these problems and more. using a series of aerospike engines with mainsail engines for initial take off, I have created a ship capable of landing at sea level on Eve and returning safely to orbit. After it gets off the ground, decouplers eject all of the parachutes, spare batteries, landing gears, and more safely from the vessel. The ship must be flow straight up the entire flight until 45-60km a gravity turn could be cautiously done. I also never go at full thrust as the ship wants to burn up and also causes aerodynamic issues, especially when ejecting the mainsail engines. This ship has a lot of YouTube Preview: https://youtu.be/FG9irV0ZJ74 Note: okay dumb video got corrupted (I'm actually REALLY furious it's screwed up!), but here is the first couple minutes of landing and launch (it's still uploading but should be done soon). It did in fact make it to orbit though successfully. I'll see if I can make another one later at lower quality so I can record the whole thing. Link to craft file: http://www.filedropper.com/evespnkrii Sorry if these are supposed to be uploaded somewhere else - apparently the forum isn't allowing me to upload files. I seen an issue on another thread about posting file sharing sites but I don't know where else to post it. Edits/Testing I have not built a launch vessel yet to take this from Kerbin to Eve but plan on doing so soon (I've been using hyperedit for testing now). I also did one reentry test with heat shields attached to all the rocket engines and it made it successfully, although I think I'm going to have to move the battery packs into a storage bay as they currently burn up in re-entry. I'm also thinking of adding more parachutes. Right now it descends at 5.2k/ms and sometimes this causes the landing legs to sometimes go through the surface (I party blame Squad for not fixing that issue yet). As long as there is some space between the surface/engines usually launch doesn't have any problems.

I'm just wondering about something. I get it that insight has been delayed till 2018 but why haven't we seen an animation yet? (I always like to watch them and recreate them in KSP) does anyone else feel the same way or know why we haven't seen one? Thanks -Banana

I'm looking for a mod and i know it exists i just can't find it anybody know where i can find it? it looks like this http://i.imgur.com/tL3ycwf.jpg

Introducing the Hammer family of VTOL Starships: Vertically launched, horizontal landing science and exploration vessels. They are able to fly to Kerbin's moons and refuel and perform science. Tested on Mun, Minmus, and Ike. Each has a puff powered Kube tug/emergency lander, a science rover that can fly ~2.5km on moons or drive on rover wheels, and a detachable ore scanner to be taken to polar orbit by a Kube tug. The two larger Hammers have a full science lab as well. They are able to rove on the surface by using the main engines for thrust. These are the first craft files I have released after playing for a few months and studying other people's ships, please let me know if you have enjoyed them or have any suggestions for improvement. Hammer Craft file: http://kerbalx.com/PointySideUp/Hammer SledgeHammer Craft file: http://kerbalx.com/PointySideUp/SledgeHammer JackHammer Craft file: http://kerbalx.com/PointySideUp/JackHammer Kube Tug Craft file: http://kerbalx.com/PointySideUp/Kube

(Note, this is still in v 1.04) Proving that what goes to Eve does not have to stay on Eve, I set about to make a not-entirely-stock Eve lander for my developing fleet of interplanetary ships. It may not be the best design, but I did successfully make and test a (rocket) vehicle that can leave the Purple Ball O' Doom, without being too big or tall. This is a "final" revision of my third design, meant to take a Mk 1 lander can down and back up. To make EVA easier without putting a zillion ladders on, I put a Mk 2 lander can at the very bottom to act as an EVA "elevator", i.e.transfer the Kerbal down and up. Could have used another Mk 1, but I wanted a bigger attachment node for the 5m stack separator. It also meant that the main stage is purely radial engines, with no central one; the central and outer tanks feed the inner engines. The pics combine two separate tests (used HyperEdit), the entry phase from the previous revision and the landing/launch from the final version. The only things different between the two ships was that the four Kiwi retro-burn engines (from Space Y) were replaced with a single Mainsail below the heat shield, a Mainsail replaced the 8 Swivels in the middle stage, plus 8 active winglets were added, and more fuel was added to the main stage. I had thought the Kiwis could perform as descent engines to slow down the final few meters, but they did nothing and still ended up using 4 of the main engines, so I ditched them. I made the changes to the middle stage after it kept flipping out after staging. I wanted to keep both the middle and upper stage short, so either the Mainsail and/or winglets proved to be the solution. The main engines are 8 Ratites from Space Y, a 2.5m engine with more thrust than a Rhino, especially at low altitudes (Rhinos proved to be useless on Eve). Less efficient too, but that's not I needed for the first stage of an Eve ascent vehicle. Most of the main stage tanks are from Fuel Tanks Plus, the 3/4 and 1.5x versions of the standard orange tank. Added some stock Rockomax tanks as needed. Main chutes are 2.5m Mk16 XLs plus 8 radial drogue ones. The big radial decouplers with built-in sepratons are also from Space Y (those things are so cool and useful!). And the heat shield is a Tweakscaled 5m one from Space Y (not sure if it mattered) up to 20m size--no problems with heat there! Middle stage as noted is a Mainsail on a Rockomax -32 tank with 8 radial FL-T400 tanks. Upper stage is a FL-T400 with 4 -200s and 4 1.25m Poodles (used Tweakscale), they have a mass of .377 and 45 kN of thrust. Thought about using aerospikes but wanted something with thrust vectoring and lower mass. The upper stage has an RCS fuel tank from FTP and 4 quad thrusters. And of course I put MechJeb on it, though I only used it to hold pro/retrograde, not to land or launch. The landing struts are LT-2s upsized 300% mounted on 200% pocket I-beams. Several 2.5m reaction wheels are in the ship, with main power from 4 200% size RTGs Not sure what was going on with the landing struts on the landing (broken? glitch?) but the ship was stable and took off fine. Went into a polar orbit since that was how it came in--wanted to land on, well, land and not in the sea. Started at relatively low altitude too, 654m ASL (heh, the previous test landed in the Highlands ). Ended up with over 1150 m/s DV left after the circularization burn. The first version of the lander included a top-docked rover, my latest "mega mini" type, the plan being to transfer the scientist Kerbal from the ship to the rover after then pop off the rover before landing and have it drive back to the ship, visiting several biomes on the way That proved to be successful, so I stopped bothering to include it on later versions. I might even change the plan to land the rover separately, or even several rovers...but that would require a 2 or 3-Kerbal version of the ship...guess what will be next?

Hi there... Who can build a manned lander that will go to Ike, orbit Ike, land on Ike, plant flag and take surface sample, return and land safely on Kerbin! Rules at launch: - 40 parts or less total. - 12 meter max height. - 31 ton max weight. Would be fun to see your designs!

Hi all, just registered here! Would like some suggestions on how to design a small Mun lander and return craft. Is this good or bad design? Any suggestions? 32 tonnes. 52 parts. - It reaches 20 km circular Mun orbit and then lands, does the science possible, plants flag etc. Then reaches 20 km circular orbit again. Returns to Kerbin with about 300-400 dV left.

Hi! I'm pretty new to KSP and just made my first Mun landing. I'm afraid, however, that I may have made a bit of a mistake here. I'm playing career mode and have been really starved for science points. My lander module was equipped with a lot of instruments and I took readings when I landed. I have a good deal of science stored however transmitting it only offers me 25-30% of its potential value. The lander itself is not designed for reentry to Kerbin. I sent it to the moon and am taking it back on a payload, which is just a large engine with a lot of fuel tanks with which I dock. This is not designed for reentry either. However the payload does have additional docking ports, and I planned to launch an escape pod module to dock with the payload and bring my crew back home. From what I've read, however, I won't be able to transmit all this scientific data to the escape pod. So I have ~200 science worth of points sitting on the lander module and no way to get anything from it without transmitting and surrendering 150 of those points. Is there a way for me to retrieve these science points? I looked into the mobile processing lab but I'm not 100% sure if it will do what I'd like here. I can however launch one and dock with the lander/payload module if that would help.

We have many challenges about reusable, single-staged, and/or airbreathing vehicles. This one is about the viability of reusable multistage transport on a non-atmospheric body, the Mun. Create a lander consisting of two parts A and B. Part A must hold one or more kerbals, all in pressurized modules. Part B must contain some fuel and at least one engine. Neither A nor B may disassemble themselves any further. There are two ways to perform the mission, "ascent first" and "descent first". Ascent first: Launch from the Mun. While suborbital, detach part B and have it land back at the launch site. Reach a 10-km circular orbit with A. Demonstrate reusability by landing A at B's location and docking the parts back together. Descent first: Deorbit your lander from 10 km over the Mun. Detach B and have it reach a stable orbit. Land with A. Demonstrate reusability by taking A to a rendezvous with B and docking the parts back together. Screenshots of the following are required: initial orbit, if Descent first craft's initial mass situation just before splitting the craft part A after circularizing or landing part B after landing or circularizing craft's final state after docking final orbit, if Descent first Your score is the whole lander's full mass (tons) divided by the number of kerbals transported. Lower is better. No refuelling, teleporting or cheat menus during the mission. Information mods are allowed, active autopilots are not. Only stock parts or their equivalent rescales. My attempt: Leaderboard 1. SchweinAero: 1 kerbal, 1.76t, score 1.76

Hola. The Eve Rocks Challenge is, sadly, no more. Here's a "just for fun" yardstick for 1.05 - fly a crewed mission to Eve, bring the crew home. No Interstellar/near future mods, and you do have to fly it, so no Hyperedit (you'll note I managed to disqualify myself thanks to an OBS glitch - thankfully I had Hyperedit handy from testing lander prototypes). Hop out, plant a flag, get back in and go home. Really, though, this is just for fun and before Porkjet's new inflatable heat shield arrives and makes this so much easier. I assume. It may not? Anyway, wow us all with your awesome designs for Eve landers. I went for "over-engineered to the brink of disaster" mode. So my normal method. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1528MDIGBU As per request, badges below if you like. To get one, post an image or video showing your mission from launch to return. It'll be on the honor system - if you feel like you've earned it, grab a badge.

ASCII is proud to announce it's most reliable Mun/Minmus lander yet! The Kal-El II is designed to take 3 Kerbals to the Mun in a safe, reliable, and cheap way. The Kal-El II has attached to it a Munar rover which can be operated by a single Kerbal to do some exploring when on the moons. Powered by the Ozymandias X Medium lift rocket, the rocket is designed to have enough fuel for operator error or for those extra risky missions Kerbals like to take from time to time. Each stage is also equipped with four separatron engines to bring your discarded stages to a fiery end. Important Information!: One Kerbal has to EVA into the rover pod mid route so that it may be operable. Required Mods: Zoolotac Escape Pod, Tosh's Carts Download Link: Kal-El II

Evolution - Eval Exploration Vehicle It unfortunately can't take off Eve so far, so don't waste your time trying to accomplish that Many a kerbal have dreamt of seeing the violet mountains and quicksilver sea of Eve, but so far, no one has had the ways to bring a kerbal there and back alive to report of Her beauty. Thus, I present you Evolution, a vehicle specifically engineered to cope with the hardships of landing on and returning from Eve. Unfortunately though, our engineers, lacking mathematical and pilotical ability, have not yet managed to fully verify it's functionality. So let's make this work The Rocket is composed of a basic heavy lifter stage that is also capable of setting up a full orbit. Once that is used up, it switches to two nuclear-thermal engines that have enough fuel to make it to Eve. Having arrived there, it is designed to perform an aerobraking maneuver and deploy it's parachutes to land softly, however the one time I did actually manage to get that far, the drag ripped them clean off, so maybe I deployed them to early. It has a set of two aerospikes to bring it back up to a low orbit, however now that I realize how crazy the atmosphere and gravity of Eve actually is, I doubt that that would work properly. The aerospikes can be dropped once depleted which leaves the capsule with one RCS tank and thrusters to perform a rendezvous with a rescue mission. I have tried for days now to construct an Eval lander that is able to at least bring my kerbal back out the atmosphere to make a rescue feasible, but I seem to be totally unable. This is my best result so far, so I thought someone else who is struggling as much as I am might find this helpful.

This is a poll in which you get to decide which of the following three rocket ships I will be using for my future Manned Mun landings. Hello fellow Kerbalnauts, Engineers, and Explosion Enthusiasts! I have finally built a rocket that has fulfilled the following criteria for getting to the mun: -three man pod - No debris in orbit - No debris on Mun or munar orbit I present to you, the Ozymandias IV Munar Launch System! Though the maiden Voyage of the Ozymandias IV was a success, KASA went back to the drawing board concluding that "Moar Boosters" was not the cheapest solution to getting to Mun. KASA later contracted the designers of the Ozymandias IV to redesign the Ozymandias Mun Launch System (OMLS) to be a bit easier on the wallet and to use less fuel. The results where three new designs. The Ozymandias V-AIII uses three Large Boosters instead of seven, two non gimballed and one gimballed engine in the middle of the stack. it is a 1.5 stage system that utilizes the better ISP ratings of the LV 1m series rockets to decrease the fuel use. Also, to compensate for the weaker first stage, the second stage uses a modified "Jor-El II TMI" stage. The Ozymandias V-C foregoes the idea of having a powerful first stage for a higher ISP. Indeed the first stage on this model lasts MUCH longer than either Ozymandias design. It as well is a 1.5 stage design with the outer stacks feeding into the inner stack. It is composed of 14 LV-30 1m engines for thrust and 1 LV-45 1m for control. Because of its lower TWR at launch, this provides a much more comfortable ride for your Kerbalnauts. The second stage is the standard "Jor-El II TMI" stage. Unfortunately the Ozymandias V-B was considered a failure from the get go. It was a hybrid of the Ozymandias IV-AIII and V-C design philosophies. With a few more design tweaks it might have been capable to go to Mun but the engineers decided the time was better spent on the two other designs. This is where YOU come in. Which design do you think should be used by KASA? I'm uploading all three crafts so you can compare and contrast which you like best. If you have any suggested fixes for the different craft, please let me know and I'll consider your suggestions. Please note, all three craft are Mun capable. This is also just a discussion on the OMLS (that is the first stage), I am quite content with my "Jor-El II TMI" second stage and my "Kal-El I Munar Lander Module (MLM)" Still, if you have any suggestions on those, I welcome them. Thank you in advance for everyone who participates in this poll; this community is truly wonderful because we all take the time to indulge in each other's space faring fantasies. P.S. When I deem it fit, I'll release which ever ship i decide on with a full mission gallery and some flavor text for everyone. P.P.S. These ships require the Mech-Jeb plugin, if there is enough demand, I'll upload them without it. P.P.P.S. It also requires the unofficial fuel-bug hotfix.

here goes my first tutorial accompanying Vid on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM1K7Y_eHgU&feature=plcp (you will need both) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM1K7Y_eHgU&feature=plcp make shure you have blender and unity (think it works in maya to) for this tutorial, A VERY BASIC ANIMATED LANDER LEG Step 1 CUBE. (using blender X,Z,Y) in Blender go add - mesh - cube (make sure its x y z are 0 0 0)set Dimensions to X,1 Y,1 Z,5 go in to edit mode and move the cube Up untill the top face is above the pivot point,(shuld be Z,2.5) and along the Y axis (shuld be Y,-0.5) you can use Translate - vector Ctrl-A Apply LOC-ROT-SCALE. Step 2 ANIMATING. (make shure you only have 50 frames for this tutorial IF your folowing to the letter) in Object mode insert keyframe Loc-Rot-Scale (skroll down Object Tools to keyframe and click insert) to frame 0, go to frame 50 on the timeline, rotate cube alond the X axis 150 degrees Insert keyframe Loc-Rot-Scale again (frame 50) TEST ANIMATION ie play, you want 24 frames a sec. Export as .FBX to where ever you want. Step 3 UNITY IMPORT. (using unity x,y,z now) Start a new project in unity and go assets-import package-costom package... direct to Parttools 0.16, go assets-import new asset... direct to .FBX file you made in blender select your leg in the Projects window and in the inspector Mesh set scale factor 1 in animations tick the Split Animation box and add a animation Split named Retract (Thanks Tiberion) start 1 end 50 wrap defalt loop NO, Step 4 SET UP NODE COLLIDER AND MAKE READY FOR .MU EXPORT. (make shure you dont have the blender camara/light if you do delete it from the Hierachy tab-leg) Drag leg to Hierachy window click apply and double click leg in the Hierachy tab disable play automatically in Animation tab, copy Cube rename the copy >node collider< (no ><) remove render and add component-physics-mesh collider make mesh convex and drag over cube to perent it, (if you dont perent it dosent move with the animation). Go Gameobject-Create empty and drag leg over the emty gameobject to perent (make shure the gameobject is on X,0 Y,0 Z,0 befor perenting). Go Component-KSP-part tools, with gameobject selected in Hierachy tab. in Part Tools (Script) set file path like this >C:/blah/KSP/Parts/Myfirstanimatedlanderleg/< needs the (/) on the end or u get a .mu file called Myfirstanimatedlanderlegmodel.mu in (C:/blah/). tick boxes for >Copy textures< and >Convert Textures< (for tutorial i just added a random texture to leg) click Write (not write all) you now have a .mu file with an animated leg. now the .cfg, for this test just put the LandingLeg1-2 part.cfg in your legs file open with notepad and change animationName = newlandingleg to animationName = Retract(Thanks Tiberion) and under >General Parameters< change >name = [leg name]< define node_attach like this >= 0.0, 0.0, -0.5, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0< Launch KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM :operation MUN TOUCHDOWN dedicated to the kerbal who died during testing & development RIP Melny Kerman (ran into a wall in exsitement) (i used a clean ksp copy IE nothig but my leg and a command pod i made) Thats all folks (NOT AMERICAN IM KENGLISH) Thanks for reading VEGANY (cant re post without my consent thanks)

Hey guys, I have been designing a new planetary lander, that is capable of return, but I am stuck on a craft that can reach escape velocities... It needs to be a small craft, that preferably is single stage (but boosters are okay as long as they don't interfere with a ladder system), and can reach escape trajectories with fuel to spare for orbital maneuvers.. I have come close to such a craft, but I didn't have enough fuel by the tiniest margin.. One other thing, it needs to be small, so that once I add the entry stage, and initial Launch Vehicle, my computer can run it Cheers, Dom

Hey all. my 0.15 lander design relied on my ability to attach RCS thrusters to an RCS tank. Now I can't in 0.16.... Is this a glitch on my end? or what can I do?