2 Questions on landing Spacecraft & 1 on Aircraft

[Turk_WLF]

My questions are…

1. On Spacecraft I’m just wondering if the “safe” landing speed is still below 5 Meter Per Second. I really don’t want to kill Jeb, Bob & Bill on a crash landing because they’re coming in too fast.

    

2. Is there a Landing Rockets mod similar to how the Russian use to land their spacecraft? That fire just right before landing.

    

3. Does KSP have a Variable-Sweep Wing mod, like the famous F-14 Tomcat’s wings?

    

   Thanks,

[DMSP]

20 minutes ago, Turk_WLF said:

My questions are…

1. On Spacecraft I’m just wondering if the “safe” landing speed is still below 5 Meter Per Second. I really don’t want to kill Jeb, Bob & Bill on a crash landing because they’re coming in too fast.

    

2. Is there a Landing Rockets mod similar to how the Russian use to land their spacecraft? That fire just right before landing.

    

3. Does KSP have a Variable-Sweep Wing mod, like the famous F-14 Tomcat’s wings?

    

   Thanks,

1) Well, it all depends. With landing legs, probably. With a heatsheild, yes, the heatsheild will absorb the impact. Anything else, don't be so certain.

2) The best way is probably to use Seperatrons. I'm pretty sure no mod has that, but HGR Rocket Parts might.

3) Again, not sure, you would have to do some searching, but from what I know, no, there isn't a mod like that.

Fly safe!

[maceemiller]

1. I have landed at 9 m/s in 1.1.2 with landing legs and survived

2. You could suicide burn but not advised as the last time I tried it the name lived up to its expected meaning....

3. Sorry, I dont do planes in KSP

[RizzoTheRat]

1 - Landing legs have a "tolerance" which should be how fast you can land on them without breaking them, not sure how that ties up with the weight of your ship though.

2 - Seperatatrons

3 - I think a few people ahve cobbled things together using Infernal Robotics and B9 Aerospace pack but I'm not aware of a proper swing wing mod.

[Plusck]

For the "landing speed" question - if you mean a soft landing on another planet or moon, I try to keep it at about 5 m/s or so to protect all the parts.

If you mean landing after re-entry, it depends what's on the bottom of your craft. Hitchhiker cans and labs have terrible tolerance, so yu cannot splash down significantly above 6m/s with one or they are crushed, and if you actually "land" with one at a higher speed you have to be very sure that it doesn't touch the ground. It'll be ok if a higher-tolerance part (command module, heatshield, landing legs) hits first and survives.

The Mk1-2 pod has a huge impact tolerance, so I regularly skimp on parachutes and let them hit the ground at over 10 m/s.

[Coga19000]

1)Each part has its own documented crash tolerance. You can see it on the VAB part information.

2) Sepratrons are a good way to replicate this effect in stock. However, if you don't want to calculate by yourself when you should fire, the automatic XT Landertron mod is just what you need.

3)I have personally never heard of such a mod.

[bewing]

1) If you use something other than landing legs (I like the type B swept wings) as "landing legs" you can easily land at 10 or 12 m/s safely.

2) You can always try saving some fuel for landing, and make sure you don't decouple your engine.

3) This thread (and in particular this answer) may apply to what you want: