Laythe Lander

[Nicias]

Does this look like it could land on Laythe with just chutes, and them make it back to orbit? It has 3 Mk16-XL, 12 Mk2-R, and 9 Mk12-R drogue chutes. Vehicle mass is 18.1T. 

I plan on using the inflatable heatshield until I can open the chutes.

It has 2500/5000 SL/V delta v and 2.48/1.25 vacum/sl TWR (Laythe SL.)

http://imgur.com/a/pcq0P

There is another Terrier behind the heat shield. The outer tubes are just structural fuselages, they get chucked on take off.

 

[DerekL1963]

One could always hyperedit it into Laythe orbit in the sandbox and find out.

[Foxster]

2 hours ago, DerekL1963 said:

One could always hyperedit it into Laythe orbit in the sandbox and find out.

+1 on this. 

I use Hyperedit as a simulator to test landers and such before bundling them into a whole for-real mission package. 

[Kerbal101]

48 minutes ago, Foxster said:

+1 on this. 

I use Hyperedit as a simulator to test landers and such before bundling them into a whole for-real mission package. 

I think there is a mod, which allows to simulate anything in exchange for credits, which could also be interesting for career.

[Nicias]

Thanks for the hyperedit suggestion.

The lander worked fine, just 300 m/s short :/ plus it tumbled on the way up. Solved both problems by adding a FL-T100 on top of the lander can, and draining it first. 

I don't think I would have discovered the tumbling problem without hyperedit until I actually got there.

[Aegolius13]

If it works, you may not want to mess with it.  But looks like those Terriers take a pretty hefty ISP (and consequently both delta-v and TWR) hit in Laythe's atmosphere.  One idea might to swap out the Terriers for one Aerospike.  It will weigh less, thrust more at the surface, thrust the same as three Terriers in space, and your vacuum delta-v hit is pretty negligible.  Might cause stability issues with the lack of thrust vectoring, but you could add some Twitches (EDIT: or Sparks) to the outer stages for some vectoring and bit more thrust. And/or add some more reaction wheel torque.  

Edited October 8, 2016 by Aegolius13

[Nicias]

That totally worked better, got into orbit with 1km/s delta v left.  I've been largely ignoring SL isp. Good pointer.

[Nicias]

Worked great. Got to laythe, with some f5/f9 usage I managed to even hit land and plant a flag! Got home with an extra 3kms delta v.

[Freds]

For Laythe, due to oxygen in the atmosphere, i usually use a spaceplane with rapiers and some droptanks with LOX and extra liquid fuel (for the atmospheric flight). To go back to orbit, i just try to go as high and fast i can with the atmospheric engine mode, and, go to closed cicle when the extra liquid fuel ends or when the plane stop accelerating...

The droptank design is nice because it gives extra delta V without add extra complexity to the spaceplane design, and, the weight reduction after the tanks ejections make it easier to reach orbit.

I dont know if it works this way with the stock aerodinamics, i always play with FAR.