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More landing legs ?


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I've seen several posts about landing legs (including the recent.... crazy bouncy legs).

Is it time for..... MOAR LANDING LEGS !

Smol? Nah! Big!

Some heavy duty landing legs. Some "shielded" (cool profile when folded) legs. Some inline legs. 

Would be good to widden a bit the lander/base options without using structural fixed blocks (I'm not saying it's not cool to land on structural part..... but I am somehow doing it anyway).

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I think we need another size of them, modeled after SpaceX's landing legs. I also think the existing ones need remodeling/retexturing; in fact, the medium ones are currently the only part seen on the main menu screen's crashed Mun Lander that hasn't been replaced by a new model.

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12 hours ago, Nebbie said:

Another size, modeled after SpaceX's landing legs. Existing ones need remodeling/retexturing

The existing legs create too much drag because they are not suited for landings on atmospheric bodies. I would suggest remodeling the current legs and adding a variation that creates less drag at the expense of costing and weighing more.  

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  • 1 month later...

You know what I think would be darn useful?

Take the existing legs and integrate them into fuel tanks. That is, it externally looks like a regular fuel tank, but has 4 holes on the side the landing legs emerge from, with enough clearance to allow an engine of matching radial size underneath. When retracted, the legs fully retract into the tank.

Pros:

  • Lower part count.
  • Lower drag than radially-mounted legs.
  • Legs won't burn off as easily during reentry.

Cons:

  • Slightly lower fuel capacity than the legless tank due to internal space being taken up by the landing legs.
  • Drag still higher than the legless tank due to the landing legs' holes causing turbulence.
  • Heat resistance lower than the legless tank due to the landing legs' holes being weak points.
  • The legs don't extend quite as far to the side as radially-mounted legs, resulting in tall landers more easily tipping over on slopes.
  • Landing leg clearance isn't big enough for bigger and more powerful engines, preventing use on high-performance landers (e.g. Tylo, Eve, Kerbin and anywhere with dense enough atmosphere to drop TWR below 1).
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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Yup - new landing legs please.

Also, folding, stow-able rover wheels. 

It surprises me that (IMHO) to date no one has ever surpassed the AIES landing legs. When combined with Tweakscale they were an amazingly versatile set and I used them on everything. I vaguely remember reading that folding legs - like the ones we see on real life landers - are very tricky to model. Is this true (question for anyone knowledgeable who cares to answer)? If so, this would explain the lack of any cool leg mods.

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1 hour ago, rextable said:

Yup - new landing legs please.

Also, folding, stow-able rover wheels. 

It surprises me that (IMHO) to date no one has ever surpassed the AIES landing legs. When combined with Tweakscale they were an amazingly versatile set and I used them on everything. I vaguely remember reading that folding legs - like the ones we see on real life landers - are very tricky to model. Is this true (question for anyone knowledgeable who cares to answer)? If so, this would explain the lack of any cool leg mods.

I'm no expert but I can maybe provide a little insight. Have you heard of Code Bullet? He's a youtuber that programs AI to play games. A lot of them succeed and a lot of them are just goofy af. Point is he has a video on his channel about programming an AI to run and it is both hilarious and let's you see just how difficult It can be. And the game he does it for is made by him so its beyond basic. Maybe this helps maybe not, but still. Check him out lol

Edited by James M
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