ImThat1Guy

Not quite, unfortunately. I'm adapting my orbital crew vehicle (think Orion in real life) into a Munar/Minmal/maybe Dunar lander. It just has one in-line engine. This is something I might be able to work with. Thanks!

He uses tons of mods that I really don't want to install just to look at one craft. EDIT: Forgot to hit reply with quote and I'm lazy.

I think what I want to do can best be summed up by the (much more elaborate) KSP Constellation crew module. Really, I just want to leave a bit behind, like the Apollo Lunar Module, but use the same engine for descent and ascent. The Soviet LK is probably the best real-world counterpart. Unfortunately, I can't manage to build it without stacking it (defeating the purpose) or using radial decouplers (defeating the other purpose, as the lander wouldn't stay together once the AM leaves). So yeah, if any of you have ideas for how to accomplish that, I'd be grateful. I'm currently using B9 and KW Rocketry, if that matters remotely.

Do you think you could explain how you managed to build the crew/ascent module? I'm attempting to do something similar (though less elaborate), but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to build the lander around the ascent module rather than below it.

If by "in style" you mean "at horrifically dangerous speeds," sure.

Is there any way to cut chutes as part of staging? I'm trying to make a versatile lander for all the atmospheric bodies, but since they each have different atmospheres, neither pressure nor altitude ends up being a good indicator for when to cut and decouple my drogues. I suppose I could do action groups, but staging would be vastly more convenient (because when I cut the chutes, I also decouple the heatshield that they are attached to). Hopefully I didn't accidentally double post; I wrote something similar and tried to submit it without being logged in, but even after logging in it hasn't shown up.