kerpollo

Success!! This lander seems to be the best possible use of standard parts. I didn\'t use a standard rocket all the way, though. Packs used: Nova Silisko 0.9 (can\'t get the 1.3 due to the dropbox fiasco), Down Under pack. Mission profile: - Discard boosters as they are spent. - Climb to 12k, then gently being rotating. Bearing East, get the nose to about 60º up. - 1st stage separation. If surface speed is at least 1000m/s, we\'re looking good. - Keep the nose at around 45º. We still need lift as much as groundspeed. If the speed vector drops below the horizon for too long, mission may become unviable. - Once a perikee becomes evident, start lowering the nose, ultimately aligning it with the speed vector. - Build speed until apokee intercepts the Mün\'s orbit. Interception is too far ahead of the Mün for capture. - Right before apokee, burn prograde to widen the orbit until perikee is >2M. Thus the ship lingers longer around the Mün\'s path and capture window expands. Also, with such a high perikee, warp never slows down. - Orbit Kerbin a couple times and wait for Mün capture. - Upon capture, burn as necessary to assume an orbit with ~10km perikee. - At perikee, burn retrograde and lose all surface speed. Drop straight down. - Keep burning the 2nd stage until it\'s spent, to control the rate of descent. Use vectoring and RCS to lose horizontal speed. - Separate 2nd stage. Use main engine to control descent, RCS for fine tuning. - Touchdown! - Look around. - Lift off back to Kerbin. KSP crash. Wonder forever whether Jeb made it back alive.

The dropbox link for 1.3 isn\'t working due to high traffic. Any change of a mirror somewhere? Thanks.

@Herra Tohtori Good point. On the other hand, launching a payload into orbit is usually the most costly aspect of a space mission. With private corporations highly motivated to slash that cost, launching will in all likelihood become way more affordable in the near future. If the price is driven low enough, eventually we may actually see an increase of purely scientific missions funded by grants and university programs.

SpaceX: cost effective lift to orbit Virgin Galactic: zero-G tourism Copenhagen Suborbitals: amateur rocketeering with surprisingly high chances of success Maybe government-backed space agencies are obsolete.

My first attempt reached 279km into the heavens. In true Kerbal fashion, attempts at cleverly improving the design resulted in decreased results, increased explosions. This was the layout: Stage 1: 6x SRB + 6x radial decoupler + 3x LFE + 3x LFT + tricoupler (stack decoupler) Stage 2: 1x LFE + 1x LFT + space sarcophagus capsule Having realised how little there was to be gained from tampering with the second stage (except in sheer, fiery spectacle), I just went back to the time tested method of More Boosters. Here is my little tin of Kerbals reaching 294km: Stage 1: 12x SRB + 12x radial decoupler + 3x LFE + 3x LFT + tricoupler (stack decoupler) Stage 2: 1x LFE + 1x LFT + kapsule By now there\'s a lot to be gained from sheer piloting skills, since this design spins more than Medusa\'s tits when she goes clubbing. Then SRB separation causes extreme sideways action, which takes a while to correct. The ride is much smoother after that, but between the spinning and the drifting there\'s a lot of potential altitude loss.