FJCestero

Hi all, KSP 2.0? I'd like to see KSP with Lagrange Points (even if they're just special SOI's with invisible, non-colliding masses you can slowly orbit around). More solar systems (with magic Warp Points in deep space, if we must). Maybe even orbital shipyards (mine Mun, ship iron, smelt, refine, build...). Eventually, you'd never have to go back to Kerbin... But most of all I'd *LOVE* some of that No Man's Sky procedural world-building stuff. With animals. For **!!SCIENCE!!**

First off, Congratulations! And doing your first Mun with a 3-Kerbal pod no less. That's impressive. I was strictly a 1-K can-lander for the longest time. (I also did the really bad move of killing my orbital velocity about 70km up and dropping -- sloooowly. Monster ship, stupid delta-V (I was terrified of running out of fuel), can on top of an FT-400 with three legs (to save weight of course -- don't try that), ). Having now established my street-cred... I'd call yours a good solid design overall. Kind of depends on your flight profile, really. Some critiques/suggestions: 1) Your second L-10 Poodle is a bit overmuch. 250kN for what it's pushing is far more than you need to lift from Mun or Minmus and return. Go with a LV909 Terrier. You'll have to retro-burn sooner/longer, but it will save you 1.25 tons you could carry as extra fuel instead. Or you can "cash" that in as extra delta-V. I know you mentioned being concerned about that. 2) Your middle stage, the first L-10 Poodle should have more fuel loaded. You only have a Rockomax 200 there (if I'm seeing right). Eight tons of fuel for a 1.75 ton engine isn't a very good fuel/mass ratio. I also note that your TWR for almost every stage is around 2. That's pretty up there for upper stages. Either add more fuel or get rid of this stage and merge the Rocko-200 with the orange tank. That's another 1.75 tons you'd save overall = more delta-V. 3) Your asparagus looks solid, but think about adding an FT-400 to the top of each. I also like to put a strut between my center tank and the bottom of the boosters to keep them from torquing into the main tank when the engines fire. YMMV. 4) Add a 2.5m SAS (if you have it) to the first stage (or 2nd, if you decide to keep it). You should be fine after that, but having good SAS (and fins, you might need those too) it atmo is good. 5) Move the landing legs down, right to the edge. You do not want to lose your return engine to landing impact 12,000km from home. If you can, use some girders to extend them outwards. A wide and low landing stance is very important for the first several landings... 6) I'd dump half of your RCS jets, it's best to rely on SAS for attitude control. Put the remaining four on the Command Pod's perimeter. For final adjustments to your re-entry. 7) Solar panels should move to the Command Pod as well. Those things are your only renewable resource -- don't toss them until you have to. You could misjudge your re-entry, bounce off the atmosphere and have to circle around again. At which point you might have drained your batteries. What will you do then? Hope all this doesn't sound like too much. Like I said, your design is a good solid start. Overpowered and under-fueled would be my main critique, but much better than my first Mun! FWIW, my "standard" lander is a LV909 + 1-K can, with Mission! & Science! and a Donut tank. Then a symmetric pair of radial decoups with fuel tanks. From each fuel tank there's two more decoups going to more fuel tanks (total: 2+4) which end in landing legs. Fuel ducts connect everything of course. I use the fuel tanks instead of girders to widen my leg stance, and then eject them to save weight on the way back. @12 tons, I get about 4600 m/s overall which gives me multiple landings. Not very aerodynamic going up though -- got to work on that.