Kirian

No, the tuning was there in the copy But I will try one more landing with rotation while I aerobrake. I'm coming from about 100 km with a PE of about 70 km. Edit: Roll during descent worked!! Touchdown and back into orbit achieved! Thanks again.

Alas, the T3 build didn't actually quite make it down to the surface; at least, my copy of it didn't. The trusses holding the upper-level heat shields started to overheat; on my first shot, one of them blasted away, pulling everything else off-balance. Second try, I released the four together before one overheated... but then the combo of no balance from those and very slow SAS (due to the build) meant the lander couldn't stay in retrograde long enough, and broke apart. Additionally, the interplanetary stage requires high precision... I had to accept a somewhat high PE on arrival, and getting it down close enough to the planet meant it no longer has enough dV to return to Kerbin. So it goes... I'll try sending my normal two-launch combo this time to rescue the Kerbals--at least they'll travel home in style, even if it does take a while for rescue ships to arrive.

OK, I'm really surprised you did this with T3 parts. Your vessel shown earlier has T4 parts of course, so very cool getting it down to smaller parts!

Very Cool! Are you willing to share your ship plans?

I just want to say thank you for this mod! It doesn't do everything perfectly yet (I mean, it says experimental right there on the tin for some features), but it makes planning maneuvers a ton easier.

Thanks for the tips @Starhawk and @twich22! I made it to Tylo and to the monument, and I have about 2100 dV to spare, which I hope will get me into a very low orbit. However, one of my Kerbals is stuck in the mud and can't move, so hopefully I can figure out that bug and move forward. Edit: Bug thwarted by cheating. Look, I was willing to walk the 4 clicks but the game wouldn't let me. But... Apparently that 2100 dV readout was incorrect... I can't get into orbit. I'll send a rescue mission at some point. Hopefully he has a lot of snacks.

Thanks for the tips! I've managed to put together a lander at 5100 m/s and 2.2 TWR, which seems still a bit iffy. It doesn't even seem to be Tsiolkovsky's tyranny swinging against me here, but it feels like there's not enough fine gradation in the parts available. But I'll keep working on it. I have made it to (and back from!) Moho, so I have one down. Returning from Eve likely requires another 15k research or so. For the actual attempt on Tylo, I essentially want the periapsis at the lowest possible number (about 30k on Tylo IIRC, thanks to mountains, but I'm uncertain), is that correct? And then burn hard but not too hard to land well... yikes, it feels like targeting the monument becomes really dicey then. I'll keep making attempts.

I'm finding a landing on Tylo to be extremely difficult, not to mention expensive. It ought to be about 2300 delta-v to land; I am going through 5k+ and still crashing. It's clear to me that Dart engines were a poor choice, and I'm pretty certain I'll be sending a second mission with a different lander (or 3x as many Darts). Does anyone have suggestions or tips for what's required to land, or for how to make the landing happen? I think my main issue is that I don't have a good trajectory for burning, and I'm not sure what my target orbit from which to burn ought to be. Also would love to hear lander design thoughts; I guess I should look into making it 7k delta-v ? For the monument mission, does the lander have to be manned?