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Ah, getting to your destination and realising you've missed something crucial, like landing gear. I know that problem. It happens to me because I'm too eager to test out an early prototype and accidentally test it too far. "I'll see if this makes orbit. Yep. Wonder if it can get to Jool. Wow, it can. I bet I can't land on Laythe. Huh, coming in for landing. Deploy gear, and... oh, no gear." Well done on the mission.

Hmm, some kind of detatchable pontoons? Is that possible without mods? Isn't is handy having a big expanse of water right outside KSC...

Yes, 1600L doesn't so much fly, as fall with style. Any large angle of attack sends it into a death spin. The NERVA hangs all the weight off the back, and once you've expended the jet and aerospike fuel you have to move all that dead weight around. On the plus side, it is capable of taking off from KSC without destroying the engines.

I wondered if it was possible to do this Kerbin -> Laythe -> Kerbin mission with a space plane. Then I stopped wondering and gave it a go: http://imgur.com/a/ruEqQ#0 My conclusion is, yes, it probably is quite possible to glide a space plane down onto Laythe, power up the engines and fly all the way back home. However, you need to find an extremely flat piece of land, and probably touch down with parachutes. I never touched down, but I had enough of fuel for a flyby of some previous stranded missions. I hope one day they allow us to teraform the moons and add runways. I had some luck on the way home with some lucky moon slingshots. It's painful lugging heavy engines around space, and fuel is hard to conserve.

Here is the craft file: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bymod7ge4lGYM1dJRDJaeTlrY2M I changed the first stage to use less parts (30 less at 282) but it's still pretty volatile. I have it sitting on the VAB pad instead of using clamps because I cant get clamps to stop destroying everything. If anyone has tips for that, let me know. There are 15 stages, most are for takeoff from Laythe. You can move them around while in flight to optionally deploy parachutes or discard landing gear. Don't use full throttle on takeoff. Also, there's no ASAS If you get into orbit with the last booster stage full then there's lots of fuel to get to Laythe (with some aerobraking in Jool and Laythe itself). Keep the interplanetary stage on until you're just about to land, then discard it and pop parachutes. The legs are quite sturdy, and should be able to take most landings (warranty not implied). Have fun!

Thanks. The "wide stance" was adopted after numerous failed landings on Duna due to the centre of gravity being so high with nuclear engines. The extra weight it adds is just part of doing business in space. Personally, I'm not sold on the SRBs, I just threw them on there out of frustration with other landers failing to make orbit. Since they are the first to go on takeoff, it doesnt matter how heavy they are, but something is needed to get everything out of the atmosphere quickly. I might experiment with more aerospikes, or more (bigger) SRBs. The adapers are mostly for looks, but they also shift the centre of thrust down a bit. Also part of the "wide stance" requirement I guess. As for the extra weight, its nothing compared to the fuel weight. The other members of my colony are happily orbiting Laythe right now. They were not as successful at launch as this one, and so they will bide their time before attempting landings as they are very low on fuel in the interplanetary stage, and takeoff pretty much requires almost no fuel use on landing (parachutes). Running three missions at a time really keeps you on your toes tho, since by the time you get orbiting around Jool with one, the others may have been crashed or ejected into deep space days ago.

Here is my entry: http://imgur.com/a/dgyF2 I dont know how long it took. The mission clock was saying 846 days when I got back, but I was hanging around Kerbin for a long time with three of these ships before convoying off to Jool. Unfortunately I only started screenshots once on Laythe, and was too stressed to take more while taking off. The interplanetary stage got me all the way into Laythe atmosphere, and two parachutes and a small engine burst got me onto Laythe with almost full tanks and two solid rocket boosters. The launch from Laythe was hard, and I only just crawled into orbit with the nuclear engine and about 1000L left. I got home by burning escape velocity out of Laythe, then burning retrograde from Jool to get a close approach to Jool (150km), then burning escape velocity from Jool, then waiting until out of Jool SOI and burning retrograde for home. Certainly not the most efficient route, as I didnt wait for anything to line up. Good news for repeat missions, should have plenty to get home once off Laythe. I tried to land near KSC, but I had only 10L left and couldn't be bothered constantly reloading to get reentry just right. So points off there. Points gained back by completely stock 0.17 (no mechjeb) and 3-kerb capsule. I will post the craft file later, but it has about 320 parts I think.