Please recommend a lander design

[EricT43]

I've managed to land both kerballed and unkerballed craft on the Mun and Minmus, but have not been successful at returning anything to Kerbal. My landers thus far have been a command module with drone for SAS (scientist-flown), a Science Jr., 200 fuel tank and a 909. The contraption is rather tall, and my only kerballed landing tipped over on landing. Also ran out of fuel, but that's a different story.

Anyway, I have unlocked the Mk1 lander module, and thought of trying that. Just wondering what lander designs you all would recommend for a beginner that are fairly easy to land and stay upright, can collect a reasonable amount of science, and have enough fuel to get back home?

[Orange_Slime_]

My system was a large SRB for getting to the moon, a few smaller ones to slow down enough, landed, then SRB'd my way back. Took hours of physics and launch calculations though, and a design with thrusters would probably be better I guess.

[Kelderek]

Are you in sandbox, science, or career? If career or science, then how far into the tech tree are you?

[Melfice]

I don't have pictures, unfortunately. And it's hardly the most efficient design to bring into Kerbin orbit without fairings (oh, the agony. THE AGONY.).

But, from top of the lander to the bottom:

Any command module. Probe core, lander can, or pod.

Science Junior.

Service bay, loaded with batteries, and all the (radial) science equipment you have unlocked.

Heatshield.

Radially in a tripod configuration, top to bottom (use whatever decoupler you like; I used the TT-38K):

Aerodynamic nose cone

FL-T400

LV-909

Radially on that, LT-5 landing struts (as many as you think are necessary, but one of each engine pod should suffice), but if you have them unlocked use the LT-1s. It (hopefully) shouldn't make too much of an impact on your dV numbers.

Place parachutes as and where you feel necessary. Likewise with solar panels.

This design should be able to deorbit on the Mün, return to orbit around the Mün, and fly back to Kerbin in a direct descent, ditching the engine pods in orbit as I did reentry.

There is some fuel left, but I don't know if it's enough to establish orbit around Kerbin when you return and still be able to deorbit.

Edited May 8, 2015 by Melfice

[EtherDragon]

Two Stage lander designs are complicated, but a great way to go.

Attach all of your science experiments to the lower stage (the lander).

Do all the science you want on the surface, then move all the experiments into the capsule, for storage and transport.

Then, an ascent stage is the only stage that returns to orbit / Kerbin.

Having tall landers are really problematic because any slope can topple them over.

[Anquietas314]

Two Stage lander designs are complicated, but a great way to go.

Tbh, for stock they're not really worth it. You can get home with a stupidly small amount of fuel

OP: Here's what I've been using in my career save:

The design is reasonably early game and the fairing isn't strictly necessary (but helps with efficiency and overheating issues with the rebalanced reentry heat mod), with a pretty decent margin for error (I screw up far more than I'd like to admit ). Depending on what you have available you can obviously just swap nosecones/tanks as appropriate. Lander legs used are the ones intended for probes - they work just fine as long as you don't hit the ground too hard

[capi3101]

To be wholly honest, I'm still having luck with Geschosskopf's Sci Lander design from 0.23; with a set of FL-T400s on the sides it can get to either of Kerbin's moons, get into orbit, land, launch and return to Kerbin on its own. The tricky bit is getting it into orbit; these days you can do it by putting the whole assembly into a fairing; I use Procedural Fairings myself and haven't yet tried out the stock fairings to see how well they'd work (if at all). I've also started placing a service bay between the cockpit and the girder and putting all the extra instruments and in there; heat shields go under the sci jrs and another one goes on the bottom of the girder. The beauty of the Sci Lander design is that it puts a lot of mass up towards the top of the rocket inherently, making any booster less prone to flipping out of control. Does make the rocket wide, which is in general a no-no, but in this case it works (in my experience at least).