Stock Mars Landing

[Lord Wasteland]

What about oxygen, power, electricity, food? You are forgetting about that as well.

[Thiel]

What about oxygen, power, electricity, food? You are forgetting about that as well.

That\'s not in the game yet, so there\'s not much point in worrying about it. Remember, it\'s stock only.

[Nibb31]

That\'s not in the game yet, so there\'s not much point in worrying about it. Remember, it\'s stock only.

Neither is Mars.

And by the time we get extra planets, we will have docking and a lot of rebalancing of parts, so designing a Mars-capable spacecraft now doesn\'t make much sense.

[Kryten]

Especially considering we don\'t know what form \'Mars\' which actually take, or where it will be; there\'s absolutely no reason to assume that squad will slavishly follow our solar system.

[Temstar]

I figure if I get started now, by the time docking and planets do come along I only have to adjust the work I\'ve done to the new version rather than start from a clean sheet.

If Rocketdyne didn\'t start F1 engine development in 1955 no one would be on the moon in 1969, just look at what happened to the Soviet N1 rocket.

[Nibb31]

Well, docking will be pretty much a game changer. A 'Mars direct' type of design makes absolutely no sense, especially as we don\'t even know what the gravity well of this future planet will be like. You will need a 'mothership & lander' type of design, which is pretty much impossible at the moment.

[PakledHostage]

I agree with Temstar. Why not play around with some of the ideas now already? It gives us something to do and it is fun to think about. I never would have believed how small a stock rocket I could get out to planetary distances and back to Kerbin if I\'d never tried it. And what I learned about orbital mechanics in the process can be applied when planets are finally added, even if the parts are rebalanced between now and then.