What is the secret to land and go back to Kerbin?

[Pedro_daher]

Seems like an odd question... But I know that there is a way to build a ship which you can land on any planet and come back ( alive ) to Kerbin... I use the New Horizons mod and I only managed to do that in two moons... So, what are you guys techniques to land and come back home?

[Tatonf]

"Moar boosters" is quite the only response I can give you with such a vague question.

If you want to do more things you need more fuel.

[Hagen von Tronje]

A ship that can land on any planet or moon and come back to Kerbin is a monumental achievement of engineering and is going to carry numerous redundant systems (landing on Tylo is not landing on Laythe, taking off from Eve is not taking off from Minmus). For most KSP players building something like that would be their crowning achievement.

If you just mean "how do I start exploring," I'd suggest doing flybys to inspect a place first, then building something to suit the destination and mission requirements. Duna landers don't need tons of fuel or thrust and can make some use of chutes, while Tylo landers need truckloads of fuel and thrust and chutes are worse than nothing at all. Interplanetary landing and return missions are significant projects so plan out each phase, how you will transfer to that planet's intercept, how you will land, how you will get back off that planet, and how you will get home to Kerbin, then whether you will land that vehicle back on Kerbin or just pick them up in Kerbin orbit with a rendezvous to save the trouble. Additionally, plan what you want to do there - it's cool if you just want to land and poke your head out, but you might want to take the opportunity to collect samples, test out a rover, set up a mining base, scout out sites for future operations, etc etc etc.

The short version is that you keep trying until it works, then you keep getting better at it until you can take the next step!

[Pedro_daher]

A ship that can land on any planet or moon and come back to Kerbin is a monumental achievement of engineering and is going to carry numerous redundant systems (landing on Tylo is not landing on Laythe, taking off from Eve is not taking off from Minmus). For most KSP players building something like that would be their crowning achievement.

If you just mean "how do I start exploring," I'd suggest doing flybys to inspect a place first, then building something to suit the destination and mission requirements. Duna landers don't need tons of fuel or thrust and can make some use of chutes, while Tylo landers need truckloads of fuel and thrust and chutes are worse than nothing at all. Interplanetary landing and return missions are significant projects so plan out each phase, how you will transfer to that planet's intercept, how you will land, how you will get back off that planet, and how you will get home to Kerbin, then whether you will land that vehicle back on Kerbin or just pick them up in Kerbin orbit with a rendezvous to save the trouble. Additionally, plan what you want to do there - it's cool if you just want to land and poke your head out, but you might want to take the opportunity to collect samples, test out a rover, set up a mining base, scout out sites for future operations, etc etc etc.

The short version is that you keep trying until it works, then you keep getting better at it until you can take the next step!

Cool, I like that Idea of mining base!! What did I not think about that before!! <3

[Sharpy]

There's no "universal lander" that can land and take off from anywhere - in particular, you'll want very different landers for Eve and Tylo.

Look up an up-to-date "delta-V map", and plan your travel around that. Orbit, transfer stage, landing, start, return, landing on Kerbin. Each of these usually corresponds to a stage or a few of your vehicle.

Also, if you enter a system, landing on a moon is usually vastly easier than landing on the planet. You can take an ISRU set-up and refuel before going home.

[panzer1b]

There's no "universal lander" that can land and take off from anywhere.

Although its not finished, i have something (that is single stage as well) that can land and get back in orbit on ANY PLANET except for Eve (SSTO on eve may be possible, but its bloody hard to do), Jool (while it was doable in the past, landing on jool seems kinda suicideal and ive been unable to pull off a working lander that can do jool), and Kerbol (you kinda explode when trying to land on the sun's surface).

Once finished i think itll disprove the whole no such thing as a universal lander. Its got wings to do unpowered glide landings, enough TWR to do tylo both ways, and well, the only thing that sucks is that i cant take it from kerbin, land on tylo, and terurn home in one trip without fueling along the way.

[Just Jim]

The closest I've come so far is this, the Annabel Lee.

She's a self re-fueling explorer ship, but she's still untested on Tylo. That's her next big test.

But even if she had the parachutes to land, she would never, ever be able to take off again from Eve.

Close, but no Kerban cigar yet...

Edited September 10, 2015 by Just Jim
my lousy spelling

[Pedro_daher]

That is a very nice design Jim... I love it, well for now I will start to create bases in every moon or planet possible, guess this will give a help with fuel and stuff like that

I guess it doesn't look that horrible, ignore the small ore tanks, I still haven't unlocked the big ones.

[cantab]

"Any planet" is a bit impractical, but it's feasible to make good general purpose landers. For airless bodies you can use the same design on a lot of them though it may be overkill for some. Build to handle somewhere like Eeloo or Vall. Atmospheric bodies are a bit trickier but a Laythe lander should also do Serran and if it's rocket-only (no jets) probably Lave and Duna too.

I believe the "challenge" bodies in New Horizons, that will want special treatment, are Ernus, Eve, Titanus, Tylo, and Tidus. And maybe Arin too, and Leouch if you want to return from its crevasse.

Edited September 10, 2015 by cantab

[The_Rocketeer]

I think part of the fun comes from designing your craft to suit your mission goals, and build it in your personal style. There are numerous ways to successfully land and return from a planet. Some of them are more cost effective, some are more fuel efficient, some are more awesome, and some... well, some are just dumb. All are valid.

I don't have a single lander design that I use for everything, I design a lander for the body I'm going to and the mission I'm trying to accomplish. All vacuum landers are generally different from all atmo landers, but within those groups they tend to share certain features because when I make something that works well I prefer to reuse it than make something else that does the same job worse. However, that only works for subassemblies - a lander for Mun will probably not have the power to escape from Tylo, and correspondingly a Tylo lander would be absurdly overpowered for Mun.

There are times when I want a single lander to be reused on multiple bodies. This is inherently inefficient, because you might be carrying equipment like parachutes that might be useless if you're landing on an airless body. On the other hand, the extra cost of transporting two separate landers to the same two locations could be more expensive, so there is some efficiency-based justification.

But there again, if it gives u a kick, what more justification does it need?

[Pedro_daher]

Yep, Im kinda a begginer in KSP... I have to start working on efficiency aswell, there are so many possibilities in this game, love it.

[tbarcello]

If I'm building it, it will need the following:

1. Delta V of 12k in atmosphere.

2. Kerbin TWR of 1+ in atmosphere.

3. Refinery, drill, ore storage, ore scanner.

Please build and post pictures.

If by landing you mean that you want to land at least a part of the ship, then you can try deploying a lander refinery.

- - - Updated - - -

That is a very nice design Jim... I love it, well for now I will start to create bases in every moon or planet possible, guess this will give a help with fuel and stuff like that

I guess it doesn't look that horrible, ignore the small ore tanks, I still haven't unlocked the big ones.

http://imageshack.com/a/img673/9834/2fSUg8.png

I actually like those little ones, they can help lower your CoM. Maybe you can even strut it and attach the landing struts to them. Also, is it possible to use the alignment tool to make them go inside that tank abit?

[Kerbart]

Yep, Im kinda a begginer in KSP... I have to start working on efficiency aswell, there are so many possibilities in this game, love it.

Practice, practice, practice... As in the real world, don't try to reach your goal at once. Do a lot of missions that allow you to get better and better, until many things are routine. Consider it a real space program. Here a suggestion how such a program could look. Yours will likely be different, but the concept is to master little steps while working towards a bigger goal. Master, and build ships, for:

• Getting into orbit
  
• Getting into the orbit you want, for instance a 150×150km orbit
  
• Get from one orbit (previous 150×150) into another (say, 200×200)
  
• Rendez-vous two vessels (get them within 100m of each other)
  
• Dock
  
• Do a lunar fly-by
  
• Do a lunar orbit
  
• Do a lunar orbit and return
  
• Land on the moon
  

Something along those lines. Gradually you'll get better at a lot of the intermediate steps, figure out what kind of ship you need for it, and by the time you're aiming for a landing your challenge will be landing the ship, not all those other things you need to do in order to get there.