Laythe in 1.05?

[technion]

Hi,

I'm planning a lander here and just realising how much more difficult this place is. Issues I'm running into:

Landers I use previously were powered by a few small stages of 47-8S's. These same landers in 1.05 hit a top speed of 200m/s when running out of fuel. Landers used when I wanted to be more interesting placed three radial jets along side a small liquid fuel stage. Such jets get the rocket to 15km or so, and then even a terrier sitting under a FLT-400 doesn't have the delta v to push from there into orbit.

So you pack more, and realise the atmosphere here is strong enough to cause the tipping problem that I had only previously really thought about on Kerbin launches, and start playing with fins. Fins just don't seem effective on rockets this small, and after a few hours of playing, I've resorted instead to six SAS modules, which seems a far more effective solution.

To say I have a solution below is to say I have one that feels like it's a lot larger than it needs to be.

 

The whole thing does of course scream "spaceplane", but that's not really a path I want to go down.

[Speeding Mullet]

I believe with the new aerodynamics squat and wide is now out, and tall and thin is in.  Having said that, I recognise that squat and wide is better for lander stability so I would say:

Either adjust your ascent profile to start your gravity turn later, or adjust the design of the lander. You really shouldn't need 6 SAS modules in something that small, so you probably have a COM issue.  One solution could be:

Get rid of those SAS modules - you don't need that many. Put one under the 1 man pod if you need the extra torque
Use smaller decouplers to narrow the craft profile a little, and also you'd probably want those out-rigging tanks lower than the central tank, even if by a small amount, to create something more "pointy"
asparagus to the middle tank with fuel lines so you can stage the large tanks sooner, decreasing your profile further.

 

Someone with more Laythe experience than I will probably give you a more detailed answer, but this is a good start...

SM

 

 

[technion]

4 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

I believe with the new aerodynamics squat and wide is now out, and tall and thin is in.  Having said that, I recognise that squat and wide is better for lander stability so I would say:

 

Yes, I'm quite sure I could put a single aerospike underneath an FLT-800, underneath that terrier and build something that could make the ascent easily enough. But Laythe means you've got to build for landing on water. And if you can be bothered actually planning a proper land based landing (I usually give up after 5-6 tries), anything that long and high has a good chance of tipping.

And I have no idea why but if you lower those outside tanks (easy with the new offset tool) it will flip over in the water.