To return or not to return?

[Fendleton]

I\'ve always brought my crews back. They don\'t always land safely (damned parachutes not slowing the capsule enough...), but they always get back, whether by using a micro-spaceplane on top of the lander or the classic 'pop the capsule and hope the parachutes work'. I use ASAS and 3 or 4 LV909\'s for each lander, so RCS isn\'t needed and there\'s a huge redundancy factor (I\'ve flown a lander back with an entire engine/tank pod ripped off the side of the lander before. Wouldn\'t try landing it though).

I\'m considering trying to land using SRBs. You know.....fire 3-4 of them at exactly the right time and balance the angles so I land just as they cut out. Don\'t think I\'m good enough for it though.

[samstarman5]

I\'m considering trying to land using SRBs. You know.....fire 3-4 of them at exactly the right time and balance the angles so I land just as they cut out. Don\'t think I\'m good enough for it though.

That\'s walking the razor\'s edge. I have no doubt it is possible, but you would have to time it perfectly with just the right amount of momentum. Considering a very simple lander design can only tolerate about 8m/s speed upon landing on Kerbin without going boom, that\'s a very narrow margin in which to work.

Go for it.

[A Fat Pokemon]

I only attempt (keyword 'attempt') to bring them home if I\'ve run out of RCS fuel on my rovers, otherwise, I just leave them there, since I dont like to bring stuff home when it could just stay there... 8)

[VincentMcConnell]

I have to wonder how much this will change when atmo re-entry mechanics get changed with heat added. There may be more inclined to keep their craft on the Mun as opposed to taking the chance of goofing on the return and carbonizing your kerbals.

All you have to do is return back to a 100 kilometer orbit around Kerbin and then reenter from that. When heat is added, I do plan on doing a test of reentry angles from orbit. Lunar and Minian reentry speeds are a different story, though.

[AeroPelican]

No way! I never return, I land with communications stations on wheels, that deploy mini rovers, and a monolith detector. I have one parked by the mun arch currently. ;D

[leopardenthusiast]

My first landing HAS to stay - it didn\'t have any landing gear (it was a test of a satellite launcher, not an intentional munar mission, but I had such a good rocket that I decided to make it my primary launch system given that it\'s capable of matching orbit with Minmus and returning with fuel left over) and everything but the capsule exploded. Sure, I could tell them to do an EVA without their helmets to 'get information on the effects of vacuum on a kerbal', but I\'d really rather not. All of my other 'landings' were crash landings with no survivors.

However, as soon as I get one of my landers down fully intact, I plan to return it!

[okbillybunnyface]

Don\'t you think an RCS system is kind of pointless? Nice lander, though.

FYI: You don\'t need RCS just to land. Simply adjust your attitude on the descent.

I use RCS quite a bit on landers to change my horizontal velocity. It is VERY useful for scooting around the surface in a hover, or getting that mun base all nice and feng shui.