[STOCK] Apollo LEM Replica

[Bubbadevlin]

Bubbadevlin Presents

A stock Apollo LEM Replica

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The Apollo Lunar Module (LM), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman Aircraft to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back. Designed for lunar orbit rendezvous, it consisted of an ascent stage and descent stage, and was ferried to lunar orbit by its companion Command and Service Module(CSM), a separate spacecraft of approximately twice its mass, which also took the astronauts home to Earth. After completing its mission, the LM was discarded. It was capable of operation only in outer space; structurally and aerodynamically it was incapable of flight through the Earth's atmosphere. The Lunar Module was the first, and to date only, manned spacecraft to operate exclusively in the airless vacuum of space.

Six such craft successfully landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. A seventh provided propulsion and life support for the crew of Apollo 13 when their CSM was disabled by an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon. - Wikipedia

This is a replica LEM that has been designed to be as accurate possible. The craft is scaled as life size, so it is much too large for regular Kerbals. It features two stages, a rover, a two man capsule and custom landing legs. This was originally designed for the update of my Saturn V replica, but due to popular demand, I have decided to release it alone, and before the rest of the replica. While the top stage is the same as the old replica, the bottom is completely overhauled, and there have been some tweaks to the top stage as well.

Being life sized, the lander is approximately 6m tall and 5m wide in both directions, the replica is however not a mass replica, as all of the aesthetic parts are very heavy, and it weighs a total of 33 tons. At the usual cost of accuracy to parts in a replica, this one has a huge amount of parts, 483. However, over 200 of these are part of the custom landing legs, and you can easily change them for in game versions. I created this replica to be a true replica, and part count was a second thought.

The lander's legs are custom, and are able to move on themselves. This is done through and engine hinges, and landing legs which push them out. While time-warp can screw these up, just toggling the gears and time warping again fixes the problem. The lander also features a small rover which is decoupled from the backside. The LEM also has  RCS heat shields and a ladder. The main engine is a Vector engine, however the thrust is scaled down. This can be very useful, if you wait too long on your suicide burn.

The LEM is a fully functional moon lander, but is mainly eye candy. I hope you enjoy it. The pics are from many different test missions, so you may see multiple versions of the lander

 

[YargJay9991]

Wow.... Just wow.....

This is a really nice design. Nice job man!

Happy Flying

YargJay9991

[Majorjim!]

Its a nice upgrade from the original one man good job on this!

 However It looks like the rover is on the outside of the skirt.. Given the huge part count you could have had a proper release for the rover and science parts. There could be so much space in the lower stage given the scale of the lander. If you make another version I would recommend redesigning the descent stage to allow for this. It would make for a much more realistic experience for the user. (Must see pics before commenting!)

There are plenty of tricks to get more space in the descent stage. Putting some of the fuel for the descent in the ascent stage for example.

 As it is it is very nice indeed and the legs are a great addition!

Edited February 24, 2016 by Majorjim

[Bubbadevlin]

1 minute ago, Majorjim said:

Its a nice upgrade from the original one man good job on this!

 However It looks like the rover is on the outside of the skirt.. Given the huge part count you could have had a proper release for the rover and science parts. There could be so much space in the lower stage given the scale of the lander. If you make another version I would recommend redesigning the descent stage to allow for this. It would make for a much more realistic experience for the user. There are plenty of tricks to get more space in the descent stage. Putting some of the fuel for the descent in the ascent stage for example.

 As it is it is very nice indeed and the legs are a great addition!

Nope, the rover is on the inside of a panel that is one part of the skirt. The panel is decoupled, falls to the ground, and then the rover is decoupled. During decent the rover is completely inside the skirt. 

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Bubbadevlin said:

Nope, the rover is on the inside of a panel that is one part of the skirt. The panel is decoupled, falls to the ground, and then the rover is decoupled. During decent the rover is completely inside the skirt. 

Oh ok cool! I just saw it in the pics, they are in a funny order so I didn't see it first time..

 Did you change the front of the ascent stage? it looks a bit off in the pics.

[Bubbadevlin]

2 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

Oh ok cool! I just saw it in the pics, they are in a funny order so I didn't see it first time..

 Did you change the front of the ascent stage? it looks a bit off in the pics.

Yea, some of the pictures are from older prototypes, however the same general look was kept, so I kept most of them in there. What you are prob seeing is the difference of the lander with the ladder and without it

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Bubbadevlin said:

Yea, some of the pictures are from older prototypes, however the same general look was kept, so I kept most of them in there. What you are prob seeing is the difference of the lander with the ladder and without it

Hmm yeah could be. What about swapping that rover wheel on the top for a lamp? It would nicely illuminate the ladder.

   

[selfish_meme]

I took a look at the first few pics in the albums and my meme voice in my head said

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OP builds beautiful detailed replica, posts screenshots at night time

Looks great, I wish I could run it at something approaching glacial speed (actually it might not be that bad I had a 300 part plane that seemed to run OK)

[Bubbadevlin]

6 minutes ago, selfish_meme said:

I took a look at the first few pics in the albums and my meme voice in my head said

Looks great, I wish I could run it at something approaching glacial speed (actually it might not be that bad I had a 300 part plane that seemed to run OK)

Haha yea, the first few pics of the album were night :/  Yea, If you just click on the base cubic octags on the landing legs, you will remove like 200 parts if need be. Many many parts are actually physics-less parts (gravitation detectors) so it doesnt lag that badly

 

 

[RixKillian]

 I'm simply awestruck. It's a beautiful replica, and the elegance of the landing leg system is simply fantastic. (Now we'll wait while you build a 1:1 Saturn V to go along with it )

[Heckspress]

1 hour ago, RixKillian said:

 I'm simply awestruck. It's a beautiful replica, and the elegance of the landing leg system is simply fantastic. (Now we'll wait while you build a 1:1 Saturn V to go along with it )

my computer would fry just looking at the images of it

[Dman979]

I think that this is perhaps the best LM I've seen so far. One minor quibble about the name- Lunur Excursion Module was the original name for the craft, but NASA changed it to Lunar Module because they don't like good-sounding acronyms.

[KerbonautInTraining]

If you want a bit of extra realism, the ascent and descent stages started with a TWR of ~1.6 and burned out with a TWR of ~3.5. Thrust limiter adjustments could simulate this, although the ratio between wet and dry TWR is probably different from real life.

What engine is used for the ascent stage?

[pTrevTrevs]

It looks really nice, but it looks like the descent stage may be a little too small for the top. I could be wrong on this though, it's hard to tell.

[Majorjim!]

Just now, pTrevTrevs said:

It looks really nice, but it looks like the descent stage may be a little too small for the top. I could be wrong on this though, it's hard to tell.

I noticed too, the scale is slightly out, but its close.

[Bubbadevlin]

Thanks everyone!

1 hour ago, pTrevTrevs said:

It looks really nice, but it looks like the descent stage may be a little too small for the top. I could be wrong on this though, it's hard to tell.

Yea, the scale is one of the hardest parts, especially with how the LEM lower stage is constructed. 

2 hours ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

If you want a bit of extra realism, the ascent and descent stages started with a TWR of ~1.6 and burned out with a TWR of ~3.5. Thrust limiter adjustments could simulate this, although the ratio between wet and dry TWR is probably different from real life.

What engine is used for the ascent stage?

Hmm.. that would be cool, but yea, the mass to fuel ratio is WAY different from the real lander. All of those Round-8 tanks are just empty

The engine used for the acent stage is just your basic LV909 terrier. I would have probobly used the Rocomax Poodle engine with the decent stage, however the Vector looks MUCH better, and the Poodle would have gotten in the way of the rover, being a 2m engine

 

[RixKillian]

18 hours ago, RixKillian said:

Now we'll wait while you build a 1:1 Saturn V to go along with it 

Oof! Shame on me, I'd forgotten you already have!

[XpertKerbalKSP]

Best

LEM

EVEEEEEEEER!!!!!!

[Bubbadevlin]

Lol.. thanks!  

[Comrade Xmir]

Looks sweet!

[Swithmario]

my landing gear wont deploy no matter what

[Bubbadevlin]

hi! this is very old and the trick i used for the landing gear is no longer possible. It relied on the fact that landing legs could push parts of their own craft, something not possible with the new updates.  I am working on an overall update to my Saturn V, but there is still lots of work to be done on it.