Is lithobraking sacrifice of landing legs possible?

[THX1138]

I can't slow my vessel (chutes deployed, engine full power) below 8 m/s and it's destroyed on splashdown at this speed. If I land instead of splashdown, will the landing legs be destroyed and save the rest of the vessel or will the whole thing be destroyed?

[kBob]

I sometimes put a sacrificial part on the bottom of my lander, heat shields are useful for this.  If I haven't provided enough parachutes but still at reasonable speed it's not uncommon for the bottom part to blow up but everything else if fine.

[bewing]

At 8 m/s, even the landing legs will survive when hitting dirt. If you use something even more clever, like Structural Wing Type Ds as your "landing legs" -- then there won't be even a possibility of damage. I routinely land my rockets on the runway (for the 100% refund) at 9.8 m/s on structural wings.

Edited June 3, 2016 by bewing

[Streetwind]

Yeah, buffer parts are definitely a thing. People have in the past taken this to hilarious extremes with modular girder segments