Mun lander suggestions

[Nich]

I made the following Mun lander and I have a love/hate relationship with it.  It has a recoverable Reliant, thud 2x core with a terrier circularize/transfer/deorbit stage and 2km/s lander.  I am quite happy with how it performs but I feel like: 1. The tech level is too high and I should have been able to do it sooner.  2. The cost is too high and it could be done cheaper (< 22,000).  With out the sparks I just couldn't seem to make anything that was 1/2 decent aero dynamicly.  Any ideas or am I just being overcritical?

 

[Scotius]

Why are you complaining about tech level? If you have tech to build well-performing lander, use it.

[Jonfliesgoats]

You have a working lander!  You can fret about efficiency, like we all do.  That's part of the fun of the game, right?  At the end of the day, efficiency is a luxury while reliability is a necessity.  You have a reliable lander!  Show it off!  Brag to your friends.  Make your wife review your math!  Have your children draw picture of rockets against their will!

[Wallygator]

Definitely overcritical.

[Norcalplanner]

Couple of thoughts:

1. You undoubtedly have a lot of science gear in the bay, and science gear is more expensive in 1.2, so that drives the cost up.

2. You're using a ton of the Oscar Bs, which is the single most expensive tank per unit of LFO delivered.  It's 1.75 funds/unit, compared to 1.25 funds/unit for an FLT-400 and 1 fund/unit for an FLT-800.

3. Each of those Thuds costs almost as much as a Thumper, and then you need to add fuel tanks to make them work.  Consider ditching the Thuds and the radial tanks, and instead use two pairs of Thumpers with different thrust levels (so you can stage one pair earlier) and put three FLT-800s on top of a Swivel in the middle instead of a Reliant.

4. The two Sparks are more expensive than a Terrier (although they are lighter, but also with a lower Isp).

5. Based in part on some of the points above, most of my first time Mun landers have an FLT-400 and a Terrier, with just a thermometer and a barometer surface attached to the capsule (high up enough that they'll survive reentry).  No goo canisters or science bays - those generally wait until the second or third Mun landing.

6. And yes, you're being a bit hard on yourself. 

[Draco T stand-up guy]

9 hours ago, Nich said:

Any ideas or am I just being overcritical?

Overly critical. This is my first successful Mun lander:

 

Definitely not a lot of efficiency going on there but it did work and that's all it really needed to do. I build better ones now because I've learned a bit since then.

[DerekL1963]

10 hours ago, Nich said:

 Any ideas or am I just being overcritical?

There's an old saying...  it's not stupid if it works.

[Vanamonde]

This sharing of spacecraft has been moved to the spacecraft sharing subforum. 

[Gilph]

On ‎10‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 6:37 PM, Norcalplanner said:

Couple of thoughts:

1. You undoubtedly have a lot of science gear in the bay, and science gear is more expensive in 1.2, so that drives the cost up.

2. You're using a ton of the Oscar Bs, which is the single most expensive tank per unit of LFO delivered.  It's 1.75 funds/unit, compared to 1.25 funds/unit for an FLT-400 and 1 fund/unit for an FLT-800.

3. Each of those Thuds costs almost as much as a Thumper, and then you need to add fuel tanks to make them work.  Consider ditching the Thuds and the radial tanks, and instead use two pairs of Thumpers with different thrust levels (so you can stage one pair earlier) and put three FLT-800s on top of a Swivel in the middle instead of a Reliant.

4. The two Sparks are more expensive than a Terrier (although they are lighter, but also with a lower Isp).

5. Based in part on some of the points above, most of my first time Mun landers have an FLT-400 and a Terrier, with just a thermometer and a barometer surface attached to the capsule (high up enough that they'll survive reentry).  No goo canisters or science bays - those generally wait until the second or third Mun landing.

6. And yes, you're being a bit hard on yourself. 

This.

In my new 1.2 career, my mun lander was similar in the upper stage.  Had command pod. service bay full of experiments, no materials pod. Used a 400 tank with a terrier, had four 400 around it with decouplers, and put the landing legs on the outer tanks.  I think, with adding another 200 in the center, it was over 5000 deltav.  Don't autostage dropping the four tanks until you lift off for the last time, as they have the landing legs.  As above, the Oscars, Thuds, and Sparks should not be needed