[1.6 Stock]My Current "All Purpose" craft

[Znath]

Ok well I can't really do large missions due to the power of my old computer. Nonetheless, here are my current successful designs.

Some I did post on my intro topic but I figure they're better here too.

First: My standard launcher, the basis for most of my missions. I can modify it with RCS modules, satellite payloads, or modify the side tanks as landers and beacons to drop on surfaces.

This model carries a "satellite" since I'm using straight up vanilla right now, it's very crude.

My lander at the arch on Mun. My Kerbal isn't present because... he investigated The Arch! Apparently yes there's an invisible death wall. My theory which the unmanned station is now monitoring, is that this Arch will later on be some kind of wormhole teleporter. It's big enough to fit a large craft through it and instantly kills anything that touches it currently even at low speeds. No mission is currently planned to rescue him from wherever he went. The pod left on the surface will remain as an escape pod for crashed missions.

My most complex mission so far! The mission goes all the way to minimus, lands on the far side... then it lifts off, inverts and hovers to gently set down the space telescope, reverses upwards, then lands normally again (so the crewman can finish the setup)

Ready for Minimus orbital burn

Over the landing site selected.

When it lands (double parachutes) it has a half tank remaining, this is my safety fuel basically. That much leeway really helps keep me from running out or running into a big mission-ending problem. Some of it might be due to the "Fuel Bug" but hopefully most of it isn't. My standard lander often has enough fuel to get to Minimus, Mun, and then back with much to spare. Payload missions generally have enough to land and leave too. Hopefully my current design won't need too much modification to reach the planets when they come along.

[TheBlaster]

That minmus flip over landing is pretty impressive haha. Cool rocket for sure.

[SRB_Freak]

You should try modifying the standard launcher to have a rover, using stock landing gear. It works!

Btw, no offense, but it's 0.16, not 1.6.

[Znath]

What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell so sweet. Right?

They could name it 0.0.1.0.6 and it'd be the same thing.

I've also experimented with rovers, but I dunno mine never seem to work great. The stock landing gear tend to dig into the ground and screw up. That might be related to the amount of weight I don't know. I'm hoping my design isn't too dependent on the "fuel bug" but I think it can still work without it.

I almost got a 3 man pod to land on the moon and return on this setup but it didn't quite work. If I was a hair more efficient it would have worked, but again, I think that fuel bug was a major player either way.

[Oddbin]

If you want a nice all round 3 man craft to use I suggest the Munitaur II as a good one to give you a few ideas. I was having a right pain getting a 3 man capsule safely to mun or munimus and back. The Munitaur showed me a few nice tricks.

On your craft I like the radio telecope lander and how you deploy it. Also the one at the arch is rather cool and I especially like the wee pod landers it has with it. Good imaginative use of parts.

[Znath]

Well the thing I find annoying is people show landers all the time!

But they don't show the launch vehicle! Which is just about the most important part. My current situation means I have to keep my craft small.

My current plan is to try to force my craft to be 1.7 compliant.

In some ways it makes sense that full thrust is less efficient at full than partial thrust, but I don't think it's meant to be to this degree. And perhaps it was never intended to be more efficient after all just because it's lower thrust..

Either way I need to try and get efficient landings without low thrust often.

[Vanamonde]

The stock landing gear tend to dig into the ground and screw up.

That's not anything you're doing wrong. It's a little weirdness that seemed to show up in .16, and a lot of us are having trouble with it. Although I generally don't like to mess with mods, the HSTW cart is just invaluable for making rovers. Building a rocket around it can be a little tricky, but all you have to do is stick a capsule on top of it and you've got a tough, steerable vehicle with which to explore worlds. (Though even it is a little hinky on the current terrain, and it sometimes bounces around even when the ground seems smooth.)

But they don't show the launch vehicle!

The landers are the tricky part, so people tend to be more proud of that part of their designs. Besides, the launch vehicles all have to be somewhat similar to get the job done.