A grand tour question

[Ultimate Steve]

Assume, for a second, that you must do a grand tour. The catch is that you don't know what planets you will be going to. It could be any of the planet packs in KSP. You could have mega Eve, mega Tylo, boiling ocean moon, mini Gilly, etc. You don't know. You also have KSP Interstellar Extended and a few other futuristic but balanced mods.

In order to have all of your bases covered, which Landers should you bring?

So far, I have an an all atmospheric world SSTO, tested on Jool, a fusion powered Tylo plus non atmospheric lander, a Mun ish sized nuclear lander that can handle light atmospheres, and a nuclear light moon lander. I am concerned about large world's with thin atmospheres as the SSTO can't fire its fusion engine in an atmosphere, and needs an atmosphere to accelerate. I am also concerned about ocean world's. I don't know what to build for a landing there.

Can you think of any other niches I missed?

[bewing]

I would think that any rational ocean world is going to have an atmosphere. So you should be able to get away with your fusion SSTO there -- provided that you've modified it for water takeoffs. (Which usually just involves making a canard-wing design and then moving the canards downward so they are below the waterline. Or having a second set of canards there.)

[Ultimate Steve]

4 hours ago, bewing said:

I would think that any rational ocean world is going to have an atmosphere. So you should be able to get away with your fusion SSTO there -- provided that you've modified it for water takeoffs. (Which usually just involves making a canard-wing design and then moving the canards downward so they are below the waterline. Or having a second set of canards there.)

Alright. I have redesigned my atmo SSTO. It now has a lot more flexibility - if you are very gentle, you can land in and take off from water, but it was only tested on Kerbin. I have also added braking parachutes, as well as parachutes near the front so you can deploy them and do a vertical propulsively assisted landing. This makes water landings easier, and it also makes landing on worlds with thin atmospheres (tested on Duna) easier. It was tested on Jool again and still works.

[Aegolius13]

10 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

a Mun ish sized nuclear lander 

That's a big lander.

 

 

[Klapaucius]

8 hours ago, bewing said:

I would think that any rational ocean world is going to have an atmosphere. So you should be able to get away with your fusion SSTO there -- provided that you've modified it for water takeoffs. (Which usually just involves making a canard-wing design and then moving the canards downward so they are below the waterline. Or having a second set of canards there.)

If you are using @Gameslinx's planet overhaul, you may come across a moon called Telos. It has an atmosphere, but it is only .2 pressure.  I've only visited it via Mission Builder, but I have never successfully got an aircraft into the air on it.  The take off speed is so fast you wind up destroying your gear and yourself.  So, you'd probably want to treat it like a kinder, gentler Tylo, despite the fact your air-breathing engines will work.  It seems you'd want a rocket assist vertical launch and once up to speed, you could simply fly on air breathers until you run out of atmosphere.

[Ultimate Steve]

6 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

If you are using @Gameslinx's planet overhaul, you may come across a moon called Telos. It has an atmosphere, but it is only .2 pressure.  I've only visited it via Mission Builder, but I have never successfully got an aircraft into the air on it.  The take off speed is so fast you wind up destroying your gear and yourself.  So, you'd probably want to treat it like a kinder, gentler Tylo, despite the fact your air-breathing engines will work.  It seems you'd want a rocket assist vertical launch and once up to speed, you could simply fly on air breathers until you run out of atmosphere.

Hmm... Maybe I should modify the SSTO to be capable of vertical takeoff as well. It can currently do landing... But then I'd have a ladder issue... Maybe...