Best Minmus rocket

[DUde101]

Hello, I’m new to this forum, so I’m not sure if I’m posting this in the correct category. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for a good rocket that will take Kerbals to Minmus, and return them safely to Kerbin. I’m really not a fan of these single stage landers, I would prefer to have a rocket with a two stage lander. So when I liftoff, I can use the descent stage as a launchpad, and only return to Kerbin with the ascent stage.

Edited May 2, 2019 by DUde101

[James Kerman]

Welcome to the forum @DUde101.

Minmus is a very low gravity moon that is far easier to land on than the Mun. In fact any Mun lander is more than enough to do Minmus with a couple of biome hops added in so my personal opinion is that a multi-stage lander might be a bit of overkill for the mission. If you choose to do it and you are playing in career or science mode, I would add a probe core, an antenna, solar panels and a repeatable science experiment on anything you leave behind for future contracts or a few extra science points.

[DUde101]

Thanks for your suggestion James! I’ll try to use the same lander I’ve been using for the Mun, hopefully it will work. Thanks again! 

[Aeroboi]

4 hours ago, DUde101 said:

Hello, I’m new to this forum, so I’m not sure if I’m posting this in the correct category. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for a good rocket that will take Kerbals to Minmus, and return them safely to Kerbin. I’m really not a fan of these single stage landers, I would prefer to have a rocket with a two stage lander. So when I liftoff, I can use the descent stage as a launchpad, and only return to Kerbin with the ascent stage.

Is this for career with selected parts or sandbox with every part available. In case of the former, what nodes are unlocked? In any case, at kerbalx you can find vessels. Search "minmus" with a selection for "rockets" only and you should find plenty I presume.
If your using Steam then there's also Steam workshop to find vessels.

[schwank]

Check out my all in one ship, it works well. You don't need multi stage landers for Minmus. For Mun yes, but Minmus is low mass.  

 

https://kerbalx.com/schwank/New-Kid-Mk1

[DUde101]

On 5/2/2019 at 12:38 PM, Aeroboi said:

Is this for career with selected parts or sandbox with every part available. In case of the former, what nodes are unlocked? In any case, at kerbalx you can find vessels. Search "minmus" with a selection for "rockets" only and you should find plenty I presume.
If your using Steam then there's also Steam workshop to find vessels.

Thanks for your suggestion Aeroboi! 

16 hours ago, schwank said:

Check out my all in one ship, it works well. You don't need multi stage landers for Minmus. For Mun yes, but Minmus is low mass.  

 

https://kerbalx.com/schwank/New-Kid-Mk1

Thank you very much schwank! 

[Fearless Son]

On 5/2/2019 at 4:44 AM, DUde101 said:

Hello, I’m new to this forum, so I’m not sure if I’m posting this in the correct category. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for a good rocket that will take Kerbals to Minmus, and return them safely to Kerbin. I’m really not a fan of these single stage landers, I would prefer to have a rocket with a two stage lander. So when I liftoff, I can use the descent stage as a launchpad, and only return to Kerbin with the ascent stage.

As others have mentioned, Minmus is lower gravity and easier to land on and take off from than the Mun.  It is further out than the Mun though, and with a more inclined orbit.  This means that the delta-V requirements of the mission are about the same, which is why anything that can land on the Mun can probably land on Minmus.  However, while the total delta-V requirements are about the same, to be efficient they need to be staged a little differently.

Firstly, it's probably overkill to leave a descent stage on Minmus.  The gravity there is so light and the planet is so small that getting back to orbit requires very little delta-V.  Instead, I might recommend you do a transition-stage/landing-stage style setup, where you have an engine with a comparatively large fuel tank attached to the lander for the burn out to Minmus, then decouple the transfer tank and engine when you reach Minmus orbit (or are making your descent) and use the lander's own engines and tanks.  You can do it with a very light lander without much effort (compared to the Mun, where starting your breaking burn at just the right time can be critical to keeping enough delta-V to get back to orbit) and use the lander to return to Kerbin with only a modest burn and some conservative aerobreaking.

[DUde101]

11 hours ago, Fearless Son said:

As others have mentioned, Minmus is lower gravity and easier to land on and take off from than the Mun.  It is further out than the Mun though, and with a more inclined orbit.  This means that the delta-V requirements of the mission are about the same, which is why anything that can land on the Mun can probably land on Minmus.  However, while the total delta-V requirements are about the same, to be efficient they need to be staged a little differently.

Firstly, it's probably overkill to leave a descent stage on Minmus.  The gravity there is so light and the planet is so small that getting back to orbit requires very little delta-V.  Instead, I might recommend you do a transition-stage/landing-stage style setup, where you have an engine with a comparatively large fuel tank attached to the lander for the burn out to Minmus, then decouple the transfer tank and engine when you reach Minmus orbit (or are making your descent) and use the lander's own engines and tanks.  You can do it with a very light lander without much effort (compared to the Mun, where starting your breaking burn at just the right time can be critical to keeping enough delta-V to get back to orbit) and use the lander to return to Kerbin with only a modest burn and some conservative aerobreaking.

Thanks for your suggestion. I guess part of the reason for me wanting to leave a descent stage on Minmus, like the Mun, is to have it as similar to Apollo as possible. I guess I just want to leave further evidence that I was there for any potential extraterrestrial life lol. 

[Guest]

Make sure your minmus lander is very wide. My landers back then lacked this. I would say that this wide lander design is the best thing you can do

[DUde101]

On 5/2/2019 at 12:38 PM, Aeroboi said:

Is this for career with selected parts or sandbox with every part available. In case of the former, what nodes are unlocked? In any case, at kerbalx you can find vessels. Search "minmus" with a selection for "rockets" only and you should find plenty I presume.
If your using Steam then there's also Steam workshop to find vessels.

 

On 5/6/2019 at 3:04 PM, schwank said:

Check out my all in one ship, it works well. You don't need multi stage landers for Minmus. For Mun yes, but Minmus is low mass.  

 

https://kerbalx.com/schwank/New-Kid-Mk1

 

33 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

Make sure your minmus lander is very wide. My landers back then lacked this. I would say that this wide lander design is the best thing you can do

The one I have in mind is fairly wide, so I should be ok. 

[Guest]

This was a lander that I made for both moons'

This was my latest version and it is really good at landing

[IncongruousGoat]

17 hours ago, Fearless Son said:

However, while the total delta-V requirements are about the same, to be efficient they need to be staged a little differently.

Actually, the delta-V requirement for Minmus is substantially lower than that for the Mun. You need (conservatively) ~100 m/s more for the transfer, but make it up by needing  ~1 km/s less for capture, landing, ascent, and return. This matters because it means that it's possible to land a Kerbal on Minmus with a fully T1 space center, while the Mun requires 2 launches and a docking within those same restrictions.

[Guest]

I will say my lunar landers I showed above were very tall

[DUde101]

On 5/8/2019 at 10:06 AM, The Doodling Astronaut said:

Make sure your minmus lander is very wide. My landers back then lacked this. I would say that this wide lander design is the best thing you can do

I would like to let everyone know, that I made my first successful landing on Minmus yesterday. I appreciate all of your suggestions! Thanks! 

[linuxgurugamer]

57 minutes ago, DUde101 said:

I would like to let everyone know, that I made my first successful landing on Minmus yesterday. I appreciate all of your suggestions! Thanks! 

Any pics?