[Stock .17 ]Lightweight, fairly forgiving amphibious Laythe lander and return

[Trekkin]

I've been mucking about with the float mechanics and the problems associated with landing on jets, and this was the result. It's fairly intuitive to fly, as long as you disable flow to the nuclear engines on the takeoff from Laythe. Or route fuel lines from the ascent engine tanks to the nuclear engine, either way. Anyway, it does exactly what it says: lands a 1-man pod on Laythe, lets the kerbonaut splash around a bit in EVA, and gets it back to Kerbin. It's got a lot of extra fuel at each stage of the game, and the only really tricky part is landing--it may be a good idea to aim for water first, since it's more forgiving than land if you don't get used to the throttle lag on the jet engines fast enough and come down hard.

As always, if people want, I'll put together a more complete flight log/instructions.

In the VAB. Totals 235 parts.

Jeb chilling on Laythe. Note the submerged engines; I figure if we don't have pontoon landing legs yet, I'm not going to sweat the slight departure from logic. Also proof that it floats upright if you land upright.

Home safe, and with 40L of fuel left for the nuclear engine to burn when I jettisoned it. Absolutely needs aerobraking in Kerbin atmosphere to get into orbit; that and getting into Laythe orbit are the least forgiving bits of the flight.

Edited October 18, 2012 by sal_vager